Official’s Notes Depict Clash Over Trash Truck Warnings

A top Los Angeles maintenance supervisor said his boss ordered him to “back off,” stop being a “crybaby” and “just let things be” after he repeatedly complained about the city’s trash trucks--one of which would later malfunction and kill two schoolboys.

Those disclosures are contained in 22 pages of handwritten notes by maintenance superintendent John Gasca. The notes were obtained by The Times in a public records lawsuit against the city.

Along with earlier official memos disclosed by The Times, the notes heighten questions about why Gasca’s superior at the time, Fleet Services Director Harold Cain, failed to take strong action against Amrep Inc., which city workers had accused of substandard work.

Cain retired last year and became a sales representative for a company that provided frames for Amrep trucks under two multimillion-dollar city contracts. Cain has since quit that firm, Inland Empire White GMC.

Asked to comment on Gasca’s notes, Cain said only: “I don’t want to comment on anything that could be fabricated by anyone at any time.” In the past, he has denied going easy on Amrep and Inland and said he did not relay complaints about the trucks to his superiors because he believed he could resolve them himself.

Gasca says he has been keeping notes throughout his professional life to help him prepare reports and track important events. His writings on Amrep conflict sharply with his former supervisor’s version of events.

In early 1994, Gasca quoted Cain as saying, “I was pushing too hard and to back off because [Amrep President Jose Ghibaudo] was getting ‘pissed’ and Amrep would eventually do what they were supposed to.”

In another entry, Gasca said he complained that Amrep was failing to upgrade its trucks. “[Cain] said for me not to be a crybaby, and all I’m going to do is make things worse,” Gasca wrote. “He said . . . Jose is slow, but he will come across.”

The notes also contradict other earlier statements by Cain. In the past, he said he transferred Gasca because Gasca could not resolve Amrep’s problems. But his notes show that his transfer came one month after Cain “blew up” at him during an argument in which Gasca was pushing for stronger action.

“I don’t believe [Cain] is backing me up on anything to do with Amrep,” Gasca wrote. After yet another clash, Gasca noted: “I was just looking after the best interests of the city.”

The city faces two lawsuits filed on behalf of the families of Francisco Mata and Brian Serrano. The 8-year-old boys were killed when a metal rod burst through the side of an Amrep truck and raked a school bus in which the boys were riding side by side.

An independent metallurgist concluded that, among other things, the accident resulted from design flaws and substandard workmanship endemic to the Amrep fleet.

“It’s hard to understand why Harold Cain was trying to silence these seemingly legitimate concerns,” said Mata family attorney Paul R. Kiesel. “It’s just a big question mark.”

Steven A. Lerman, the Serranos’ lawyer added: “It’s disheartening that individuals would be more interested in the sensitivity of a contractor than in the safety of equipment.”

City Councilwoman Rita Walters, whose Public Safety Committee investigated the accident, said she was unaware of the notes until told of them by a Times reporter.

“Had Amrep been brought to task and had Cain listened to what he was being warned about,” Walters said angrily, “there’s a very strong possibility that two children would not be dead today.”

Amrep attorney James Reed declined to comment on the notes, but has insisted that the company builds quality trucks and has met its contractual obligations.

Gasca’s notes are certain not only to play a role in the wrongful-death litigation but also in an ongoing City Hall investigation launched earlier this year after The Times reported on memos critical of Amrep, written up to two years before the accident.

Those documents, written mainly by Gasca on behalf of his maintenance crew, were obtained by The Times under the state Public Records Act. The city refused, however, to turn over Gasca’s notes, saying that they were his personal property.

In February, The Times sued.

Assistant City Atty. Christopher M. Westhoff accused the newspaper of being on a “fishing expedition” and said that disclosing the papers would have a “chilling effect” on city workers who might wish to write similar notes.

But Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien disagreed, ruling that the documents pertained to city business and that their disclosure was in the public interest.

In an interview, Westhoff said the notes should not be used to second-guess anyone. “Obviously,” Westhoff said, “Mr. Cain believed Amrep was making significant progress” toward fixing the trucks.

He added that the city’s Sanitation Bureau, which operates the vehicles, was pleased with their performance.

Gasca, when contacted for comment on the content of his notes, said he was ordered to remain silent because of the pending lawsuits. During a deposition in connection with The Times’ suit, he said he takes notes “to bring things back to memory in case I need that information at a later date.”

The notes relinquished to the newspaper span from June 1992 to March 1994, and are written on notebook paper and daily calendars.

Unlike his official memos on Amrep’s shortcomings, the notes contain Gasca’s perceptions of his behind-the-scenes confrontations with “H.C.”--Harold Cain.

The first documented clash flared in November 1992, after Gasca had informed Cain that two city repair shops complained that Amrep crews were not showing up to fix breaking trucks.

“[I] told him he had to support me in dealing with Amrep,” Gasca wrote.

Gasca was so upset with the trash truck company that he said he urged filing a lawsuit. But Cain, according to the notes, dismissed the idea, in part, because the “city attorney does not have people” to pursue legal action.

The city attorney’s office said it has no recollection of Cain inquiring about a possible lawsuit.

Several months after Gasca broached the lawsuit idea, Amrep and Inland were awarded the largest trash truck contract in city history--ultimately worth $25 million--to build 225 trucks. The truck that killed the two boys was manufactured under that contract.

By the end of 1993, Gasca’s notes reflect his growing frustration with Cain.

“I didn’t understand why Amrep is not being held accountable for not performing,” Gasca wrote. “Harold [Cain] said just be careful because [Amrep President Ghibaudo] might just back way off, [and] it would be my fault.”

According to the notes, Gasca was also taking heat from Amrep’s president. “He felt I was trying to undermine him,” Gasca wrote.

The final straw, according to Gasca’s notes, came several months later, in February 1994.

At that time, Gasca wrote a memo insisting that a liquidated damage clause and performance bond be included in future contracts so the city would have “muscle” in dealing with troublesome vendors. Such provisions would allow the city to be compensated if a vendor fails to perform.

“He blew up at me,” Gasca wrote, “and asked why was I so intent on getting a bond or liquidated damages clause [and] why don’t I just let things be.”

Gasca became angry too.

“I said to him that I didn’t give a f--k if the city never got another refuse truck from Amrep and if he didn’t care, I sure as hell am not going to care.”

The next month, Cain transferred Gasca to a division overseeing the repair of street sweepers and other vehicles in the city fleet, a position he still holds.

According to the notes, Cain told Gasca that he seemed disinterested in his job, had created a morale problem among his workers, and called him a “loner” who did not engage in “manly comeraderie [sic].”

Gasca disputed those accusations, saying that Cain had told him previously that he was doing a good job.

Both Cain and Assistant City Atty. Westhoff say that, once Gasca was removed, the problems with Amrep disappeared too. They say his successor, Alvin Blain, was far more effective.

But five months after Blain took over, he wrote his own memo to Cain complaining about “major problems” with Amrep.

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Sounding a Warning

In one of 22 pages of handwritten notes obtained by The Times in a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, maintenance supervisor John Gasca says that his boss, then-fleet services director Harold Cain (H.C.), called him a “crybaby” for complaining about problems related to Amrep Inc. One of the company’s trash trucks would later malfunction, killing two children.