[ OUR OPINION ]
Public still due
full accounting
of Dobelle firing
|
Since Dobelle has waived his privacy rights for information in the matter -- excepting attorney documents produced to reach the settlement -- the public should be apprised as soon as possible about the circumstances that led to the messy dismissal, and the board's actions in that regard.
What has been disclosed so far is confounding.
When regents dismissed Dobelle in June, they insisted they had valid "cause" to show him the door, but the settlement -- incredibly -- rescinds that.
The explanation regents give is that at the time they really thought they had grounds for dismissal, but that they knew they were obligated to give Dobelle a chance to tell his side of the story. Regardless, they announced the firing and sparked the fiasco that followed.
The board now maintains there was "no finding of wrongdoing" on Dobelle's part -- or on theirs, for that matter, and that both parties have been absolved.
Not so.
If the regents had had the good sense to speak with Dobelle before making a final decision, the ugly affair that stained the university might not have resulted. Although most board members are new appointees of Governor Lingle's and could be cut some slack in plying unfamiliar waters, regents have a responsibility to conduct business appropriately or they should not be on the board.
Moreover, the flip-flop -- first having cause, then not -- subjects regents to further suspicion that they booted Dobelle for political reasons, a charged they have previously denied.
As for Dobelle, his voluntary resignation is purely illusory; anyone in the realm of higher education will be well aware of this widely publicized episode. However, the millions of dollars he will receive in cash, life insurance payments and attorney fees, as well as a lifeboat job for two years, may be enough to salve his wounds.
As a researcher in the urban planning department, Dobelle may find the environment uncomfortable since other faculty members are pulling in tens of thousands less than the $125,000 salary, plus collective bargaining raises, he will take home annually. Indeed, Mary Tiles, president of the UH Professional Assembly, criticized regents for "using the faculty position and title for their convenience," saying placing Dobelle on staff "debases the concept of the faculty."
Exactly what Dobelle will do to earn his salary hasn't been determined, but UH administrators and the regents should make sure there will be something to show for his work, no matter what his assignment. It will not do to allow him to fritter away the two years.
For taxpayers, there may be some consolation in the fact that the university won't have to shell out the $2.6 million in severance that Dobelle's contract called for and that his high-priced staff has exited the campus. However, the public still deserves an accounting of the events that led to such a chaotic and unseemly chapter in the life of the university.
