May 29, 1995

U.S. SCOLDS PASADENA POLICE OVER DRUG FUNDS

Purchase of five cars for senior officer with $120,000 in federal narcotics-seizure money is seemed a violation. City officials downplay the matter.

By CHIP JACOBS AND RICHARD WINTON

Special to the Times

The U.S. Justice Department has rebuked Pasadena police for "improperly" spending nearly $120,000 in federal drug-seizure money to purchase five cars for senior officers, including a $24,000 Ford Explorer for the police chief, records show.

The Police Department also broke federal rules by using at least $50,000 from the same Asset Forfeiture Program fund to pay for peer counseling of at-risk youth, according to the Justice Department.

In two March letters obtained by The Times, Justice Department officials warned that unless the Police Department reforms its use of asset-forfeiture money, it risks losing future crime-fighting funds.

"The Pasadena Police Department is improperly managing and using funds received from the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the equitable share program," said a March 23 letter from Grace Denton, a program coordinator with the U.S. attorney's Los Angeles office, to Pasadena Police Cmdr. Donn Burwell.

Under federal law, local agencies may use the seizure money only to supplement or bolster law enforcement activities, not to "cover basic operations such as payment for vehicles for command personnel," Denton wrote.

Pasadena police officials referred calls to city administrators, who downplayed the Justice Department letters and said that much of the dispute has been resolved.

"It's not a major controversy," said Lawrence Newberry, assistant city attorney.

But Denton, who would not speak directly about the Pasadena case, said it was unusual for her office to send that type of letter to an agency.

At issue is the Police Department's acquisition last fall of five used 1994 Mercury Sable sedans for $93,000. Four of the cars are driven by the force's senior commanders, who gave up their vehicle allowances to get them.

In justifying the purchases, then-Chief Jerry A. Oliver wrote city officials that his commanders needed the cars to drive to off-hours emergency crime scenes.

Newberry said the four police officials also are permitted to use the radio-equipped vehicles to commute to work and for personal use. He said that on occasion the city-owned sedans were also used by undercover drug officers, but Newberry conceded that the Police Department does not have records of such use.

A month after buying the sedans, police spent $24,800 in forfeiture money on a used, 1994 Ford Explorer that was driven by Oliver for both official and personal use. Since he resigned his Pasadena job to become police chief in Richmond, Va., last month, the vehicle has been used solely by the undercover division, Newberry said.

Oliver did not return phone calls.

Newberry said that since March, the city has reached an agreement with the Justice Department for the sedans by regularly letting undercover officers use them. Denton would not confirm or deny Newberry's statement.

The Police Department also spent at least $50,000 in drug-seizure money on the long-running Youth Advisors program during fiscal 1994-95. The program, financed in previous years by the city's general fund, trains teen-agers and pays them salaries to persuade their peers to avoid drugs and gangs.

In a second letter, dated March 30, Denton wrote that the department could not use drug-asset money to replace salaries previously paid by the city. It can be used for first-year salaries of new positions, she said, but not to replace expenses the city no longer wanted to pay for or to continue operations.

Pasadena officials thought there was a provision in federal rules allowing them to do otherwise, Newberry said, acknowledging that the city was wrong. He said Pasadena officials are scrambling to seek a new source of funding for the program.

"It shows you have to be careful," Newberry said. "Sometimes there are different interpretations."

Ironically, Oliver had complained to the city two years ago that it was violating the same rule in regard to drug forfeiture money.

In a 1993 memorandum, Oliver wrote to City Manager Philip A. Hawkey complaining that the city's Finance Department had violated the federal rules by designating nearly $200,000 in asset money for a new police helicopter fueling system, even though the city had planned to pay for the system in a prior year. Newberry said he did not know whether the city ended up spending drug money to buy the system.

"In the event of an audit by either federal or state regulators, the city could be required to refund the money spent on the project and the Police Department could be excluded from further participation in the Asset Forfeiture Program," Oliver wrote.

Created in 1986, the federal seizure program allows law enforcement agencies to take and liquidate houses, jewelry, automobiles and other major assets seized from criminals-most of them drug traffickers. Local police departments are entitled to part of that money based on their role in the investigation.

copyright Los Angeles Times

Money Train, published in Los Angeles City Beat. Why would U.S. Congressman Ernest Istook from Oklahoma come to Los Angeles to raise money? Perhaps because he holds the purse strings to critical federal transportation dollars.
March 10, 2005

MOVING DOWN THE ROAD, Pasadena Weekly
http://chipjacobs.com/a_movingdown.html
Moving Down the Road, published in the Pasadena Weekly. The Caltrans 700,000 square-foot tower owes its existence to the 1994 Northridge earthquake, union muscle, and a tincture of politics.
July 10, 2003

TUNNEL VISIONS, Pasadena Weekly, Caltrans Tenants Association
http://www.caltranstenants.com/tunnel.html
Tunnel Visions, published in Pasadena Weekly. Caltrans may dig deep to find a way out of its 710 Freeway debacle.
(Part III of Corridor of Shame series)
May 22, 2003

THE UNTOUCHABLES, Pasadena Weekly, Caltrans Tenants Association
http://www.caltranstenants.com/slumlord.html
The Untouchables, published in Pasadena Weekly. Slumlord Caltrans uses legal immunity to hold tenants and the cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and South Pasadena at bay, as long-needed repairs to homes the agency owns along the proposed 710 Freeway route fester. (Part II of Corridor of Shame series)
May 15, 2003

NO EXIT, Pasadena Weekly
http://chipjacobs.com/a_noexit.html
No Exit, published in Pasadena Weekly. Once stately properties that Caltrans bought 30 years ago to complete the still unfinished Long Beach 710 Freeway stand as a testament of neglect by one of the most powerful agencies in California. (Part I of Corridor of Shame series)
May 8, 2003

SOME MTA DRIVERS GET PHYSICAL, Daily News of Los Angeles
http://chipjacobs.com/a_mtadriversphys.html
Some MTA Drivers Get Physical, published in Daily News Los Angeles. Attacks on Metropolitan Transportation Agency riders not always punished and nearly 20 cases remain unsolved or lost due to poor record keeping.
June 24, 1996

SUBWAY TUNNEL WALLS AT RISK, REPORT WARNS, Daily News of Los Angeles
http://chipjacobs.com/pdfs/subwaytunnelwallsatrsk1.pdf
Subway Tunnel Walls at Risk, Report Warns, published in Daily News Los Angeles. Just three years after the first segment of the Metro Red Line was opened at a cost of $1.45 billion, the Army Corps of Engineers says the subway’s concrete walls are at risk of being eaten away by chemical-laced ground water.  MTA officials say water-damage threat small. 
April 11, 1996

MTA SPENT BIG TO SUGARCOAT TUNNELING, Daily News of Los Angeles
http://chipjacobs.com/pdfs/mtaspentbig1.pdf
MTA Spent Big to Sugarcoat Tunneling, published in Daily News Los Angeles. During the 1994 holiday season, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency spent about $400,000 in public funds to bring a Yule-tide bonanza to Hollywood boulevard. Opponents say humbug to mitigation efforts, labeling it as pork barrel or misguided.
September 24, 1995

HOMES OWNED BY CALTRANS NOT KEPT UP, RECORDS SHOW, The Los Angeles Times
http://chipjacobs.com/a_homesowned.html
Homes Owned by CalTrans Not Kept Up, Records Show, published in The Los Angeles Times. Dozens of homes the state acquired along the un-built Long Beach (710) Freeway pathway sit in such disrepair they either can’t be leased or whip up renters’ complaints about slumlord practices. Twenty-seven homes still part of the holdings are not even needed to construct the long-delayed project. Caltrans defends maintenance.
April 26, 1995

CALTRANS MISSED SAFETY DEADLINE, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
http://chipjacobs.com/pdfs/caltransmissed1.pdf
CalTrans Missed Safety Deadline, published in  the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Despite a legally etched state deadline, Caltrans missed a key deadline to strengthen more than 1000 freeway bridges, including most of the structures crippled in the Northridge earthquake. Bridge contracts overdue.
February 4, 1994

PROBLEMS PILE UP ALONG METRO LINE, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
http://chipjacobs.com/pdfs/problemspileupmetro1.pdf
Problems Pile up Along Metro Line, published in San Gabriel Valley Tribune. First came the charges of shoddy construction. Then the claims of massive cost overruns.  Now more troubles are brewing for Los Angeles’ new subway:  wage violations against workers actually building the Metro Red Line.
October 16, 1993

FREEWAY WORK: A PERILOUS PAYCHECK, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
http://chipjacobs.com/pdfs/freewayworkperilouspaycheck1.pdf
Freeway Work: A Perilous Paycheck, published in San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Caltrans workers face death everyday and Caltrans needs to further protect its exposed maintenance crew.
Sept. 4, 1993

TRANSIT COMMISSION AUDITORS CAST EAGLE EYE ON TUTOR’S COSTS, Los Angeles Business Journal
http://chipjacobs.com/a_transit.html
Transit commission Auditors Cast Eagle Eye on Tutor’s Costs, published in Los Angeles Business Journal. Los Angeles County Transportation Commission auditors are questioning tens of thousands of dollars in overhead expenses that powerhouse Metro Rail contractor Tutor-Saliba Corp. submitted two years ago, according to a preliminary audit obtained by the Business Journal.
September 28, 1992

METRO RAIL COST-OVERRUN TAB ADDS TO CITY HALL FISCAL WOES, Los Angeles Business Journal
http://chipjacobs.com/a_metrorail.htm
Metro Rail Cost-Overrun Tab adds to the City Hall Fiscal Woes, published in Los Angeles Business Journal. The City of Los Angeles is on the hook to pay $100 million in Metro Rail Red Line construction overruns under a little-known cost-sharing deal with the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.
March 16, 1992

Title: The man
URL: http://www.chipjacobs.com/wd_theman.html

Almost broke, living on handouts with his mom in a shabby apartment outside post-war Los Angeles, Gordon Zahler, a paralyzed kid in his mid-twenties got an idea. He'd re-sell the music of a dead man -- the music his father, Lee Zahler, composed during his workhorse career in early Hollywood. Within a few years, mother and son would be working for MGM on a Doris-Day romp and for Hollywood's most beloved hack, Ed Wood Jr., on Plan Nine from Outer Space. A decade later they had a house above the Sunset Strip in a comeback story too farfetched for any screenplay.