Top Bell official tried to confuse council members, witness says

Bell's former top administrator went to great lengths to confuse City Council members, purposely making resolutions ambiguous and complex so they'd have trouble understanding the documents, a prosecution witness in the city's corruption trial testified Friday.

Lourdes Garcia, the small city's former director of administrative services, said former City Manager Robert Rizzo regarded council members as unsophisticated and easily manipulated, and disapproved when he learned that a staff member was taking an ethics class.

To Rizzo, Garcia said, it was all justifiable because "it was for the greater good of the organization."

Garcia is the second witness in the prosecution's effort to convict six former Bell council members, all accused of driving up their salaries by getting paid for serving on boards and commissions that did little work and sometimes did not meet. Rizzo, who is charged with 69 felonies in the city's salary scandal, will be tried later this year.

Rizzo, she testified, insisted she draft council resolutions, even though she had little experience. He and then-Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia would revise them to be ambiguous. Garcia said Rizzo told her that council members did not understand city government.

"He put things in more complicated, less clear language in the titles, correct?" defense attorney Ronald Kaye asked Garcia.

"Yes."

She also said Rizzo would hide public money from council members by placing it in a surplus property account, rather than the city's general fund.

Rizzo also turned to Garcia when the city needed to draw up a memo listing city officials' salaries in response to a public records request from a resident, she said. He instructed her to list figures that were just a fraction of the nearly $100,000 paid to council members and the $787,637 Rizzo collected.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Garcia said Rizzo told her.

Garcia said she knew that what Rizzo was doing was potentially illegal, but she never questioned him or thought of going to the authorities.

"He said what we're doing is OK, it's legal, there's nothing wrong," she said. "He had been a city manager for many years and he seemed very savvy and knowledgeable of local government."

Garcia described a city government where there was little room — or tolerance — for ethics. In one instance, Rizzo complained after hearing that an employee was taking an ethics class.

"Mr. Rizzo was always giving me directions that gave me the perspective that he did not want ethics in the organization," she said.

Still, Rizzo asked Garcia in 2008 to help draft the city's fraud prevention policy, which instructed employees to report fraudulent acts, including "misrepresentation of information on documents."

"The language, the formatting, where did you get that from?" defense attorney Alex Kessel asked as the policy was projected onto a screen in the courtroom.

"The Internet," she replied.

Garcia, who began working for the city in 1991, was earning $422,000 in total compensation before The Times broke the news in 2010 about the city's salaries. Her position was eliminated in 2011 when the interim city manager said she was underqualified for the new position in Bell's reorganized government. For her testimony, she was granted immunity by the prosecution.

Former council members Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal all face prison terms if convicted of misusing public money.

Rizzo and Spaccia are expected to go to trial this summer on other corruption charges.

corina.knoll@latimes.com

jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com

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Owner of restaurant that sold whale meat faces felony counts

The exterior of the Hump sushi restaurant, located at the Santa Monica Airport. Its parent company, Typhoon Restaurant Inc., is located one floor below. The owner and two former chefs have been charged with conspiracy to import and sell sei whale meat, a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. (Al Seib, Los Angeles Times / March 10, 2010)

By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times

February 1, 2013, 8:30 p.m.

It made for a wild tale three years ago when a Santa Monica sushi restaurant abruptly closed after it was disclosed that the hipster hangout was selling illegal whale meat.

The chef and the parent company of the Hump at the Santa Monica Airport initially were charged with misdemeanors after a sting operation was captured by a documentary crew.

But now the stakes have been raised. A federal grand jury has indicted the owners of the parent company and two of its onetime chefs, charging them with felonies that carry lengthy prison terms.

The two chefs and the ownership group of the Hump are charged with nine counts of conspiracy to import and sell sei whale meat from 2007 to 2010, a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The indictment accuses Typhoon Restaurant Inc., the parent company of the now-closed Hump; chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 48, of Culver City; and chef Susumu Ueda, 39, of Lawndale of conspiring to import and sell the meat of sei whales, which are listed as an endangered species.

Federal agents and animal activists cooperated in a video sting orchestrated by the associate producer of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove."

Whale meat is popular in Japan and Norway, and whaling by Japanese fleets is controversial. Import of whale meat into the United States is illegal.

Yamamoto could face up to 67 years in federal prison and Ueda up to 10 years. The restaurant's parent company faces a fine of $1.2 million.

richard.winton@latimes.com

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Jerry Brown targets enterprise zone program

SACRAMENTO — During his State of the State address last week, Gov. Jerry Brown detoured from his high praise for state government's recent thrift to take aim at a program that he says wastes hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

Brown's previous efforts to scale back or eliminate the $700-million Enterprise Zone Program gained little traction with lawmakers. The program, which gives employers tax credits of up to $37,000 for each hire they make in areas designated as blighted, has survived despite numerous studies concluding that it does little to create jobs or development.

Many businesses that receive the credits are in tony neighborhoods where there has been no blight for years. Tax breaks are going to companies in such places as San Francisco's trendy SOMA district and sections of city waterfront where real estate prices are stratospheric and Michelin-starred restaurants abound.

Parts of Santa Clarita, a suburban community that is hardly depressed, make up an enterprise zone, which could benefit warehouses and the Hollywood film companies that shoot movies in them.

Under a law that has not been updated for years, those areas are deemed as blighted as the zone in Compton or the one in rural Calexico, where unemployment is above 30%.

Three in four state legislators have enterprise zones in their districts, where local businesses benefit from them. And a group formed by supporters of the zones say they have provided a major boost to the state economy.

Craig Johnson, president of the California Assn. of Enterprise Zones, said after Brown's address that in 2011 the zones retained or created more than 124,000 jobs "in some of our state's most distressed communities."

His organization credits the zones with helping to save the state millions of dollars by moving Californians off government aid and into jobs that would not otherwise exist.

Brown says the program has not been shown to create jobs and at best merely rewards employers for moving from one city to another, something state taxpayers should not be subsidizing.

A new report from the state Department of Housing and Community Development says that in many cases the tax credits, used as incentives to draw companies to depressed areas to create jobs, are discovered and sought years after location and hiring decisions are made.

Brown included a detailed critique of the program in his 2011 budget plan with essentially the same finding. It noted that consultants scour the state to find companies that are eligible for the credits but not collecting them, then sign the businesses as clients and receive a commission on the windfall.

"Clearly taxpayers' behavior to relocate or expand is not being driven by the existence of the EZ program if they have to be told that the program exists after they have already relocated or expanded," the budget document said.

A 2009 review by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California had already concluded that the tax breaks created no net increase of jobs in the areas where credits were available.

Brown wanted to eliminate enterprise zones in 2011, but lawmakers balked and Brown backed off. Now, the governor has a different approach, proposing that companies be required to collect the credit within a year of an employee's hire. An administration paper outlining the proposal calls the idea a common-sense reform that would eliminate the retroactive "loophole."

Such a change, which the administration could put into effect without going through the Legislature, would save the state $310 million over five years, officials say, for roughly a 10% cut in the program.

Administration officials said the governor would also seek legislation to reduce the program in other ways. Options include remapping the zones and reducing the amount of each tax credit.

Johnson responded to Brown's claim that the program was not working by issuing a statement immediately after the governor's speech saying, "Nothing could be further from the truth."

He said his organization is still studying Brown's proposal.

Legislative leaders said they welcomed a review of the program but were otherwise noncommittal.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said he believes some of the tax breaks granted through the program have helped create jobs, but said that "no program that has existed for a long time can be immune from real scrutiny.''

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

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Colin Kaepernick gives Turlock something to celebrate

TURLOCK, Calif. — A gas station in this Central Valley town used to sell souvenir hats that read: "Turlock — Known for Absolutely Nothing."

That was before hometown boy Colin Kaepernick went from being a third-string quarterback to leading the San Francisco 49ers into Sunday's Super Bowl.

Now Turlock is swarming with tourists.

They are dropping into Christina's Coffeehouse for a Kaep of Joe, eating Kaepernick Dogs (chili, coleslaw, jalapenos and special sauce) at Footers on Main Street and ordering a No. 7 Kaepernick Special at the Dust Bowl — a jalapeno burger served with a red-gold ale.

At Lisa's Cookie Jar, they are buying dozens and dozens of red, football jersey-shaped cookies with the quarterback's name in white icing.

"I'm really excited for him and the town," Heather Allison, 22, said one recent day as she meticulously lettered cookies. "I just kinda wish his name was shorter. I can't feel the ends of my fingers."

Across the street at It'll Grow Back, the barbershop Ruben Hernandez has run for 26 years, local men hung out beneath a Kaepernick jersey and other 49ers memorabilia stretching back decades. Only Joe Fortuna, on his day off from a maintenance job at a local dairy, was there for a haircut. The others had just dropped in to chat.

"This is where we solve the world's problems," Hernandez said. "But world problems are on hold. For now, it's only football."

While cutting Fortuna's thick hair so it stood up just-so, Hernandez marveled at the influx of visitors to this town of 70,000.

"They're coming from L.A., Selma, Sacramento. We're just a little country town, but they want to be part of Turlock, to somehow feel the magic," he said.

Lance Whitmore, a handyman and Hernandez's friend since elementary school, said that the people coming to Turlock to bask in Kaepernick's glow, were "part of a psychological phenomenon known as participation mystique."

"It's like when all those little girls dressed up as Madonna in the '80s," he said, handing a glass bottle of Coca-Cola from the shop's refrigerator to Hernandez's 81-year-old father, Marcos.

Hernandez dashed into a backroom and came out holding a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, the one with Kaepernick on the cover. He had lined up outside the Walmart at 6 a.m. the day the magazine came out, but the racks had been emptied before he got a copy. Luckily, he found one over at the FoodMaxx.

No one in Turlock mentioned the SI curse (making the cover is said to be bad luck). All they cared about was the story inside: How the Kaepernicks had moved here from Wisconsin when Colin was 4 and his father took a job as operations manager at the Hilmar Cheese Co.

Not that Hernandez will read his copy. He's going to wrap it in plastic and keep it forever, he said.

"Finally, something is happening in Turlock. You can just feel it. Everyone in town is so happy — well, except Mary, the bead lady."

Mary Duarte has been running My Thing Beads, making and fixing jewelry in downtown Turlock, for 42 years. She knows most everyone, so word got around that she is one of the few who hadn't fallen victim to Kaepernick fever. (The city has officially declared Saturday and Sunday "Go Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers Weekend.")

Lisa Fernandes of Lisa's Cookie Jar dropped in to the bead shop to find out if the rumors of Duartes' indifference were true.

"Mary, Ruben said you were sick of Kaepernick. "That's not right, is it?" she gently asked.

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Californians more optimistic about state's direction

By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times

January 31, 2013, 8:12 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — Californians are more optimistic about the direction of their state and the condition of its economy than they have been in years, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The upbeat outlook comes weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown announced that the state's deficit had been wiped out with help from tax hikes approved by voters in November. In the poll, the governor received his highest approval rating since being elected in 2010.

Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they approved of Brown's job performance, up from 41% in September. Although Californians remain concerned about the state budget, for the first time in six years a majority of residents said the state was headed in the right direction.

"Right now, people are happy about the way it's worked out," said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive of the Public Policy Institute of California.

The poll findings were released as state finances were further bolstered by an unexpected surge in revenue, with tax receipts coming in at $5 billion above projections in January. On Thursday, the Wall Street rating agency Standard and Poor's bumped California up a notch, a nod that the state is moving in the right direction.

The boost to an "A" grade means California no longer has the lowest credit rating of any state (that's now Illinois). The agency said in a report, however, that it views the state's "budget repair effort as a work in progress."

As the state regains its financial footing, the governor's plan to shift more dollars to school districts with high numbers of English learners and students from low-income families appears popular. The poll showed 75% of respondents, including a majority of Republicans, support the idea.

Even lawmakers are regaining ground. The Legislature's approval rating, as low as 9% in the institute's polls in recent years, has rebounded to 41%.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

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Text of the letter Archbishop Gomez sent to the church community

Here is the letter Archbishop Jose H. Gomez sent to the church community Thursday afternoon:

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

This week we are releasing the files of priests who sexually abused children while they were serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious.

I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.

We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today. We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church. And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.

I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I've had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.

My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.

To every victim of child sexual abuse by a member of our Church: I want to help you in your healing. I am profoundly sorry for these sins against you.

To every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I want you to know: We will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry. We will continue to work, every day, to make sure that our children are safe and loved and cared for in our parishes, schools and in every ministry in the Archdiocese.

In the weeks ahead, I will address all of these matters in greater detail. Today is a time for prayer and reflection and deep compassion for the victims of child sexual abuse.

I entrust all of us and our children and families to the tender care and protection of our Blessed Mother Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Angels.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Jose H. Gomez

Archbishop of Los Angeles

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Acting on tip, federal officials recover stolen petroglyph panels

Federal investigators acting on a tip have recovered five petroglyph panels that thieves cut from an eastern Sierra site sacred to Native Americans, U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials said Thursday.

The location of the petroglyphs, stolen last fall, was disclosed in an anonymous letter to authorities.

By failing to sign the letter, its author walked away from a $9,000 reward — a sign that the tip may have come from the thieves themselves. Experts had said the petroglyphs would fetch little money from collectors and would be difficult to fence because of widespread publicity about the theft.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing, officials said.

Bernadette Lovato, manager of the BLM field office in Bishop, declined to disclose details about the recovery, including when or where the petroglyphs were found. "The panels are currently being held as evidence," Lovato said.

"Now, the healing can begin," she said. "Recovery was a priority for me, and the public outrage intensified the need for them to be returned."

Investigators believe the vandals used ladders, chisels, electric generators and power saws to remove the panels from cliffs in an arid high-desert region known as Volcanic Tableland, about 15 miles north of Bishop. The thieves gouged holes in the rock and sheared off slabs that were up to 15 feet above ground and 2 feet high and wide.

The theft was reported to the BLM last Oct. 31 by visitors to the area, where Native Americans had carved hundreds of lava boulders and cliffs with spiritual renderings: concentric circles, deer, rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep and hunters with bows and arrows.

The site, which is still used by the local Paiute Indians for ceremonies, is protected under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Authorities said the petroglyphs were probably worth no more than $500 to $1,500 each.

But they are priceless to Native Americans, who regard the massive tableaux as a window into the souls of their ancestors.

"It feels real good to have them come back home," said Raymond Andrews, Paiute tribal historic preservation officer.

Lovato said the petroglyphs may eventually be put on public display, "but that will be up to Paiute-Shoshone tribal leaders."

Damaging or removing the petroglyphs is a felony. First-time offenders can be imprisoned for up to one year and fined as much as $20,000, authorities said.

Anybody with information about the theft is asked to contact the BLM at (760) 937-0301 or (760) 937-0657.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

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Garcetti, Greuel drop the gloves and start punching

Weeks of genteel discourse between two leading contenders for mayor of Los Angeles dissolved Thursday as City Councilman Eric Garcetti accused Controller Wendy Greuel of using "fake projections" and "flim-flam" to inflate how much her audits could benefit the city treasury. Greuel shot back that Garcetti was "clowning around with the numbers" while he "turned a blind eye to waste, fraud and abuse" at City Hall.

The attacks came days before mail-in voting begins in the March 5 primary election, as both candidates continued to focus more on their past records in city government than how they would make the tough decisions the next mayor is likely to face on employee pay, pensions and health benefits.

Both Greuel and Garcetti have put off discussion about their spending choices to close a projected $216-million budget deficit, arguing they can bolster the city treasury through economic development.

Thursday's unusually sharp exchange between the former City Council colleagues came after The Times examined Greuel's claim that her office's audits uncovered $160 million in "waste, fraud and abuse," and her suggestion that amount could be available to stabilize city finances and restore services.

"It's now abundantly clear that the figure of $160 million of so-called fraud, waste and abuse that is the centerpiece of Controller Greuel's record and her campaign for mayor simply doesn't exist," Garcetti said at a news conference at his Studio City campaign headquarters.

Greuel reiterated her confidence in her office's audit findings and hit back at Garcetti.

"Councilman Garcetti doesn't want to hear the truth," Greuel said in a statement, "but the fact is that I have identified $160 million in wasteful spending, fraudulent activity and abuse of city resources, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I stand by the diligent and professional work of the civil servants who have conducted these audits at my direction."

The Times reported Wednesday that most of the $160-million total cited by Greuel relied on two audits, one criticizing what amounted to an accounting maneuver and the other linked to a large projection for new revenue that the controller's office itself said was unrealistic from the start.

In one audit, Greuel suggested shifting $24.7 million from City Council members' discretionary accounts to the city's general fund. That 2010 review did not identify missing or uncollected funds. Greuel said the money — used for various city programs and, sometimes, for council staff salaries — would be put to better use in the general fund.

The other audit claimed to have uncovered about $80 million in unrealized funds for the city treasury. That money was supposed to come via a contract with CBS Decaux, a company that builds street bus shelters, public restrooms, kiosks and other structures and sells advertising on them.

The deal has delivered less revenue than expected, largely because City Council members have delayed the installation of some of the structures. Though Greuel now criticizes the contract, she helped create the bottleneck during her time on the City Council. A 2005 report showed that 11 other council members approved the structures more quickly than Greuel did.

"So the same problem she cited, she was part of the problem," Garcetti said Thursday.

Two former city controllers, Rick Tuttle and Laura Chick, came to Greuel's defense. Chick said attacks on audits by the controller are standard procedure at City Hall.

"People always want to kill the messenger or play around with the numbers, rather than just solving the problems," Chick said. "Wendy has performed her work with honor and integrity — something we desperately need in City Hall."

james.rainey@latimes.com

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L.A. City Council sends boardinghouse proposal back to committee

The Los Angeles City Council opted not to vote Wednesday on a controversial proposal aimed at cracking down on boardinghouses and group homes, an issue City Hall has grappled with for years.

After more than two hours of public comment and discussion, the council instead agreed to form a committee that will revise the Community Care Facilities Ordinance over the next three months.

"This ordinance is not ready for prime time," Councilman Richard Alarcon told a standing-room-only crowd gathered in the council chambers. He triggered applause and cheers when he mentioned three "poison pills" that he said would make it more difficult for nonprofits and group homes to care for the elderly, disabled and homeless.

Finding a solution to illegal, overcrowded group homes in residential areas gained new urgency last month after four people were fatally shot at an unlicensed boardinghouse in Northridge. Councilman Mitchell Englander, whose district includes Northridge, proposed the legislation the following week.

Advocates of group homes formed a line more than a block long outside City Hall on Wednesday morning. Many wore red T-shirts that read "Shared Housing = Fair Housing." Some chanted, "Hey hey, ho ho, CCFO's got to go."

"We are deeply concerned," Maria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, told the council. The federation is part of an "unprecedented partnership" of more than 150 organizations that oppose the proposed crackdown, including nonprofits and business groups, she said.

Crackdown supporters, including multiple neighborhood councils, stressed the need to make group homes and their surroundings safer. One neighborhood representative mentioned a home of parolees across the street from an elementary school. Another brought up a fire at a San Pedro residential hotel that killed a man last week.

"How many more assaults, fires and murders do we need to have before we get serious?" said Edward Headington, of the Granada North Hills Neighborhood Council.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

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California restricts hiring after dual-paycheck revelations

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown's administration has restricted state departments' hiring authority following revelations that hundreds of public employees were receiving pay for second state jobs in addition to their normal salaries.

Workers receiving more than one state paycheck, known in official parlance as "additional appointments," were found in a variety of departments and agencies, including the California Public Employees Retirement System and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and in several state hospitals.

The Brown administration did not ban the practice, but any such hire must now be approved by its Office of Human Resources.

"It appears that in some cases people were paid additionally for the job they were hired to do in the first place," said Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo), who introduced a bill Wednesday to ban salaried state employees from holding more than one state job. "It's inappropriate at best and potentially abusive," he said.

Gorell said the proliferation of double paychecks highlights the need for more legislative oversight of the executive branch.

"It's clear that the governor and his administration don't fully understand what's happening in these agencies," he said.

Documents provided by the state controller's office show that 571 nonunion employees hold more than one position in various departments. The records do not show what those employees were paid.

The Sacramento Bee reported that dozens of state corrections officers received additional compensation beyond that of their regular jobs — some of which paid up to $20,000 per month. The paper also reported that the chief psychiatrist at Napa State Hospital, who receives an annual salary of more than $275,000, was receiving an additional $125 per hour for work as a staff psychiatrist.

"It's a scam," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit advocacy agency. "Many people in all kinds of different jobs work for a set salary understanding that sometimes that means working long hours. Unfortunately, that's not always the culture of government."

A spokesman for the state's largest public employee union said the extra pay was for managers and other nonunion employees who are not eligible for overtime. Most unionized workers receive overtime if they put in extra hours.

A spokesman for CalPERS said it had allowed salaried workers to receive extra pay since June 2011 to help the agency launch and test a new technology project. Brad Pacheco said that using existing workers saved CalPERS an estimated $1.6 million that would have been spent to hire outside consultants and train new staff.

The human resources agency issued a statement saying that officials were "conducting a full review to determine whether there is any justification for continuing this practice."

anthony.york@latimes.com

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