Ex-prison healthcare receiver’s staff was well paid

SAN FRANCISCO — The court-appointed receiver who was charged with remedying California’s prison healthcare compensated 11 employees more than the $225,000 annual salary of the official who runs California’s huge corrections system, concluded a state audit released Wednesday.

Robert Sillen, who was fired early this year, was paid $775,790, including about $170,000 in lieu of benefits, during the 15 months that ended in June 2007, the audit showed. He failed to properly document some large restaurant tabs, according to the review.

And he collected almost $10,000 a month from March until June 2007 as compensation in lieu of benefits, although he received medical and retirement benefits.

The State Inspector General’s Office highlighted the salaries and the expenses in a 19-page review of $33 million in state funds.

State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of the Senate Public Safety Committee, said she was shocked by the salaries and expenses.

“We can’t live in the lap of luxury to correct corrections,” Romero said in a telephone interview. “I am really disappointed that the man who was brought in to clean up the [medical] system literally cleaned up [for] himself.”

Almost two years ago, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson put Sillen, a longtime health administrator, in charge of the state’s prison-medical system, which the judge concluded in a civil-rights lawsuit was dysfunctional and causing deaths.

Sillen’s aggressive style irritated some lawmakers, and prisoner advocates thought he was moving too slowly.

Henderson replaced him in January with lawyer J. Clark Kelso.

The audit concluded that almost two-thirds of Sillen’s staff had salaries and other compensation amounting to more than $100,000 annually. It also pointed out that Sillen and 11 top aides had annual compensation exceeding the salary of James Tilton, secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The corrections chief, said Chief Deputy Inspector General Brett Morgan, “has 50,000 employees, is in charge of a $10-billion budget and has 33 adult institutions.”

Kelso will be paid $224,000 a year, plus a 25% annual performance bonus.

Sillen could not be reached for comment, but Kelso’s written response to the audit said that he planned to close one of the receiver’s three offices and had removed several of the highest-paid executives, saving $4 million.

Kelso said he also would try to bring salaries closer into line with those of the state officials. However, he said he would exceed those levels if it was the only way to fulfill the mission of fixing medical care for inmates.

The audit did not offer judgments about whether the former receiver’s expenditures were wasteful or not, but the report cited cases in which employees did not follow policy.

For example, auditors conducted a limited review of 23 travel-related expenses and found 11 instances of meal charges by employees that exceeded the allowance or lacked documentation.

In addition, there was no supporting documentation for two hotel expenditures totaling $10,500, which auditors thought were probably legitimate.

During the 15-month period reviewed, the receivership paid $57,000 for meals and entertainment, the audit said.

Sillen claimed a $740 expense from a Sacramento steakhouse but provided no receipt, no guest list and no business purpose.

In two other instances, auditors said, he exceeded his office’s $50-a-day meal limit during overnight travel -- with one meal charge for $127 and another for $109.

In addition, the auditor found that a contractor was paid $12,000 for meals under a contract that provided a $125 per diem. The per diem was later eliminated.

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tim.reiterman@latimes.com