L.A. Restores Job-Training Agreement With Agency : Investigations: A councilwoman says it would be unfair to cancel ADEPT’s contract before charges of financial irregularities are proven.

Rescinding a decision made earlier this week, the Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to restore the city’s contract with a Van Nuys job-training agency, which is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.

By its vote, the council reversed an action it took Tuesday to terminate the city’s $566,300-a-year contract with ADEPT (Assisting the Disabled with Employment and Training).

Although federal authorities are investigating allegations of financial irregularities against the agency, Councilwoman Joy Picus said lawmakers decided it would be unfair to terminate ADEPT’s contract before the charges against it were proved.

“For 18 years it has done a good job,” Picus said.

Although the council has heard the allegations against the agency, it has not heard the other side, she said.

“I described it as a kangaroo court, Kafka-esque” situation for ADEPT, Picus said.

Friday’s vote was more in keeping with “my sense of justice,” the West Valley lawmaker continued.

Both Tuesday’s and Friday’s votes were taken in closed-door sessions because of the sensitive nature of the investigation of the agency.

ADEPT representatives were not allowed to attend.

Although the good news for the embattled agency was that its contract was restored, the bad news continued to be that the city still is not paying it any money under the contract.

Due to the investigation, the city has not paid ADEPT for three months.

Still, ADEPT Executive Director Lark Galloway-Gilliam hailed Friday’s action as a victory. “It’s a sign of support for us,” Galloway-Gilliam said. “It’s not just symbolic.”

The decision to terminate the contract made it “look as if we’d done something wrong,” she said. “This leaves the door open.”

The council decision also may make it easier for ADEPT to raise private funds and to hire a private attorney to defend itself, Galloway-Gilliam said.

Until now, the agency has been almost totally dependent on city grants.

Galloway-Gilliam has denied the charges of financial wrongdoing. She blamed the allegations--as far as she can determine what they are--on a mixup, and on the agency’s past outspoken criticism of the city’s Community Development Department, the agency that oversees its contract.

ADEPT receives federal Jobs Training Partnership Act funds that are administered by the city.

With these funds, it provides job training and placement opportunities for handicapped people and pays employers a stipend to defray some of the costs. Under its current contract, the agency has committed to train 97 disabled people.