City Council’s Motivation for Firing Counsel Is Questioned : Politics: Members vote 3-0 to dismiss law firm, saying lead attorney did not attend meetings. Others claim the decision was motivated by lawyer’s criticism of financial dealings.

The City Council has fired the law firm that had issued repeated warnings about the operations of a controversial city-funded program set up to help launch fledgling businesses.

Mayor Paul H. Richards II and Councilmen Louis J. Heine and Louis Byrd convened a special meeting at 9 a.m. Nov. 12 and voted to dismiss the law firm--Barbosa, Garcia & Barnes--that had been handling the city’s legal matters for six years. Council members Armando Rea and Evelyn Wells were absent.

Richards said later that the law firm was dismissed because the city’s lead attorney, Henry S. Barbosa, had missed several council meetings. Since June, law partner Douglas D. Barnes had been attending council sessions.

“The arrangement we had with the firm was that (Barbosa) would be our attorney,” Richards said. “(Barnes) is very talented, but he is not the person we hired.”

*

Barbosa said he had a scheduling conflict because another client, the city of Montebello, switched its regular meetings to the same time as Lynwood. He said the Lynwood council members had never told him they were dissatisfied.

Councilman Rea and others suggested that Barbosa was fired for criticizing the city’s financial arrangements with the city-funded Entrepreneurial Development Academy of California.

Barbosa had frequently cautioned city officials that the city’s vague financial agreements with the academy--including an interest-free $1.5-million loan--failed to protect the city’s interest. Barbosa also had questioned the propriety of various academy-related expenditures, noting in one memo to the council that a $300,000 grant to the academy may have been an improper use of public funds.

In June, Barbosa wrote a confidential memo admonishing council members for failing to investigate allegations of possible criminal activity relating to the academy. Ignoring those allegations, contained in a letter from former academy attorney Sandy English, could expose council members to charges of criminal neglect, he warned.

About two weeks later, Barnes wrote a conciliatory letter, assuring council members that his firm was not attacking the program itself. He also acknowledged that English’s allegations were not supported by “hard evidence” of wrongdoing. Barnes also said he had inspected the academy and found that “the physical plant is truly impressive.”

But according to Rea, the damage had already been done with Barbosa’s earlier memos.

“(Barbosa) wouldn’t tell the city what it wanted to hear,” said Rea. “He would not work as their pawn.”

Rea also blasted the three council members for taking the action at a special meeting that neither he nor many residents could attend.

“They wanted no participation (from residents) whatsoever,” he said. “This was a major critical issue for the city, and they do it at 9 o’clock on a Friday morning.” Rea, a sheriff’s deputy, said he could not attend because he was working.

City Manager Faustin Gonzalez said there was nothing sinister about the Friday meeting. “We had the meeting scheduled, and (Barbosa’s contract) was something the council wanted to discuss,” he said. “So we put it on the agenda.”

Barbosa’s contract was one of two items on the agenda. The three council members also voted to renew the sheriff’s bicycle patrols throughout the city. The contract would have expired before the next regular council meeting last Tuesday.

Neither Barbosa nor Barnes was present at the special meeting.

A Times investigation last year found that academy officials spent thousands of dollars of city money on personal bills and charitable donations, and that at least $220,000 could not be accounted for.

A subsequent audit by an outside accounting firm found that the program was sloppily run. Several hundred thousand dollars had been misspent, one vendor apparently had been paid twice for the same work, and dozens of invoices and receipts were missing, Simpson & Simpson said in its preliminary audit report.

A final draft of the audit has not been released by the city.

Mayor Richards bristled at the notion that Barbosa was fired for his legal advice concerning the city’s financial relationship with the academy.

“That is old soup that has been warmed and rewarmed,” Richards said. “It’s just some sort of camouflage of the real issue” that Barbosa wasn’t showing up for meetings, he said.

Richards pointed out that the academy is still offering business training classes and support to new businesses.

The academy underwent a restructuring earlier this year, when it became a legal nonprofit entity and selected a new board of directors. The name was also changed to Lynwood Entrepreneurial Academy. The city allocated another $225,000 to the project in February.

The city hired another firm, Richards, Watson & Gershon, to draw up new contracts with the academy during its reorganization.

An attorney for that firm, William B. Rudell, was hired Nov. 12 to handle the city’s legal matters temporarily.

Times staff writer Tina Griego contributed to this report.