Two Outrages: Baffling Buyout in L.A. . . : Huge goodby kiss to development head raises many eyebrows--and questions

Jim Wood, the chairman of the Community Redevelopment Agency board, and his boss, Mayor Tom Bradley, have a lot of hard questions to answer regarding the huge payoff to buy out the agency’s able but embattled administrator, John Tuite. They owe a full explanation to the taxpayers who must foot the bill for this outrage.

Wood was, to be very charitable indeed about the matter, less than forthcoming Monday before the City Council. He still has a lot more explaining to do on why Tuite, who was willing to work until his contract expires in 1992, was paid so handsomely to leave the job early.

Let’s start with the biggest question: What did the mayor know, and when did he know it? Wood told the council that Bradley was aware of the deal, but didn’t know the specifics. With such a huge amount of money at stake? Tuite’s contract was a matter of public record. Certainly, Bradley, Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani and the mayoral appointees on the CRA board had to know what it would cost to buy Tuite out. If not, why not?

The $765,000 settlement exceeds Tuite’s very generous contract. Why did Wood and the CRA board agree to sweeten the deal even further?

The payoff will be worth as much as $1.54 million in the long run if Tuite or his wife is able to collect his pension for the next 30 years. Three decades worth of interest added to the lump-sum deposited last week to cover the pension will pay off handsomely. Why was it worth so much to get Tuite out before his contract ran out?

Who decided Tuite had to go at any cost? What precisely was the role of the mayor, and of his top aide, Fabiani, in the buyout? Was Tuite’s forced removal part of the fallout from the CRA’s new shift toward more affordable housing? If the mayor wanted even more housing, why didn’t he issue those orders to his appointees, starting with Wood?

Tuite can’t be faulted for being a shrewd bargainer, or for trying to get the best deal possible. But why were Wood and the CRA board able to approve the unusually lucrative deal before anyone in City Hall could raise objections to it, or at least ask some questions about it?

The buyout of Tuite has prompted the council to grab for control of the redevelopment agency. But that’s no answer to anything. The CRA is already too politicized, and the council would only trigger an even bigger scramble over its multimillion-dollar pot of redevelopment money. Instead of trying to take over, the council should keep CRA under much closer scrutiny.

At least the huge settlement has set off a useful debate in City Hall on how CRA operates. But that’s the only good thing to emerge from the latest Bradley Administration debacle.