By Sharon Bernstein
SACRAMENTO Calif. (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown has appointed a top lawmaker to the board overseeing the massive University of California system, days before the panel is scheduled to vote on a tuition hike opposed by Brown.
The appointment of former Assembly Speaker John Perez comes amid controversy over a proposal by UC president Janet Napolitano to hike tuition by up to five percent annually for five years, a move that would conflict with Brown's demand for a tuition freeze.
"Jerry Brown is freshly re-elected, and he's putting in someone he knows will be a reliable vote," said political author David Mark. "It's also kind of staking out his turf against Janet Napolitano saying, 'Look who's in charge here.'"
Perez, who leaves office next month, worked collaboratively with Brown in the legislature and shepherded a middle-class scholarship. Along with the former Speaker, Brown also appointed community college executive Eloy Ortiz Oakley to the Board of Regents in time for the tuition proposal to be considered this week.
Napolitano, the former U.S. Homeland Security chief, was hired to run the ten-campus university last year with a mission to use her political savvy and fund-raising prowess to restore a system racked by years of budget cuts and turmoil.
One of her first actions was to propose a tuition freeze for 2014-2015, which allowed her to work with Brown to increase funding for the prestigious but stressed system.
But now she is taking on the governor, developing a detailed five-year-plan for tuition increases that she says will be necessary if the state doesn't increase funding beyond what is already approved.
Brown has pledged to increase funding for both UC and the California State University system by $1 billion over a four year period, but only if the universities freeze tuition.
His administration was surprised, a spokesman said, when Napolitano proposed five years of tuition increases as part of a plan she said could be forestalled by higher state funding.
"The governor said he would commit the state to general fund increases for four years," said spokesman H. d. Palmer. "In return for these guaranteed year over year increases the administration expects both systems to keep tuition flat."
Napolitano's plan was released two days after the election that returned Brown, a Democrat, for an unprecedented fourth term at the helm of the most populous U.S. state.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; editing by Nick Macfie)