UC regents admonish Napolitano, order her to apologize in audit tampering

FILE - In this May 18, 2017 file photo, University of California President Janet Napolitano listens as State Auditor Elaine Howle gives a presentation during a meeting of the University of California Board of Regents in San Francisco. Top advisers Napolitano improperly interfered in a state audit to tone down critical comments from campus administrators about the president's office, an investigation ordered by the UC regents found. The investigation finds that officials in the president's office instructed UC campuses not to "air dirty laundry" to the state auditor, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017,, which reviewed the report ahead of its public release on Thursday. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File) less FILE - In this May 18, 2017 file photo, University of California President Janet Napolitano listens as State Auditor Elaine Howle gives a presentation during a meeting of the University of California Board of ... more Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press Photo: Eric Risberg, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close UC regents admonish Napolitano, order her to apologize in audit tampering 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The University of California regents took disciplinary action against President Janet Napolitano on Thursday, publicly admonishing her for authorizing actions that led to her staff’s interference with a state auditor’s investigation last year.

The regents also ordered Napolitano to apologize for approving the scheme that resulted in her chief of staff and his deputy pressuring campuses to change their responses to a confidential state auditor survey to remove negative remarks and instead have them reflect positively on the president’s office.

“The president’s decision to approve a plan to coordinate the survey responses reflected poor judgment and set in motion a course of conduct that the Board of Regents finds unacceptable,” UC Regents Chair George Kieffer said during a UC regents meeting in San Francisco with Napolitano sitting beside him.

“I regret deeply that I did not show better judgment,” Napolitano said in her apology. “I made this decision. I made a serious error in judgment. I apologize.”

The regents’ action came after an hours-long closed-door session and as the board publicly released an independent fact-finding report by retired state Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno. The report found that Napolitano’s chief of staff, Seth Grossman, and his deputy, Bernie Jones, directed the interference and then tried to cover their tracks.

Both executives resigned from their jobs last week and have denied wrongdoing. During a news conference after the meeting, Kieffer said Grossman and Jones would have faced “serious disciplinary actions” if they had not resigned.

He also said that despite Napolitano’s “poor judgment,” the regents have confidence in her leadership. “It was a unanimous decision to keep the president,” he said.

“Two people have left the university, and the president has accepted the responsibility,” Kieffer said. “Many of us were angry, and very disturbed and disappointed at the parties involved. Personally, I was angry and disappointed. That’s not the kind of action you want to read about.”

He added that he hopes state lawmakers will be satisfied with the actions the board took in response to the report’s findings.

But at least one called for Napolitano to resign.

“It’s time for the university to turn the page, restore trust and credibility and find new leadership,” Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon, said Thursday. “She knew the surveys were being recalled and changed, and that’s egregious. She hasn’t taken full ownership of how involved she was.”

The Moreno report found that Napolitano “understood that members of her staff were systematically highlighting and sanitizing critical comments from the campuses.”

At one point, a “furious” Napolitano phoned UC Santa Cruz’s chancellor because the campus had submitted its survey to the state auditor without first allowing the president’s office to see it, the report said. She proposed the campus withdraw the survey.

Yet the report said there was not enough evidence to conclude Napolitano “was aware of (the aides’) conduct in purposefully and systematically targeting unfavorable responses.”

The report also found that Napolitano’s office misled regents and the public on why they interjected themselves in the survey. Napolitano told lawmakers during a public hearing in the Capitol in May that her office was responding to requests from campus officials who were confused and wanted help with the survey.

Moreno’s investigation, however, found that Napolitano’s staff members required the campuses to show them their survey responses, with some of the answers being changed or deleted to make the president’s office look better.

Napolitano said Thursday she approved of a plan to make sure answers were accurate and within the scope of the audit.

“That was the intent,” she said. “How that was executed went off the rails.”

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County), said the regents’ actions are “welcome and necessary.”

Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who called for the original state audit of Napolitano’s office that set off the chain of events, said he didn’t feel the regents went far enough Thursday. He said the issues in Napolitano’s office predate her appointment and that he believes fixing them requires addressing a broader systemic issue in her office.

“I don’t think they were strong enough given the severity,” Ting said.

Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), said he is “deeply troubled” by the findings in the report. The audit obstruction by Napolitano’s office prompted Muratsuchi to write a bill ultimately signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown that imposes a $5,000 fine for knowingly interfering with the duties of California’s independent state auditor. The bill goes into effect in January.

Muratsuchi said if the law were already in place, he has no doubt Napolitano and her aides would have been subjected to the fine.

“President Napolitano and her top aides deliberately interfered with the Legislature’s attempt to provide greater transparency and accountability of the University of California system,” Muratsuchi said. “This is not only deeply disappointing, but it undermines the Legislature’s trust in the UC.”

State Auditor Elaine Howle released the audit on the operations of UC’s headquarters in April. Howle said she was forced to throw out the survey results because they were tainted by Napolitano’s office.

Earlier this year, The Chronicle made public records requests for copies of emails between Napolitano’s office and the campuses. The emails showed the extent to which the office went to make itself look better.

In one case, UC Santa Cruz submitted its survey, then asked for it back. The resubmitted survey had several answers changed, such as rating technology support from the president’s office “good” when the original survey said “poor.”

Two other campuses changed their answers as well. After an uproar over the interference from state lawmakers and Brown, the UC regents hired Moreno and an Orange County law firm to conduct an investigation into what happened.

“I intend to reach out to the state Legislature and re-establish good relationships there,” Napolitano said Thursday. “I have a lot of work to do.”

Melody Gutierrez and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com, sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez, @SarRavani

More online

The Chronicle’s coverage of the state audit and links to emails on the campus survey: www.sfchronicle.com/ucaudit

Justice Carlos Moreno’s report: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/nov17/b2attach3.pdf