County Labor Chief Urges Wider United Way Inquiry

The head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor called Friday for a broader investigation of the United Way than the charity’s directors approved last week and said the inquiry should be so open that it “operates in a fishbowl.”

William D. Robertson, secretary-treasurer of the 700,000-member labor group, also criticized United Way’s 95-member board of directors, on which he serves, for acting as a “rubber stamp” for the charity’s president, Francis X. McNamara Jr.

McNamara began a leave of absence this week as part of a plan to restore public confidence after disclosures that more than $300,000 in loans were made to five United Way executives.

McNamara arranged the mostly unsecured and interest-free loans in 1980-82, with the written approval of United Way’s chairmen at the time and other key volunteers. Neither McNamara nor the key volunteers brought the loans before the full board of directors or its executive committee.

‘Internal Controls’

United Way Chairman Roy Anderson, the acting president during McNamara’s leave, has said the citizens’ committee will review “management policies, procedures, internal controls and recent practices relating to financial administration” of United Way.

Robertson said he believes the committee’s charter should be broader.

“We have to investigate everything dealing with that agency,” Robertson said.

He said the citizens’ committee should look for potential problems not only with the loans and the charity’s finances, but also its overall management, personnel problems and whether money is equitably distributed to serve the community’s most pressing social service needs.

Both the independent citizens’ committee and County Counsel Dewitt Clinton, who is conducting a separate inquiry, should be so open during their inquiries that they “operate in a fishbowl,” he said.

Robertson said he spoke out at the request of both the federation’s board of delegates and its executive committee. Labor and United Way officials estimate that unionized workers made about one-third of the $85.5 million in pledges to United Way this year. Robertson urged union members not to cancel their pledges, saying this would only reduce services to the needy.