Two People, Including Redondo Beach Official, Arrested in Conflict-of-Interest Case

Redondo Beach’s city government, which has been shaken in recent months by accusations that city employees were spying on police union meetings, suffered another blow with the arrest of the city’s director of information services and a computer maintenance contractor.

Ricardo Reyna Garcia, 34, who was one of those employees accused of spying on the police meeting, was arrested Wednesday by Redondo Beach police on suspicion of breaking state conflict-of-interest laws. Also arrested on the same charges was Jaye B. Nelson, 31, who worked under the name of Tim Phillips and provided computer maintenance services to the city department headed by Garcia.

Both were booked into the Torrance jail and bail was set at $100,000 each.

Armed with search warrants, investigators from the FBI, the Redondo Beach Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department fanned out Thursday to search four sites: a condominium in Carson, a residence in Palm Springs, a business in Carson and offices at the Redondo Beach City Hall.

Neither police nor city officials would say what kind of conflict-of-interest violations allegedly took place. But Redondo Beach Police Capt. John Cameron said that city computers were involved.

Garcia, who has worked for the city since 1986, was placed on paid administrative leave from his $71,000-a-year job, interim Human Resources Director Russ Patton said.

An air of frustration filled City Hall on Thursday because employees were not able to use their computers while the system was taken down to be secured, acting City Manager Paul Connolly said.

The arrests were the latest in a string of events that has shaken the city’s government. City Manager Bill Kirchhoff was placed on administrative leave after Garcia and two of his other employees were accused of spying on a police union meeting Feb. 4 at the public library next to City Hall. The other two are still at work. The district attorney’s office investigated the matter and decided not to prosecute.