Fraud Probe of Caltrans’ No. 2 Man in L.A. Urged

The chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee has asked for an investigation of whether the No. 2 Caltrans official in Los Angeles has fraudulently charged taxpayers for nearly three years of out-of-town living expenses he did not deserve.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) sent records to state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp showing that Richard P. Doyle, a $48,000-a-year deputy district director for Caltrans, has received nearly $21,000 in expense reimbursements since December, 1984, most of it per diem stipends for working away from his home. The documents later were passed on to the state General Services Department for review.

Although he has worked in Los Angeles since February, 1983, two months before his wife filed for a divorce, Doyle, who approved his own expense vouchers, listed a San Luis Obispo home address on the claim forms, apparently with the approval of top Caltrans officials.

But his car has been registered in Toluca Lake since 1978, his driver’s license has listed the same Los Angeles County address since May, 1985, and the San Luis Obispo County registrar of voters office said Thursday he has been “purged” from voter rolls there because he had apparently “moved and left no address.”

Court records in San Luis Obispo also show that Doyle’s divorce from his wife, Sandra, has been final since April, 1985.

Assemblyman Katz sent copies of Doyle’s expense vouchers for the period from December, 1984, until last month to the attorney general, saying in an accompanying letter that the expense claims “appeared to be a fraudulent use of state funds and seem to indicate possible criminal action.”

But Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Nelson Kempsky said there is no basis for a criminal investigation because “everything was done on top of the table . . . and the Caltrans administration approved it.”

“This may have been wrong, but it certainly doesn’t appear to be criminal,” Kempsky said. He said Katz’s letter and the documents accompanying it had been referred to the General Services Department to determine whether Doyle’s actions conformed to state rules.

Doyle, 43, referred all inquiries about Katz’s charges to Caltrans officials in Sacramento, who immediately responded that the allegations of wrongdoing “are premature.”

“The allegations make it seem very bad,” said Caltrans press spokesman Chuck Mastin, “but he was within Civil Service rules.”

Mastin said that Doyle’s expense claims are being reviewed internally as part of a broad audit of overtime and expense practices within the department. The audit was begun after revelations that some Caltrans employees were collecting overtime pay that boosted their annual salaries from $25,000 to $50,000. Mastin said the review should be finished by the end of the month.

Katz said the copies of Doyle’s expense vouchers were sent to him anonymously “by an honest taxpaying Caltrans employee.”

Transportation Department officials said Doyle still insists that his permanent address is in San Luis Obispo and he was, therefore, entitled to the out-of-town living stipends until last month, when his appointment as the No. 2 man in the Los Angeles-Orange-Ventura County district became permanent.

Caltrans press spokesman Gene Berthelsen said Doyle was “loaned” to the Los Angeles office as “a trouble shooter” in February, 1983, and had been acting deputy district director under a “limited-term appointment” since August, 1983.

“It is admittedly a long, long time (for a temporary assignment), and we don’t like the situation,” Berthelsen said.

Since December, 1984, Doyle’s monthly expense vouchers, most of which list seven-day-a-week per diem charges, ranged from $1,200 to $1,761.

But the officials said that Los Angeles-area District Director Donald Watson had ended the practice of letting high-level officials approve their own expense claims.

Berthelsen said Doyle considers San Luis Obispo his permanent residence because he still pays half his family’s expenses--including mortgage, property taxes and insurance--and he does all the maintenance on the home during trips there every other weekend.