Bradley Lists 20 Charges Against Cunliffe in Letter

Sylvia Cunliffe, the embattled head of the city’s General Services Department, routinely sought the arrest records of her employees despite numerous warnings that doing so exposed the city to possible litigation, Mayor Tom Bradley charged Friday.

In a 14-page letter defending his move to fire her, Bradley also said that Cunliffe was insubordinate, engaged in nepotism, illegally favored certain private contractors and, on at least one occasion, tried to cover her tracks by destroying a public document.

Bradley’s list of 20 allegations contained in a confidential letter to the City Council, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, also included a specific charge that Cunliffe used “lies and subterfuges” to illegally obtain the criminal records of two of her employees.

The letter represented the first time that Bradley had detailed his reasons for his unprecedented move to fire Cunliffe, who he first appointed to head the department in 1979. The mayor is on an 18-day trip to Asia and could not be reached for comment Friday. His letter, prepared before his departure on Tuesday, was delivered Friday afternoon to the City Council.

In urging the City Council to fire Cunliffe, Bradley said that an investigation by the city attorney into her alleged improper activities produced evidence that is “solid, credible and worthy of belief.”

“By contrast, the response submitted on Ms. Cunliffe’s behalf by (her former attorney, Godfrey) Isaac lacks both weight and credibility,” Bradley said. “It is unsigned, it alleges ‘facts’ with no indication of how those facts became known or what evidence supports them, and it misstates the allegations against Ms. Cunliffe.”

“It is little more than a smoke screen designed to confuse its readers,” Bradley concluded, adding that Cunliffe’s response to the allegations, “fails to present any meaningful explanation, excuse, justification or defense to any of the allegations against her.”

The City Council is expected to consider Cunliffe’s ouster next Friday in a closed-door session. Bradley ordered the 54-year-old general manager to take a paid leave of absence from her $90,243-a-year job last June pending the outcome of the city’s investigation.

Specifically, Bradley said Cunliffe, “established a practice of obtaining copies of state Summary Criminal History Records of selected employees of her department when she was not a person authorized by law to do so.”

Bradley said that the law regarding the distribution and possession or receipt of criminal history records is quite clear.

“Such records are treated virtually the same as contraband; the mere unauthorized possession of them is forbidden, as is the distribution to someone not authorized to possess them.”

Cunliffe, according to Bradley, claimed that former police officers advised her that it was proper to obtain the criminal records. But, the mayor added, “the documentary evidence completely refutes the credibility of this claim.”

Bradley said Cunliffe was warned by city personnel officials that she was not authorized to receive the records, but did so anyway after expressing “strong dissatisfaction” with the prohibition.

On at least two occasions cited in the mayor’s letter, Cunliffe had obtained the records of Robert O’Neill and at least one other employee. Past news articles had told how Cunliffe had sought the records to discredit O’Neill, a real estate officer in Cunliffe’s department. Details about the second employee mentioned by Bradley had not surfaced previously, nor did Bradley specify why Cunliffe wanted the information about him.

O’Neill made several anonymous telephone calls on a city hot line in which he accused Cunliffe of improprieties, including her renting of a city-owned house to Milt Petty, an employee of Street Scene, a downtown festival that Cunliffe helped organize. By renting the property to Petty, a personal friend of Cunliffe, she breached a “duty of impartiality” required of her by law, Bradley said.

Cunliffe learned O’Neill’s identity, obtained records showing that as a teen-ager he had been arrested and had been an alcoholic, and included that information in a memo to Bradley and the City Council.

Bradley charged that not only had obtaining the arrest information violated O’Neill’s privacy and exposed the city to potential litigation, “Ms. Cunliffe falsely implied that Mr. O’Neill was presently dishonest and had never rehabilitated himself.” O’Neill has explained previously that he has been in an alcoholic recovery program for 20 years and that city officials knew it.

“It was quite clear that her purpose in sending the memoranda was as an act of reprisal against Mr. O’Neill,” Bradley said.

Bradley also charged Cunliffe with hiring Rick Neiswonger as a departmental electrician, although he “lacked the knowledge and skills necessary to perform that job.” Neiswonger had been a Street Scene consultant.

Cunliffe was also accused of destroying a rental application form for a city-owned apartment in which Neiswonger had listed Cunliffe’s daughter as a personal reference. She also allegedly intervened to give Neiswonger more time to pay back rent, an act Bradley said “clearly violates . . . the (city’s) Code of Ethics.”

Cunliffe also violated the Code of Ethics when she hired her mother, Manuela Knecht, as a secretary in her office from 1983 to 1986, Bradley said.

Finally, Bradley said that Cunliffe had shown favoritism in the 1985 awarding of a City Hall Mall lease to Valencia Management by not disclosing that a partner in the firm, Carl Kundert, was her personal security consultant. Cunliffe also recommended three years earlier that Kundert’s firm be granted a lease of city-owned land at Olympic Boulevard and Maple Street.