Former State Job-Training Official Agrees to Guilty Plea

A former state job-training official accused of improperly awarding a farm worker training contract to a Camarillo grower has agreed to plead guilty to conflict of interest, officials said Tuesday.

Robert Munoz, formerly of Oxnard, agreed to the guilty plea to two of four misdemeanor charges against him in a letter to the Ventura County district attorney’s office prepared by his attorney, Hector C. Perez of Newport Beach.

“This will confirm that Mr. Munoz will enter a plea of guilty . . . in return for dismissal of the other two counts,” Perez wrote.

As a result of the plea bargain, Municipal Judge Art Gutierrez set a hearing for Friday morning so that Munoz can formally enter his guilty pleas. The judge set a sentencing hearing for Friday afternoon.

“It is rare to have criminal prosecutions under the Political Reform Act,” said Carol Thorp, a spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento.

The conflict-of-interest counts to which Munoz is expected to plead guilty are contained in the act, approved by voters in 1974.

Munoz, 57, who lives in Barstow, did not appear in court Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. Munoz could be sentenced to a maximum term of one year in jail and fined up to $55,000.

According to stories published in The Times last year, Munoz allegedly broke state conflict-of-interest laws while a member of the state Employment Training Panel, to which he was appointed by the governor in 1986. The panel awards job-training contracts.

Ventura County prosecutors began to investigate Munoz in October, 1990, after it was reported that, in voting for a $2-million contract for the Ventura County Agricultural Assn., Munoz had also helped approve a subcontract that would benefit one of his tenants at an Oxnard Boulevard office building.

Munoz’s four-year term on the board expired in September, 1990, and was not renewed.

Prosecutors ultimately charged that Munoz broke the law in June, 1990, when he voted to extend a $2.3-million job-training state contract with Boskovich Farms after receiving a consultant’s fee of about $40,000 from the Camarillo-based vegetable grower.

This is one of the two conflict-of-interest charges to which Munoz has agreed to plead guilty, according to his lawyer’s letter.

The second charge to which Munoz agreed to plead guilty alleges that he failed to report $15,000 in income from Ebasco Constructors, which built a plant to provide electricity for Boskovich’s adjacent frozen-food plant in 1989. The charge contends that Munoz should have reported the income on his annual statement of financial interest for 1989.

Munoz also was charged with having a conflict of interest when voting last year to award a $592,000 contract to Golden State School of Oxnard, partly owned by a longtime associate who leased office space from him for three years. The contract was for English language education of farm workers, part of a $2-million agreement with the Ventura County Agricultural Assn.

That charge will be dropped under an agreement with the county prosecutor, according to the district attorney’s office. A fourth charge that Munoz failed to report $35,000 in income from Boskovich Farms on his 1989 financial interest statement also will be dropped.

Neither Boskovich, Golden State School nor Ebasco Constructors was charged with wrongdoing.

In an interview in December, Munoz expressed pride in his state service.

“I feel that I have served the governor to the best of my ability,” he said.