Ex-MTA Worker Fined $226,000 for Kickbacks

The state Fair Political Practices Commission has fined a former assistant buyer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $226,000 for violating state conflict-of-interest laws by accepting cash kickbacks from an MTA contractor.

The fine imposed late Thursday on Rudy R. Regalado was the 10th-highest ever set by the political watchdog agency.

“The evidence showed that Mr. Regalado was receiving cash kickbacks in exchange for contracts,” said commission attorney Mark T. Morodomi. “It was extremely egregious conduct.”

Regalado, an employee of the MTA and its predecessor, the Southern California Rapid Transit District, for 16 years, was “separated” from the transit agency in December. An MTA spokesman, citing restrictions on release of personnel records, refused to say if Regalado had been fired.

Morodomi said Regalado tried to hide his actions and refused to cooperate with investigators. “This was an organized scheme and intentional conduct,” he added. Neither Regalado nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

The former employee was accused of 113 violations of the state’s conflict-of-interest law, which prohibits public officials from participating in a government decision in which they have a financial interest. The maximum penalty was imposed after Regalado failed to request a hearing by the commission’s deadline.

Prosecutors were reportedly reluctant to file criminal charges because the amount of kickbacks was considered too small.

The Fair Political Practices Commission alleged that Regalado received thousands of dollars in cash and a computer from John Raymond Park, the owner of three companies that supplied fire extinguishers, helmets, safety equipment and services to the county transit agency.

Witnesses told an investigator from the MTA inspector general’s office that Park went to Regalado’s home on two occasions and left envelopes containing $600 and $2,000 in cash. At numerous meetings at a restaurant, the investigator was told Park made other payoffs of $750 to $1,000.

Park is serving a two-year sentence at Calipatria State Prison in the Imperial Valley for transportation and sale of a controlled substance.

From February 1994 to March 1996, Regalado awarded 113 MTA purchase orders or change orders to Park’s companies--P & P Fire Protection, Safety Alliance Fire Protection and Sure Shot Safety Supplies--based in Cerritos and La Mirada.

In one case, Regalado obtained three bids for the purchase of fire extinguishers in early 1996. All of them came from separate companies controlled by Park. Regalado falsified MTA records to make it appear that they were separate bidders and awarded a $15,800 contract to P & P, the commission said.

Regalado’s is the latest in a long string of corruption cases at the county transit agency. A handful of MTA officials and contractors also have been sentenced to federal prison as a result of investigations.

The MTA’s inspector general, Arthur Sinai, said the transit agency had not adequately protected itself against fraud and other criminal activity.

“All of this demonstrates that in the early stages the MTA and its predecessor agencies did not have sufficient internal controls to prevent and detect these types of things,” he said.

“We are now engaged in a process of adopting internal controls at all levels of the agency,” Sinai said. “If you don’t, you have chaos.”