Proposed pay hikes for stem cell executives are too high, panel says

Citing the need to show fiscal restraint as California's budget deficit mounts, a subcommittee Wednesday recommended trimming a proposal to increase the top salary range for executives and lead lawyers at the state's stem cell agency.

Meeting in Los Angeles, the governance subcommittee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine argued that suggested increases of more than $200,000 for the agency's two top executive positions were too high. But the subcommittee said it could not offer an alternative salary range because the executives - President Alan Trounson and Chairman Robert Klein - were present at the meeting.

It also did not specify the top pay ranges for the agency's lawyers, citing a lack of information. But it did recommend increasing top pay for other executives from $270,000 to $332,000, rather than the proposed $405,000.

During the meeting, Trounson argued that the full increase was needed to attract exceptional talent to the highly public top posts at the agency, which is responsible for guiding the state's decade-long, $3 billion stem cell research effort.

"If I can't make appointments of people who can do the job, you've essentially wasted my salary, which is a disaster," he said.

Trounson, hired last September, makes $490,000 a year. The proposed increases would have raised his maximum salary to $618,750, though there's no guarantee he would ever receive that amount. Klein has declined his salary.

Proposition 71, the 2004 ballot measure that created the stem cell agency, directed the agency to set salaries roughly equal to what comparable positions pay at leading universities and research institutes.

But the agency's governing board has considerable flexibility within that mandate. Several committee members, including Claire Pomeroy, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, argued that the agency could still attract capable staff without adopting such a large increase in top salaries.

Pomeroy, whose cash compensation at UC Davis totals $543,800, according to a University of California spokeswoman, noted that she is responsible for 8,000 employees at UC Davis, while the stem cell agency president heads a staff of 50 at most.

"To me, there are still very fundamental questions about what positions they're citing as comparable," she said. "This is sending the wrong message to the public about our priorities and about how we're going to spend what are limited pots of money."

While taxpayers ultimately pay the bills for the stem cell agency, it has a dedicated source of funding from the sale of bonds and so will not be directly impacted by the state budget crisis.

The committee that met Wednesday did not have a quorum, so it was able only to issue recommendations. The stem cell agency board is scheduled to consider the increases at its March 12 meeting in Sacramento.

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