D.A. Widens Investigation of City Hall : Glendora: Nearly finished checking on city’s dealings with insurance firm co-owned by the mayor, the district attorney digs deeper.

The district attorney’s office, which had planned to complete an investigation this month into the city’s insurance practices, has expanded its inquiry to consider other alleged improprieties at City Hall, authorities said last week.

Prosecutors declined to reveal any details of the investigation but said they are looking into at least two complaints separate from their original review of the city’s dealings with an insurance firm co-owned by Mayor Bob Kuhn.

“It’s one of those things that happens when you start digging and talking to people,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Wenke said. “It just sort of expanded. . . . You bring up one matter and they bring up other topics.”

Wenke, however, cautioned against reading anything into the probe or speculating on who might be the target.

“Whether there’s any merit to these additional complaints, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s so sketchy at this point. All I can tell you is that it doesn’t relate to the Kuhn insurance incident at all.”

Kuhn is being investigated by prosecutors to determine if his ties to Alandale Insurance Agency, which has done more than $125,000 in business with the city since Kuhn joined the City Council in 1986, posed a conflict of interest.

The mayor, who has denied any wrongdoing, has abstained from voting on at least 13 payments to Alandale, a firm in which he holds more than a two-thirds interest. A review of records by The Times in May, however, showed that he voted to approve payments to the firm on at least three other occasions.

Since then, the council has voted to obtain coverage from a different insurance broker, and the state Fair Political Practices Commission has found no evidence that Kuhn acted improperly.

“The whole thing is ridiculous,” said City Manager Art Cook, adding that he had not been informed of the new allegations. “It’s like anybody can file a complaint . . . and all of a sudden they come knocking on your door.”

The district attorney’s office, which indicated that it was close to completing its review of Kuhn, decided to hold off on a final report and conclude the entire investigation at one time.