| Coalition of University Employees (CUE) | 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite #302, Berkeley, CA 94705 Contact CUE (510) 845-2221 (phone), (510) 845-7444 (FAX) |
April 3, 2003
A union representing 18,000 University of California employees has sued the institution to compel it to reveal information about the performance of the university's investments for its retired workers.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in California Superior Court in Alameda County by the Coalition of University Employees, says the university is violating the California Public Records Act by refusing to disclose the individual results of the university's investments in venture-capital funds. The university, the suit says, must adhere to disclosure laws because it receives money from the state.
"California's flagship educational institution is behind the times and below the standard for full disclosure," said Karl Olson, a lawyer for the group. "Do they have something to hide?"
Joining the coalition in bringing the lawsuit are The San Jose Mercury News and Charles Schwartz, a retired physics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has acted as a watchdog over the university's investment activities.
Last year, both the union and the Mercury News filed requests for the information, citing the public-records law. A University of California spokesman, Trey Davis, said the information is exempt from disclosure under the law, in part, because many of the investment transactions have confidentiality agreements attached to them. Such agreements, Mr. Davis said, are "common practice" in the venture-capital world and without them, "the university risks being shut out of these premier investment opportunities."
The university does, however, publicly report the aggregate performance of its total private-equity partnerships on a quarterly and an annual basis, Mr. Davis said.
The suit also asks the university to turn over the records of two closed meetings. One was held in 2000, when the university adopted a new asset-allocation plan and hired an outside adviser. At the other, in 2002, the university fired its internal investment staff and voted to hire multiple outside advisers.
The suit follows a mid-March decision by the California Public Employees Retirement System to disclose similar information. The pension fund agreed to share the results after settling a lawsuit with the Mercury News, which had argued that the public needed to know how the fund was investing its money. Other universities have also released the same type of investment information, including the University of Texas and the University of Michigan.
The University of California's retirement plan manages $34-billion for more than 173,000 people.