Findings in Inquiry Into Jobs Official Given to D.A. : Finances: Questionable expenditures by John Chase total more than $100,000, a source says. The former executive director was fired in June.

The findings of a 10-month federal probe into whether the former director of a county job-training agency misused or misappropriated more than $100,000 in public funds have been forwarded to the district attorney’s office to determine if criminal prosecution is warranted.

A federal agent turned over to prosecutors Tuesday financial documents and summaries of statements by people associated with the Job Training Policy Council of Ventura County under former executive director John Chase, prosecutors confirmed.

Chase was chief executive of the semi-autonomous county agency until he was fired in June amid allegations that he had awarded a contract to a company he owned and that he had worked for two government-funded, job-training agencies at the same time without telling superiors.

Questionable expenditures by Chase total more than $100,000, said a source familiar with the investigation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Geb, chief of the district attorney’s major fraud division, said that an agent for the U.S. Department of Labor gave him the investigative documents Tuesday and that more reports from a related state audit are expected today.

“It’s really voluminous,” Geb said. “It’s going to take weeks for me to understand what they’re saying happened and, beyond that, whether we think a crime has been committed.”

In the meantime, the preliminary audit by the state Employment Development Department is expected to be forwarded to the County Board of Supervisors and the Job Training Policy Council for review and comment, county officials said.

Chase, a veteran county employee, was the original executive director of the local Job Training Policy Council, a federally funded agency formed in 1983 to train poor people and help them find jobs.

He was fired after evidence gathered by the council’s executive board and federal investigators indicated mismanagement and possible improper expenditures, council members said.

“We were satisfied it was irregular, and that’s the kindest interpretation I can put on it,” said William La Perch, an executive board member.

Chase did not return telephone calls Wednesday.

The investigation into Chase’s activities began in January in response to charges by the council’s controller, Randy Winton, shortly after he was fired by Chase.

Winton, in a written report distributed to state and federal agencies and some council members, alleged that the council was “now administratively in shambles.” He claimed that he was fired because of questions he had raised about apparent improprieties.

Winton questioned whether mileage claims by Chase and other staffers were legitimate and concluded that Chase was functioning not only as the council’s executive director but also as a manager for two other corporations that did business with the council.

He said some members of Chase’s staff--such as Chase himself--were apparently “multi-organizational floaters” who would shuffle back and forth between work for the council and the two other corporations.

Sources said investigators tracking Winton’s allegations have found that Chase directed not only the Job Training Policy Council for a salary of more than $50,000 a year but also continued to operate the agency the council had been formed to replace--the Private Industry Council of Ventura County.

Kay Doyle, county liaison to the job-training council, said the Private Industry Council lost its county sanction in 1983 and was thought to have been dissolved.

But Chase maintained it and moved various types of non-federal funds in and out of its checking account, council members said. He even secured a $544,000 three-year federal contract for the supposedly defunct Private Industry Council. About $180,000, or one-third of the contract, went to salaries and fringe benefits, a 1988 audit showed.

All Private Industry Council records have been examined by investigators to determine if the expenditures were legitimate, sources said. Richard Burriel, agent for the U.S. Department of Labor, would not comment on his findings.

Members of the Job Training Policy Council said they were startled to learn this year that the Private Industry Council still existed.

In 1983, “they did say the PIC was going to be closed down. But they didn’t say exactly when,” said Francisco De Leon, interim executive director of the job-training council.

Job-training council members said that when Chase was asked about the Private Industry Council this year, he replied that he had maintained it so he could accept private donations and keep them separate from federal funds going to the job-training council.

But the Private Industry Council was also used to issue contracts to small companies owned by Chase and a friend of his, sources said.

Chase was also paid by another corporation, the Business Labor Council, while he was running the job-training council in the late 1980s, sources said.

Chase’s relationship with the private Business Labor Council had been an issue in the mid-1980s, when Chase was executive director of both the labor council and the job-training council, said James Compton, a member of the job-training council.

Chase, a founding member of the Business Labor Council, was directed to relinquish his executive post to concentrate on his job at the Job Training Policy Council, Compton said. “There was an interest to ensure that the JTPC was getting our money’s worth of his time and efforts,” Compton said.

About two years later, in 1987, the labor council received a small Job Training Policy Council contract, De Leon said. Chase is now employed by the Business Labor Council, sources said.

Chase operated with extraordinary freedom until allegations surfaced this year, La Perch said, because he was a good administrator and because the board he served spent only a few hours a month on council business.

“John inspired a tremendous level of confidence and personal liking. He was a very charming person. . . . He was a man in whom we had every confidence,” La Perch said. “Now I feel like I was manipulated.”

The 19-member Job Training Policy Council is comprised of 10 members from public agencies involved in job training and nine members representing private groups such as vocational schools, organized labor, economic development agencies and chambers of commerce. Members are confirmed by the Board of Supervisors and serve two-year terms. They receive no pay.