Former Operator of Pierce Swap Meet Charges Discrimination : Revenues: College’s foundation says it dismissed the firm because of financial questions. The company’s head alleges it was an effort to rid the event of Latino influence.
The popular weekend swap meet at Pierce College will be canceled for at least the first week in June because the former operator of the event, dismissed ostensibly because of financial questions, has charged that the real motive is racial discrimination.
The college’s foundation had voted not to renew the swap meet agreement with Norton Western Ltd., a firm run by a controversial former Santa Ana city councilman, Richards Norton, and instead hired Straight Talk Inc., a nonprofit Orange County social services agency to take over effective June 1.
However, a snag emerged Wednesday when Norton raised the discrimination allegations at a meeting of the Los Angeles Community College District’s board of trustees.
Norton said his ouster is part of an effort by the college’s foundation to rid the swap meet of its predominantly Latino influence and vendors. “They basically don’t like the color of our clientele,” Norton said of the foundation.
Foundation officials denied that charge, but trustees, who were hearing Norton’s charges for the first time, responded with an action that effectively halted the transition at least until their June 8 meeting.
At that meeting, the trustees will determine whether Straight Talk can take over the operation.
Mary Lee, Pierce’s interim president, said Friday the north parking lot at Victory Boulevard and Mason Avenue, where the swap meet is held Saturdays and Sundays, will be empty June 4 and 5.
The foundation’s decision to oust Norton Western appears rooted in doubts about the company’s financial integrity. Norton denied any wrongdoing, but acknowledged officials at the college had questioned him in recent months about financial matters. The college’s foundation is supposed to get about a quarter of the event’s proceeds, with Norton getting the rest.
James Breeden, the chairman of Pierce’s foundation, declined to specify why Norton Western was dismissed. But he said of Norton Western: “Business practices were questioned and improvements were not forthcoming. The manner in which the swap meet was conducted did not give the foundation a sense of comfort.”
Norton conceded that he was late last year in making required payments to the foundation during a period of financial setbacks, but said he got permission to extend the payments and “made up every single dime.” He also acknowledged questions being raised about the number of paying vendors he was reporting to the foundation versus the actual numbers operating.
Similar questions dogged Norton’s operation of a swap meet at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana between 1988 and 1991. After a former swap meet employee there contended that Norton Western was not reporting all of its swap meet income to the college, two members of that college’s board of trustees called for a district attorney’s investigation.
Charles W. (Pete) Maddox, current chairman of the Rancho Santiago College board, said he is convinced Norton’s company and a related organization shortchanged the college during that period. But Maddox said he and others were never able to prove their suspicions because Norton Western’s records supposedly were stolen in a robbery.
“It’s a damn lie,” Norton said of Maddox’s allegations over the money. “There’s never been an investigation. There’s never been a lawsuit charging not all the money was paid.”
Norton--who served on the Santa Ana City Council from 1989 until he resigned last October, citing health reasons--blamed the allegations on misunderstandings.
The Pierce swap meet is supposed to be one of the foundation’s main fund-raising tools for the college. However, Lee said about $95,000 of the foundation’s $112,000 share of swap meet revenues in a recent year went to pay the salaries and benefits of the foundation’s two paid employees, with the college getting only the small remainder.
