County Tightens Curbs on Gifts to Employees

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors plugged a legal loophole Tuesday that allowed a manager in the county’s child welfare agency to accept a $25,000 check from a county contractor.

The official used the money to buy a new Mercedes.

State law limits gifts from contractors to public employees to $300--but only if those employees are designated as covered by their agency’s conflict of interest code. A county audit in October found that the gift to the child welfare official was legal, but recommended sweeping changes in the county’s ethics policy, and supervisors called for a review of who was covered by existing conflict of interest codes.

The review has so far found 141 high-level positions that were not covered by the code and jobholders who therefore could legally receive unlimited gifts from county contractors.

Among those able to receive unrestricted gifts were the new director of the district attorney’s $150-million child support unit, the No. 2 official in the $1-billion Department of Children and Family Services’ contracts division and the contracts analysts for the county’s Internal Services Department.

Four of the county’s biggest departments--including the $2-billion health department--still have not been fully examined.

In December, supervisors brought several dozen of the positions under the gift limit and on Tuesday added the remainder, including 10 in the Department of Children and Family Services.

The agency’s new director, Anita Bock, said she would like an even more restrictive policy. “I prefer erring on the side of caution,” she said, citing a $2 limit on gifts to state employees in Florida, where she previously worked.

The county is drawing up a new gift policy that is expected to be more restrictive. “There’s no question that needs to be looked at,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said of lowering the limit on allowable gifts. “When you’re a public employee you have certain responsibilities, both in appearance and reality.”

The city of Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority--on whose board county supervisors serve--have far more restrictive gift policies than Los Angeles County, which essentially relies on limits set by the state Legislature in 1974.

Every two years, county departments review who is covered by those limits, but this latest round of inclusions is unprecedented, said John McKibben, the official in the board’s executive office who oversees the administration of the gift policy.

Many of the people just added to those covered by the ethics policy were in a position to influence the awarding of contracts, but did not make the final decision, McKibben said.

But because “the board’s taking more of a direct interest in the issue” than in years past, county officials have heeded the supervisors’ directive and tried to include as many positions as possible.

The scrutiny of the county’s policy was triggered by the gifts to Tedjitou Dessalegn in 1998, four months after her friend Wond Wossen Messfin won a $4-million computer contract from the Department of Children and Family Services.

Dessalegn was the assistant to the then-director of the department, Peter Digre, in charge of relations with county supervisors and other tasks.

The district attorney’s office found that she did not have a role in awarding the contract and declined to prosecute. Messfin and Dessalegn told auditors that no influence was intended.

Bock said Dessalegn has been removed from her post and is working on special projects.