Riordan Has Secretary Monitor His Phone Calls : Privacy: Mayor says he may not have told all callers, but ‘the system works very well and it’s very ethical.’

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has had his secretary listen in and summarize many of his phone conversations, at times without the knowledge of the callers at the other end of the line, sources close to the mayor say.

The behind-the-scenes note-taking, which has included candid and politically sensitive exchanges with top political, business and civic leaders, occurred throughout Riordan’s campaign for mayor and has continued since he took office, the sources say.

Riordan said he usually notifies people that his secretary is on the line, and said she is simply helping him keep track of the crush of business he conducts over the telephone. “The system works very well and it’s very ethical,” the mayor said. “I have nothing to be ashamed about.”

But critics in and out of City Hall questioned the practice. Five city officials who speak occasionally to Riordan on the phone, including MTA Commissioner Stan Sanders, told The Times that the mayor has not informed them that his secretary was monitoring their calls.

Officials in the city attorney’s office saw potential problems.

Assistant City Atty. Charles I. Goldenberg, chief of special operations, said the law is not altogether clear on the issue, but said he would advise against any monitoring without disclosure.

“I think a better practice is to let the party know that someone is listening in,” Goldenberg said. “My advice to someone who is doing this is not to do it.”

The law requires that all parties to a “confidential communication” be notified if it is being monitored by someone else. At issue is whether a phone conversation involving public business could be considered “confidential” and whether taking notes while using an extension telephone constitutes monitoring.

Brad S. Phillips, an attorney with Munger, Tolles & Olson and chairman of California Common Cause, suggested the practice could violate Penal Code Section 631, a wiretapping statute that forbids making “any unauthorized connection without the consent of all parties.”

For their part, officials in the Riordan Administration said they are comfortable with the note-taking process.

“Our own legal counsel has reviewed our practice and finds that there is no problem and that it is perfectly legal,” Deputy Mayor Robin Kramer said Thursday. “If it has not been clear in the past (that someone else was on the line), the mayor will strive to make it clear in the future.”

In an earlier interview, Riordan said that his secretary is often on the line to assist him. He said she jots down telephone numbers and occasional notes but does not take down conversations.

“I have a job that requires implementing many different things every day and if I have to carry them around in my pocket, on a note or in my mind, I’m going to let a lot of them drop,” Riordan said.

He said that most of the time he notifies the other party that the secretary is on the line, although he said there may be cases when she comes on without notification. “I think people know,” Riordan said. “If there’s any sensitivity at all, I would make certain they knew or make sure she did not interrupt the call in any way. . . . I think the office operates in a very ethical way. . . . We’re not devious people at all.”

Sources said that Carole Guillen, Riordan’s executive secretary, has taken down comprehensive summaries of conversations with journalists, top corporate leaders and figures from the highest echelons of state and local government without the other party realizing that she was listening in.

“She pretty much takes down, almost verbatim, what’s being said,” said one official who has seen Guillen typing conversations into her computer. “And she does it secretly.”

Guillen, who has been Riordan’s secretary for three years, previously worked at TRW, where she had a top security clearance, Deputy Mayor Kramer said, praising her discretion.

Defending the monitoring, Alfred R. Villalobos, a former deputy mayor to Riordan, said he, too, frequently had his secretary on the line when he worked in the mayor’s office and that he rarely disclosed her presence.

“I never told anyone she was on the line because I didn’t think it was relevant,” Villalobos said. “It is the only way to function when you have more than 100 calls a day.”

Villalobos, who resigned in December after five months in City Hall, said his secretary took down telephone numbers and other follow-up information so he would not have to take detailed notes when he drove in his car or paced around his office using the speaker phone. But he said his secretary did not take down conversation summaries and that he knew nothing about Riordan’s secretary doing it, either.

Guillen participates in virtually all of the mayor’s business calls, whether he is in his office, at his Brentwood home or in his Ford Explorer, mayoral aides say.

Guillen and the mayor are on the line first, the aides say. Then she creates a conference call with the third party, enabling her to use the mute button on the phone to enter or exit the conversation. Riordan has a buzzer on his phone to summon her onto the line.

Experts in privacy law say that having a secretary listen in on an extension and take notes without the knowledge of both parties could be improper and a violation of the state privacy statute.

“The penal code prohibits the unauthorized listening of confidential conversations,” said attorney Joe Posner, who specializes in employment law. “If I call up somebody and I want my assistant to listen I will say, ‘I have so-and-so on the squawk box.’ ”

Riordan said he routinely notifies the other person when Guillen or anybody else is on the line or pushes a buzzer to signal that Guillen is joining the conversation.

He said Guillen only writes brief remarks on conversations, not lengthy summaries.

Kramer produced a daily message log from early April that included very brief notes of whom the mayor was to call on a particular matter or which aide would follow up.

“It is not the case that Carole Guillen is a constant presence on all the mayor’s calls,” Kramer said. “To characterize it that way is just not fair or right or accurate. In the case where the mayor is calling in from his car, she does conference people in and she comes in and out of the conversation to make sure the mayor’s needs are being taken care of. She is not a hanger-on.”

Officials contacted by The Times said they are concerned that a computer in the mayor’s office might contain summaries of some of their most delicate conversations with Riordan.

“It is very, very difficult to believe that the mayor would do this,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “It is commonly understood between elected officials that there is no third party participating. If true, this is a breach of faith, a violation of privacy and just plain unethical behavior. It is also rank stupidity.”

MTA Commissioner Sanders, an attorney and Riordan ally, said it is common for corporate attorneys to have a secretary participate in conversations and even to summarize them. But he said it is critical that all parties know that the note-taking is going on.

Sanders said Riordan has never indicated that his secretary was listening during their conversations. He said it would concern him if notes were compiled of private talks he had with the mayor.

Others close to the mayor said the practice is politically unwise and ought to be discontinued.

“Anything that’s in a computer could become public,” said one Riordan ally. “It is just plain stupid to write certain things down.”

The Times on Thursday requested copies of the phone records under the California Public Records Act. Deputy Mayor Kramer said the request is under consideration, but added that such memos are routinely destroyed.

The secretary, Guillen, 30, followed Riordan from his law firm of Riordan & McKinzie. Although little-known to the public, she wields considerable power within the mayor’s office, often determining who has access to Riordan and participating in the planning of his daily schedule, according to aides.

Guillen, who declined to be interviewed, is scheduled to start maternity leave soon and has been training another secretary to handle her duties during her absence, mayoral aides said.

Riordan said he will continue to use his secretary and other staffers to get the city’s business done. He said he has not done anything improper.

“You can always reach out and find people who feel any way you want on any subject,” Riordan said of his critics. “You can have the usual 10 suspects you can call and get any opinion you want. I think the people who deal with me think I’m aboveboard, that I’m ethical, that I don’t hide things from them.”

The secretarial monitoring is not done “out of any deviousness,” said Riordan, who estimates that he picks up the telephone more than 100 times a day. “It is out of efficiency to get things done. Nobody has ever been embarrassed by it or will be.”