Agency Accused of Misusing Funds

Santa Monica city officials have concluded that a nonprofit Santa Monica home-renovation agency has misused city funds for private benefit, provided false tax statements and failed to turn over accurate records when requested by the city.

The determination comes after a lengthy financial investigation by the city into the Neighborhood Resource and Development Corp., a residential rehabilitation agency headed by former Santa Monica Mayor Nathaniel Trives. The city’s review determined that, among other misuse of money, Trives improperly spent $25,000 from the agency toward building a for-profit condominium project.

The California attorney general’s office has concluded that the $25,000 was unlawfully used and has directed the agency’s board to make restitution. The city is asking the agency to repay $5,549 more for disallowed expenses for such activities as dining out.

If the City Council follows city staff’s recommendation, as expected, the agency’s $330,000 annual funding will terminate Oct. 31. The agency fixes up homes and apartments in the Pico neighborhood, the city’s poorest, which stretches along Pico Boulevard between 10th Street and the eastern border.

In 1988, Trives, the corporation’s chief executive officer, used the $25,000 toward building a five-unit condominium project on 20th Street in Santa Monica. However, the condominiums never sold and the bank foreclosed. The agency’s board eventually absolved Trives from paying back the money and the accrued interest.

Trives, a deputy superintendent at Santa Monica City College, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He earlier said the $25,000 was an investment to help the nonprofit corporation begin building moderately priced housing in the Pico neighborhood.