Questions Raised by City Panelist’s Votes

Ellen Stein, the vice president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works and wife of former Airport Commission President Ted Stein, voted at least four times on matters involving Kaiser Permanente during the years her family profited from the sale of $250,000 worth of sports tickets to the HMO, records show.

In each case Ellen Stein voted with a majority of the board to approve Kaiser requests, which saved the company fees and costs.

Two authors of the city’s ethics laws questioned whether Kaiser’s ticket purchases created a conflict of interest for Stein that should have prevented her from voting on Kaiser issues.

“If she did know about Kaiser’s payments to her husband, she should have recused herself,” said Xandra Kayden, a UCLA political scientist who helped draft the city ethics laws. But, Kayden added, “She may not have known about every business deal he is involved in.”

Contacted at her City Hall office, Stein declined Wednesday to comment on her Kaiser votes.

Ted Stein, a lawyer, developer and major political fundraiser, holds four season tickets to Laker games and other sporting events at Staples Center through his sole practitioner law firm. The Times reported in February that Kaiser Permanente’s director of government relations, Leland Wong, used company money to purchase $250,000 worth of tickets from Stein over a seven-year period.

Ted Stein did not return calls for comment Wednesday, but said two months ago that he sold his tickets to Kaiser for a modest profit because he had more than he could use. The sales occurred between 1997 and 2003.

He resigned last week as president of the Airport Commission amid local and federal grand jury investigations into whether contracting at the airports was improperly tied to political contributions. Stein said he had done nothing improper but felt he could no longer be effective in the job.

Wong resigned in January from Kaiser and from his unpaid post as a Department of Water and Power commissioner after officials at the HMO said he had improperly used company funds for political purposes and provided sports tickets to elected officials.

Wong told The Times at the time that his corporate office bought sports tickets to “build relationships” with community leaders and opinion makers.

In papers filed with the Ethics Commission, Ellen Stein reported a financial interest in several businesses, including community property income from her husband’s law firm. As a result, she was warned of potential conflicts of interest by the city Ethics Commission when she was reappointed by Mayor James K. Hahn to the Public Works Board in 2001.

“Should any matter affecting these businesses come before the board, we recommend that Ms. Stein seek the advice of the city attorney before acting,” wrote Ethics Commission Executive Director LeeAnn Pelham in a letter approved by the panel.

Pelham declined to comment on the matter.

Ellen Stein cast four votes affecting Kaiser between 1998 and 2003. In each case the Board of Public Works voted unanimously to approve Kaiser’s requests. The votes include:

* A March 2002 decision to allow Kaiser Construction Services to close an alley south of Sunset Boulevard for six months as part of a remodeling project at a Kaiser Permanente facility. The closure resulted in financial savings for Kaiser by providing a staging area and space for the renovation crews and equipment.

* A June 1998 approval of a no-fee permit to remove 15 trees on Normandie Avenue at the Harbor City Kaiser Permanente facility.

The city generally only approves such permits when trees cause damage to sidewalks and buildings and there is no other way to stop the damage. In this case, the fees were waived because the removals were required by the Planning Department.

* A December 2002 permit to remove 16 trees as part of an improvement project in the 4800 block of Hollywood Boulevard. The permit was approved despite protests from two area residents.

The Planning Commission required new trees to be planted as a condition for the renovation at Kaiser’s medical administrative offices.

* An August 1998 decision to waive a portion of property taxes collected by the city from a Kaiser hospital so the money would go to a county sanitation district upon annexation of a part of the property into the district.

Kaiser spokesman Jim Anderson said the approvals, including alley closures, did not involve controversial issues.

“As far as I can tell these are routine matters,” Anderson said.

The issue with the biggest financial impact on Kaiser and the city in recent years involved a claim by the HMO that it should be repaid hundreds of thousands of dollars in sewer fees.

Ellen Stein was president of the board when she attended a September 1999 closed session on the Kaiser claim. But she was on vacation when the board voted six months later to refund $298,000 in fees to the HMO, records show. Still, Bob Stern, who coauthored city and state ethics laws, said commissioners should not participate in closed-session discussions involving sources of income.

“There is a problem with her participating. The question is did she participate?” Stern said. The Public Works Board does not make public minutes of closed sessions and Stein refused to discuss it.