One cheer for Gov. Schwarzenegger

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We must admit that we've been hard on California's Governator in the past. Arnold Schwarzenegger has done some foolish things, like the time he tried to mock Sarah Palin on Twitter and got mauled by the Mama Bear for his trouble. He's given us no reason to offer him any kudos. Until now.

Remember all the Democrat grandstanding by State Sen. Leland Yee and gubernatorial candidate/state attorney general Jerry Brown surrounding Gov. Palin’s speech at Cal State Stanislaus in June? Even though the appearance by the 2008 vice presidential candidate turned a tidy profit for the CSUS scholarship fund, Yee and other leftists made a mockery of the principles of contract law, all because they wanted to publicize the amount of her speakers fee for the event. Despite the fact the figure was, under the terms of the contract between the CSUS Foundation and the Washington Speakers Bureau, not to be disclosed, Yee introduced a bill in the California Senate to force private foundations associated with Cal State and UC to open their records, making such privileged contract information subject to public disclosure.

But when Yee's bill reached The Governator's desk for his signature, Schwarzenegger vetoed it instead. His reason? As officials for UC and Cal State correctly argued, some of their largest donors prefer to remain anonymous, and the bill would have a “chilling effect” on fundraising efforts by forcing the names of such donors to be made public. So one cheer for Arnold. He finally got something right as governor of California. Yee, Brown and other San Fran/LA-LA Land leftists did succeed in getting the amount Gov. Palin's CSUS speaking fee publicized. But all that accomplished, despite all the grandstanding and dumpster diving, was call attention to the fact that, after her fee and other expenses were paid, the university cleared a cool $200,000 for its scholarship fund, money that it wouldn't have drawing interest in the bank has she not appeared.

- JP

Jerry Brown: Gov. Palin's CSUS speech did not break laws or misuse funds

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An investigation by California Attorney General Jerry Brown into fundraising practices at California State University, Stanislaus has cleared its charitable foundation of any violations of law or misuse of funds.

Brown did say Friday that the CSU Stanislaus Foundation had exercised inadequate oversight of its assets, and the foundation has agreed to exercise tighter control of its fundraising operations:

CSU Stanislaus officials say they are already working to implement many of the corrective actions required by the attorney general.

Brown agreed to investigate the foundation at the request of state Senator Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco.

His office investigated how the foundation spent its money, as well as the university's refusal to turn over records related to Sarah Palin's appearance at a recent fundraiser.

The contract between the foundation and Gov. Palin's agent, the Washington Speakers Bureau, stipulated that speaking fees for the bureau's clients could not be revealed.

- JP

University president says Palin contract stolen

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The president of the California university where Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak said Wednesday that pages from a contract between a school foundation and Gov. Palin were stolen from a campus administrator’s office last week, calling into question claims by two of the school's students, who say they found the pages in a campus dumpster:

California State University, Stanislaus president Hamid Shirvani said the five-page document at the center of an escalating controversy over access to records was taken from a recycling bin inside the office of Susana Gajic-Bruyea, vice president for university advancement.

“Susana threw the pages into her recycling bin in her office some time ago,” Shirvani said in a phone interview. “Somebody either broke into her office to get them or it was somebody who had access to her office.”

Shirvani has asked police in the Central Valley city of Turlock to investigate the matter.

The state attorney general’s office announced Tuesday it would investigate the university and its foundation for their handling of the contract related to the June 25 speech by Palin. Authorities said the investigation has nothing to do with Palin herself.

The university told state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, it did not have any documents related to the speech and said it had referred the matter to Matt Swanson, board president of the California State University, Stanislaus Foundation.

Swanson sent letters to Yee and The Associated Press stating that Palin’s contract had a nondisclosure clause. He also said university foundations and other auxiliary organizations were not subject to the same public records requirements as the university itself.

Swanson has not responded to requests for comment on the investigation. He has said the Palin event would be funded entirely by private donations.

The investigation by state Attorney General Jerry Brown was launched after two students said they had found pages of the contract in a campus trash bin.

[...]

Shirvani said Gajic-Bruyea was one of two people in possession of the contract document. In addition to her role in the university administration, she serves on the foundation board and was therefore privy to contract negotiations, he said.

He said the students’ claims that the documents had been thrown away were preposterous and described the controversy over Palin’s appearance as political theater.

“We’re getting attacked over political ideology,” said Shirvani, who is also chairman of the foundation board. “If it was Michael Moore or Al Gore, forget it, nobody would ever ask us about the contract.”

In a news release issued by the university Wednesday, Shirvani referred to "the alleged dumping of documents into a university dumpster," and said that he hopes Brown's investigation "will clarify how a foundation document could have ended up in a state senator’s hands."

- JP