Carson : Council Insurance Probe

After two closed sessions during the City Council meeting this week, Mayor Kay Calas appointed a two-member council committee to review City Administrator John Dangleis’ handling of insurance and deferred-compensation deals that provided a friend and former associate with business amounting to $300,000 a year.

Dangleis, who has denied any wrongdoing, is listed in state records as an agent for Pacific Standard Life Insurance Co., the company that received the business in 1986. Peter Cobo, the agent handling Carson’s business for Pacific Standard, is a longtime friend of Dangleis. The city administrator has said he worked through Cobo’s Covina agency as an independent agent before he came to Carson in 1984.

Although Dangleis still lists Cobo’s office on state insurance records as his place of business, the city official said he is an inactive agent and has not written any insurance policies for three years.

Council members on the committee are Michael I. Mitoma and Tom Mills. Calas said the council decided to look into the matter after reading about it in The Times. The Los Angeles district attorney’s office also has said it is reviewing the situation as a possible conflict of interest.