Ex-City Worker Pleads Innocent : Lawndale: Former maintenance supervisor is charged with four felony counts for allegedly using city supplies in private remodeling projects.

The district attorney’s office filed four felony charges Wednesday against a former Lawndale maintenance supervisor who allegedly charged the city for building supplies used in private remodeling projects.

At his arraignment in Los Angeles Municipal Court, Floyd (Bud) Marez, 49, pleaded innocent to embezzlement of city money, embezzlement of city property and two counts of grand theft, Deputy Dist. Atty. Herb Lapin said.

Lapin said the alleged crimes took place between April, 1987, and August, 1988. If found guilty, Marez could be sentenced up to eight years in prison.

The criminal investigation began in August, 1988, and focused on allegations that Marez used city-paid materials on a private project in Norwalk and elsewhere.

At the time, City Atty. David Alshire said the clearest evidence of possible embezzlement involved a remodeling project at the Norwalk home of Yolanda Candelaria. She said she had hired Marez and co-worker Thomas Gomez in the spring of 1988 for a $30,000 project.

In an interview that August, she said that men in orange-and-brown city uniforms delivered truckloads of building materials to her home during normal work hours. Though she paid a large deposit, she said, the work was never completed and her home was left a shambles.

The district attorney’s investigation was prompted by a city inquiry that was completed in August, 1988, and resulted in Marez’s being suspended and later fired. Gomez, who was also suspended, resigned during the city investigation.

Two other employees--whose names were never disclosed--were also disciplined for taking part in the alleged theft of city building supplies.

The district attorney alleges that Marez embezzled at least $4,700 in city funds and charged at least $400 in building materials to city accounts, Lapin said. The two counts of grand theft were filed in connection with the alleged use of city materials and equipment on private projects, Lapin said.

The district attorney’s office will give its investigative report to the city, so the city may consider other disciplinary actions, Lapin said.

City Manager Jim Arnold declined comment on what further action the city may take, saying he had not seen the report.

Councilman Larry Rudolph, who, with former Planning Commissioner Gary McDonald, helped uncover the alleged scheme, said he is happy that “our suspicions are being backed by” the charges.

Marez worked for the city from 1981 to August, 1988.