Showdown at City Hall : Official Accuses 2 Councilmen of Unethical Conduct

The Bell Gardens city manager has accused two City Council members of unethical conduct, including pressuring officials to give preferential treatment to family members and friends, verbally abusing city employees, and drawing up a “hit list” of employees to be fired without proper cause.

The allegations against Councilmen Frank B. Duran and Rodolfo (Rudy) Garcia were outlined in confidential memos by City Manager William Vasquez that were distributed recently to the full council. In response, Duran and Garcia demanded the resignation of the city manager, who was hired earlier this year.

The memos signal a major rift less than a year after four new council members, including Duran and Garcia, took office during a euphoric celebration that was to have signaled a new direction for the city. Voters had swept four Anglo council members from office last December for not being responsive to the city’s predominantly Latino population. The new council Latino majority took office earlier this year, quickly fired veteran City Manager Claude Booker and then hired Vasquez.

But now, the new council is feuding over its city manager and other issues. The recent effort to dump Vasquez failed when the other three council members--Mayor Josefina Macias, George T. Deitch and Rosa Hernandez--sided with the city manager during a raucous closed session, sources said.

The showdown occurred after Vasquez sent out the critical memos describing a number of areas of questionable conduct. Several city officials and other sources said the incidents included:

Demands by the councilmen that the city hire friends and campaign workers who were not the best qualified for the job.

Pressure by Duran on city officials to consider awarding a plastering contract to his son.

A demand by Duran that the city manager fire several employees, many of them department heads, without cause.

Complaints by city employees that Duran and Garcia berated them in public for such offenses as being late to work or not giving top priority to councilmen’s requests.

Garcia declined to comment on specific allegations but denied he had done anything illegal.

Duran responded to Vasquez’s allegations with a searing memo, saying he was “extremely disappointed” with the city manager’s performance and suggesting that the 46-year-old administrator is too inexperienced. Vasquez has held various administrative positions with other cities, but this is his first city manager job.

“We have a city manager who thinks we are all idiots and that we don’t know what we are doing,” Duran wrote in the memo to his council colleagues. “He sees the division among us and uses that to hide his incompetence because he could care less for this community.”

But Vasquez said he is under fire because he is resisting some of the council members’ directives. “Now that I am not doing everything they want, they say I am incompetent,” he said. “What they really want is someone in my position who won’t ask any questions.” Vasquez said he was told by Duran in August to hire Adam Benavides, a friend of the councilman who had worked on Duran’s campaign, as a $6,500-per-month administrative consultant to research such projects as medical care for residents and senior citizen programs.

The city manager said he hired Benavides despite concerns that his Civil Service experience was limited. Benavides was dismissed last month for failing to do satisfactory work and for not completing several projects, Vasquez said. He said he also discovered that Benavides was researching how to fire the city manager.

The dismissal enraged Duran, who wrote in a memo that Benavides was the only staff member earning his salary. Duran also said Benavides was fired because he was “too friendly with the council.”

Benavides did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Vasquez said he also was told by Garcia to hire a stucco contractor without putting the job out to bid, and to give a job to a maintenance worker who had placed at the bottom of a list of potential hires. Both had worked on the council members’ campaign, sources said.

Garcia said both charges are “absolutely untrue” and denied he ever told the city manager to break the law. But he added: “I will go over, under, around or through the system to do whatever it takes to make sure the Hispanic community moves forward.”

The city manager also clashed with Duran over a bid by the councilman’s son, Oscar, on a $25,000 plastering contract with the city. Vasquez said Duran made repeated inquiries on behalf of his son, who eventually was passed over because he was not the low bidder. The city manager said he finally asked Henry Barbosa, a special legal counsel, to advise Duran how giving a contract to his son could create the appearance of a conflict, at best.

Duran insisted in a recent interview that Vasquez assured him it would not have been improper to award a contract to the councilman’s son, a claim Vasquez disputes. Duran also said he never asked the city to give his son preference during the bidding process.

Duran and Garcia attributed much of the dispute to their attempts to provide more city jobs for Latinos. The city is 92% Latino, while 60% of the city employees are Latino.

“For many years it was all Anglo in City Hall,” Duran said. “And I think we have to even the scales and start giving the Hispanic community opportunities they have been denied.”

Garcia agreed. “As long as everyone complies with the law, and if it happens to be a Latino that applies for the job, why not hire him first? I see no problem,” he said.

The city manager said he favors hiring more Latinos, as long as it is done properly.

“The sad thing is that the good-old-boys system and the discrimination they were fighting against (before being elected) is what they have turned into,” Vasquez said. “Only this time it is with Hispanics.”

Councilman Deitch said he was concerned about some of his colleagues’ hiring demands. “They didn’t care if a person was qualified or not, if he was Hispanic, that was good enough. It was reverse discrimination.”

Vasquez pointed out how Duran, apparently unhappy with the city manager’s personnel decisions, compiled a “hit list” of several department heads whom he wanted fired because he said he believed they were not loyal to the administration.

Duran denies that he ever asked the city manager to fire someone without reason, but said he encouraged Vasquez to “replace people who had to be replaced because they were a problem,” including former City Manager Booker.

Vasquez said he told the councilman that “you cannot predetermine who can be hired or fired without due process.”

Booker, in fact, filed a lawsuit in July in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that the city had violated his $124,000-a-year contract when he was fired. No trial date has been set.

In his memo, Vasquez also said several employees have complained about being berated and otherwise harassed by Duran and Garcia. Some workers said the councilmen would wait for them to arrive at the office and berate them for being just a few minutes late, according to the city manager. “These are serious charges which can result in litigation if an employee wishes to file a grievance suit,” Vasquez wrote.

Mayor Macias agreed, saying she has seen city employees burst into tears after encounters with the councilmen. “They’re big bullies,” she said.

Duran said the harassment charge stemmed from a misinterpretation of his management style. “Some people think I am being too picky, but I am doing what I think is best for the community,” he said.

Duran later agreed that some of his own actions might be misunderstood, but in an interview last week he attributed it to inexperience. “I am just a new councilman who might not know all the rules yet,” he said.

Vasquez’s memos, however, said Duran and Garcia told him to carry out their orders even when he warned that some moves would be illegal.

“On the occasions where I have clearly stated that your directives are unlawful, you have either stated that you don’t care, or said that I am just a bureaucrat and providing unnecessary red tape, or directed that I find a way to do it,” he wrote.

Vasquez went on to say he would “not break the law . . . or do anything which is improper or below my professional standards and ethics.”

The city manager said he is concerned about the feuding.

“We’ve only been here six months and things are starting to fall apart at the seams,” he said with a sigh. “It will take a while to get things back on track, but I have hope.”