Cal-Vet Worker Admits Edge Over Public

A Cal-Vet employee who purchased a home repossessed by her agency testified before an Assembly committee Wednesday that knowing when the property would be available gave her an edge over the general public.

“I feel I have an advantage in that I knew of it before someone else,” Cindi Anderson told members of the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee, which is looking into the acquisition of repossessed homes by employees of the agency.

Last week, The Times reported that Anderson was one of at least seven Cal-Vet employees or their relatives who, during the last three years, purchased homes repossessed by the agency from veterans.

Before Anderson testified, Veterans Affairs Director Jesse Ugalde told the committee that his department, which administers the Cal-Vet loan program, is investigating the seven cases.

“I want to know clearly where we stand,” said Ugalde, a retired Army colonel who recently took over the troubled department. “Some things happened before my watch.”

Ugalde reiterated the department’s stance that none of the seven transactions violated state policy.

But after the hearing, he told reporters, “If there has been any abuse, we’ll find it and we’ll do something about it.”

Anderson was one of three employees called by Ugalde to testify about their purchases of homes from the agency.

She and her husband, neither of whom is a veteran, bought their house in Sacramento earlier this year for $59,000, taking over a Cal-Vet loan at an interest rate of 10%.

During questioning by committee members, Anderson said she first heard that the house was available from fellow employees who handle repossessions.

She said she made an offer to buy the property after seeing the agency’s appraisal of the house--a document she said is not normally made available to the public. (Acting Cal-Vet director Bill Schwabe said later that appraisals are made available to anyone who requests them.)

Anderson denied an allegation made by another Cal-Vet employee that her offer on the house was accepted before the property was publicly advertised. But she acknowledged, “I made an offer on the house probably before anyone else.”

Ugalde told reporters that Cal-Vet accepted Anderson’s offer to buy the repossessed house even though it was $100 less than a bid from an outsider.

State policy does not require the agency to accept the highest bid on a repossessed house, department spokesman Tom Jones said. In Anderson’s case, he said, the higher offer was rejected because the bidder wanted to make a smaller down payment and to extend the duration of the loan.

Californians who have served in the armed forces can borrow up to $75,000 at an 8% interest rate to purchase a home under Cal-Vet terms.