Business Actions Bring Harbor Official Into the Spotlight : Inquiry: George Talin Sr.’s links to port tenants and votes on leases have raised questions and put his reappointment in jeopardy.

As George Talin Sr.’s business dealings come under increasing scrutiny, so does his reappointment to the powerful Long Beach Harbor Commission.

A month ago, Talin’s appointment to a second six-year term on the port board would have been routine. But in recent weeks, questions about his tire company’s practices have arisen on two separate fronts, throwing his reappointment into perilous political waters.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office last month revealed that it is investigating allegations by two of Talin’s former employees that Talin Tire Inc. billed customers--including the county--for work the company never performed. And Mayor Ernie Kell a week ago asked the district attorney’s office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission to determine whether Talin’s business dealings with the city Harbor Department and port tenants represent a conflict of interest.

Talin executives, who have denied any wrongdoing on the company’s part, have temporarily relieved one of their employees of managerial duties, and say they are launching an in-house investigation into the fraud allegations. Talin, known as a strong-willed, hard-driving commissioner, has also denied any conflict of interest involving his harbor post, in which he helps oversee one of the busiest ports in the nation.

During his term, according to port records, Talin has voted on the leases of several of the port’s major tenants at the same time that those shipping companies were buying tires and repair services from Talin’s firm. Talin Tire has also had minor contracts with the Harbor Department and contracts worth nearly $900,000 to fix and supply new tires for the city’s vehicle fleet.

State regulations prohibit public officials from voting on matters in which they have a financial interest--and Talin insists that he never has.

“In my duties as a Harbor Commissioner (I) have never voted on any issue that would either directly or indirectly benefit myself or Talin Tire,” Talin wrote in a July 4 letter to the editor of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, responding to an article in which the newspaper detailed Talin’s contracts.

Talin last week declined comment on the advice of his attorneys. But Jay Beeler, a public relations spokesman for Talin, said Talin believed that his involvement with port leases was so remote that there was no problem with supplying port tenants. The leases are negotiated by the staff and are basically rubber-stamped by the full commission, Beeler maintained.

Beeler also said that in Talin Tire’s dealings with the shipping companies, Talin was simply acting as the local agent for a national retreading company that set the prices and negotiated the tire deals with the shippers.

Moreover, Beeler said the percentage of Talin’s $50-million-a-year business that comes from the port has fallen during his commission tenure from about 2% to 1.6%. “How can you say (he’s) trying to peddle influence with the port when the amount of business has decreased?” Beeler asked.

The revelation of Talin’s business dealings has nonetheless raised the eyebrows of some of his fellow harbor commissioners.

“In my opinion no one that does business with any of the customers of the port or with the city of Long Beach or with the port should serve as a harbor commissioner,” said Robert Langslet, who has just finished his final term under the board’s two-term limit and will step down as soon as Kell names his replacement.

“If there is even a perception of a conflict of interest, that person should not serve as a harbor commissioner,” Langslet said. “There are hundreds of eminently qualified people in the city of Long Beach who would like to serve on the Harbor Commission . . . and a great many have no conflict or perception of a conflict of any kind.”

Harbor Commission President Joel Friedland said he did not want to judge Talin but would not himself do business with the port. He also said that even the appearance of a conflict of interest was to be avoided. “We’re expected to be above it.”

Although Friedland agreed that the staff does most of the lease negotiating with port tenants, he said the commissioners are regularly consulted. “Not one of us has ever been a rubber stamp.”

Talin’s term expired July 1, but he will remain on the board until he is either reappointed or a successor is named. Kell, who appoints commissioners with the City Council’s approval, said he is postponing action on Talin’s post for the time being. When he does decide Talin’s fate, Kell added, “I will look at what will be the best for the city of Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach . . . I hope to arrive at some decision in the not-too-distant future.”

Talin’s troubles leave Kell in an awkward position. The mayor must balance his loyalties to Talin, a major political supporter and fund-raiser, against the negative publicity swirling around Talin’s name--and, indirectly, the port.

The district attorney’s office last month seized about 60 boxes of paperwork from Talin’s company--one of the largest tire dealerships in the nation--in connection with its investigation of the fraud allegations. A spokeswoman said the office is expected to decide within a month whether to file charges.

Even if Talin emerges untouched from the criminal investigation, one port official said the conflict-of-interest controversy will remain a cloud over Talin’s reappointment.

Information about a possible conflict of interest is being reviewed by both the district attorney’s office and the Fair Political Practices Commission to determine if they should open investigations.

According to city officials and shipping company spokesmen, Talin has voted on the port leases of four major shippers who were also customers of Talin Tire. Two of those companies, Long Beach Container Terminal and Maersk Container Line Terminal, declined comment. But officials at the other two, Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd. and Sea-Land Services Inc., said they were not influenced by Talin’s position.

Paul Laign, assistant general manager of North American operations for Hanjin, said Talin Tire has supplied his company with “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of tire recapping services during the past 2 1/2 years. Laign said his firm never felt any pressure to use Talin’s company and chose it for “service and competitive price.”

Sea-Land has also used Talin to recap tires for several years. Noting that Sea-Land was not as big a customer of Talin as it used to be, Sea-Land spokeswoman Elizabeth Scott-Kolarova said her firm’s patronage of Talin’s company had nothing to do with his port post.

“Considering we’ve cut our business with him in half over the past 16 months, I think that speaks for itself,” Scott-Kolarova said.

For more than a decade, the Harbor Department has had minor tire service contracts with Talin amounting to a few thousand dollars a year, according to city staff. In the last fiscal year, for instance, Talin Tire had a $3,000 contract with the Harbor Department to repair tires. It was awarded through the city purchasing department, which solicited prices from four firms and awarded it to Talin as the lowest responsible bidder.

Port staff has on various occasions recommended that Talin’s company be included in the bidding process, but Gary Voigt, the city’s director of general services, said it is routine for departments to recommend vendors that previously supplied them.

Last year, Talin’s company won a $923 contract to supply the Harbor Department with new tires. The harbor staff recommended Talin Tire, and the contract was not put out to bid because it was so small.

In 1988 and 1989, Talin Tire won two consecutive contracts worth nearly $900,000 to service the city’s general fleet of vehicles. They were awarded through competitive bidding and were approved by the City Council.

Again, Voigt said the Talin contracts had been routinely handled. The last time the city fleet contract went to bid, Voigt added, another company won it.