Even by Jim Doti standards, landing Nobel economist Vernon Smith and three colleagues from George Mason U evokes a grand statement: “This is one of the biggest things to happen at Chapman. This changes the whole complexion of Chapman University in the research direction.” Chapman President Doti assures that Smith, who still wears a pony tail at age 80, is no relic: “He’s in better shape than us.” Another grand statement, given that Doti runs marathons and scales peaks. Chapman Provost Daniele Struppa describes Smith even more succinctly: “He kicks a,.” Struppa is the guy who caused the run on George Mason’s prized economists; he was a dean at George Mason when he lured the free market oriented Smith away from the U of Arizona in 2001, just one year before Smith won the Nobel. Doti lured Struppa to Chapman a year ago. Smith is familiar with California. His resume includes stints at Stanford and Caltech, and he has a sister-in-law in Laguna Niguel. All Smith and team will cost Chapman is “millions and millions of dollars,” says Doti, smiling. A laboratory will be built for a seven-professor Economic Sci-ence Institute. Doti will put his fund-raising skills to work getting chairs endowed for $2 million each …
If OC Supe John Moorlach has dropped a “political nuclear bomb” into the public employee pension debate, the “mad scientists” who built it are lawyers Mario Mainero and Eric Norby. It was over a February lunch at Las Brisas in Santa Ana that Mainero, Moorlach’s chief of staff, and Norby, chief of staff for his brother/Supe Chris Norby, began brainstorming on ways to challenge the “retroactive” benefits granted to OC sheriff deputies in 2002; those benefits have contributed to a projected $2 billion pension system deficit. The result of their ensuing research is a multi-pronged constitutional attack that could reverberate throughout California. The Moorlach team doesn’t dispute the supes’ right to sweeten pensions, but they contend it was an illegal gift of public funds to apply a new formula to retirement benefits already accrued. Deputy union officials argue that the entire package was properly negotiated. Moorlach and Chris Norby are expected to ask their fellow supes to pursue the legal challenge this week. If they don’t, Eric Norby says the Lincoln Club and other groups will. OC deputy union Prez Wayne Quint and GM Mike Carre paid archenemy Moorlach a “cordial” visit to lay ground rules for the pension debate. Moorlach has offered the deputies an out,agree to pay for the retroactive benefits as other county employees are doing. Carre says a response would be premature: “Moorlach has had months to craft his legal arguments, we’ve had 72 hours.” More in Comment, page 39 …
UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake was in Beijing last week as the American keynote speaker at a ceremonial run-up to the 2008 Olympics.
