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USF Lays Off 19 At Johnnie B. Byrd Alzheimer's Center

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By ADAM EMERSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2008

TAMPA - The University of South Florida took control of the troubled Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute this summer, and on Wednesday it announced that 19 of the center's 71 workers have been laid off, most of them administrators. The cuts will save the center $2 million a year, roughly 40 percent in salaries and benefits.

"The financial situation at Byrd demanded prompt action," said Stephen Klasko, the university's medical school dean, who became chief executive of the Alzheimer's center in July. "We're basically paying out of our savings account."

Eleven of the 19 laid-off workers are administrators whose job duties ranged from managing communications to coordinating contracts. Most of those duties are performed by others at the university, Klasko said. Eight others who lost their jobs are temporary workers; two other employees have resigned. The center will keep its scientists.

The institute's former chief executive officer, Huntington Potter, remains at the center as a senior scientist.

Before the cuts, the center was paying its workers with $15 million in cash reserves.

Last spring, the institute's leaders gave up a year in state funding to preserve the center's independence. For months, the university had lobbied to take control of the Alzheimer's institute, contending that it performed services and research also done at USF.

The center's leaders had hoped to spread its reserves over the next few years and seek out partnerships to stay in business. But in June, they chose to affiliate with USF and turn the center's management over to the university.

At its spending rate, before the cuts, the institute would have burned through its cash in 12 to 18 months, Klakso said.

Now that he has cut payroll, Klasko said he will seek other sources of revenue, whether they come from corporate partnerships, from the clinic he opened at the institute last month or from donors.

Although he hopes for an allotment of state money next spring, considering the souring Florida economy, Klasko said, "I'm realistic."

"The fact is, we're going to be careful about what we spend," he said, adding that he plans to bring in more doctors who can pay their own salaries from the grants they receive and that USF eventually will offer more financial support.

The Byrd institute opened in 2007 as a nonprofit center to study the treatments of and try to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Former Florida House Speaker Johnnie B. Byrd Jr. said Wednesday that he trusted Klasko to make the right decisions. The institute is named after Byrd's late father.

Byrd had long criticized the business decisions that the institute's previous leaders made. In late 2006, he led an unsuccessful attempt to replace Potter, a Harvard-trained researcher, with a business professional.

"Every dollar that's spent on administration is a dollar not spent on research," Byrd said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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