The executive salary increase, scheduled to be considered today in Long Beach by the Board of Trustees, has drawn fire from state lawmakers who have criticized the chancellor for seeking additional pay while the faculty is bogged down in labor negotiations.

The across-the-board 4 percent pay raise would apply to 28 of the CSU's key executives -- the presidents of its 23 campuses as well as Chancellor Charles Reed and four of his top deputies. If approved, the pay raise will come with what amounts to a New Year's bonus for the administrators because the higher salary would be retroactive to July 1 -- presumably meaning a fat catch-up paycheck.

Reed's annual salary of $362,500 would grow to $377,000 under his proposal. Since becoming chancellor in 1998, Reed also has been provided with a state-owned residence as well as a $30,000-a-year retirement supplement from the CSU Foundation.

In October 2005, the CSU's top executives received an average 14 percent pay hike plus increased allowances for cars and housing. That pay raise was made retroactive to July 1, 2005.

The proposal relies in part on a study by a CSU salary consultant, Mercer Human Resources Consulting. In its report, the firm said CSU's top executives are being paid 42 percent less than those at their peer institutions. However, the study also shows that when CSU executives' total compensation packages (including perquisites and retirement plans) are taken into account, the gap narrows to about 11 percent. The Mercer study focused on the executive pay at 20 colleges and universities nationwide and includes several elite private colleges and universities with rigorous admissions standards -- where pay rates tend to be higher than those found at state-supported universities with liberal admissions policies.

CSU Board of Trustees Chair Roberta Achtenberg has endorsed the latest proposal as a way to begin to catch up with the higher salaries paid by other colleges. But some lawmakers are skeptical. 

"It seems as if they're out to lunch on other people's needs but eating some fat paychecks," said state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat whose district includes San Francisco and San Mateo. "The administrators seem to see the CSU as an institution where they can get rich rather than an institution of higher learning. We're trying to train the next generation of leaders for our state. What else disturbs me quite a bit is the secrecy behind these raises. There's no deliberations -- there's no public input early on in the process."

Yee plans to soon introduce legislation that would require the CSU system to provide greater disclosure about executive compensation. State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge (Los Angeles County), who chairs the Assembly Higher Education Committee, said in a letter to the chancellor last week that the proposal is imprudent, given the governor's budget and The Chronicle's "recently revealed excesses in executive compensation at the CSU system." 

"I believe the trustees should proceed after a more thorough review of executive compensation, when they have greater public support and when we, as legislators, have more information regarding the troubling revelations of last summer," he wrote. 

A series of articles in The Chronicle in July told of how millions of dollars in compensation had been paid to CSU's top executives without public disclosure after they had left their posts. 

Earlier this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his state budget, which includes a 10 percent tuition increase for the 400,000 students at CSU's 23 campuses. The CSU system did not raise student fees last year, prompting critics to suggest that the governor had made sure to avoid a fee increase during an election year. During the 2005-2006 academic year, student fees were raised 8 percent. The current tuition for full-time students of $2,520 would climb to $2,772 next fall. The CSU's labor negotiators have been bargaining with the faculty union for nearly two years over a new contract. Complaining of foot-dragging by CSU negotiators, faculty members have staged informational picketing and demonstrations at several campuses. The faculty received a 3.5 percent raise in 2005. 

Reed, who was unavailable Monday for comment, has said a pay raise for executives is needed to keep the CSU in the running for top talent. "National competition continues to increase executive salaries in higher education due to the limited number of qualified individuals for these unique roles," his proposal states. 

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the California Faculty Association, ruling that the Board of Trustees did not violate the state's Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act when it met in executive session to consider the public relations impact of allowing former CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz to return to the university as a professor after an eight-year leave.

By Jim Doyle, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/23/07