Editorial: CSU must protect whistle-blowers

Three former employees of the CSU labor relations office allege that they were fired for filing whistle-blower complaints against the university, which they say violated state law for failing to open contracts to a competitive bidding process.

There are two obvious problems with this situation. The first is that the CSU system is possibly misusing valuable state funds in the middle of a budget crisis to pay over $2 million in contracts to a labor relations firm they hired without competitive bidding. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that some of these misuses included premium car rentals, entertainment expenses, and 25 percent tips.

The second problem is that the administration fired three employees after they started asking questions about the controversy.

Obviously CSU Chancellor Charles Reed says the three people were fired for other reasons (staff reorganization). At least one of the three is preparing a lawsuit against the university ““ so the matter will be settled in court.

But in the meantime, the state should do more to insure the safety of whistle-blowers. People need to feel safe coming forward when they see public money being misspent ““ as it likely was in this case.