Posted on: Friday, July 30, 2004

Settlement does little for regents' cause

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

We may never know what went down behind closed doors on the Manoa campus last month.

But if the last word on the matter is yesterday's announcement of a settlement with Evan Dobelle, we know everything we need to know.

What happened to the cause, Kitty?

In the radioactive days after the University of Hawai'i Regents fired Dobelle "for cause," Regents Kitty Lagareta and Patricia Lee tiptoed around the fallout. They made rounds of media outlets and lunch bunches with wide eyes and nodding heads: Yes, yes. We fired him for cause. Definitely for cause. Can't say exactly what that cause might be, but believe us, if you knew what we knew, oh yes. Cause.

We all read that definition of "cause" and thought, "Whoa!"

"A conviction of a felony, a determination by medical professionals that he is mentally unstable or conduct that constitutes moral turpitude, brings public disrespect and contempt or ridicule on the university and if proven in court, would constitute grounds for his criminal conviction or the university's civil liability."

Really? Positive? You sure you sure?

Oh yes, the regents assured us. Cause.

In the end, Dobelle walks away with essentially what he would have received under the $2.2 million severance package, more than he would have received if the Board of Regents had just cut him loose by buying him out without all the eye rolling, head-nodding and aspersion-casting.

In the end, all the sniping about how Dobelle took too many trips, didn't return the regents' phone calls and dissed the Board by not showing up to meetings added up to a whole bunch of nothing. The regents felt disrespected, like a gang of school kids who didn't get their propers. They worked themselves into a lather and decided to catch that sassy so-and-so behind the bandroom during lunch recess and show him who's boss.

In the end, there was no cause; or no cause serious enough to use as a weapon to beat back Dobelle's legal team during settlement negotiations.

In the end, Dobelle gets to resign. He gets to draw a paycheck from the university. His name is cleared.

And some things about the Board of Regents are clear as well, no?

As Sonny from Kapolei would say, "Bad style, that."

So where does that leave the University of Hawai'i?

Instead of paying one university president, they'll be paying two, past and present.

There will be a sassy new nontenured researcher in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

And while students are searching in vain for campus housing, the big bedrooms on College Hill will sit empty, at least for a while.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or at lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com