UCI Retains PR Firm That County Hired in Fiscal Crisis : Scandal: University, taxed by media demands in fertility clinic story, pays $10,000 retainer for advice in how to ensure ‘facts get out accurately.’

IRVINE â€”  UC Irvine has hired the same Los Angeles public relations firm retained by Orange County during the frantic early days of the bankruptcy crisis to advise the university as it is bombarded by media inquiries during its fertility center scandal.

Sitrick and Co., a firm specializing in “sensitive matters,� was hired over the weekend to “make sure the facts get out accurately and in a timely fashion,� said Michael Sitrick, chairman of the Century City-based company.

The hiring Monday came only four days after the university filed a scathing legal complaint accusing three prominent doctors at UCI’s Center for Reproductive Health of transplanting eggs without patients’ consent, conducting human-subject research without permission and prescribing a fertility drug not approved by the government. The three physicians--Ricardo H. Asch, Jose Balmaceda and Sergio Stone--have denied any wrongdoing.

The 2-week-old controversy, which puts UCI’s research funding and reputation at risk, has been the subject of national media attention, including weekend coverage in the New York Times and on CBS news. However, several top university officials, including Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening, have kept a low profile in the crisis, declining to give interviews, and many staff members say they have been ordered not to talk to the press.

UCI spokeswoman Fran Tardiff, who has been handling media inquiries, said the sheer volume of calls has overtaxed the university’s small communications department.

Sitrick and Co. itself has been the subject of controversy in Orange County. Retained by the county to answer media inquiries during the first two months of its bankruptcy crisis, the firm charged $450,776 for its services--a bill that struck critics as excessive given the county’s financial condition.

Michael Kolbenschlag, managing director of Sitrick and Co. , said Tuesday that the bill was ultimately settled for about $370,000.

Sitrick and Tardiff said the arrangement with UCI is very different from that with the county, in that the firm will be advising the university on overall “strategy� in the crisis and will not be as heavily involved in day-to-day communications.

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UCI retained the firm for $10,000, Tardiff and Sitrick said. Sitrick said the firm charges between $150 to $360 an hour, and that initial hourly costs would be covered by the retainer. Any unearned portion of the retainer will be returned to the university, Sitrick said.

It was not clear how long the firm would be working with UCI, but Sitrick said he did not expect the fertility matter to be nearly as “time intensive� as handling the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Sitrick said his company has handled a wide range of high-profile issues, among them crises at Santa Monica-based National Medical Enterprises and IDB Communications Group Inc.

Meanwhile, world-renowned fertility specialist Asch continued to prepare his defense Tuesday. Asch has hired separate lawyers to deal with the various agencies that are investigating his research and medical practices, including the university, the California Medical Board and the Orange County district attorney, said Lloyd Charton, the lawyer representing Asch in civil matters.

Patients of Asch and his associates continued to seek care Tuesday at the UCI fertility center and its satellite clinic at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills.

But the clinic at UCI will close Friday as planned, said Dr. Jane Frederick, a fertility physician at UCI who worked with the three doctors but is not accused in the university’s lawsuit. She said the doctors will reopen the clinic Monday at a medical office building at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center.

UCI terminated its relationship with the center as details of the allegations emerged earlier this month.

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It was uncertain Tuesday whether the physician group, headed by Asch, will do fertilization procedures at the Fountain Valley location. Such procedures will continue to be performed at the group’s satellite clinic at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center.

Fountain Valley Regional Hospital officials broke off negotiations to form a clinic in partnership with the physicians several weeks ago upon learning that the doctors’ medical and research practices were under investigation.

Representatives of the hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Department are expected to meet next month to decide whether to resume negotiations.