Tougher Rules Rejected for One-Client County Milk Board

Stronger controls for Los Angeles County’s obscure Milk Commission were rejected by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, despite allegations that the panel is a captive of the single raw milk producer it regulates.

Supervisors voted down an ordinance that would have established standards, including conflict-of-interest rules, for the commission, whose sole mission is to oversee the production, distribution and sale of raw milk.

The ordinance was ordered drawn up last year after Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon complained that the six-member commission receives all of its funding directly from the lone company it regulates--Stueve Brothers Farms--and warned that such a relationship could compromise the panel.

Stueve Brothers pays $3,500 a month to support the commission’s activities, said 72-year-old Harold Steuve, whose dairy produces 8,000 to 10,000 gallons of raw milk a day. Most of the money paid the commission goes to testing, but the commission is not subject to the same fiscal controls, including review of expenditures by county officials, as other commissions.

Commission members receive $25 a meeting, paid by Stueve Brothers.

Last spring, Dixon was ordered to look into the commission after a Bay Area judge, in an unrelated case, called the panel a “captive” of the dairy.

Dixon questioned whether Los Angeles County should, through a quirk in the law, continue to regulate a dairy that is located in San Bernardino County and monitor raw milk that is sold statewide. But supervisors last fall rejected Dixon’s recommendation to do away with the panel, which was created in 1968 when raw milk dairies were located in Los Angeles County.

Instead, the board last fall ordered drafting of an ordinance establishing standards for operation of the commission.

But Supervisor Pete Schabarum on Tuesday urged his colleagues to reject the ordinance, contending that the controversy surrounding the commission has been “much ado about nothing.”

Harold Steuve told the board that the new rules are part of an effort to do away with raw milk sales in California. “We never had any outbreak of anything,” he said, contending that the commission has worked well to protect the public’s health.

Commission Chairman Dr. Paul Fleiss also disputed the need for the new rules. “You think that $25 a month would compromise anybody?” he asked. The state Fair Political Practices Commission is looking into Fleiss’ work as a paid consultant to an attorney for the raw milk producer. Fleiss has denied any wrongdoing.

Joining Schabarum in rejecting the ordinance were Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana. Supervisors Ed Edelman and Kenneth Hahn were absent.

Deputy County Counsel Steven J. Carnevale said he believes commission members are required to obey state conflict-of-interest laws but said the ordinance was designed to spell out the rules more clearly.