Recently in La Puente Category

Former La Puente Community Services Director Rozanne Adanto has filed a lawsuit against the city of La Puente and former City Manager Carol Cowley, claiming wrongful termination, according to court records.

I'm still trying to get a copy of the lawsuit, so I don't know much except that the next hearing is in December.

Adanto parted ways with the city sometime in 2007. Ted Bistarkey has since assumed her role.

Cowley retired Sept. 30. Former Rosemead City Manager Frank Tripepi is serving as an interim.

Adanto filed her complaint on Sept. 24.

Between this and the theft of $500,000 in tow fees allegedly by a former Industry sheriff's sergeant, looks like Tripepi really has his hands full.

More to come when I know it.

The presidency wasn't the only think at stake in Tuesday's historical election.

Here's a breakdown of some of the local candidates and measures that failed or passed:

*Measure CC, which would have changed Rosemead from a general law city to a charter city failed. Voters rejected it by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin.

*Former Assemblyman Ed Chavez took over Leon Garcia's seat in the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District. Chavez is the husband of former La Puente Councilwoman Renee Chavez, who was outsed in 2007.

*Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, will serve a second term in the 57th District. He walked away with 67 percent of the votes versus Baldwin Park resident Victor Saldana's 33 percent.

*Pico Rivera got its wish with the passage of Measure P, the one-percent sales-tax increase that officials say won't likely to take effect before April. Measure P is expected to bring in $6 million annually.

*A half cent sales-tax increase was approved by 71 percent of voters in El Monte. Measure GG will fund public safety and infrastructure as well as rebuild the city's emergency reserves.

Not enough for ya? For more on the elections, visit our special elections page here...

Since it was my day off yesterday, reporter Bethania Palma attended the La Puente City Council meeting last night. The most interesting thing on the agenda was Councilman John Solis' item about a tow services agreement. Judging from Palma's web update below, it seems Solis may have been considering going with another tow company for impound services.

Unfortunately for Solis, the majority of his colleagues on the dias didn't think that was such a good idea, especially considering the ongoing investigation into former Industry traffic Sgt. Joe Dyer for allegedly stealing $500,000 in tow revenues from city coffers.

And still no word back from Solis - going on three weeks now without a call back from the councilman.

LA PUENTE - City officials Tuesday night chose to forego further discussion of the city's current tow contract and stay with what they have - for now.

Solis did not return calls Tuesday seeking comment.

We forgot to put this up this week...so here it is. Monday's Leftovers:

So just how does $500,000 go missing from city coffers over the course of many years without anyone noticing?

"In the future we have to make sure this doesn't happen again," Lujan said. "We have to make sure we have checks and balances to prevent it."

I was just checking out the agenda for Tuesday's La Puente City Council meeting, and it seems they have some very interesting items on there.

First:

***Hmm, City Attorney James Casso told me last week he would be discussing several *options* with the City Council in regards to recouping $500,000 in missing tow fees from La Puente coffers. Could a lawsuit against the County and the Sheriff's Department be brewing?

Second:

****Wow, that was quick. A week after the theft of nearly $500K in impound fees from La Puente went public, Councilman John Solis is requesting consideration of a towing service agreement, according to a city staff report.

I wonder if he's looking to Bob's Towing again for the job? Last August, Bob's Towing submitted an unsolicited bid to the city for an exclusive franchise agreement. Solis said the agreement would bring in more dough for the city, but the council didn't buy into it.

Haven't had a chance to ask Solis about the item - ever since the tow story dropped, he's failed to return about a dozen of my calls.

Parking issues have been in the news a lot lately.

That being said, here are is the new fee schedule for parking citations in La Puente:

*Temporary parking restriction posted (i.e. street sweeping) .... $41
*Failure to display current tags .........$57
*No front or rear plates ................$37
*No parking curb markings .......... ...$41
*Parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant ............$41

Better mind those signs.

Frank Girardot and I pieced this together from interviews we did over the course of the week....

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is reexamining how it collects towing fees in response to allegations a former traffic sergeant took nearly $500,000 from the city of La Puente in impound revenues, officials said.

"We are doing that now," Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "We are probably going to go to a cashless system. Using something like an ATM card to make it more difficult for theft to occur."

Whitmore also said the department is reviewing several other internal policies and will consult with the Board of Supervisors.

Former Sgt. Joe Dyer, who used to work out of the Industry sheriff's station until he retired in May, has been under investigation since the beginning of the year.

Officials believe he was collecting towing fees intended for La Puente, but not turning over all of those fees to the city.

"Let's just say that this has been a wake up call for the department," said Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the Office of Internal Review.

The OIR is an independent agency that reviews alleged policy violations within the Sheriff's Department. They are aware of the allegations against Dyer and expect to receive a copy of the case once it is submitted to the District Attorney.

Sheriff Lee Baca said last week he expected to submit the case by the end of the year.
"It's still an ongoing investigation," Whitmore said. "But once it's done we will seek a prosecution."

There was one other case within the department involving mishandled tow fees, Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

The incident took place in 2007 and involved a deputy in Compton who was disciplined with a 10-day suspension after failing to follow the department's money handling procedures, Whitmore said.

"There was no evidence of any funds missing," Whitmore said. "Apparently he was not doing the paperwork properly. There was no money involved."

The incident is chronicled in the OIR quarterly report released earlier this year.

Apparently, the sheriff's may not be the only ones taking making changes. La Puente is also looking at its own internal cash-handling procedures.

I've been attempting to talk to interim City Manager Frank Tripepi about it, but he hasn't called me back in a week.

*******READ THE FULL STORY HERE 

Today I finally got around to a record's request that La Puente Valley County Water District has kept for me for about a month now. The request was inspired after I received a series of anonymous calls asking me to look into RC Foster, a contracting company that Valley County and other water agencies in the SGV has used for several years to build water clean up facilities.

I don't know whether there is a story there. I just asked for invoices, bid submittals, contracts and minutes, and still need to review the docs at one more agency.

Back to today. While going through the minutes, I came across a familiar name: La Puente Councilman Louie Lujan, who apparently got his start in politics on the La Puente Valley County Water District. I didn't realize that until I came back to the office and checked out Lujan's bio:

At the age of 23, he was the top vote getter among three candidates vying for two positions on the La Puente Valley County Water District in November of 1999.

In past stories about water districts, some have said that water boards are the springboard of political careers, while I've heard others say it is the landing pad. And then, there is that group that just get stuck there, and end up serving on the board for 20 years plus.

It seems that water politics is a mixture of both, although it would be an interesting story to see how the demographics, including age and gender, on our water boards, and city councils, have shifted today compared to 10 years ago.

Would you guys read that story?

It's been a while since I've blogged, but that's mainly because I've been working on this story about a former Industry sheriff's sergeant that allegedly pocketed $500,000 in tow fees meant for the city of La Puente. His name is Joe Dyer.

We should have a follow-up story running in Tuesday's paper. But until then, here are some new tidbits I've gathered:

*Officials say they're reviewing options to recoup the nearly $500,000. La Puente City Attorney James Casso said he expected to discuss the matter with the City Council at its Oct. 28 meeting, but he would not say if the possibility of a lawsuit against the Sheriff's Department or Los Angeles County was on the table.

*If convicted, Dyer would not lose any of his retirement benefits, according to Janice Golden, assistant executive officer with the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association. LACERA is the retirement agency that serves the sheriff's department.

We're also working on some other ledes....more to come when we know it.

No one is above the law, Sheriff Lee Baca said on Thursday. Not even the sheriff's deputy suspected of skimming nearly $500,000 worth of La Puente's towing fees.

The deputy, Sgt. Joe Dyer, retired in May when he was suspected of taking the money.

Chatila reports that former La Puente City Manager Carol Cowley was the first one to notice the discrepancies, and an investigation followed in January. Cowley recently retired from her position as La Puente city manager.

Sheriff deputy suspected in theft of $500k of city's towing fees
By Tania Chatila, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/16/2008 11:59:21 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES - A sheriff's deputy is suspected of embezzling nearly half a million dollars in towing fees from the city of La Puente, officials said Thursday.

Sheriff Lee Baca said the department's Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau is investigating allegations that former traffic Sgt. Joe Dyer stole nearly $500,000.

"My belief is that no one is above the law and I think that the criminal justice system will act appropriately in this case," Baca said Thursday.

Dyer, who could not be reached for comment, retired in May after detectives "established a need for an investigation regarding funds at the Industry Station that were missing," Baca said.

Dyer's supervisor, Capt. Michael Smith, was reassigned to the sheriff's headquarters in Monterey Park effective Sunday, officials said.

Baca said the reassignment had nothing to do with the investigation. He also said he did not believe any other sheriff's deputies were involved.

The District Attorney is aware of the case, Baca said. He expected it would be submitted for review by the end of the year.

"We've done as much as we can to build a good strong case," Baca said.

The investigation was launched in January.

John Stites, president of the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association, the union that represents Dyer, said higher-ups in the department bear responsibility for the missing money if the allegations turn out to be true.

"We're not accountants; we're not money men," Stites said. "Often times they put us in positions we are not trained to handle and it ends up going bad. I've seen it happen more than once."

La Puente contracts with Haddick's Towing for tow services. The city is supposed to receive $168 in administrative fees every time a car is impounded, said Laurie Marshall, who together with her sister, Bonnie Welch, owns and runs Haddick's.

The fees are paid to the sheriff's Industry Station, which issues a receipt that the driver must provide to reclaim his or her vehicle at La Puente-based Haddick's, Marshall said. The driver then pays a separate fee to Haddick's and the car is released.

Dyer dropped off the administrative fees and receipts at City Hall, where staff members reconciled the fees with the receipts Dyer provided, La Puente City Councilwoman Lola Storing said.

"Apparently, he wasn't giving all the money or all of the receipts," Storing said.

City officials never compared their receipts with Haddick's, Storing said.

"Our tally matched out what we should have had," Storing said. "It just didn't jibe (with Haddick's records)."

Storing believed former City Manager Carol Cowley was the first person at City Hall to notice the discrepancies.

Cowley declined to comment Thursday.

At a 2007 City Council meeting, Cowley noted the city anticipated receiving about $90,000 in towing fees for fiscal year 2006-07.

Marshall said Welch was at the meeting and questioned the figure.

"Once the information came out ... Bonnie knew it was not accurate information and she called Carol," Marshall said.

At that time, Haddick's officials estimated La Puente should have received $160,000 in towing fees for fiscal year 2006-07.

Welch could not be reached for comment Thursday as she is vacationing in Mexico.

Marshall said sheriff's investigators have asked the towing company for financial records, which Haddick's provided.

Haddick's also furnishes tow services in Industry, but collects administrative fees directly. Those figures are reconciled by Industry officials monthly, Marshall said.

Baca said the investigation did not involve anyone in La Puente City Hall or other cities.

City Attorney James Casso and Councilman Dan Holloway declined to comment on Thursday.

Councilman Louie Lujan said he was aware of "a matter," but would not divulge details, citing state open meeting laws.

Councilman John Solis and Councilwoman Nadia Mendoza could not be reached for comment.

Baca said other deputies have been investigated in the past for embezzling money. But, he said, the problem is not rampant within the department.

Storing said the city is entitled to get its money back from the county. Baca said he didn't know of any plans to reimburse La Puente.

"I don't think the city has made any indication they expect the county or the sheriff's department to provide that money," he said. "We're investigating a crime."

Staff Writers Frank Pine, Frank C. Girardot, Ben Baeder and Ruby Gonzales contributed to this story.

(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2109

I got an e-mail from La Puente Mayor Louie Lujan yesterday rounding up some of the highlights from Tuesday night's meeting

A proposal to allow alcoholic beverages at the new Community Youth center was stalled once again.

Resolution against Measure R passed

Resolution supporting the NFL stadium passed

Resolution supporting Measure RR passed

I made a public statement about Sheriff's on cell phones. I have received 5 complaints in the last week or two (2 new ones this morning) about deputies talking on phones when they are in their squad cars. It is becoming very problematic. I demanded that the new Captain stop this behavior.

Busy night.......

I was pretty curios a couple of weeks ago when I started noticing Ed Butts Ford listed on closed session items for the La Puente City Council meetings.

No, they're not negotiating for that infamous Hacienda Boulevard parcel again.

Looks like after that deal fell through, they decided to go to Plan B: asking the city help for help in remodeling their service center.

This story will be running in tomorrow's paper:

LA PUENTE -- In an effort to ride out the economic storm battering the nation and the automobile industry, Ed Butts Ford wants the city's help in improving their service center.

But the project has been scaled back and the Iannones are now looking for help with $640,000 in upgrades. The city would not be loaning any money up front.

The story will be fleshed out in the paper, but that's the jist. Apparently, Ed Butts officials are trying to work out a deal with the bank for a loan. Once that happens, they'll have to go back to the city and work out a deal.

We'll see what happens this time.

What a day in LA.

Dodgers lost

West Covina Councilman Roger Hernandez's former campaing manager pleads no contest to voter registration fraud. Read here.

Montebello decides to hold off decision to let voters decide on who their trash haulers should be. Read more.

Walnut decides to back off ban of proposed businesses that could benefit the NFL stadium. Read here.

Michael Lewis and and the Citizens for Better Government Committee violated campaign laws five times in South El Monte's mayoral and city council elections for failing to disclose late contriubtions to Mayor Blanca Figueroa, and councilmen Hector Delgado and Luis Aguinaga. Lewis -- yes, this is the same Mike Lewis that helped pro-Wal Mart residents in Rosemead -- and agreed to pay $12,000 in fines. Read more.

Former Rosemead City Manager Frank Tripepi will be hired $20,000 a month as a consultant for La Puente. Read here.

Editorial board urges a "no" vote for El Monte's proposed Measure GG, the half-cent sales tax. Read here.

I drove out to La Puente City Hall yesterday to review some documents about Del Terra and Arnold Alvarez-Glasman's firm, Glasman, Colvin & Adams.

On my way there, I drove past the La Puente Community Center which is coming together very nicely, I must say. I remember the first time I drove passed it, it was old, dingy and covered with tarp. Not to mention the fact that it hadn't been open in years...

But a lot of time and a lot of money later, it seems the community center could be re-opened to the public as early as next month.

A tentative grand opening has been set. I'll post more when it's all confirmed. In the meanwhile, enjoy these pics I took while I was driving...

Speaking of city managers, in talking to La Puente Mayor Louie Lujan on Wednesday about Frank Tripepi's recent appointment to transition manager, Lujan started talking about the possibility of La Puente needing to reevaluate it's city manager salary when a full-time replacement is hired.

Lujan talked about the decreasing pool of qualified city managers out there. He also referred to this story (salaries.pdf) from the Press-Enterprise about upped city manager salaries.

I spotted a $300,000-something salary in there somewhere.

Yikes.

Carol Cowley was making roughly $140,000 when she retired last month. But that's because, Lujan said, she didn't have a degree and she had no experience.

If Tripepi were to stay on as a transition manager for a year, he'd make $240,000 in La Puente.

Lujan talked about a very narrow gap between the lowest and highest city manager salaries in the SGV. Let's take a look.

In Rosemead, City Manager Oliver Chi makes about $178,000 a year.

Irwindale's Robert Griego makes about $180,000.

Michelle Keith took a job as Bradbury's city manager for $106,000 a year.

Covina's former city manager Paul Phillips -- who was city manager for eight years -- got $95,280 as part of a six-month severance package when he was fired a few months back. Double that, and the figure you get was his outgoing salary.

Cynthia Kurtz, who is serving as Covina's interim, is making $12,900 per month -- if she were there for a year, she'd make $154,000.

And in Pasadena, Michael Beck makes about $265,000 a year.

It's unclear what, if any, money Tripepi will get for the work, since he already receives a salary from Willdan.

Tripepi will essentially be serving in a quasi-interim city manager role, taking on the duties formerly held by Carol Cowley. Cowley retired last month and negotiations to keep her on as a consultant through December went sour.

Apparently, the City Council held a closed session meeting about the negotiations about a week before Carol's last day. Well, no action was reported leading Councilman John Solis to believe that negotiations were done.

But city officials held on to hope, stating that negotiations had not officially been called off.

Except that Carol's last day came and went with no progress on the negotiations, and since none of the council members brought it up again, the negotiations died just like that.

Solis said last week that Cowley was willing to work 40 hours a week plus additional hours for meetings for roughly $12,000 a month -- her outgoing salary.

Solis seemed concerned about paying Tripepi anything more than Cowley, since he has no experience in La Puente.

Mayor Louie Lujan's reasoning for the pay is as follows: the city has about $110,000 left budgeted for Cowley's old position.

At $20,000 a month, that gives the city about five and half months of pay to Willdan without exceeding current budgeted costs.

For now, at least.

Willdan's contract is indefinite, so Tripepi will stay on essentially until the city finds Cowley's permanent replacement.

Lujan's goal was to hire within three to six months.

And don't expect Tripepi to move into that full-time role. He made it pretty clear on Monday that's not a job he wants to do again.

"Never. That's a business I never want to do again."

Tripepi was city manager in Rosemead for almost 30 years before retiring in 2002.

Leftovers Column: City's image takes a beating
By Jennifer McLain and Tania Chatila, Staff Writers
Article Launched: 10/05/2008 11:04:48 PM PDT

It's been a rough few months for the city of Baldwin Park's image.

Residents still are concerned about school board member Sergio Corona's arrest in May on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

He currently is facing misdemeanor charges of vandalism, resisting an officer and driving without a license in connection with the arrest.

Then last month, Baldwin Park Councilman Anthony Bejarano was booked on suspicion of public intoxication.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office said last week week it would not be filing charges against Bejarano, who said he was not drunk the night of his arrest.

Still, the incident has stirred unrest in the community and has brought to light a question that often goes unanswered in the political realm - just how high should the ethical and moral bar be set for our public officials?

We put the question out there and got some interesting responses from anonymous readers of the Leftovers blog.

Here's a sample:

-- "Let's face it none of us is perfect in our personal lives..., we go through divorces, we have children who occasionally get in trouble, we occasionally say things in frustration or in the heat of the moment that upon reflection we wish we didn't say, we sometimes get our facts wrong."

-- "Yes, we do hold our elected officials to a higher standard, especially when they are representing us at a public event."

-- "I'm not saying we treat our elected with kid gloves in terms of their policy positions or in terms of factors which might impact their ability to act fairly, honestly and impartially. But I don't care to know about him having a simple argument with a spouse or that his or her kid got a D on their algebra exam or that (on one isolated) night they may have seemed a bit tipsy..."

-- "Character does matter."

Our elected officials have been in the news a lot lately over questions of ethical behavior among themselves and their relatives.

Pico Rivera Mayor Ron Beilke's son was recently detained by the sheriff's department in a case where a reserve deputy's .45-caliber revolver and vehicle were stolen. Beilke's son wasn't charged, but two of the 17-year-old's friends were.

Last month, the teenage son of former Irwindale Councilwoman and Baldwin Park Chief Deputy City Clerk Rosemary Gutierrez plowed his car through a neighbor's wall while driving home around 4 a.m.

A police report was not made, no one was arrested, no one was hurt and neighbors decided not to press charges on what was classified initially as a hit-and-run.

Then in El Monte, Mayor Ernie Gutierrez - who is not related to Rosemary Gutierrez - took a lot of heat for allegedly showing up at a city event drunk and shouting vulgarities.

In May, city officials prepared a report looking into Gutierrez's actions, but concluded the allegations had no merit.

We see this all the time - someone in the public spotlight, whether they be authorities, politicians or entertainment superstars, slips up and all of a sudden their abilities to perform come into question.

Only voter turnout will tell us how much constituents really care.

Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, coauthored this legislation signed last week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hernandez was a La Puente optometrist before deciding to run for office in 2006, when he beat out then La Puente mayor Renee Chavez, who was hoping to take over her husband Ed Chavez' seat. Ed Chavez was being termed out.

Hernandez will face off with Victor Saldana in November for the 57th.

Saldana, 38, is a law clerk who unsuccessfully ran for Baldwin Park City Council last year. As of April, Saldana said he had raised under $10,000 and state finance records at that time showed Hernandez had more than $250,000 in his bank account.

More on that race coming soon as we draw closer to Super Tuesday....

Records are starting to pour in for a request to look at all local agencies that currently employ or have once employed Del Terra, a construction management company that has or has had contracts with five San Gabriel Valley school districts and two cities.

Recently, Del Terra's owner Luis Rojas tried to negotiate a deal on behalf of his sister's company, Alliance Services Group, in La Puente, but that failed. Rosemead hired Del Terra more than a year ago.

So what are we requesting? Contracts, payment histories and bid submittals by Del Terra.

What story are we going after? It's too early too say. It depends on the records. At the very least, it could be a success story about the Industry-based company that is branching out from its school district work to local cities.

That's right, La Puente City Manager Carol Cowley's last day in the office was Thursday.

Technically, the last day of Cowley's contract is the 30th, but she's off on Monday and Tuesday, which means she gone, baby, gone.

No word yet on her contract negotiations to stay with the city as a consultant through the end of the year.

But judging from the fact that it's Saturday night, and no special meetings have been scheduled, my gut tells me that likely won't happen.....