Via: Chico Enterprise Record
By Larry Mitchell

Chico businessman Bob Linscheid said he was upset Tuesday afternoon.

Higher education is being used as “a political football,” and a revered trustee is being forced off the California State University Board of Trustees in the process, said Linscheid, the board’s vice-chairman.

That trustee is Herbert Carter, the chairman of the board. He will have to leave the board today because the state Senate will not confirm his reappointment as a trustee.

Gov. Brown, who reappointed Carter a year ago, accused Republicans of playing games by refusing to confirm Carter.

“They don’t have much power left, so if they can take a shot they will,” Brown was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times.

State Sen. Doug LaMalfa told this paper Brown was wrong. He said Republicans had legitimate reasons for opposing Carter. They were disgusted that under his leadership, high salaries have been approved for some CSU campus presidents at the same time tuition was being increased for students, he said.

The Senate’s Democratic leadership decided not to take a vote on Carter’s confirmation. Some said the reason was that two Republican votes were needed to get the required two-thirds majority, and those votes were not forthcoming.

LaMalfa said he suspected not all the Democrats would have voted for confirmation either. He said many Democrats were outraged when trustees voted to give the new president of San Diego State University a $400,000 salary — $100,000 higher than his predecessor.
“These guys are making more than the governor of all of California, for crying out loud,” LaMalfa said in a phone interview.

LaMalfa said he saw some of Carter’s virtues, but he couldn’t vote for him because of his support for big presidential pay hikes and the fact that the board has not pursued various money-saving “efficiencies.”

Asked what those efficiencies were, LaMalfa said he couldn’t name them immediately, but he said they had been discussed within the Republican Senate caucus.

Linscheid was in Washington Tuesday, lobbying for higher education with some other CSU officials.

He said it was ingenuous of legislators to blame tuition hikes on increased presidential salaries.

The ones to blame for high tuition are the legislators themselves, he said. “They’ve turned their backs on the students.”

In the last year, he said, the Legislature has cut $2 billion from higher education (the CSU, the Community College system, and the University of California).

In the CSU, he said, the 23 campus presidents are paid a total of $6.9 million a year. Yet, in a year, those presidents raised $334 million for the CSU from philanthropy.

“Herb Carter was basically the fall guy, and it’s unfortunate,” Linscheid said. “His legacy for students of our system is well chronicled. I will miss his counsel immensely. He’s such a testament to what’s right about higher education. To basically push him off to the side is real unfortunate and is hard to explain.”

Carter was executive director of the Los Angeles Commission on Human Relations in the late 1960s, and president and chief executive of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles in the 1990s.

He served in several academic posts in the CSU system, including affirmative action officer, executive vice chancellor for administration and acting president of Cal State Dominguez Hills, the LA Times reported.

Carter’s leaving the board means that Linscheid will become acting chairman on Thursday.

Linscheid said he takes “no glee” in the fact he’ll become chairman a little sooner than he expected.

Carter’s term as board chairman was due to expire at the end of June, and Linscheid assumed he would succeed him then. Normally, the vice-chairman becomes the next chairman, he said.

Mike Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for the CSU, said at their May meeting, trustees will probably vote on who should be the board’s next chairman.

If Linscheid becomes chairman, he won’t be the first Chicoan to hold the position. Ted Meriam was chairman in 1968 and 1969.

As he heads the board, Linscheid said, his top priority will be convincing California businesses they can’t grow without a talented work force, which requires adequate funding of higher education.

Carter is one of 16 trustees who are appointed by the governor and whose appointments must be confirmed by the Senate.

Linscheid is among nine ex officio members of the board who are not appointed by the governor and don’t need Senate confirmation. Linscheid is appointed by the CSU Statewide Alumni Council.

Linscheid said he is eligible to continue serving on the board through June 2014.

Source: CSU Daily News Clips

Linscheid, who owns Linscheid and Associates, said he will step down as president and chief executive officer from Chico Economic Planning Corp. at the end of June.

Head of the private economic group since 1993, Linscheid said there is not another job offer currently, and there are no health issues.

“There’s nothing on my plate, no offers,” said Linscheid on Monday. “Nineteen years seems like a long time. I’ve done a lot of other things.”

Linscheid said nothing in particular made him choose to withdraw at this time, other than the timing was good, with the possible unification of CEPCO and the Chico Chamber of Commerce, and his desire to do “something different.”

He said he will not be involved with CEPCO or the chamber. “I’m looking to broaden perspectives, maybe something regional. I’m exploring other things.”

“In 33 years, I’ve never been without a job. I’m convinced by setting the date at the end of the fiscal year, I think there will be several things coming my way.”

While he said he wasn’t unhappy doing what he was doing, “I would welcome doing something different.”

He said he wasn’t planning to leave Chico though, and wanted to give his board plenty of time to find a replacement or rethink the structure.

In July, he will become chair of the California State University system board of trustees. He is the vice chair now, and has served on the board since 2005. All those positions are unpaid.

In a letter to board members, CEPCO Chair Steve Gonsalves said he was sad to see Linscheid leave, that he’s been a “champion for economic development and the creation of base level jobs, and his insight and experience will be greatly missed.”

Gonsalves said he, Linscheid and the board will be “working to ensure CEPCO’s transition to new leadership is as seamless as possible.”

Gonsalves told the Enterprise-Record on Monday, “CEPCO is not going away. When you lose someone with the institution memory and capabilities of Bob, it’s a big blow, but this is a resilient organization.

“Regardless of the direction with the possible reunification with the chamber or something different, CEPCO will continue to be a force for job creation in the community,” Gonsalves said.

CEPCO will continue its discussion with the chamber about reunification, but there is “strong interest to examine other options for CEPCO’s future operational structure as well,” Gonsalves said.

Options will be discussed during the next CEPCO board meeting. CEPCO has 87 members, mostly business owners and operators.

After graduating from Chico State and leaving the area, Linscheid returned in 1986, and has worn myriad hats, including executive director of Butte County Economic Development Corp. and executive director of the Chico Chamber of Commerce, besides CEPCO. He has been involved in Civic Pioneers Institute and several other leadership programs, plus GROW-California, which is working on innovative job growth.

He was heavily involved in the unsuccessful campaign to convince Google to choose Chico for an innovative high-speed Internet site.

He has served on the California State University Alumni Council, representing Chico State.

In addition to his economic development involvement, Linscheid was vice president and general manager of the Chico Heat baseball team and was president of Western Baseball League, as well as president and board chair of the later Chico Outlaws in the Golden Baseball League.

Staff writer Laura Urseny can be reached at 896-7756 or lurseny@chicoer.com.

The new policy will establish a salary ceiling of $325,000 or raise the salary by no more than 10 percent of the pay received by the outgoing president.

The board approved the new policy without comment.

“I think it was a good compromise,” Chico State University President Paul Zingg wrote in an email to the Enterprise-Record this afternoon. “It drew favorable comment from all speakers who addressed the issue, too.”

Chico resident Bob Linscheid served on the executive compensation committee that has studied the issue for several months.

Trustees are currently searching for five presidents in the 23-campus system, a turnover administrators said was unprecedented.

The move comes after two bills were introduced in the state Senate to limit presidents’ salaries after the board last year approved a $400,000 pay package for the new president of San Diego State University, Elliot Hirshman, that includes a $350,000 salary and a $50,000 supplement from a campus foundation.

The salary was $100,000 more than the outgoing president, making Hirshman the highest-paid CSU president.

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, applauded the trustees’ move to cap salaries but said it did not go far enough.

“Those making hundreds of thousandsof dollars should not receive double-digit pay increases during bad budget times or when students are forced to foot the bill,” Yee said.

He has introduced legislation, SB 967, to prohibit pay raises for top university administrators during bad budget years or when student fees are increased. The bill will also stipulate that incoming executives can receive only 5 percent more than their predecessors.

Another legislator, Sen. Ted Lieu, who sponsored another bill, SB 959 — to limit raises, give priority to local candidates and require executive pay decisions to be made in open session — had expressed outrage over Hirshman’s compensation package at a time when students are being asked to pay more for their education to make up for state funding cuts.

“CSU trustees should not be spending limited state resources granting $100,000 raises for executive positions,” said Lieu, who also praised the board’s move.

Hirshman’s raise came after a report last year by a board subcommittee showed that CSU presidents are underpaid compared with university leaders across the nation. But a state legislative analyst said the universities chosen for comparison skewed the salary average upward.

“These institutions appear to unduly raise the corresponding average executive salary,” stated analyst Mac Taylor.

Annual compensation packages for CSU presidents range from $258,000 to $400,000, plus housing. Four presidents also earn supplements from campus foundations. Chancellor Charles Reed earns $451,500 plus housing.

CSU enrolls approximately 440,000 students.

CHICO — Chico’s application for Fiber For Communities is done and now there’s nothing to do but wait for Google’s answer — along with more than 1,100 other communities, according to the Web search company.Friday was the deadline for turning in the application to be considered by Google for installing ultra-high broadband in the community.

Those involved locally are happy with their effort.

• WATCH Chico’s video application
• VISIT chicofiber.net
• CHECK OUT the Google Fiber for Chico Facebook group
• MORE on Google’s “Fiber for Communities”

The city reported to Google on the community’s “bones” for supporting broadband, including infrastructure, power capability, demographics and other areas.

“We actually had very little space to respond,” noted city economic development manager Martha Wescoat-Andes. “There were 300 some characters. It wasn’t like a request for proposal where there’s a lot of information.

“It was tough to respond when you don’t know the parameters, if you’re asked days or cost. You can’t estimate.

“Then you hope you get the next call.”

Wescoat-Andes said Chico has a lot to offer. “It’s a university community thata cluster of technology companies, a large hospital. There’s significance there.”

Wescoat-Andes still doesn’t know answers to some of the questions, like when an announcement would be made or how much — if anything — it would cost the city if chosen.

It has been generally acknowledged that Google didn’t give communities a lot of information about the challenge.

“Being chosen as a site is highly competitive. You don’t know what they care most about.”

Wescoat-Andes and Bob Linscheid of Chico Economic Planning Corp.’s Tech Group both acknowledged side benefits of the effort whether Chico is chosen.

Linscheid said the project has created “critical mass” to continue the conversation about ultra-high speed broadband in this community.

That idea was brought up at the community forum earlier this month, that it could be within the city’s reach to seek similar broadband levels.

“What it’s done for us is unify the community in a direction,” Linscheid said, as well as connecting unlinked community segments. “Things happen.”

“Regardless of being chosen, it’s good to raise the consciousness about this,” said Wescoat-Andes.

It also creates “a culture of going for things,” said Wescoat-Andes. It encourages a community “to consider new ways of increasing investment.”

She also commented on the cooperation between various parts of the community, such as Chico State University, the city, technology and broadband companies, students and others.

In setting the stage for the Google effort, Chico has a Web site — www.chicofiber.net — and set up a YouTube video of interviews about Chico and how well it meshes with the Google effort.

Linscheid also mentioned getting the broadband capability might attract high-paid individuals here who would rather live in a community like Chico than the Bay Area.

via Chico ER