County Natural History Museum Probed : Government: Report cites director’s use of employees to renovate his residence.

The director of Los Angeles County’s Natural History Museum used county personnel to renovate his residence and allowed a museum employee to remain on the payroll while she performed full-time graduate work in Northern California, according to a confidential report obtained Wednesday.

The 20-page report, prepared by the county auditor-controller’s office at the request of the Board of Supervisors, outlines allegations about museum Director Craig C. Black and other museum administrators. It concludes, among other things, that museum managers violated Civil Service rules during recent layoffs and failed to keep a complete inventory of the museum’s vast collection.

But the report acknowledges that some problems have been exacerbated by county budget cuts that have forced cutbacks and have led the Natural History Museum Foundation, a nonprofit fund-raising corporation, to assume a greater role in the day-to-day operations of the museum.

In a cover letter addressed to County Chief Administrative Officer Harry L. Hufford, Acting Auditor-Controller Alan T. Sasaki stopped short of alleging any serious wrongdoing at the museum. Instead, he emphasized the need to clarify the relationship between the museum, its foundation and the supervisors and called upon Black to keep the board well informed.

Black could not be reached Wednesday. Catherine Krell, a museum spokeswoman, saidBlack and other top administrators agreed with the report’s call for a more clearly defined working relationship between the parties. But she described the allegations as largely unfounded and speculated that they stemmed from “hard feelings by laid-off employees.”

Mark A. Rodriguez, chief deputy director of the museum, said he was concerned that the tone of the report would hurt the institution, whose diverse collection--which includes everything from Navajo rugs to the bones of saber-toothed cats--has earned it a national reputation.

“The inference in the writing (is) that there’s something wrong--they (the investigators) just couldn’t find it,” he said.

The report was delivered to the supervisors Tuesday, less than a week after Black, 61, formally notified them of his often-stated desire to retire from the museum no later than June 30, 1994.

Black, a Harvard-educated paleontologist, has been director of the museum since 1982. In recent years, as county funds for the institution have dwindled, he has frequently been at the center of bitter controversy.

In 1991, the museum foundation bought him a $49,000 luxury sedan, which staffers of the financially strapped museum publicly questioned. Black’s annual six-figure salary--more than $90,000 from the county, matched by roughly the same amount from the museum foundation--has also been a subject of criticism.

Late last year, Sherri Gust, a graduate student working at the museum’s satellite facility at the La Brea Tar Pits, voiced concerns about the museum and its management at supervisors meeting. Gust alleged, among other things, that county workmen had been assigned to work on Black’s residence, a Hancock Park mansion that is owned by the foundation.

Gust’s testimony prompted the auditor-controller’s investigation, which included more than 50 interviews and a review of numerous documents. The investigation found that beginning in 1987, county employees spent “a substantial amount of time” at Black’s residence doing kitchen remodeling, extensive rewiring and plumbing.

The report said the foundation began to reimburse the county for those costs during the 1990-91 fiscal year, but that as yet the debt has not been fully repaid. Krell, the museum spokeswoman, said that museum officials believe the debt has been paid in full.

According to the report, the museum’s chief of exhibits, James Olson, also used county staff to improve his personal residence, though it was unclear whether that work was done on county time. The report concluded that in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety, a formal policy is needed “prohibiting employees from using county facilities to work on personal projects.”

A county-employed museum education specialist, meanwhile, was given a paid leave of absence in 1992 to enroll in a full-time doctoral program at UCLA, the report found. During the leave--part of which she spent at Bodega Bay in Northern California--the woman worked about 10 hours per week for the museum, her supervisor told investigators. The report said the policy under which department heads grant paid educational leaves should be reviewed.

Times staff writer Hector Tobar contributed to this report.