LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Investigation Urged Into Reports of AQMD Spying
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich called for an investigation by the governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District into allegations that AQMD staff was used to gather political intelligence.
The Times reported Wednesday that an AQMD staffer said she was ordered to find out from unsuspecting city officials how they intended to vote in upcoming AQMD governing board elections. AQMD executives were apparently interested because two board members who had supported the staff’s clean air initiatives faced opposition.
City officials from around Southern California elect five of the AQMD board’s 12 members.
“The type of behind the scenes James Bond tactics described . . . are unconscionable,” Antonovich wrote AQMD board Chairman Henry W. Wedaa. Wedaa was one of the board members whose reelection was of interest to AQMD executives.
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