Ex-Official Denies There’s a Conflict in Contract to Tenant

A former member of the state Employment Training Panel confirmed Monday that he rents office space to a longtime associate whose company won a $592,000 state contract in August, in part because of the official’s support.

But Robert Munoz, an Oxnard insurance broker under investigation for a possible violation of conflict-of-interest law, said he does not think his landlord relationship with associate Larry Owens created a financial conflict that required him to abstain from voting on the contract.

State law generally prohibits members of state boards from participating in decisions that would affect a source of their income.

Munoz, however, said he doesn’t believe there is a legal conflict because the company that rents his Oxnard Boulevard suite is not the same company that received the state contract, though both are partly owned by Owens.

“I don’t have any doubt in my mind that there is no conflict of interest,” Munoz said in an interview. He previously had declined requests for interviews.

“Is the perception of conflict of interest there?” he said. “Yeah, I think so. But as far as me receiving any income . . . because of a particular vote, there is nothing there.”

Munoz was the panel’s chief supporter of a $2-million contract approved Aug. 24 with the Ventura County Agricultural Assn. He led an effort that moved the project from 335th place on a waiting list to first place amid criticism that it was a subsidy for big farmers.

The contract, which promises to teach farm workers to pick a variety of crops and operate machinery, also includes a $592,000 subcontract under which Golden State School agrees to provide English-language instruction. Owens is president and part owner of Golden State School.

In his interview Monday, Munoz said he has not consulted a lawyer to confirm his reading of state conflict-of-interest law. Nor did he ask the legal counsel for the Employment Training Panel whether his landlord relationship with Owens was a problem before his August vote, Munoz said.

Special Assistant Dist. Atty. Donald D. Coleman, who last week initiated a county inquiry into Munoz’s vote, said the distinction Munoz makes about which Owens company pays rent to him will be examined over the next two weeks.

“First you establish what happened, then you apply that to the law,” Coleman said. “Then the question becomes whether that is just an artificial distinction.”

Coleman said Munoz has agreed to cooperate in the county probe and will be interviewed today or Wednesday by county investigators.

James Bratt, interim executive director of the Employment Training Panel, has also asked the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the state attorney general’s office for a ruling on Munoz’s vote.

Munoz, a 59-year-old gubernatorial appointee, was replaced on the obscure state training panel in September after more than four years as a member. The panel awards dozens of job-training contracts a year and is expected to approve agreements worth $160 million in 1990.

The Ventura contract, which included the subcontract for Owens’ Golden State School, was given fast-track treatment by the panel after Munoz persuaded his colleagues in May to make farm projects a top priority. The next month, Munoz declared that the only agricultural applicant was the Ventura agricultural association.

Two months later, despite serious concerns by its staff and strong objections by the state Employment Development Department, the panel approved the Ventura project 5 to 2.

Golden State School is on Universe Circle in Oxnard. Owens is principal owner of Golden State Employer Services, which Munoz said rents a 3,300-square-foot office from him for $3,000 a month.

Owens and Munoz also worked together as directors of the Job Training Policy Council, formerly known as the Private Industry Council of Ventura County, during the early 1980s and from 1988 until Owens resigned in late September.

Munoz said Monday that he has known Owens for years but is not a close friend. He added that since Golden State Employer Services began renting offices from him in 1988, he has been careful never to vote on that company’s many contracts at the local Job Training Policy Council or to discuss them with other council members.

Munoz also said that, as a member of the state employment panel, he treated the Ventura County Agricultural Assn. contract the same way he has many others, pushing for quick approval once he believed it was worth his support.

Munoz said he has never tried to use his position as an employment panel member to get insurance business for his agency. But he acknowledged that he tried this year to sell an insurance policy to Home Club, which has held a $5.8-million panel contract since 1989.

Munoz said that--at the request of another insurance broker--he called a consultant involved in the Home Club contract and asked him to solicit the policy for Munoz.

“I was going to call the Home Club, but I just didn’t feel right in doing it,” he said. He said he could not explain why he felt uneasy, but he did not believe his solicitation was improper.

Munoz said he had never been the broker on an insurance policy for a company that received a panel contract.

But when asked about Tubed Products Inc. of Oxnard, which received a $54,960 panel contract in March, he said he arranged that company’s health insurance policy for its local plant.

Munoz said Tubed Products called him about the policy, not the other way around. Munoz said that is important because he had previously been assured by panel lawyer Peter DeMauro that no conflict of interest would exist if a company initiated the contact.

DeMauro said Monday that he knew nothing of Munoz’s work for Tubed Products and would have recommended against it. “I’d say just don’t do it,” the lawyer said.

DeMauro said that a year or two ago, Munoz did ask hypothetically whether he could be a broker for a company with an Employment Training Panel contract if the work was produced by a Munoz employee without his knowledge. DeMauro said he told Munoz that he would have to disclose the policy and abstain from all activity involving that contract.

“I’m sure I’ve never given the advice that they should . . . contract with somebody we have a contract with,” DeMauro said.

Munoz, who was appointed to the employment panel by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1986, said he is comfortable with his service to the state.

“I can honestly say I am very proud of what I have done on the panel,” Munoz said. “I feel that I have served the governor to the best of my ability.”