Fired UH President Evan Dobelle says endorsing Mazie Hirono came from "my heart." Advertiser library photo • March 25, 2004

In the continuing fallout from the sudden firing, the university's chief financial officer and a top Dobelle appointee, J.R.W. "Wick" Sloane was put on paid administrative leave yesterday.

Sloane, whose contract ends in December, is paid $227,000 a year.

Sloane said this morning that he proposed that he go on leave. University officials were not available this morning to describe the circumstances of his departure.

"I agreed it's not appropriate to go back into the office," Sloane said. "It's time to get out of the way and let President McClain get on with doing his job."

Although Gov. Lingle has denied that his firing as University of Hawai'i president Tuesday night by the Board of Regents was politically motivated or connected to the endorsement, the past year has seen a deepening schism between Dobelle and the board, which is dominated by her appointments.

"I regret it in retrospect," Dobelle said from a Chicago hotel room, where he's in the midst of a college trip with his son and wife.

"Obviously, there were people who wanted me to do it, but in the end, it was my heart. It was my decision."

Dobelle said that soon after Lingle's election, she removed the university president's position from her Cabinet, and rebuffed his attempts to mend fences. He said they met only twice in two years at her office and that she declined a number of official invitations to university functions.

Board vice chairwoman Kitty Lagareta said Dobelle's decision to endorse Hirono did not factor into his termination, and that regents appointed by Lingle had not brought the subject up.

"It absolutely had nothing to do with this board," she said.

With the locks on his office doors changed, telephone service to his College Hill home cut — and then restored — and his administrative assistant put on leave before a vacation, Dobelle's ties to the university are quickly being officially severed. But he has still not spoken with the regents who fired him.

And regents have yet to make a public statement regarding the cause of their action.

Lagareta said the specific reason for Dobelle's ouster could not yet be made public for legal reasons, and that it was unclear when details would be revealed.

The regents had not known Dobelle was out of town when they began the meeting that led to his firing, Lagareta said.

"We're waiting for him to contact us, and he still hasn't contacted us," said board chairwoman Patricia Lee last night. "He's contacted a lot of other people but not the board and no regents."

Dobelle, meanwhile, maintained that "no one has communicated with me."

The schedule for his evaluation had been decided long in advance, so his absence was surprising, Lagareta said.

"I think we were probably beyond surprised to discover (chief of staff) Sam Callejo came in and said, 'The president isn't here, he's on vacation; he said he told you guys, and he wants the meeting closed.' "

A memo from Dobelle dated April 30 and addressed to Lee says that he would be out of town taking his son on a tour of colleges from June 2-16.

Lagareta said Dobelle had called one regent last weekend, said he was out of town, and asked whether he should attend the meeting. The regent, whom she would not identify, told him he needed to be there, she said.

"So especially, based on that, we were expecting him," she said.

Some individual regents may have concluded before the meeting that Dobelle should be fired, but no decision was reached by the whole board until then, she said.

"This was the first chance the board had to discuss it together," Lagareta said. "There may have been individual regents who felt one way or another, but we had not discussed it, and did not have any way to discuss it prior to this meeting on Tuesday. Until we all came together, I don't think any of us were really clear how the others felt."

Rick Bissen, the state's deputy attorney general, said that as far as he knows, the regents have not contacted his office requesting assistance in an investigation into Dobelle's activities.

"I'm not aware of any investigation that's been transmitted to the attorney general's office," said Bissen, who is acting attorney general since Attorney General Mark Bennett is out of town. "And I suppose, if there was, I wouldn't be able to confirm it one way or another. But just answering your question, I'm not aware of any."

Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday that she received assurances from Lee Wednesday night that the board will go public with the reasons for their decision, although she was not told when.

The governor said she urged regents to speak publicly on the issue. "I know all the members of the Board of Regents, and I know them to be fair and straightforward people, and my assumption would be that they operated that way in this case as well," she said.

Lingle said she also wants to get clarification on the manner in which Dobelle received the news. "I think it's important to find out from them whether, in fact, they did invite him, whether they, in fact, as I heard, changed the meeting date to accommodate him and that he just didn't come to the meeting."

Yesterday morning, Lingle spoke at the swearing-in of more than 150 O'ahu residents to different state boards and commissions and made comments that may have been directed at critics who believe that she influenced regents into firing Dobelle.

"People see you as a part of government, as an extension of government," Lingle told the group at Washington Place. "And your actions on the boards and commissions reflect immediately back on me, back on the administration, back on the entire state. So I appreciate your willingness to serve, and I would ask you to keep in mind when you do serve that there is an impact beyond you that day, on that board, in that meeting."