Report Critical of City Clerk’s Office Just a Mix-Up at Copying Machine

In the blizzard of audits, reports, critiques and investigations ricocheting throughout Los Angeles City Hall this summer, the inevitable finally happened. The paper copying machines ran amok, and one city agency wound up mistakenly leveling a blast at another.

When the paper work tangle finally was straightened out Friday:

- A member of the city administrative office staff apologized to City Clerk Elias Martinez.

- Martinez took credit for identifying some problems within his own office and moving to straighten them out.

- City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said publicly that his office never intended to criticize Martinez.

The ruckus began Thursday when the city administrative office and the city controller’s office issued nearly simultaneous reports on operations within the clerk’s office.

The controller’s audit was highly critical of how Martinez’s staff handles some contracts within a $40-million city general purposes fund. At first glance, so was the city administrative office.

A 10-page attachment to the city administrative office’s report said such things as there were “several areas of weakness;” that a section of the standard forms used for many contracts could be “misleading, confusing and probably contradictory,” and that “relatively few assurances can be made that fraud or inept management of city funds has not occurred.”

Coming from the city administrative office, those were pretty strong charges. In fact, they did not come from the office.

‘Own Report’

“This was my own report,” Martinez complained. “Why did they do this? These were areas that we had identified and (corrective) action that we had taken on our own.”

Martinez said that when problems surfaced earlier this year with payments to a city-financed African trade promotion organization, which his office was supposed to oversee, he asked his staff to draw up a list of potential problems within his office and make suggestions to correct them.

Just as the controller’s office was about to release its critical audit, Martinez sent his own list of self-criticisms to Controller Rick Tuttle, the city attorney’s office and Comrie.

Simultaneously, the city administrative office was issuing a report to the City Council urging the clerk to step up monitoring of its contracts and suggesting a small addition to Martinez’s staff.

Pass Along

Comrie said his office planned to pass Martinez’s own criticisms of his office along to the council with the rest of his report.

Instead, Comrie said, in the paper-copying process, the front pages of Martinez’s report were left out. The resulting city administrative office report included all of Martinez’s own criticisms but made it appear as if the administrative office was leveling the charges at the clerk.

“He’s absolutely right,” said Comrie of Martinez’s protests. “We didn’t do any audit of the city clerk’s office. The staff will call and apologize to him.”

A few minutes later Martinez reported he was “surprised” but vindicated.

“I wasn’t looking for an apology,” he said, but “I accepted.”