County Officials’ Expense Tab Tops $117,000 : Government: Supervisors spent hundreds of dollars on catered lunches, flowers and trips. Chief Administrative Officer Richard Dixon controls open-ended account.

As Los Angeles County government struggles financially, the county’s chief fiscal custodian has maintained an open-ended expense account for himself and the Board of Supervisors--and last year they spent $117,000 on everything from fresh fruit and flowers to gourmet meals.

The taxpayer-funded checking account controlled by Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon was set up to pay for incidental expenses. Records show it has been used to pay not only for coffee and doughnuts for meetings in the Hall of Administration, but also for elaborate receptions.

According to Dixon’s checkbook entries, the county spent $7,191 for a dinner at the Regency Club for about 50 people planning the county’s celebration of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ expedition; $654 for a lunch hosted by Supervisor Mike Antonovich for a beauty queen, Miss Nikkei, and her court, and $128 for flowers for a luncheon meeting with U.S. Treasurer Catalina Vasquez Villalpando.

Other expenses covered by Dixon’s checking account include $2,931 for refreshments at an Antonovich reception for about 300 to 400 county managers; $591 for Supervisor Kenneth Hahn’s luncheon honoring the new president of Charles Drew Medical School, and $411 for Supervisor Ed Edelman’s lunch to discuss Pan Pacific Park.

The cost per person at many of these functions is unclear because records do not state how many attended.

One recurring expenditure among scores examined by The Times is the lunch tab for the supervisors when they hold their private executive sessions.

Typical was a $693 lunch in October for the five supervisors and about a dozen staff members. The lunch, provided by Marie’s Gourmet Catering of Pasadena, included fresh fish of the day prepared on grills brought to the downtown Hall of Administration for on-site cooking.

“It’s always fresh, never frozen,” said caterer Jean Marie West, noting that the supervisors prefer lean entrees such as fish and chicken with vegetables and rice. For dessert, West said, they usually request extra fresh fruit and occasionally a chocolate mousse or fruit tart, all served on white linen.

The lunches, which cost about $40 per person, have been catered by Marie’s for at least five years, officials said.

The price far exceeds the $9.75 lunch allowance the county has set for employees traveling on county business. Those limits, however, do not apply to supervisors’ meals in Los Angeles County, county auditor Dan Ikemoto said.

In contrast to the supervisors, Los Angeles city officials say they usually get box lunches or sandwiches, potato chips and soft drinks from the City Hall cafeteria or a deli. The cost for 15 City Council members and about 10 staff members is about $100, said chief legislative analyst Bill McCarley. “We’re a more low-budget operation than the county,” he said.

In recent months, county officials have been embroiled in spending controversies as county services were trimmed to balance a $12-billion budget.

Dixon, who receives salary and benefits totaling about $200,000, has been criticized for awarding $3 million in bonuses and spending an additional $3 million remodeling his suite of offices. The supervisors have come under fire for spending $33 million last year to run their offices and provide themselves with perks, including chauffeur-driven bulletproof cars.

“There are those times when doing the business of the county, the board or I need to provide coffee or cookies or even a meal,” Dixon said Friday. “I eat a lot of those meals. I would not describe them as luxury meals.”

Mary Jung, senior deputy to Dixon, said the only requirement for payment of expenses is that they be related to the county.

Other expenses paid by Dixon include $300 for home security improvements for Edelman; $3,700 for Antonovich and an aide to travel to Spain for planning the county’s Columbus celebration; $842 for an Antonovich reception for the U.S. consul general to Korea; $795 for a coffee service for the supervisors, and $50 in a check from Dixon to himself for “reimbursement for expenses incurred while performing duties as CAO.”

The chief administrative officer’s account is not regularly audited, Ikemoto said.

And although there is no statutory limit to the fund, Jung said the account is not bottomless and that Dixon tries to “target it at about $100,000 a year.” The expenses totaled $117,000 last year and about $81,000 in each of the two previous years, records show.

Under a 1959 order of the Board of Supervisors, the chief administrative officer has authority to “incur necessary incidental expenses for luncheon and dinner conferences and meetings which are called by him for the discussion of problems of county government and other necessary expenses incidental . . . to the conduct of county government.”

The authority was requested by then-Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Hollinger, who in a 1959 memo to supervisors noted that “it is frequently necessary to schedule a luncheon or dinner meeting in order obtain maximum attendance.”

Other public officials have expense accounts, but they usually have specified limits. At City Hall, Mayor Tom Bradley has a contingency fund of $51,871 this year and must submit all expenses to Controller Rick Tuttle for approval. Los Angeles City Council members each have a $5,000 contingency fund for “expenses incidental to being a council member,” McCarley said.

Supervisor Gloria Molina called the cost of the supervisor’s lunches outrageous and said she had no idea that they were that expensive, said spokesman Robert Alaniz. He said food and refreshment expenses “should be up to each of the supervisors to decide what is appropriate. . . . A lot of constituents won’t be happy that they are paying $700 for lunch.”

Molina, a frequent critic of county spending practices, has used the account to pay for receptions, workshops and breakfasts, including tabs of $856, $408 and $243. She defended her own use of the account, saying the meetings were necessary because she was newly elected and needed to meet with commissioners, department heads and constituent groups.

Antonovich spokesman Peter Whittingham said the cost of the executive session lunches are appropriate, especially when the supervisors are hosting candidates for top county management jobs.

Joel Bellman, spokesman for Edelman, said: “It’s not inappropriate for elected official to host functions for other elected officials, visiting dignitaries or various public individuals or associations or public groups.

Supervisor Deane Dana said he was unaware of the cost of the supervisors’ lunches, but added: “I do know that $700 is too high.” Dana said he would seek to find lower-cost meals, but stopped short of saying the county should adopt the sandwich and soda ethic or begin using the county cafeteria.

Dana defended a $1,948 reception he hosted for local elected officials in his district as “very wise” and “something I would do again.” He said it was necessary to have the session after last year’s redistricting brought additional cities into his district.

Whittingham also defended Antonovich’s trip to Spain, saying that he expects the Spanish government to pick up the cost of the trip.

The county’s deputy chief of protocol, Ginger Barnard, said she hopes recover the cost of the Columbus reception from private donations.