Letter Alleges Funds Misuse by Executives at Stadium

San Diego police are investigating allegations that maintenance personnel at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium and city-purchased construction materials were improperly used for private jobs, including remodeling work at the homes of stadium executives, city officials said Thursday.

Assistant City Manager John Lockwood said the investigation stems from an anonymous letter received by the city manager’s office about a month ago. The letter details the alleged misuse of city funds, equipment and city contract workers, he said.

The city manager’s office and city auditors also are involved in the investigation, Lockwood said.

Included in the letter are allegations that employees of Pedus Building Services Inc., a Los Angeles-based firm that handles stadium maintenance work under contract with the city, have performed jobs at businesses and private homes while being paid with city funds. According to the letter, city materials and equipment also have been used on those private jobs, Lockwood said.

In addition, the letter--originally sent to Pedus executives, who forwarded it to the city manager’s office--claims that stadium supervisory personnel demand kickbacks from maintenance workers in return for preferential treatment in terms of the amount of hours they work.

Herman Iglesias, a detective with the San Diego Police Department’s fraud detail who conducted interviews with some the stadium workers, many of whom are Spanish-speaking, confirmed that an investigation is under way based on the anonymous letter. However, Iglesias, who is not the primary investigator on the case, declined to comment on details of the probe except to say that it should be completed within a few days.

The maintenance work at the stadium, including clean-up after major events and routine repairs, is preformed by workers who are hired and paid by Pedus but supervised by city personnel, said John Snyder, Pedus’ president. Under Pedus’ contract, the city is billed for the workers’ hourly labor, and the company receives an additional management fee.

In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles office, Snyder said that the company, which has worked at the stadium since 1980, employs as many as 100 people to clean up after baseball and football games and other major events. When there are no events scheduled at the stadium, Pedus normally employs about 15 to 20 people who work on various daily maintenance and janitorial chores, Snyder said.

“I’ve heard about the allegations before . . . but there is no proof or authenticity behind them yet,” Snyder said in reference to the anonymous letter. “Many (of the allegations) are ominous in nature and we want to get to the bottom of it.”

Snyder, who said he was questioned by police last Friday, said that union leaders who represent stadium maintenance workers have raised similar allegations about misuse of employees, city equipment and materials in the past.

“I’ve told them to bring me the truth and the facts . . . but they just bring me more allegations,” Snyder said. “If there is something there, we want to know about it.”

Executives of Services Employees International Union Local 102, which represents most of the workers, said Thursday that they became aware of the allegations earlier this year when union members complained that workers who “kept quiet and went along” with the improper private jobs were receiving the best work schedules.

Moreover, union leaders allege that the coveted daily maintenance and janitorial duties--which provide more frequent work and, therefore, higher overall pay than the occasional clean-up jobs after sports events--have gone to workers willing to pay supervisors kickbacks as high as $60 every two weeks.

“It’s a situation where, if you’re not willing to participate in the corruption and pay the kickbacks, you don’t get the hours,” said Mike Garcia, a representative of Local 102.

Mike Nava, an organizer for Local 102 who has acted as an interpreter during police interviews with various stadium workers, said that the private jobs allegedly done at city expense include concrete-sealing work at a Kearny Mesa car dealership and at a local linen supply company.

In addition, union members claim that stadium maintenance workers were used to paint and do other remodeling work at the homes of two stadium executives, Nava said. The city also has been charged for automobile repairs that maintenance employees allegedly have performed for stadium executives, Nava said.

There also are allegations that materials purchased by the city, including toilet paper, tools, paint, cement and plywood, have been sold to others by stadium officials, Garcia said.

Jack Argent, assistant stadium manager, said Thursday that stadium officials have turned over all records requested by police and the city auditor’s office. Argent added that police have interviewed him and several other stadium employees.

As for the letter’s allegations, Argent said, “It’s all anonymous. Nobody has signed anything. I can tell you that everything we buy goes through the (city) Purchasing Department. . . . As far as I’m concerned, everything is open here. The police told me that at this point they hadn’t found anything.”

Argent acknowledged that he and other stadium executives have employed Pedus employees to do work at their homes, but stressed that on such occasions the salaries and the cost of supplies were paid privately, and that workers were neither toiling on city time nor using city materials.

“I’ve used them at my house and I know other people have, too,” Argent said. “But I bought the rollers and brushes and paint. I paid them an hourly rate. What you have to understand is that these are part-time people and don’t work at the stadium all the time.”

Argent characterized many of the allegations as “union-initiated,” and Lockwood noted that Local 102 is scheduled to negotiate a new contract with Pedus soon.

Union officials, however, angrily deny that the allegations are being used as a negotiating ploy.

“Any indication that we’re doing this in a timely fashion because of negotiations is not true,” Garcia said. “We had no control over the letter going to the city manager’s office. But now that the allegations have been made, we’re just interested in seeing a bad situation corrected. That’s our only purpose.”