Inquiry Widens After Alleged Bribery of Park Officials by Criminals : Scandal: Officials believe lawbreakers escaped court-ordered cleanup work by paying off senior gardeners. The city has no idea how widespread the practice is, one says.

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks has launched a citywide investigation into possible corruption within its ranks because two department supervisors were arrested on suspicion of taking bribes from criminals ordered to perform community service in city parks.

Based on the results of a police sting operation, city officials believe that lawbreakers escaped having to perform court-ordered cleanup work at several San Fernando Valley park facilities by bribing two senior gardeners, said Elliott Porter, personnel director for the department.

The investigation began when one offender went to city officials and told them he was offered a chance to buy his way out of his community service, and then agreed to cooperate with police, Porter said.

City parks officials identified the suspects as senior gardeners Willard M. Stone and Manuel Perez. Since their arrest several weeks ago, the parks department has identified several other city employees who administrators suspect have been taking bribes to allow lawbreakers to escape community service work, Porter said.

The city has no idea how long the alleged corruption has been going on, or how widespread it is among those sentenced to do cleanup work in parks and other city areas, Porter said.

“We do have reason to believe it has happened before,” Porter said. “We are now looking at our entire department to tighten up the accountability. We certainly don’t want this to happen again. It’s a serious problem.”

Porter said the arrests marked the first time in at least 18 years that a supervisor has been accused of bribery in such a case.

City officials and police believe that the two gardeners “were selling their signatures for a dollar an hour” of community service, Porter said. Even that small hourly sum is significant, he said, given the hundreds of offenders who are sentenced each month to hundreds of hours of community service each. Sentences of 200 hours or more are common.

“Court referrals bring a lot of valuable work to the department, especially during periods of tight budgets and hiring freezes like now,” Porter said. “It is essential to us they work the number of hours they are sentenced to. The citizens of Los Angeles are cheated if they don’t.”

Porter said the two employees will remain on the job until they go before a departmental review board in the next two weeks. “If the facts are as they appear to be,” he said, “they will be fired.”

Los Angeles bunco detectives, who coordinated the sting, confirmed that two arrests had been made but declined comment. Details of the sting were not known.

No criminal charges have been brought against either Stone or Perez since their arrests several weeks ago, according to city officials and Stone’s lawyer, Fred Bien. The two were released on their own recognizance, city officials said.

“All I know is there is an investigation going on,” Bien said. He said Stone plans to plead innocent to any administrative or criminal charges brought against him.

Stone, of Granada Hills, referred questions to his attorney. Stone’s wife said her husband has worked for the city for 27 years, and that he has never done anything wrong. “He didn’t take anything for anything,” Stone’s wife said.

Perez could not be reached for comment.

The two gardeners work out of the department’s West Valley District Maintenance Yard and supervise gardening and cleanup efforts at several Valley parks, bridle trails and wilderness areas, city officials said.

Earnest Mathis, district supervisor at the West Valley facility, said department heads have not told him about the investigation and the charges against his two employees.

“We’re still in limbo ourselves,” he said. “They haven’t told us nothing.”

Mathis said Stone “has always been a good employee” since he came to the maintenance yard about two years ago.

Pat Kortlander, director of the Municipal Court referral program that sends lawbreakers to the parks department, said the case has led to some changes in the way the program is administered in the Valley. She said the number of people who can sign work sheets for offenders has been reduced, and that offenders are now given picture ID cards “so that no one can be sent in their place.”

Parks officials said such changes will be made departmentwide.