Clare kept her promise and wrote back today with information on Terroir 2006 and Ken Verosub’s departure.

It seems that the reason for the kerfuffle between Verosub, a professor of Geology at UCD, and the College of Ag and Environmental Sciences stems from a disagreement over compensation.

Verosub wanted to be compensated for his time in organizing the event, and UCD argued that if they paid him they would also have to compensate the almost 20 other people who helped organize the event. Yet the costs to pay all involved would be prohibitive, according to Clare Hasler, the Executive Director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. You can read the memo she sent me in its entirety here.

It’s unclear to me whether or not some agreement was in place prior to Verosub’s demand for compensation, or if Verosub just decided to ask for extra money extremely late in the process. He didn’t respond to my email to enlighten me.

Either way though, he couldn’t have picked a worse time to play hardball with the UC regarding salary issues. The San Francisco Chronicle has been excoriating the entire UC system over salary and benefits scandals for the past month and a half. Below is a redacted list of some of the more salacious headlines.

Outside auditor to examine UC’s salary packages (12/20)

Legislative hearing into UC compensation (12/6)

Lawmakers to look at UC’s pay practices (12/2)

State senator calls for hearings on UC pay (11/30)

UC still paying ex-No. 2 official $25,000 a month (11/26)

UC regents give raises to top administrators (11/18)

UC president promises increased disclosure about pay packages (11/17)

Outrage in Capitol at UC pay revelations (11/16)

UC refuses to release executive raise list (11/15)

Services cut for students as high-pay jobs boom (11/14)

Free mansions for people of means (11/14)

UC piling extra cash on top of pay (11/13)

UC provost who quit got questionable perk (11/11)

Given the above, I don’t blame Davis one bit for wanting to avoid handing out any more non-standard cash payments.

It would be nice if Verosub would reconsider and maintain at least a reduced involvement in the conference. But as Clare’s memo suggests, that doesn’t appear to be in the cards.