Pre-approval process for hiring outside consultants and independent contractors

As directed by President Napolitano in her January 22 email communication and subsequent directives, all hirings of outside consultants and independent contractors, regardless of any prearrangement via a blanket agreement, must be approved by the appropriate approval authority prior to contract negotiation.

This process applies to all OP departments and divisions, including the Officers of the Regents and OP employees in the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Process for Non-Construction/Non-Maintenance Project

Department consults with subject matter expert unit(s) (see Operations Units table below) to ensure the work does not overlap with existing operations and staff, and to see if the need can be addressed using existing internal resources.
Requestor completes the Request for Approval of Contractors and Consultants (AC&C form, pdf) and, if the amount is > $100K, drafts the Decision Memo (docx) for Department Head to review.
Following Department Head's approval, requestor sends packet to Purchasing/Procurement for review via ucopcontractor@ucop.edu.
Purchasing/Procurement team provides comments/recommendation. If request appears to overlap with work done by expert units, Purchasing/Procurement may convene a cross-functional Advisory Board to assist in the review.
Purchasing/Procurement routes the request to the appropriate approval authority in accordance with the approval matrix below. If the amount is > $100K, Division Head completes the Decision Memo if he or she supports it, stipulating that the resources being requested are not available in his or her division.
If approved, Purchasing/Procurement logs request and negotiates contract with vendor.

Process for Construction/Maintenance Project

Department consults with subject matter expert unit(s) (see Operations Units table below) to ensure the work does not overlap with existing operations and staff, and to see if the need can be addressed using existing internal resources.
Requestor completes the Request for Approval of Contractors and Consultants for Construction/Maintenance Project (AC&C for Construction/Maintenance Project, pdf) and, if the amount is > $100K, also drafts the Decision Memo for Construction/Maintenance Project (docx) for Department Head to review.
Following Department Head's approval, requestor sends packet to appropriate approval authority based on the approval matrix below.
If approved, requestor logs request and negotiates contract with vendor. Requestor also must send a copy of the approved package to Purchasing/Procurement for their records.

Process for Hiring a Search Firm

Hiring manager consults with HR - Business Partner or HR - Talent Acquisition to see if the need can be addressed using existing internal resources.
Hiring manager completes the Request for Approval of Contractors and Consultants (AC&C form, pdf) and the Decision Memo (docx) and, after obtaining the Department Head's signature, forwards both electronically to Kelly Howard in Talent Acquisition.
Talent Acquisition signs off and forwards both electronically to Purchasing/Procurement via ucopcontractor@ucop.edu.
Once approved by the President, Purchasing/Procurement notifies Talent Acquisition, and Talent Acquisition in turn notifies the hiring manager via email with a copy to the HR Business Partner.

Approval Authority

AMOUNT	APPROVAL AUTHORITY	DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED
> $100K	President	AC&C Form + Decision Memo
<= $100K	Division Heads (see list below)	AC&C Form
<= $10K	Vice Presidents or Vice Provosts who are not Division Heads	AC&C Form

Operations Units

OPERATIONS UNIT	POINT OF CONTACT
OP Budget	Eva Goode, Director
Business Resource Center (BRC)	Brad Niess, Interim Director
Building and Administrative Service Center (BASC)	Steve Murray, Director
Communications	Yem Ling Fong, Production/Business Operations Manager
Local Human Resources	Nancy Pluzdrak, Local HR Executive Director
Information Technology Services (ITS)	Shirley Bittlingmeier, Client Services Manager
Purchasing/Procurement	Richard Greene, Manager, Local Procurement
Institutional Research	Charles Masten, Deputy

Division Heads

Michael Brown: Office of the Provost
Rachael Nava: Chief Operating Officer
Nathan Brostrom: Chief Financial Officer
Claire Holmes: Public Affairs
Vacant: Government Relations
Glenda Humiston: Agriculture and Natural Resources
Jagdeep Singh Bachher: Chief Investment Officer
Alexander Bustamante: Ethics, Compliance and Audit Services
Charlie Robinson: General Counsel
Christine Gulbranson: Research Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Jack Stobo: UC Health
Kimberly Budil: Lab Management
Anne Shaw: Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Regents
Hilary Baxter: Academic Senate

Requirements for additional approval

If the negotiated contract amount exceeds the pre-approved estimate by 10% or more, then additional approvals are required as follows:

Between 10 and 20%: Executive Vice President - COO is authorized to approve.
- When submitting the PSA/ICA contract to EVP for signature, department must indicate that the amount is 10-20% higher than the pre-approved estimate.
More than 20%: The President will have to re-approve the request.
- Department must re-submit the request and the decision memo with the new contract amount.

Office of the Chief Operating Officer