Pomona’s Staff Looks for a Leak : Government: The city is trying to find out who slipped a confidential report on corruption in the redevelopment agency to a mayoral candidate.

First the City Council hired a private detective to investigate allegations of corruption in its redevelopment agency. Now it wants someone to get to the bottom of another mystery: how a copy of the investigator’s top secret report ended up in the hands of mayoral hopeful Abe Tapia.

The City Council early Wednesday instructed city staff members to try to find out who leaked the confidential report to Tapia. He distributed copies of it to reporters this week and offered to make them available to any interested citizen. Tapia would not say who gave him the report.

A three-member majority of the council, on the advice of the city attorney, had classified the report “Secret,” claiming it contained information that could invite lawsuits.

The report deals mostly with allegations of irregularities and favoritism that were first aired by former Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant, before he was recalled from office in June.

The report left unresolved what might have been the most serious allegation, whether a joint bank account was maintained by a former redevelopment agency head and a man who owns a firm that used to be a major city landscaping contractor.

The two men, Sanford Sorenson, the former redevelopment chief, and D. Rodney Tapp, owner of Land Design, told The Times that the allegation was false. The report contains Sorenson’s denial, but does not quote Tapp. Tapp said he was never interviewed by the detective agency during the investigation, which so far has cost the city $36,000.

City Atty. Arnold Glasman told the City Council Tuesday night that release of the document violates the City Code.

“I don’t know where Mr. Tapia received that report. I would be very curious to find out,” Glasman said. “Any releasing or leaking of confidential material, under our City Code, is a misdemeanor. The perpetuation and carrying out of that conduct also gives rise to possible criminal sanctions.”

Glasman asked for authority to investigate how the report became public. Mayor Donna Smith said the council authorized an investigation during a private meeting, which began after the public council session concluded at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Smith said the original redevelopment investigation, by investigator Howard Emirhanian, of the Laguna Hills firm Saranow, Wells & Emirhanian, is incomplete. She said at least two versions of his preliminary reports are in circulation. “We have pieces of real craziness being shared around the community,” she said.

Smith said she and two other council members opposed release of the report because, although it is incomplete, it has been turned over to the county grand jury for use in a proposed management audit of the Pomona Redevelopment Agency and the Community Development Department. Smith said that disclosure of the information during an ongoing investigation could open the city to lawsuits.

“The city is extremely vulnerable to lawsuits, which could be brought by existing employees who are protected under certain personnel rules and regulations, former employees and private citizens who are named in the report,” Smith said. “And boy, could we get the pants sued off us.”

Councilwoman Nell Soto, who with Councilman Tomas Ursua had favored release of the report, denied that she or any other council member could have been the source of the leak. “I don’t like the implications by the mayor that someone on the council released it, because certainly that cannot be,” she said. “No one on the council, I’m sure, violated the confidentiality.” Tapia accused Smith of trying to conceal the report because it contains information damaging to Smith and her supporters. “Mayor Smith does not believe in honest government,” he said. “She attempts to cover up the issues affecting our city.”

But Smith said the report does not show intentional wrongdoing and, in any event, the whole idea of hiring a detective agency to investigate allegations was a mistake. The mayor noted that she voted against hiring the detectives because she thought the effort was a “witch hunt.”

Ursua, like Tapia is running against Smith for mayor in the March 5 city election. Ursua said that, although the investigators’ report may not show criminal wrongdoing, it does show “a whole pattern of friends and insiders taking care of one another, and all these people were supporters of the mayor.”

The report says that Land Design was awarded a number of contracts without competitive bidding in violation of U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department regulations. The practice of non-competitive bids was discontinued in 1987, the report notes, after a HUD audit.

The report said Sorenson should have obtained approval from the City Council in 1987 when he waived the payment of part of the interest owed by Daniel and Joan McIntire on a loan they obtained from the redevelopment agency to move a historic home. Pomona officials had encouraged the McIntires to move the house to a city-owned lot, which the city then traded to the couple in exchange for another lot.

But the McIntires ran into delays in obtaining permanent private financing because the former city lot was next to property not strictly designated for residential use. They balked at paying nearly $6,000 in interest racked up while they tried to obtain financing. Sorenson said he granted the interest waiver because the city was partly responsible for the delays.

The report criticizes the city for paying Laird Construction Inc. $74,118 in 1985 for demolition work on a housing project without going through a bidding process. Various demolitions were treated as individual projects valued at under $5,000 to avoid the necessity of bids, the report charges.

Daniel McIntire, Tapp and Sorenson all said they have done nothing wrong, but complained that allegations have been circulated against them in reports that seem to be available to others but not to them.

Smith said Tuesday night that she would recommend that those named in the investigator’s report receive copies from the city, but she withdrew her suggestion after the private council session. Smith said that, if the city were to give anyone the document officially, it would have to make the report available to everyone.

Ursua said versions of the report have been circulating in the community since last summer.

He said the council would have saved itself some trouble by simply making the document public. “I think the best policy is to be up front with the public, admit your mistakes and take your lumps,” he said.