The San Diego Union-Tribune
The state Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) said yesterday that it will investigate allegations of conflict of interest by John Reed, the head of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla and a member of the state stem cell institute’s oversight board.
The commission has sent letters to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica and state Controller John Chiang to inform them that their requests for the investigation have been accepted, commission spokesman Roman Porter said.
Reed sent a six-page letter to the stem cell institute’s staff after it decided that Burnham did not qualify for a grant because the principal investigator applying for the funding is not a full-time staffer at the institute. Robert Klein, chairman of the stem cell institute, had recommended that Reed send the letter.
A stem cell institute attorney flagged Reed’s letter as being a conflict of interest, and the staff did not change its decision. Reed and Klein both have said that, in retrospect, sending the letter was a mistake.
Although the letter was sent in August, the matter was not made public until Nov. 21, as a result of a public records request by the California Stem Cell Report, a blog that follows the implementation of the state’s $3 billion stem cell initiative.
Reed said that at the time he thought it was OK to send the letter because a scientific review committee already had scored the grant application — giving it the second highest score of the applications in that round.
The board also had voted to fund the grant. Reed did not participate in that vote.
After the board vote, when the staff was conducting due diligence on grant recipients, it determined the Burnham did not meet the specifications of the grant application.
Reed thought the staff’s decision was wrong. He asked Klein what he should do about it. Klein suggested Reed write a letter to the staff.
If the commission finds there was wrongdoing, it can levy a fine against those involved. It does not have the power to remove Reed from his appointed post on the board.
John Simpson, of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, has asked for Reed’s resignation.
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Contact the author Terri Somers at: (619) 293-2028 or [email protected]
