Sacramento Bee (California)
A taxpayers group filed a complaint Wednesday with the state Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that one of the state stem cell agency’s board members violated conflict-of-interest rules by pressuring agency staff to award a $638,000 grant to the research institute he heads.
The complaint targets John Reed, president and chief executive of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, a cancer research institute in La Jolla.
In February, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine‘s board awarded a research grant to David Smotrich, a scientist affiliated with Reed’s institute. As agency staff reviewed the award, however, they determined Smotrich was not on Burnham’s regular faculty and thus ineligible for the award.
According to e-mails and documents obtained through a public records request by blogger David Jensen, Reed then contacted board chairman Robert Klein for advice on how he might appeal. At Klein’s suggestion, Reed on Aug. 2 sent a letter to the agency’s scientific staff asking them to reconsider.
Agency staff stood by their decision; the award was formally rescinded last month. But John Simpson, spokesman for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica, said documents reveal ethical lapses by Reed and Klein. He called for Reed to resign from the 29-member board.
Klein did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Reed said via e-mail that he didn’t realize he was breaking rules when he wrote the letter.
“I now understand that the conflict rules apply to the post-grant review process,” he wrote.
The FPPC typically announces within 14 days whether it plans to investigate a complaint.
