Official Targeted by Probe Placed on Leave

Gardena City Manager Ken Landau, the target of an investigation by the district attorney’s office, has been placed on administrative leave while terms of his dismissal are worked out.

The district attorney had been investigating Landau’s travel expenses and his hiring of a detective who allegedly was investigating city officials.

The City Council, on a 3-2 vote Tuesday, decided to put Landau on leave for 60 days while the panel worked out details of a buyout that would pay him $267,500. That buyout should be formalized by the end of the year, officials said. Assistant City Manager Mitchell Lansdale was temporarily named to the post.

“This is a difficult thing to do,” said Councilman James Cragin, who voted for the buyout. “But the sensible thing to do is to try to heal the city and get back to business.”

The decision comes days after Landau, 42, filed a $484,000 claim against the city, a precursor to filing a lawsuit, alleging his reputation had been damaged. The claim will be dropped once the buyout is signed, Mayor Don Dear said.

Landau, who earns about $135,000 a year, began working for the city nearly 20 years ago as an administrative assistant to the city manager. He rose through the ranks and was appointed city manager in 1985.

Nearly two years ago, the district attorney’s office launched an investigation at Dear’s urging after he discovered that Landau had spent $61,300 to hire a private attorney the mayor believed was investigating city officials.

Dear said his suspicions were piqued when he learned that the detective’s invoices were being delivered to Landau’s house in Rolling Hills Estates instead of to his office.

In a memo last year, Landau explained that the detective was hired to do background checks on a number of people applying for positions such as city attorney and finance director, as well as with the police and fire departments.

But the city had contracts with a Century City executive search firm to do similar background checks.

The investigation later expanded to irregularities in Landau’s travel expenses that reportedly included first-class airline tickets, limousine service, reservations at four-star hotels that cost as much as $600 a night and about 100 calls to escort services, the mayor said.

James Diamond, Landau’s attorney, said that no one is denying the city manager stayed in luxury hotels and had first-class plane tickets while traveling on city business. But he noted that all those expenses were approved by the City Council.

Dear countered by saying that Landau told him he personally paid for his first-class ticket upgrades and got government rates at expensive hotels.

After the council placed him on leave, Landau asked that his office be sealed to protect his personal possessions.

“The district attorney’s investigation has interrupted both my ability to concentrate 100% on my [work] and my home life,” Landau said. “I want to clear my reputation to continue on with other business in the future.”