D.A. Clears Struiksma in City Expense Flap

Ending a three-month investigation, the San Diego County district attorney’s office Friday said it had not found sufficient evidence to seek criminal charges against acting Mayor Ed Struiksma for “irregularities” on city expense reports he filed for three business trips in 1984.

But City Auditor Ed Ryan said Friday he will ask Struiksma to reimburse the city for more than $800 in questionable expenses if the acting mayor is unable to furnish further proof of how he spent the money during trips to the East Coast, Idaho and Texas.

Struiksma reacted with relief to the announcement, made by Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller in a letter hand-delivered to Ryan Friday morning.

“There aren’t many days lovelier than today,” Struiksma said, standing in shirt sleeves and gazing out the window of the mayor’s office on the 11th floor of City Hall.

“Obviously, I’m delighted to have it put behind me,” he said. “The resolution is the resolution we felt it would be all along.”

Struiksma also indicated he would be willing to reimburse the city, an offer he made to Ryan before the matter was referred to the district attorney’s office. Struiksma has said Ryan told him the reimbursement was unnecessary.

“A lot of this could have been avoided if he (Ryan) accepted that before,” Struiksma said Friday.

Struiksma is the third elected city official to be investigated by the district attorney’s office in the last two years.

Former Mayor Roger Hedgecock was expelled from office in December after being convicted of felony conspiracy and perjury charges, and Councilman Uvaldo Martinez was indicted March 12 on felony charges that he misappropriated $1,880 by charging non-business lunches on his city credit card. His trial will begin in June.

The Struiksma probe began in late January after a newspaper story quoted Jan Anton, a Centre City Development Corp. board member, as saying he paid for a dinner on Oct. 16, 1984, in New York that Struiksma subsequently billed to the city for $65. Both men were traveling to an Urban Land Institute meeting in Boston at the time.

After the published reports, Struiksma admitted that he didn’t pay for the meal and he had lost the receipts that would justify the expenditure of his $600 advance for the trip.

But he blamed the error on an unidentified auditor in Ryan’s office who suggested that Struiksma and his top aide, Ellen T. Capozzoli, “reconstruct” the charges on a city expense form when the trip was first questioned by auditors in 1985.

The controversy over the meal surfaced during a mayoral primary campaign, and it forced Struiksma, then a mayoral candidate, to quit the race Feb. 6, just hours after the district attorney’s office announced its investigation.

“We have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to charge Struiksma with any criminal offense arising from claims reviewed by this office,” Miller wrote to Ryan, who originally requested the probe. “We have further concluded that there is insufficient evidence, under criminal standards, to substantiate a loss to the City of San Diego due to improper claims filed by Struiksma.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael R. Pent, who conducted the investigation for Miller, said the district attorney’s office simply could not establish that Struiksma pocketed any of the money he received from the city.

“Is this person trying to steal something?” Pent asked. “If we can’t prove that, we don’t have the basis for criminal action.”

However, Miller’s letter also concludes that Struiksma’s claims contain “administrative irregularities and deficiencies” and suggests that Ryan take “corrective” action by asking for further documentation or reimbursements.

The letter said that the investigation eventually focused on expenses for three trips taken by Struiksma. There was the October, 1984, trip to New York and Boston; a May, 1984, trip to San Antonio, Tex., and an August, 1984, trip to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Questions raised included:

- Meal charges for the October trip. In addition to the dinner paid for by Anton, the letter says that Struiksma claimed two other meals that were paid for by other people. Pent said those meals were an Oct. 15 dinner for $21.50 and an Oct. 16 breakfast for $8.75 while in New York.

Pent also said investigators questioned two other meals--a $22 lunch and an $86.81 dinner--while Struiksma was attending the Urban Land Institute in Boston later during the same week. Although Struiksma claimed them as separate meals, he actually ate with other participants at meals provided by the institute. These meals were paid through a registration fee charged to the city.

- A $678.17 reimbursement Struiksma received for the May trip to San Antonio despite a claim that was “completely unsubstantiated when filed and paid.” Struiksma turned in a signed but otherwise blank expense form for the trip, with a credit card slip for the entire amount attached. Struiksma had failed to fill in any of the detailed information, such as how much he spent per day for the hotel room, transportation and meals.

Pent said that Struiksma was able to produce documentation for most of the $678, but was unable to furnish proof of how he spent a $200 advance for the trip.

- Charges to Struiksma’s city credit card for the August, 1984, trip to Coeur D’Alene. Struiksma was attending a conference there as a representative of the San Diego Assn. of Governments, which paid for his travel.

However, Struiksma charged his $335.75 room expense to the city, and he charged $519 in return air fare for himself, his wife and one of his children. Struiksma reimbursed the city $854.75 in October, 1984. He later explained to district attorney’s investigators that he was forced to use the credit card when he lost the return tickets and thought he would be “stranded” in Idaho, Miller’s letter said.

“Although the City of San Diego was reimbursed in full for credit card expenditures by Struiksma relating to the Coeur d’Alene conference, utilization by Struiksma of his City of San Diego credit card to pay family expenses for travel and lodging raises questions of personal use,” Miller wrote.

Asked why his office processed the claims without asking for more backup material before, Ryan said much of the information was not required under a former city credit card policy. The new policy, which went into effect after the Martinez scandal, discontinues the use of city credit cards and requires stricter documentation for all expenditures, including meals, he said.

“I hope that you will put these two or three transactions in the proper perspective, in that they are among the 100,000 to 150,000 a year that we process,” Ryan said.

He said he will seek additional documentation from Struiksma for the $600 advance for the Boston trip and the $200 advance for the San Antonio trip. If Struiksma is not able to provide the backup material, Ryan said, he will request reimbursement.

In light of Miller’s findings, Struiksma said he still does not think he should have remained in the mayor’s race.

It would have been “unfair to the citizens of San Diego, in light of what they just went through with Roger,” a reference to the fact that Hedgecock was reelected under indictment and held office during two felony trials.

Struiksma took over as acting mayor Dec. 10 after Hedgecock was expelled from office when his conviction on 13 felonies was upheld.