Little Hoover: Stem Cell Agency Board Should Shrink, Restructuring Needed

Joe Mathews — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:31:00 -0400

California's Little Hoover Commission, which investigates government agencies and focuses on efficiency, is out with a thoughtful new report on the state's stem cell agency and its governing board.

The report concludes that the board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is too large and that the initiative that created the agency, Prop 71 in 2004, is "overly prescriptive" and locks in place too many inefficiencies. I reported as much last month in the Scientific American.

Among the major recommendations, from a summary released by Little Hoover:

"-Restructure the CIRM governing board around principles of efficiency and
transparency. The board size should be reduced to 15 from 29, maintaining the
diversity of membership but adding independent voices to the board. Board terms
should be shortened to four years for all members and the appointment process should
be streamlined. To eliminate overlapping authority and enhance accountability, the
roles of chair and president should be restructured and clarified. To minimize
disruption that can occur through turnover and changes in the governance structure,
new board members should be phased in as terms expire. The ICOC name also should
be changed to the Board of Directors to more accurately reflect its composition.
Improve the process for distributing grant and loan funds. To enhance
efficiency and transparency, the 50-employee cap on staffing should be removed, as
should the 15-person limit on peer reviewers. CIRM should modify its triage plan to
review grants internally. CIRM also should explore options for greater disclosure of the
peer review process and amend all meeting minutes to specify individual board
members' votes and recusals, and continue the practice moving forward.

"-Enhance oversight of CIRM. The Citizens Financial Accountability Oversight
Committee (CFAOC) and the CIRM governing board should use their authority to
enhance oversight. The CFAOC, chaired by the State Controller, should exercise its
existing authority, or be statutorily authorized if necessary, to conduct performance
audits and hold regular meetings to review CIRM's programmatic and strategic
performance, in addition to overseeing CIRM's annual financial audits. The CIRM
governing board should hold its members accountable by adopting removal provisions
in its bylaws.

"-Require the CIRM governing board to begin planning for CIRM's future. To
prepare for change in leadership, the CIRM governing board should create succession
plans for board leadership through an open process. The agency should include in its
strategic plan clear direction for spending funds, with measurable benchmarks and a
transition plan for when bond funding expires."

Little Hoover On California Stem Cell Agency

Joe Mathews — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:21:00 -0400

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine -- the state's stem cell agency -- was created by Prop 71, and is still governed under its rules. For more than six months, the Little Hoover Commission -- a California body that studies government structure and reform -- has been investigating CIRM, which has struggled with governance issues. (I reported on this last month in the Scientific American).

Last week, Little Hoover staff disclosed some of its preliminary recommendations for changing the agency, as reported at the California Stem Cell Report. At first blush, the proposed changes, which have not been formally released, make sense to me. Reducing the size of the board. Concentrating executive power in one official of the agency (currently, the president and the board chair share executive power). And changing the quorum rule, which often has hamstrung the agency's board.

The difficult part will be enacting such measures. It's far from clear that the board has the power, or inclination, to make these changes. Under Prop 71, making changes to the agency requires a 70 percent vote of the legislature (or another vote of the people). Neither will be easy to achieve.