Ex-Lawndale Employee Sentenced

A former Lawndale maintenance supervisor accused of charging the city for building supplies that were used in private remodeling projects was sentenced Friday to three years probation and required to pay $4,500 in restitution.

Originally charged with two counts of embezzlement and two counts of grand theft, Floyd (Bud) Marez, 49, agreed this month to plead no contest to one count of grand theft, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor, in exchange for having the other three charges dropped, Deputy Dist. Atty. Herb Lapin said.

Marez was also sentenced to two days in jail, which he had already served.

“I think it was probably a pervasive attitude in the city at the time that it’s OK to do other work while you’re being paid by your agency,” Lapin said. “It was somewhat accepted, as long as it wasn’t out of control.”

The sentencing brought to a close a scandal that at one time implicated five other city employees and cost the city several thousands of dollars in losses as well as in investigative and disciplinary costs, Lawndale City Atty. David J. Aleshire said.

Marez, who began working for the city in 1981, was suspended and later fired from his job as maintenance supervisor in August, 1988, after a city investigation accused him of using city-paid materials on city time to undertake remodeling projects for private gain.

The district attorney’s office later charged Marez with embezzling $4,700 in city funds and charging at least $400 in wire mesh and other materials to the city in order to remodel the home of Yolanda Candelaria of Norwalk.

Candelaria told The Times that she had hired Marez and a co-worker, Thomas Gomez, then 26, to remodel her home for $30,000 in the spring of 1988. After she paid a deposit of $20,000, Marez and Gomez failed to complete the work and left her home a shambles, she said.

Gomez, who also was suspended, resigned during the investigation. Two other employees, whose names were never disclosed, were also disciplined for taking part in the alleged theft.

Marez could not be reached and his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ken Erlich, declined to comment.