Brown's bid to take back control of state prisons suffers setback

By Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times

January 25, 2013, 9:00 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown's bid to take full control of California's prisons back from federal courts suffered another setback Friday when the official appointed to oversee all inmate healthcare said the state is not ready.

Persistent overcrowding creates "a cascade of consequences that substantially interferes with the delivery of care," said the official, J. Clark Kelso, in a report to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

He acknowledged improvements in 19 of 20 state prisons recently viewed by state officials. But his comments were a sharp rebuke to Brown's claim that California's corrections crisis is over and the state is equipped to run prison healthcare on its own. The governor vowed to take his custody battle to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

To make its case, the Brown administration had invoked some of Kelso's earlier findings of improved medical care, suggesting that Kelso thought overcrowding was no longer interfering with its delivery. Kelso said the administration's use of his findings "distorts" and "misrepresents" his position.

Kelso objected to California's contention that it can deliver adequate care with prisons holding 45% more inmates than they were built for. The state admits that despite Brown's prison realignment plan, which requires low-level offenders and parole violators to serve their sentences in county jails, California cannot meet the court's cap of 37.5% crowding by June.

Kelso's latest report comes a week after the court-appointed official who oversees prison psychiatric services also advised against restoring full state control. Special Master Matthew Lopes cited recent increases in the inmate suicide rate, well above the national average.

In new documents filed Friday, Lopes said a review of 34 suicides that occurred in 2011 found lapses in prison care in three out of four of the deaths.

State corrections officials Friday again contended that crowding no longer impairs medical care.

"We have shrunk the prison population by more than …43,000 inmates since 2006," said Deb Hoffman, undersecretary of communications for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "The court itself has said that due to the tremendous improvements in prison medical care, the end of the receivership is in sight."

paige.stjohn@latimes.com

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Fire agency hid $3.6 million from state

SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection hid $3.6 million rather than depositing it into the state's cash-strapped general fund as required, interviews and documents reviewed by The Times show.

For seven years, Cal Fire placed the money with the nonprofit California District Attorneys Assn., paying the group to hold it. The department used the cash for equipment purchases and training.

The practice ended last year amid questions about whether the fund was legal.

The money came from legal settlements. Cal Fire's own regulations state that the proceeds of such settlements go to the state's general fund.

After questions from The Times last week, Cal Fire director, Ken Pimlott, notified the state Natural Resources Agency and state Department of Finance about the fund. The Department of Finance is planning an investigation.

The investigation follows revelations that the state Department of Parks and Recreation hid $20 million as parks were being closed because of budget cuts. In the wake of the parks scandal, the Department of Finance looked for secret funds in other areas but did not find Cal Fire's account with the prosecutors' association, a spokesman said.

Auditors found more than $200 million that agencies had squirreled away as lawmakers cut the state budget.

The Cal Fire fund is the latest discovery of money hidden by California agencies and raises questions of whether there are others that, like this one, were entirely off the state books.

In August, Pimlott froze money moving in and out that fund after receiving a briefing from his staff, said Janet Upton, a Cal Fire spokeswoman.

She said the department was determining how to deposit the remaining $810,000 into the state general fund. Upton said this was not an admission that there was anything wrong with Cal Fire's having established the fund.

Documents and emails show that top department officials were aware of potential problems with the fund as early as 2008, when an internal audit was launched.

In early drafts, auditors said Cal Fire needed Department of Finance approval for the fund, which it never requested. The auditors said Cal Fire's chief counsel expressed concern that if the Department of Finance learned about the fund, it would demand that the money be placed in the state treasury.

Another draft contains a September 2009 letter from Anthony Favro, head of Cal Fire's auditors, to Del Walters, then the agency's director, saying, "Of primary concern is the propriety of the fund ... and this conflict needs to be addressed by Cal Fire executive management."

In September 2009, Favro sent another email, saying: "I am concerned about the possible perception and allegation that we are using this fund to bypass state contracting, purchasing, and travel rules and guidelines."

Some of the most critical comments about the fund were cut in the final version of the audit.

Upton said Pimlott was not aware of the comments in the drafts until The Times asked about them. She said that spurred him to notify the other agencies.

Upton said she was told that the comments were dropped from the final report because auditors were treating the money as if it were part of the general fund. But because the district attorney's group is a nonprofit, different rules applied. .

Despite the audit, Cal Fire continued to send money into the fund. Pimlott had signed a new agreement with the association in 2011 before he froze the fund.

With an annual budget of about $600 million, Cal Fire is responsible for preventing and putting out wildfires on about 31 million acres.

The Legislature passed a law last year requiring rural homeowners who rely on state firefighters to pay $150 a year for fire prevention services, which could bring in $200 million. Gov. Jerry Brown said the state could no longer afford to pay the full cost of putting out blazes in fire-prone areas.

The Legislature established the agency's civil cost recovery program to force those responsible for starting a fire to pay the costs of putting out the blaze.

The program "helps offset the burden placed on the state's budget by returning recovered dollars to the state's general fund," according to a Cal Fire fact sheet.

The department established the fund with the district attorney's association in 2005. The association charged a fee to hold the money. The amount of that fee changed over the years. When it began, the prosecutors received 3% of the money when it came in and 15% when Cal Fire pulled money out for training or equipment.

Martin Vranicar, the association's assistant chief executive, said his understanding was that the department approached his group to set up the fund. "We were under the assumption that Cal Fire had the authority to do what they were doing," he said. "The presumption is that government knows what they're doing is correct and certainly proper."

The department used the fund to purchase equipment, such as 600 digital cameras and 26 evidence sheds for $600,000. According to the audits and emails, Cal Fire insisted that the equipment belonged to the association. That led Favro to send an email to Walters and Janet Barentson, the department's current deputy chief director, asking, "Isn't this a gift of public funds?"

Vranicar said his group definitely does not own the equipment. "I didn't want us responsible for equipment purchased on their behalf and be accountable if it was lost or misused," Vranicar said.

The association began to have doubts about the fund when its new accounting firm asked questions and a new memorandum of understanding was being negotiated in 2011.

It recently informed Cal Fire that the association will end its role as fund manager Feb. 10.

jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com

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Greuel, Garcetti close in money race

The top two contenders in the L.A. mayor's race remain in close fundraising contention as they enter the final 5 1/2 weeks before the primary, but two outside groups also posted significant sums, demonstrating their potential to upend the race.

City Controller Wendy Greuel edged Councilman Eric Garcetti by collecting $130,644 to his $84,188 during the fundraising period from Jan. 1 to 19. But Garcetti, who served as council president between 2006 and 2012, holds a considerable lead over Greuel in cash on hand, with $3.55 million to Greuel's $2.94 million.

The new filings show that Greuel reported about $101,000 in unpaid bills to Garcetti's $45,000. A key portion of Greuel's spending over the past month was on slate mailings to registered voters with a high propensity to cast ballots — just as vote-by-mail balloting is set to begin early next month. She also paid a significant amount to the Washington, D.C.-based polling firm Lake Research Partners.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents downtown and South Los Angeles, collected about $16,000 during the first 19 days of this year. With city matching funds, she has raised more than $2 million and reported $1.2 million in cash on hand at the end of the filing period.

A fifth candidate, technology executive Emanuel Pleitez, reported that he has nearly $320,000 to spend before the March 5 primary.

Attorney and former radio talk show host Kevin James, who has accumulated more than $534,000 for his bid, including matching funds, collected nearly $15,000 during the first part of this year and has about $49,000 left in his account. That means that his hopes of making the mayoral runoff will largely depend on spending by an outside group, Better Way L.A., which can collect unlimited donations to boost the candidacy of the former prosecutor.

The group has raised $700,000 from just two donors. During the January filing period, Better Way L.A. received the bulk of that in the form of a half-million-dollar contribution from top GOP donor Harold C. Simmons, a Dallas-based billionaire who contributed more than $20 million to the super PACs that tried to defeat President Obama in 2012. Last year, Simmons; his wife, Annette; and his Contran Corp. donated $20.5 million to American Crossroads, the super PAC founded by Karl Rove, and $2.3 million to a pro-Romney political action committee.

At a candidates' forum on Thursday night sponsored by the League of Women Voters, James said he does not have a personal relationship with Simmons, but that the two met at a fundraiser for him last year. Republican advertising specialist Fred Davis, who formed Better Way L.A., has said he hopes to raise $3.5 million to make James a presence on television before the primary.

But Better Way L.A.'s influence may be checked by an outside group known as Working Californians, which is backing Greuel. James and Greuel are competing for many of the same moderate and conservative voters in the San Fernando Valley, the area that Greuel represented as a councilwoman.

Consultants for Working Californians have said that entertainment industry executives and labor unions — including the union that represents Los Angeles city utility workers — are joining forces to fund the outside effort to help Greuel, who handled government relations at DreamWorks before being elected to the City Council in 2002.

Working Californians is expected to raise at least $2 million, which could help boost Greuel's profile on television in the final weeks of the race. The first report this week showed an initial $250,000 contribution from the political arm of the public utility union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18.

maeve.reston@latimes.com

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AEG, Koreatown developer help fund L.A. sales tax campaign

The developer of a proposed downtown Los Angeles football stadium and the company behind two planned apartment towers in Koreatown have provided about two-thirds of the funds for the group backing a half-cent sales tax increase in the city, according to the first report released in the campaign.

The committee for Proposition A on the March 5 ballot reported that it had raised $185,000 by Jan. 19, with $100,000 coming from stadium developer Anschutz Entertainment Group. The City Council, which is seeking the tax increase to address a $220-million budget shortfall, approved AEG's proposed stadium last year, which involves the demolition and reconstruction of a section of the city's Convention Center.

An additional $25,000 came from 3150 Wilshire, a company created by real estate developer J.H. Snyder Co., which received $17.5 million in financial assistance to build two residential towers in Council President Herb Wesson's district.

Wesson, who launched the sales tax campaign last fall, has been raising money for the measure. Kacy Keys, senior vice president of J.H. Snyder, said Wesson is "a great leader" who has been pivotal in getting her company's Koreatown project off the ground.

"I know this [ballot measure] is Herb's effort, and we wish Herb well," she said.

The city provided a $12.5-million loan for J.H. Snyder's Koreatown development that can be repaid, in part, from new property taxes generated by the project, Keys said. An additional $5-million redevelopment loan does not need to be repaid until the developer sells or refinances the building, she said.

Wesson said he hopes to raise $2 million for the sales tax campaign and secure endorsements from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and others. "I think this is a very good start," he said.

Neighborhood activist Jack Humphreville, who signed the ballot argument opposing the sales tax increase, said Proposition A backers are getting big donations from companies that had received "special treatment" from the City Council.

The campaign contributions are "a cheap price for these special interests to pay."

AEG President and Chief Executive Tim Leiweke said Police Chief Charlie Beck asked him to help with the campaign but did not specify a dollar amount. Leiweke said he contributed out of a fear that the Los Angeles Police Department force would have to be reduced if Proposition A fails.

"I think, quite frankly, that it's difficult to keep on taxing businesses and individuals in the state of California. And if we're not careful, eventually we're going to make it difficult to do business in California and in the city of L.A.," Leiweke said. "That said, I don't see another path."

The Proposition A campaign also received $25,000 from Excel Paving, a company that has received city contracts in recent years, and $25,000 from Crew Knitwear, a Los Angeles-based apparel company.

A $10,000 donation came from a political action committee representing the California Assn. of Realtors. Real estate groups lobbied successfully last fall to stop Wesson and his colleagues from pursuing a ballot measure that would increase the tax on property sales.

Wesson and his colleagues went with the proposed sales tax increase instead.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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Annual Tet parade will take place in Little Saigon after all

The nation's only Tet parade, staged in the heart of Little Saigon, will go on after all.

After being told that the city of Westminster could not help pay for the annual Lunar Day parade in the nation's largest Vietnamese community, organizers hurriedly raised $60,000 in just two weeks.

"We knew we could not lose this opportunity to promote the beauty of our culture," said Ha Son Tran, vice president of the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California. "Everyone put in a lot of energy, and there's a lot of pride. Finally, we can show others that we were able to meet the challenge" of fundraising.

Nghia X. Nguyen, president of the federation, appeared at the City Council meeting Wednesday night, presenting two cashier's checks, one for $35,000 and the other for $25,000.

An official from the city's community services and recreation department will oversee the funds, said Councilman Sergio Contreras, who grew up in Westminster and started marching in the parade when he was a high school student.

"I think it's amazing," he said. "Two weeks. I haven't been in a situation where we challenged a group to come up with the money in that short amount of time, and they made it happen. Now the event that we're waiting for will happen."

The parade, scheduled for Feb. 10, is expected to draw thousands and be televised on Vietnamese cable channels here and aboard,

Peter Trinh, a father of two from Huntington Beach, said he plans to attend.

"I heard so much about it and I want my kids to be exposed to our community," he said. "I think it's a good chance for them to see our culture up close, and of course, we'll bring the friends we always go out with. Can't wait."

anh.do@latimes.com

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Recruit no longer with Marines after making dash across runway

By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

January 24, 2013, 9:27 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — A recruit who made a perilous dash across the runway at San Diego's Lindbergh Field in an apparent attempt to flee Marine boot camp is no longer in the Marine Corps, authorities said Thursday.

Benjamin Yi, 22, of Colorado Springs, Colo., has been separated from recruit training and the Marine Corps, officials said.

Last week, Yi was detained by airport police after being spotted dashing across the runway from the adjacent boot camp.

Yi's pants were torn off when he climbed two fences, including one topped with razor wire.

Yi arrived at the boot camp three days earlier and was undergoing initial screening before beginning the training regimen.

Flight operations at the airport were not interrupted by Yi's dash, officials said.

tony.perry@latimes.com

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Security boosted for Orange County gun show

As the nation debates the idea of new gun laws, the decades-old Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds this weekend will be business as usual, organizers said — with the exception of increased security.

The fairgrounds, whose relationship with the Utah-based Crossroads company spans nearly 25 years, receives about $600,000 from parking, rent, food and beverages from the shows, which are held several times a year, said Jerome Hoban, chief executive of the O.C. Fair & Event Center.

"We're increasing the security because these gun shows are wildly popular, and we want to make sure it's a secure and safe event," he said. "With more people, it's more security, and that's with any event."

Gun shows are under scrutiny from local governments nationwide following the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting last month and after accidents at three recent gun shows left five people injured. The Glendale City Council this week took the first step toward banning gun shows and banning all firearm sales on city-owned land.

Also motivated are gun enthusiasts who fear new regulations; they are stocking up on ammunition and guns. The recent Ontario gun show, also sponsored by Crossroads, was packed.

The state-run fairgrounds has its own on-site security and contracts with the Orange County Sheriff's Department for supplemental help.

Four deputies are scheduled to patrol the show, in addition to the two at the fairgrounds' weekly Orange County Market Place, said sheriff's Sgt. Scott Baker.

"We're not foreseeing any problems," he said. "I know there is a heightened sense with all the stuff going on, but we haven't addressed it any further than that."

Having four deputies on patrol is more than have been on hand for past shows, Baker said.

"It's about as safe as you're going to be," he said. "We're not projecting any problems.... We're not going to a higher level because of the situation, or anything of that nature."

Hoban expressed confidence in security at the fairgrounds. "We don't take any event lightly," he said. "If we have the public on our facility, it's our responsibility to keep everything safe."

Sales of handguns and rifles at the show are subject to state and federal mandates, organizers said. "The rules aren't changing because it's a gun show, or you get an exemption. … The rules still apply there," Baker said.

State laws include a 10-day waiting period, valid identification and a registration fee.

"It's not the kind of event where everybody's walking out the door with firearms," Hoban said.

Bob Templeton, owner of Crossroads, said the Costa Mesa show typically draws 10,000 to 14,000 but that number could swell to 20,000 this weekend. "People are concerned about all the discussions at the national level about gun control and so forth," he said.

He said he expected 8,000 people at the recent Ontario gun show but 16,000 showed up — as did some protesters. The Costa Mesa show will have a "free-speech area" for people to voice their opinions, Baker said.

Templeton called the fairgrounds "a very local event." He said about 80% of those who attend the five shows a year live in Orange County.

Despite increased security, some have reservations.

Kevin Wilkes, a Costa Mesa resident and father of a 7-year-old girl, said the event is too close for his liking to Costa Mesa High School, Orange Coast College and parks. He alluded to the recent gun show shootings and the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting.

"You have kids and sports fields and TeWinkle Park," he said. "It makes you stop and think … we're literally playing with a loaded gun here."

He said he supports the 2nd Amendment but would like to see an assault weapon ban, among other restrictions on gun ownership. He wants a safer environment for his family.

"I don't want to take anything away from people who collect.... I'm gathering most people are good, law-abiding citizens," Wilkes said. "It's just a few who mess it up for everybody else."

bradley.zint@latimes.com

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Former Compton mayor runs for office while facing a new trial

Former Compton Mayor Omar Bradley, whose conviction on corruption charges was reversed by an appeals court last summer, is running for his old office again.

But he also faces a new trial, which could take place the same month as Compton's municipal election. That sets up the potential for Bradley to win office and then quickly lose it again if he is convicted a second time on charges of misappropriation of public funds.

Bradley filed to run for the mayor's seat on Tuesday, the last day for candidates to submit their petitions. Twelve candidates have filed to run against current Mayor Eric Perrodin.

Among the challengers are former child star Rodney Allen Rippy, civil rights attorney and former Black Panther B. Kwaku Duren, former Compton City Clerk Charles Davis, and longtime City Hall critics William Kemp and Lynn Boone.

Bradley, who has maintained that he is innocent and that prosecutors are unfairly targeting him, told The Times that he felt obligated to run, despite the pending criminal case, because of the fiscal crisis that has hamstrung the city over the last two years. He said citizens had asked him to run.

"I can't walk away with the people in need as they are," he said. "...My community needs me, and they should be able to choose freely who they believe is best able to fix this issue."

Bradley was convicted of misappropriation and misuse of public funds in 2004 along with former Councilman Amen Rahh and former City Manager John D. Johnson II. Prosecutors said the men had used their city-issued credit cards for personal items and "double dipped" by taking cash advances for city business expenses and then charging the items to their city credit cards.

The appeals court initially upheld Bradley's conviction. But in August the court reversed itself and overturned the conviction, based on a 2011 California Supreme Court decision that held that prosecutors must prove that public officials knew or should have known they were doing something illegal for them to be found guilty of misappropriation of funds.

The court left Rahh's and Johnson's convictions in place, but found that Bradley's original trial had not proved that he knew he was breaking the law.

The reversal of Bradley's conviction left him free to run for election, but the ruling left the door open for the district attorney's office to retry him on the same charges, which prosecutors decided to do. If convicted, he would once again be barred from holding public office.

Jennifer Snyder, assistant head deputy in the Los Angeles County district attorney's public integrity unit, said she did not think the case had changed in any "substantive" way.

"What it's being tried on, essentially, is a change in jury instructions," she said.

Bradley, a former schoolteacher, drew controversy during his term as mayor when he moved to disband the Compton Police Department and outsource law enforcement services to the county sheriff. He was dubbed "gangster mayor," a term that Bradley said Thursday was coined by his political enemies, although many reports have credited Bradley with giving himself the label.

The Compton city clerk's office had not yet certified Bradley's candidacy as of Thursday.

If his filing is approved, Bradley will enter a rematch with his old rival Perrodin, a deputy district attorney and former Compton police officer who unseated Bradley in 2001. Bradley sued to contest the results, and the seat flip-flopped between them until Perrodin prevailed.

Perrodin later launched an effort to reinstate the Police Department, but the City Council halted the effort when the city's multimillion-dollar deficit became apparent.

Perrodin could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Melissa Hebert, 39, who writes a blog called 2 Urban Girls that covers Compton and Inglewood, said she is excited to see Bradley in the race and believes he has widespread support in the community. "It just seems like a witch hunt," she said of the charges against him.

Donyetta Hamm, 41, a former Compton resident whose five children went to school in the local district, agreed that Bradley might have the support to get elected, but said she did not think he should run.

"I don't think it's right, what he did," she said. "Even though they think it's minor, it's not minor."

The April election will also be the first the city has held under new rules stemming from a voting-rights lawsuit brought by three Latina residents. A settlement in the case led the city to switch to by-district rather than at-large elections, a move intended to give Latino residents — who make up a majority of the city's population but a minority of eligible voters — a greater chance of electing a candidate of their choice.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

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Fountain Valley councilman aims to block Vietnam officials' visit

A Fountain Valley councilman is leading the charge to block a delegation of business and government officials from Vietnam, saying it will unleash a storm of protesters in the increasingly immigrant city.

Mayor Pro Tem Michael Vo said an official visit from a country "without human rights and respect for freedom will not be accepted by the Vietnamese community, many who live here."

Vo said it would be fiscally irresponsible to pay for police services for a likely protest, which he predicted could draw hundreds.

"I cannot be silent and let this happen under my watch," added Vo, the first Vietnamese American member of Fountain Valley's City Council.

In a letter to council colleagues and directors of the city Chamber of Commerce, he wrote: "I will not stand by to have any foreign government take advantage of our businesses and of our Chamber of Commerce, disrupt the peace and the tranquillity ... and drain this community of its financial and human resources."

At the invitation for the chamber, the delegation is set to visit the city in March.

Mayor Mark McCurdy said he'd just learned of Vo's concerns and is yet unsure whether he supports the effort to block the delegation.

Chamber officials plan to open their office to host a reception for the guests, City Manager Ray Kromer said in an in-house memo to the council. "We understand that the plan so far is to keep this relatively low-key. We need to assess how the community will react."

Mary Parsons, president and CEO of Fountain Valley's chamber, said the visit is not confirmed, adding that she and the board's executive committee plan to meet soon on the matter.

Ken Duong, an attorney and chairman of the chamber's board, declined to comment. Vo targeted Duong in his note, saying that he owns "a law firm which is focused on international business & immigration and that generating global network is important."

When a theater troupe from Vietnam visited Fountain Valley in September, nearly 300 demonstrators swarmed the Saigon Performing Arts Center, vocally attacking the visitors from Ho Chi Minh City. It cost the city $8,000 in police services to control the crowd, Vo said.

He also cited the demonstration outside Hitek TV & VCR in neighboring Westminster in 1999, when more than 15,000 people united against a Little Saigon merchant displaying the Communist flag and a picture of Ho Chi Minh at his video store. City officials there paid almost $200,000 for overtime police, among other expenses, during 53 days of protest.

In recent months, officials in Westminster and Garden Grove have passed legislation requiring advance notice of visits from communist delegations so police have time to prepare. Vo said he plans to introduce a similar ordinance in Fountain Valley. The heavily Vietnamese community known as Little Saigon reaches into all three cities, as well as Santa Ana.

anh.do@latimes.com

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L.A. councilmen question public relations spending for LAX work

Two City Council members on Wednesday demanded to know why the city's airport commission approved almost $4 million in contracts for a public relations campaign to highlight the ongoing modernization of Los Angeles International Airport.

Dennis Zine, a candidate for city controller, and Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes LAX, called for a council review of the three contracts, which were awarded without discussion by the Board of Airport Commissioners last week to companies that are not based in Los Angeles. The council has the power to overturn contracts awarded by city departments.

"I don't feel we should be spending about $4 million on public relations for the airport," Zine said during a news conference at City Hall. "But if the money is going to be spent, it should go to Los Angeles companies."

The airport commission awarded three-year contracts totaling about $3.9 million to the Phelps Group of Santa Monica, AdEase Inc. of San Diego and Nothing Films Inc. of Fountain Valley. They will be responsible for developing a public education campaign, buying advertising from media outlets and video productions respectively.

Airport officials say the contracts were awarded using a competitive process that included bids from companies based in Los Angeles. They contend that hiring private firms was necessary because the airport's media and communications department does not have enough staff or the expertise for the undertaking.

"Our board feels it is very important to inform the public about improvements at LAX that will affect them," said Mark Adams, the government affairs director for Los Angeles World Airports. "We think these are defensible contracts that have a good purpose."

Zine and Rosendahl further questioned the airport commission's decision to approve the three contracts without public discussion at its Jan. 14 meeting. The items had been placed on the consent calendar of the agenda, a spot reserved for routine items that are usually handled without much, if any, discussion.

"This is about transparency," Rosendahl said. "Confidence in government is at an all-time low. We are going to start asking real questions" about the contracts.

Zine and Rosendahl were joined in their criticism by Marshall McClain, head of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Assn., and Denny Schneider, executive director of the Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion. The group has been an opponent of LAX expansion plans.

They asserted that the money for public relations could be better spent on more important things, such as airport security, improving the traffic flow around LAX, supporting the FlyAway bus service and promoting L.A./Ontario International Airport, which has suffered a dramatic decline in passengers.

dan.weikel@latimes.com

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