March 30, 2010; San Francisco Chronicle | Calls for increasing foundation transparency are getting an interesting push in Califorina. A state lawmaker has asked a California State University (CSU) foundation what it plans to pay Sarah Palin to speak at a $500-a-plate black-tie fundraiser at the Stanislaus campus in June.
So far, the foundation is not speaking. Matt Swanson, president of the Stanislaus Foundation, says the contract with the former vice presidential candidate won't allow him to publicly disclose her speaking fee. State Sen. Leland Yee requested information about the speaking fee as part of what the San Francisco Chronicle describes as the San Francisco lawmaker's effort to make the operations of public university foundations more transparent.
In a statement issued Monday Yee said, "At a time when students are struggling to afford an education at CSU, I would hope that spending potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars on a guest speaker for a black-tie gala would be low on the priority list." California