University of California employees Ingrid H. Schmidt and Karl Michael Engelbach may well remember 2008 as the year they received sweet severance packages, without really being severed.

In January,each applied for and received five-figure severance packages to voluntarily leave jobs in the UC President's Office.

A day after leaving those positions in Oakland, they started new jobs at UC Davis. Schmidt kept $46,100 in severance from her old UC job, and got a 13 percent raise at her new post.

Engelbach received an $18,827 payout before UC Davis hired him.

Engelbach and Schmidt are among 16 employees paid a total of $682,431to leave jobs in the UC President's Office who then secured jobs at UC campuses in Merced, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, university documents show.

Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said taking a severance package from one UC arm and getting rehired by another is wrong. "It's abusing the system."

"The UC, when they found out about it months ago, should have cracked down faster, harder," Stern said.

On Valentine's Day, Schmidt left her $92,200-a-year job as a facilities coordinator for the UC president.

The next day, she became real estate services director at UC Davis. Her newsalary: $105,000.

Schmidt didn't return calls seeking comment.

On Feb. 29, Engelbach, 42, left his UC job in state government relations. On March 1, he started as director of federal government relations at UC Davis. His $105,000 salary is down from the $112,962 he was paid inOakland.

Engelbach, a UC Davis graduate with a master's degree in business administration, said he had no qualms about accepting the $18,000. He said he believes his departure saved others in Oakland from being laid off.

His old and new jobs are different posts for two organizations, he said. The buyout payments for employees who then got new jobs at other UC entities were reported by the San Francisco Chronicle this week.

Another recipient was Edith Ruth Brisco (Welch), an executive secretary paid $19,004 to leave her $62,000-a-year job in the President's Office. UC Merced then hired her for a similar job, at $69,440.

Julia Ann Easley, a UC Davis spokeswoman, said Schmidt and Engelbach did not receive special treatment when they were hired.

"UC Davis held recruitments to fill the positions of director of real estate services and director of federal government relations," Easley said.

"These recruitments were open and well advertised."

Easley said 55 people applied for the government relations job; eight were interviewed.

Engelbach said he had sought a UC Davis job for months,and that he had three interviews with panels before he was offered the post.

"I had applied for other jobs, but I did not succeed,"he said. "I wanted to work for my old alma mater and put my knowledge and 25 years' experience in higher ed to good use."

Mark G. Yudof, the new UC president, issued a prepared statement saying he and several UC regents are concerned the buyout program let some staffers get rehired immediately by the UC system with severance payouts untouched.

"This may appear to the public as an objectionable use of resources even though the program is reducing our central administrative spending," Yudof said.

He added that 155 people took buyouts from his office and only 16 landed new UC jobs.

Yudof said the buyout program was initiated prior to his appointment in June and that it has helped cut $5 million a year from his office's budget.

If UC opts to offer voluntary buyout packages again, they will be different, Yudof said, citing "the public trust."

"We will include provisions requiring repayment of a buyout on a prorata basis for employees finding new work elsewhere within the University," he wrote.

There was no mention of asking the 16 employees who landed payouts and new UC jobs to pay back their severance.

Call The Bee's Andrew McIntosh, (916) 321-1215.