New Data Spurs FPPC to Reopen Wedin’s Case : Inquiry: A Times story reported the Brea mayor’s involvement with a Costa Mesa planning firm.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission is reopening an investigation of Mayor Wayne D. Wedin because of “new information” revealing his business relationship with a planning firm picked last year to conduct a city study, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.

An earlier FPPC investigation had ended on Jan. 23 when the commission wrote the Brea city attorney that “no violation” of state conflict-of-interest law “appears to have occurred at this time.”

FPPC spokesman Jay Greenwood said Wednesday that the agency decided to reopen the case after disclosure of “new information” in Sunday’s Times Orange County Edition.

The articles reported that the FPPC closed its file without knowing that Wedin had taken several actions as a councilman boosting the planning firm. At the same time, The Times reported, Wedin was involved as a subcontractor with the company in a separate venture in San Diego.

State law prohibits officials from participating in governmental decisions that can foreseeably affect a source of their income. The FPPC is empowered to impose maximum fines of $2,000 for any violation.

City records show that Wedin requested last June that the firm, the Costa Mesa-based Keith Cos., be added to a list of companies being asked to bid on the project, called the North Brea Sphere of Influence Study. The records and interviews also show that Wedin:

* Opposed the Brea planning staff’s selection of two other firms as finalists for the project, urging that the Keith Cos. and an affiliated firm be named one of the finalists.

* Opposed a City Council colleague’s recommendation to hire another firm, P & D Technologies of Orange.

* Participated in a meeting of the council’s development committee on Dec. 18, when it was announced that the Keith team had agreed with city staff to do the desired work for $320,000.

Wedin and Brea City Atty. James L. Markman have said they instructed Brea staff members to scrap the selection of Keith and to avoid entering into a contract with the planning firm on Dec. 27, the day an FPPC investigator spoke by telephone with Markman.

Wedin, a former city manager of Brea who owns his own development-consulting firm, did not return calls on Wednesday seeking his comment. Wedin said last week that he had no reason to believe that he broke the law. He cited the FPPC’s letter and the city’s decision to back away from entering the contract with Keith.

Wedin, who was working last year with the Keith Cos. in San Diego, also has said that he considered his “client” in San Diego to be the city’s Redevelopment Agency--not the Keith Cos. By his own account, Wedin received $41,000 for his work with Keith in San Diego, from October, 1989, to September, 1990.

A spokesman for the Keith Cos. has said that Wedin was employed in the San Diego venture only because of his expertise as a development consultant.

When the FPPC initially closed the case on Jan. 23, its letter misstated a number of facts. For instance, the agency wrote in the letter, addressed to City Atty. Markman:

“The city staff has not been given any direction by the council which would lead to the selection of a consulting firm. The council has even refused to permit this matter to be placed on the agenda as an item for consideration.”

In fact, before the FPPC’s call to Markman on Dec. 27, Brea staff members had been directed for months to interview the firms competing for the contract, to analyze their proposals and, finally, to negotiate a contract with Keith and its affiliated firm. The matter also was discussed publicly at least five times at meetings of the City Council or its development committee.

Markman, the only person interviewed by the FPPC before the case was closed, told The Times on Monday that agency investigator Don McCormick, during what Markman described as a “two-minute” conversation, asked only if a contract had been entered. Markman said he replied that no contract had been entered and that “‘no contract’s been placed on an agenda.”’

Markman said he first asked Wedin about his relationship with the Keith Cos. after learning that the FPPC’s McCormick had tried unsuccessfully to question a Brea planning-staff member on Dec. 26. Markman said he knew of Wedin’s involvement with Keith in the San Diego venture by the time he spoke with McCormick but did not volunteer that information because of his attorney-client relationship with Wedin.

Markman said that, in his view, Wedin has been “scrupulous” in seeking to avoid conflicts of interest and has done nothing wrong.

“I think there was an inadvertence here,” Markman said, referring to Wedin’s actions. “I was very happy we caught it before we entered a contract.”

The FPPC’s file shows that it originally opened the case on Nov. 30, 1990, after receiving an anonymous letter that questioned Wedin’s relationship with the Keith Cos.