Chick Defends Critique of Hahn

Stung by criticism that she has politicized her office, Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick on Friday defended her decision to provide a biting, 22-page critique of Mayor James K. Hahn’s failures to four of his challengers.

Chick, who earlier declined to release the document, distributed it Friday after members of the City Council said her conduct could cause them to reconsider their support for a new waste and fraud unit in her office.

“It seems that there are some folks in City Hall who are connecting my use of personal time and sharing public information with mayoral challengers as problematic to my starting up my waste and fraud unit,” Chick said at an emotional, hastily called news conference.

“There is some discomfort that if I’m doing investigations, that perhaps the information isn’t going to be handled right,” she added. “I take great exception to that.”

Still, Chick pulled the proposal off the council’s agenda Friday to give herself more time to convince council members that the fraud unit should be created and that the memo was not an abuse of her office.

Council members Cindy Miscikowski and Eric Garcetti, both supporters of Hahn’s campaign for a second term, were among those worried about what had been a secret memo to Hahn opponents.

“As public officials, we must bend over backwards to make sure we are not using our offices politically,” Garcetti said.

Miscikowski said Chick had assured her earlier in the week that the proposed fraud unit would be objective and take care that confidential documents did not leak.

“I was somewhat shaken when, having that reaffirmed, the story later came out about a private meeting and confidential documents,” Miscikowski said. “If the document had been made public, I would have been more comfortable.”

She said she wanted to see whether protocols for the proposed fraud unit would protect against misuse of information.

Kam Kuwata, a campaign spokesman for the mayor, said Chick has blurred the line between her roles as an objective auditor and a political player.

“She has politicized the office,” he said. “She is basically operating an opposition research operation to get Jim Hahn.”

Chick said that none of the information in her memo to Hahn’s opponents was confidential and that she and four staff members prepared and delivered the memos on their own time.

The controller has long been a vocal critic of the mayor. She initially endorsed him for reelection but then withdrew her support.

George Kieffer, an attorney and Hahn supporter who headed an appointed Charter Reform Commission, said he was troubled by Chick’s actions.

“She has every right to meet with anyone she wants to and say anything she wants,” Kieffer said.

“However, the office is better served if it does not appear to be involved in elected politics,” Kieffer added.

Chick said she prepared the material so that if any of the challengers were elected, they would understand the issues.

“It’s been very distressing to me to give any impression of not being transparent, of not being interested in sharing, and this was what this was all about to begin with: sharing information that was part of the public domain with four of the mayoral challengers,” Chick said.

She said that as an elected official, she was entitled to pursue political activism. Chick was elected controller in 2001.

The memo is mostly a recounting of the public findings of her various audits critical of agencies, including the harbor, airport, and water and power departments, but is peppered with personal asides that often are critical of the mayor and his leadership.

At one point, the memo says, Hahn continued to raise campaign funds through commissioners even after agreeing that it should be banned. “Give the money back Jimmy,” the memo says.

Elsewhere, Chick said that she was attacked verbally by airport Commissioner Ted Stein after releasing an audit critical of airport operations. “Mayor was silent,” the memo says.

It also notes that Chick released a critical audit of the Harbor Department, and adds, “Where is the mayor?”

When told of the derisive comments in the memo, Kieffer said, “That’s disappointing.”

Chick also offers an assessment of the mayor’s “leadership style,” writing that he will “ignore a problem and the obvious solution,” will “shoot the messenger,” will create a task force to study a problem, “or distances himself from the problem.”

After a task force finishes its work, the memo says, Hahn will “issue a press release claiming victory.”

In a section on the Department of Water and Power’s contract with Fleishman-Hillard, Chick says that the DWP paid the public relations firm for work that benefited the mayor.

“FH counseled the mayor (strategic counsel) on all significant issues during his first term,” she writes.

Kuwata said Chick approved the payments on many Fleishman-Hillard billings, so she was hypocritical to criticize the mayor.

“This is just further proof that Laura Chick was not doing her job as a watchdog for Los Angeles,” he said.