Fate of 'Dogs employees still up in air

By Andy Boogaard
The Fresno Bee

(Updated Wednesday, May 1, 2002, 4:25 AM)

The future of two Fresno State athletic department fixtures, Diane Milutinovich and Les Snyder, remained a mystery Tuesday.

Even to the university's athletic director.

"I'm told to stay out of it," Scott Johnson said.

Sources had told The Bee that decisions would be made Tuesday regarding department business manager Snyder, who has been on paid administrative leave for two months because of accounting irregularities, vice president Ben Quillian said; and associate athletic director Milutinovich, who Johnson said last week is taking "some leave of time."

But Johnson said Tuesday he's not in the mix in what he suspects involves lawyers and human-resource managers from the university and lawyers representing Snyder and Milutinovich.

"Retire, resign, reassign, settlement -- I'm guessing this could involve any of those scenarios," he said while leaving his office in the evening.

Both Snyder and Milutinovich are 22-year university employees. Johnson did say parallels shouldn't be drawn with the cases.

While Milutinovich is being offered options outside of the athletic department, Snyder has no chance of securing his employment, sources say.

"I'm not prepared to say anything at this time," Milutinovich said by telephone Tuesday night.

She's en route to Washington to speak on gender equity issues, The Bee learned. She's considered an expert on the subject, and -- as Fresno State's senior women's administrator -- was actively involved in a two-year federal investigation that found the university far out of Title IX compliance in 1994.

The school responded with a corrective action plan that applied $7 million in upgrades to Bulldogs women's sports facilities and resources, and has since virtually leveled the athletic gender field regarding participation, scholarships and overall expenditures.

Milutinovich did say two months ago that she was qualified for and interested in two of the three associate athletic director positions outlined in Johnson's reorganization plan.

But the two she was applying for -- one responsible for student-athlete services, and the other for internal operations -- were canceled because of budget problems.

And those problems resulted from a four-year fiscal period ending last summer in which budgets were balanced by overstated revenues, an in-house audit discovered.

Snyder, answering to former athletic director Al Bohl, made final financial statements appear balanced, The Bee has learned, where in fact they were short by a total of $1.4 million over that four-year period.

"Al told Les this is how the cow's going to eat the cabbage," a source said.

Snyder said last week he wouldn't discuss the issue until after a decision has been made. His lawyer, Steve Cornwell, couldn't be reached to comment Tuesday.

The reporter can be reached at aboogaard@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6336.