San Francisco Chronicle - December 17, 2004
Carl T. Hall, chall@sfchronicle.com.

The gaffe marks a shaky start for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine as it prepares to navigate the political and technical minefields of embryonic stem cell research.

By passing Proposition 71 in November, California voters created the new institute along with a governance outline and a $3 billion taxpayer-backed spending plan to pursue stem cell research for the next decade.

Many of the key decisions will be made by a 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which was to take up a full agenda in a three- hour kickoff meeting starting at noon today at UCSF's Laurel Heights conference center.

Those plans changed Thursday afternoon when State Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly issued a joint statement, effectively moving to delete all the substantive business items except oaths of office and election of a chair and vice chair.

"Based on recent public concerns and the best interests of the institute, we recommend the chair reschedule the balance of the meeting to a later date," Angelides and Westly said.

As the state's two top fiscal officers, they had the responsibility under terms of Prop. 71 to set up the meeting and -- along with the governor, lieutenant governor, legislators and academics -- appoint some of the board members.

The two officials issued the original 15-item agenda on Monday. It included an overview of finances and ethics issues, discussion of bylaws, details on patent royalties and product licenses, location of a headquarters and appointment of a search committee to select an institute president and key advisers.

Jeff Sheehy, a San Francisco HIV/AIDS activist and one of the appointed members of the stem cell committee, was among the first to question whether it was proper to schedule so many thorny issues with little or no advance background materials or input from board appointees.

Separately, Charles Halpern, a public-interest lawyer in Berkeley, called on Attorney General Bill Lockyer to intervene. Halpern detailed a number of apparent violations of the state Bagley-Keene Act, which requires open meetings and adequate chance for public testimony.

The original meeting agenda, for instance, included only one opportunity for public input, and that was to come at the end of today's meeting. Background materials had not been made widely available.

Halpern got an important boost from one of the state's most respected First Amendment champions, Terry Francke, general counsel of a Sacramento group called Californians Aware, who also asked Lockyer to step in.

A spokesman for Lockyer declined to comment Thursday, saying Lockyer was serving essentially as legal adviser to Angelides and Westly and referring questions to them. A Westly aide said "revised advice" from Lockyer's office to Westly and Angelides led up to Thursday's decision.

In telephone interviews, Sheehy, Halpern and Francke all praised the move to shorten the meeting -- despite the embarrassment that meant for those planning one of the highest-profile science enterprises in the country.

"The agenda was too ambitious given the fact the committee has not even met before," Sheehy said.

Halpern said he was "delighted that (state officials) have accepted the core of my legal argument."

"This represents a right-angle turn, which is what was needed," he said, noting that passage of another ballot measure, Prop. 59, in November essentially "supercharged" the California legal mandate for transparent government.

"The period of secrecy and the promotional orientation which carried through from Nov. 2 is over," he said, adding that the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee clearly "will have to have to function as a state agency in public."

Halpern had sought nomination as vice chair of the committee, but only on an interim basis for 90 days. Although he didn't get nominated, he still asserts that committee members should spend more time looking for a permanent chair and vice chair.

Prop. 71 architect Robert N. Klein, who ran the stem cell initiative drive and is the only one in the running as chair of the oversight committee, declined interview requests Thursday, as he has done all week. A spokeswoman said he thought it best to wait until after the committee has been formally named before making any more public comments.

Ed Penhoet, former head of Chiron Corp. and one of three candidates for vice chair of the oversight committee, called the agenda problem "an honest mistake" that shouldn't distract from the critical business facing the board. The other nominees to the vice chair post are Joan Samuelson of Healdsburg, the president and founder of the nonprofit Parkinson's Action Network, and Dr. Frank E. Staggers Sr., a Castro Valley urologist.

"I am sure we will end up with a very open process," Penhoet said. "There are lots of challenges associated with this, and also lots of promise. Our task is to make sure the taxpayers who voted for this get a good return for their money, but I'm not sure anybody knows yet exactly how to go about that."

Some harsher judgments came from Prop. 71 opponents who have long warned that the measure invited insiders to flout open-government rules.

"One of the great concerns we had during the campaign was lack of transparency and lack of public accountability," said Susan Fogel, a health- policy attorney in Los Angeles and coordinator of a group called the Pro- Choice Alliance for Responsible Stem Cell Research.

The fact that the meeting was abridged only after legal and public pressure came to bear, Fogel said, "is very disturbing for what it may portend for how this institute is going to operate."

041217
SC041221

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2004. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2004. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .