Mayor’s Charges Wrong, Croton Testifies

Fred Croton, the Los Angeles cultural affairs chief who has been accused of lying about his work experience, testified Friday that he had overall responsibility for running a Sharon, Conn., arts foundation both as a paid full-time director and “in effect . . . a shadow president.”

But Croton, testifying in his defense for nearly two hours, also told a Civil Service hearing officer that he is aware of no financial, contractual or other records that support his statements, which have been directly contradicted by testimony from other witnesses involved in the arts center.

The dispute over Croton’s duties and salary at the art center in the 1970s are at the heart of the effort by Mayor Tom Bradley to fire him from his $58,756-a-year job as general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department.

Croton maintains that Bradley is trying to get rid of him because he offended political supporters.

‘Full Responsibilities’

In the application he prepared for the Los Angeles job in 1980, Croton claimed that he had been director of the Sharon Creative Arts Foundation with “full responsibilities for administrative and artistic activities of a year-round performing arts and visual arts center.”

Bradley, who ordered a special investigation of Croton’s background after accusations that he had falsified his work experience, contends that Croton was merely a part-time arts director at Sharon who received considerably less than the $24,000-a-year salary he reported on his application.

Croton, under questioning by his attorney, Richard Grey, flatly denied the central charges against him in the dismissal action.

He said he received a $500 per week director’s salary from the Sharon art foundation from early 1973 to mid-1975, as his application states. Croton, often smiling during his sometimes rambling testimony, said he performed a variety of staff functions such as fund-raising, planning activities, directing the renovation of a theater and generating publicity.

Was ‘Shadow President’

In addition to holding the formal title of director, Croton said, “In effect, I became a shadow president” of the arts center foundation board.

Asked by Grey if any formal job description or contract was drawn up, Croton chuckled and said, “No nothing like that. . . . We just agreed on a handshake basis (from former board member Judson Philips) and a hug (from art center President Ann Hoskins).”

Hoskins has since died, and Philips, 86, is ill and not likely to testify.

Other witnesses active in the Sharon arts center called earlier by Assistant City Atty. Leslie E. Brown, who is arguing Bradley’s case, testified that Croton did not hold the director’s job and that the foundation was so financially strapped that it could never have paid him the salary he claimed. Humor columnist Robert Yoakum, a former president and board member of the Sharon arts foundation, portrayed Croton as a minor player in largely volunteer organization.

Croton also denied that he was a full-time vice president of a party goods sales company, the ANCI Corp. One charge against Croton is that he actually worked for the now-defunct Connecticut firm at the time he claims that he was director of the Sharon arts center.

Only a Part-Time Job

Croton said he worked for the party goods firm only one day a week and he believed that it was not significant enough to list on his job application.

One weakness in Bradley’s case is that the city has been unable to obtain employment records from the party goods firm to support its charges. Civil Service hearing officer Mark Burstein has hinted that he may recommend that the charge concerning the firm be dropped if more evidence is not submitted.

Brown will begin his questioning Croton today.

The City Council will decide whether Croton should be fired.