Woo Brands Trade Group a ‘Bad Apple’

Calling a scandal-ridden, city-funded Africa trade group a “glaring example of a bad apple,” the chairman of a Los Angeles City Council committee said Tuesday that he may subpoena Juanita St. John, the head of the group, to answer questions about tax monies that are unaccounted for.

Councilman Michael Woo, chairman of a council panel that is reviewing the city’s oversight of a $5.6-million fund that flows annually to a variety of elected city officials’ pet community projects, said his committee intends to investigate the finances of the Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations, which he said “seems clearly to be a waste of taxpayer money.”

The task force, which Mayor Tom Bradley helped create and keep alive by pushing for $400,000 in city funding over four years, is under investigation by the city controller, the city attorney and the state attorney general’s office for possible misuse of funds. St. John, 58, the task force’s $40,000-a-year executive director, is a partner with Bradley in a Riverside County real estate investment.

St. John already has been charged with failing to provide records subpoenaed by the city controller.

Auditors have said that $180,000 in funds have not been accounted for, and that St. John, who has had personal financial problems for several years, commingled task force and personal funds in family checking accounts. Such commingling is forbidden in the task force’s contract with the city, but St. John has denied doing anything improper.

Woo said he wants to know “what the city money was used for . . . what happened to (it) after the checks went out from here. . . . It may require a subpoena to get her cooperation.”

Woo said he expects to hold public hearings on the task force to be scheduled after City Controller Rick Tuttle completes an audit of the group. That report is expected to be released soon.

An attorney for St. John said she hopes a subpoena will not be necessary.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to answer everyone,” said Vicki Podberesky, one of St. John’s lawyers. “We are willing to turn over documents when we . . . have everything in order.”

But Podberesky said St. John may not cooperate if criminal charges of misappropriation of funds are filed. Citing recent comments by city officials, she said there “certainly seem to be some rumblings” that charges may be filed.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Woo held up the task force as an example of the potential for problems in the city’s management of funding for dozens of community groups. The hearing came in response to recent audits, promoted by the task force controversy, that found major weaknesses in overseeing millions of dollars allotted to community groups.

Woo said the audit found evidence that other groups also had failed to properly account for their use of city funds.

Woo’s committee recommended that specific proposals be brought back in two weeks to tighten financial controls and provide a “neutral” system of evaluating which programs are worthy of city support.

Task force officials say their group helps promote business and cultural ties between the city and Africa through seminars, trade missions and art exhibits. But Woo said he has seen no evidence that the group “accrued any real benefits to the city.”

Woo acknowledged he supported the mayor’s request for task force funding in the past. “It was a mistake,” he said.