University of Hawai'i Board of Regents, from left, Jane Tatibouet, Alvin Tanaka and Walter Nunokawa, met yesterday at Campus Center. The regents still haven't said why they fired President Evan Dobelle. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"No one's spoken to me," Dobelle said. "Not a word. Not a phone call. Not a fax. Nothing.

"They called Kit (his wife) at midnight and said it was urgent they speak to me. And Kit said, 'He's driving to Michigan with Harry,' and they never said anything more than that."

Lee confirmed that the board has not yet spoken to him.

"The board has left messages with him, but he has not contacted the board," Lee said. "We don't know why he doesn't return our calls."

Meanwhile, Dobelle indicated that he might take advantage of a clause in his contract that would allow him to remain at UH as a tenured professor teaching urban and regional planning.

Terminating him for cause means the university would not have to pay the $2.2 million severance package his contract requires. (According to Dobelle's calculations, the package is closer to $3 million.)

While no statement on the cause was forthcoming, it is no secret that Dobelle's expenditures to raise money and to host events to support the university paid through the UH Foundation have been of great interest both to the regents and members of the state Legislature.

Critical evaluation

"No one's spoken to me," Evan Dobelle said. Advertiser library photo

That evaluation, released after many clashes between the president and the board, revealed criticisms including:

• Inadequate fund-raising efforts.
• Politicizing the university by endorsing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mazie Hirono in 2002.
• Launching a film school without telling the board.
• Fiscal extravagance, including paying "outrageous salaries."

But it was on what the evaluation called poor fiscal management and "a cavalier and irresponsible attitude toward public funds and fiscal management" that regents have spent considerable attention.

That evaluation, released in April, cited a critical legislative auditor's report last year, use of the president's protocol money for "inappropriate purchases such as rock concert tickets for a few donors along with your staff," and no "credible" report on the total cost of the system reorganization that elevated the status of the community colleges.

Regents several months ago ordered an outside audit of the protocol fund, the final results of which were expected to go to the board at Tuesday's closed session that ended in Dobelle's firing.

While the regents would not say Tuesday night what role the audit played in their decision, a draft of the document shows some inattention to accounting detail regarding credit-card charges, including mix-ups of personal and business charges, with the foundation reimbursing both and adjusting payments later, and some missing receipts.

Inconsistent billing

The audit notes there has been no consistent billing policy for either reimbursement to Dobelle for business charges on his credit card, or reimbursements by him to the foundation when it paid for personal expenses on his part. Dobelle said last night there was "certainly no intent" to do anything wrong and that when he was given bills to pay, "I paid them."

Among other things, the audit said:

• Payments were made by the foundation without adequate supporting documentation.
• Some charges for meals or hotel rooms considered business-related occurred on days stated as personal.
• There were first-class upgrades for staff traveling with Dobelle on a number of occasions.
• Payments made by the foundation that were for personal expenses were not always reimbursed on a timely basis.

Dobelle's staff told auditors that paperwork for expenses has been handled by four different offices, and while there were some staff errors, all paperwork was found. Major improvements in documentation are under way, some begun at his request a year ago, he said. Dobelle has reimbursed the foundation by as much as $47,000 from 2001 through 2004, but has also carried business charges on his credit cards for months waiting for reimbursement, he said.

"After what I saw a year ago I asked Kristin (Blanchfield, his personal secretary) to go through the whole thing to see if there's anything missing or anything wrong. I'm just not comfortable with it," said Dobelle by phone last night. "There were thousands of dollars owed me for months when it went the other way, and when I had to pay interest fees. I just got a check three weeks ago for $8,000 for things that I was paying for."

Unanswered concerns

University of Hawai'i Board of Regents Chairwoman Patricia Lee was interviewed by Ka Leo O Hawai'i news editor Alice Kim at Campus Center yesterday regarding the firing of UH President Evan Dobelle. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Takai and others ripped Dobelle publicly for giving excessive salaries to administrators in his inner circle, and what he called questionable spending patterns and abuse of authority.

Last summer Takai spent days going through receipts at the UH Foundation and making notations.

"The president never answered our concerns, never provided us with the details on the reasons why he brought up certain things," Takai said. "Everything we brought up a year ago is still justified, in my eyes, because there was no dispute of those facts and those are pretty significant facts."

Despite the tumult of the past 36 hours, Dobelle tried to remain positive yesterday during a college trip with his wife and son on the Mainland, although close friends said he was both shocked and stunned by the regents' action. But Dobelle said he has never had a bad day in Hawai'i and doesn't plan to start now. He said he is receiving three kinds of phone calls: from supporters, from the media and from recruiting firms.

"I've been in public life since I was 19," he said, "and I've had wonderful days and days that weren't wonderful, and I'm not going to allow this to detract from a rite of passage with Harry."

As the first full day at UH unfolded with a new acting president and a Board of Regents carrying on with business as usual, students, faculty and others around the state reacted with emotions ranging from shock and sorrow to relief.

"I think there is a palace coup going on. It's a good old boy thing," said Michael O'Brien, a UH alumnus who lives in Waikoloa.

O'Brien said later in a telephone interview: "I wanted to see some good things happen at the university. Make us proud of something up there like other universities are, and I thought he was the man to do it. I am so upset."

A surprise firing

Football coach June Jones said the whole thing shocked him.

"I'm an Evan Dobelle fan. His vision for the athletic department and football program was nothing but the best. I think the most shocking thing was he wasn't told in person. That, to me, no matter what the reason, is insufficient. There's no reason for that type of action, of not being told face to face."

But former Maui Community College professor Dick Mayer said Dobelle rubbed people the wrong way from the start.

"Within two weeks of his arrival, he made a whole series of announcements about reorganizing the system. It seemed presumptuous without first getting to know the university and second without consulting with the people who would have to live with the changes," he said.

Gov. Linda Lingle, meanwhile, denied she had anything to do with Dobelle's firing or that it was politically motivated, payback for his endorsement of Hirono during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

"There is absolutely no relationship between what Evan Dobelle did during the campaign and what the regents have done now," Lingle said yesterday. "Their decision has got to be based on his behavior and his performance as president of the university, and I wouldn't expect anything less."

Lingle said she was surprised by the firing. "I didn't know," she said. "I had no idea that would happen."

Unfulfilled promises

Lawmakers at the state Capitol had varying reactions to Dobelle's abrupt removal, with several saying while they don't know the specific reasons why the Board of Regents gave him the ax, they can point to promises he made to them that had yet to be fulfilled.

"I think the Legislature saw him, in general, as having enthusiasm and great ideas," said Senate Education Chairman Norman Sakamoto, D-13th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake).

"The other part of that equation is needing to finish, or at least make great strides in accomplishing, those ideas as opposed to just opening up new ideas."

Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), agreed. "I think President Dobelle had come to the Legislature with some excitement," he said. "I think he had told the Legislature that he was excited about the new medical school and promised $150 million match to the Legislature's bond funding. Unfortunately, that hasn't really come to pass. So I think many of the legislators, today, really have misgivings about some of the promises that President Dobelle has made."

But House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a), expressed skepticism about the way Dobelle was fired.

"I hope that their decision was not a political one," he said. "The Legislature has worked hard to increase the university's autonomy. This kind of decision tends to politicize the university, and that is not good for our students."

House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo, Wilhelmina Rise), said he believes regents should have given Dobelle four years to finish what he set out to do.

"For me, I think he's done a pretty good job in setting a course of direction of where he wanted to go with the restructuring of the university system, with the medical school and also going out soliciting private funds for the cancer research center," Say said. "But it's up to the regents what their reasons are."