City Buyout of Tuite’s Pact Exceeded Contract Terms : Politics: Settlement offered to head of redevelopment agency will cost $1.54 million over 30 years, council says.

In buying out the contract of Los Angeles’ redevelopment chief, city officials offered $375,000 more than required by contract, and the controversial settlement will amount to $1.54 million over 30 years, according to City Council calculations disclosed Monday.

The disclosures regarding Community Redevelopment Agency Administrator John Tuite’s severance package came as City Council members angrily grilled CRA officials about the buyout, which has triggered a firestorm of protest and a drive by council members to seize control of the agency.

Council members accused CRA officials of lying to them and abusing their public trust.

CRA officials had said that the cost of the Dec. 28 settlement was $765,375 and that it was required under Tuite’s four-year employment contract, which expires in 1992.

But CRA officials acknowledged Monday that the payments to Tuite, particularly his pension, are much higher than mandated by his 1988 employment contract with the city under which he was paid an annual salary of $147,000.

Under intense questioning by council members at a committee hearing, CRA officials said the $765,375 reflected the agency’s onetime cost, not the total value to Tuite.

Councilwoman Gloria Molina, chairwoman of the panel that oversees the agency, pressed CRA Commission Chairman Jim Wood to say whether he would go along with rescinding the pact. Wood said he would not. “I do not believe that would be in the best interests of the agency.” Wood said.

Molina called the payout “outrageous.” Councilman Nate Holden said the package appeared to be a “gift of public funds” because Tuite is being compensated for more than a year in which he will not be working for the CRA.

The package approved by the CRA includes more than $1 million in pension payments alone to Tuite or his wife, if she survives him, over the next 30 years, according to an analyst for Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Tuite received most of the rest of the package, more than $400,000, in two checks written to him within a few hours of the CRA commission’s approval of the package on the Friday afternoon before the New Year’s holiday, council members were told.

Announcement of the package ignited outrage in City Hall not only because of its unprecedented size, but because the City Council’s oversight committee was given no chance to review the settlement.

“You are lying to this committee and you are lying to the public,” Molina told Wood after he said CRA officials had repeatedly tried to discuss details of Tuite’s pay package with her committee.

The events leading up to Tuite’s resignation--he will leave the agency in April--remain clouded. Among council members there is strong suspicion that Mayor Tom Bradley or top advisers in his office lobbied to push out Tuite, despite Bradley’s public statement of support for the CRA administrator. Speculation was that Tuite’s departure was orchestrated by Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani, who has been working to rebuild Bradley’s image and distance the mayor from criticism of the CRA and its pro-growth image.

The agency and Tuite have been under increasing pressure in recent years to shift their spending priorities from downtown commercial development toward low-cost housing and social needs.

Asked whether anyone in the mayor’s office had expressed interest in getting Tuite out of office, Wood declined to comment. But Wood, a Bradley appointee, said he had discussed Tuite’s departure with the mayor. Wood said the mayor assured him that Tuite was free to serve out the final 18 months of his contract.

Asked if Bradley knew of the severance package before it was approved, Wood told The Times, “I don’t think he was unaware this was a significant action.” But Wood said he did not believe Bradley knew the total cost of the package.

Bill Chandler, Bradley’s press spokesman, said the mayor was not aware of the size of the severance package and did not sign off on it.

Chandler said the mayor does not want the city to ever again be saddled with such a large settlement.

During the hearing, council members repeatedly asked Wood and other CRA officials why, if Tuite’s performance merited such a huge buyout, it was so important that he leave long before his contract expired.

Wood took responsibility for the Tuite buyout, but his responses to the council did little to clear up the mystery surrounding Tuite’s departure.

He said that when Tuite made it known last month that he did not wish to serve beyond his contract, the CRA commission felt it had to act. “Our view was that given the problems facing the agency, we needed an administrator with a long-term view,” Wood said.

“Mr. Tuite’s attention has been diverted” by circumstances beyond his control, Wood said, adding that Tuite “hasn’t given his attention to the long-term view of the agency”

He did not elaborate.