Theft in City-Owned Buildings Up 200% in 1986, Audit Finds

Thefts from city-owned buildings soared by nearly 200% last year, when computer equipment and office supplies worth thousands of dollars were stolen, according to a city report.

In the first detailed accounting of a rash of thefts in 1986, the security division of the General Services Department reported nearly $149,000 in public and private property was stolen from buildings owned by the City of Los Angeles.

“We had IBM personal computers, a copying machine, TVs, VCRs stolen. You name it. It was driving us crazy,” said William Adrian, a security consultant for the city who is reviewing the report.

“They even took a VCR and two TVs from (General Services Department chief) Sylvia Cunliffe’s office,” said Adrian, a former Los Angeles police officer. The dollar value of the thefts was 192% higher than the nearly $51,000 in city and private property stolen in 1985.

‘A Severe Problem’

“We knew we had a severe problem,” said Brookes Treidler, assistant general manager for the General Services Department.

The city administrative office requested the theft report in its December, 1985, audit of Cunliffe’s department, which expressed concern that “security has become a weak link” in the agency.

The department had no exact accounting of the thefts before the study, which was completed in September and is part of a larger report yet to be completed by security officials.

General Services officials are quick to point out, however, that thefts have dropped significantly at municipal buildings so far this year, although they said no figures are available to date.

And the officials point out there is no annual pattern to the thefts.

The report shows that $107,000 in property was stolen in 1984, $51,000 in 1985, $149,000 in 1986 and probably a lot less in 1987.

Security officials believe that the slowdown this year can be pinpointed to the firing of two city employees. The firings came about as a result of work-conduct problems, not because of criminal conduct.

“When they were fired . . . the thefts stopped,” Adrian said.

Most of the thefts were from offices on several floors of the City Hall East Building downtown, an annex to the main City Hall building.

The theft report comes at a time when the city is considering beefing up security by installing surveillance cameras at City Hall and assigning a roving guard to the same building.

The security of 600 of the city’s 800 buildings is the responsibility of the security division of the General Services Department, which until June was managed by Cunliffe.

Cunliffe was placed on a forced paid leave from her job in June for alleged mismanagement and now faces the possibility of being fired or forced to retire.

The allegations against Cunliffe, however, stem from alleged misconduct in her dealings with city real estate projects, contracts, jobs and a “whistle blower,” and not the security of the city-owned property.

Adrian, Treidler and others refused to identify the two fired workers, saying they were never charged in the thefts because of lack of evidence.

The report states that in 1986, $136,213 in city property and $12,029 in private property, such as purses, or a total of $148,716, was stolen.

Treidler said his department is hard-pressed to guard city buildings when the security force has been reduced from 85 to 55 in seven years, but said the installation of about 150 burglar alarms throughout city buildings over the last few years has helped.