LAFCO Exec to Get Panel OK on Consulting Jobs

The government official in charge of shaping how Los Angeles would be split apart under city breakup proposals agreed Wednesday to take no more private consulting jobs without the consent of his board and county lawyers.

Larry J. Calemine, executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission, took the step “to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” board Chairman Thomas E. Jackson said.

The Times reported last month that Calemine had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in fees from developers and other clients for advice on winning City Hall approval of real estate projects in the San Fernando Valley.

The scope of his private consulting business has alarmed some of the nine members of the autonomous commission. The panel pays him $100,000 a year. His main job is to supervise the study of proposals for the Valley, Hollywood and the Harbor area to secede from Los Angeles.

In a one-hour meeting closed to the public, commissioners questioned Calemine on Wednesday about his outside work. After the meeting, Jackson read aloud a public statement from the commission.

“County counsel has given us a written opinion that Mr. Calemine has not violated any conflict-of-interest laws,” Jackson announced.

“The commission has full confidence in Mr. Calemine’s ability to continue doing an outstanding job as executive officer of LAFCO.

“However, Mr. Calemine has volunteered--in order to remove any appearance of conflict of interest--that in the future he will consult the county counsel and this commission should he wish to take in any new clients, and will not do so without the full consent or approval of this commission.”

Calemine declined to comment.

Jackson described the private meeting as “no holds barred,” but neither he nor the other commissioners would provide details.

“The issue is the appearance of impropriety,” Jackson said later. “We’re very concerned about the appearance of impropriety.”

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Calemine’s consulting work has raised concerns that the public’s interest in the secession proceedings could conflict with his clients’ interests.

His public and private roles have overlapped in one commercial real estate deal. He performed at least $10,000 worth of consulting work for an attorney who was arguing a Valley secession group’s case before him and the LAFCO commissioners.

The study Calemine is supervising will enable the commission to decide whether to put any secession proposals on the ballot next year. The panel would rely on his recommendations as it sets divorce settlement terms, from water rights and police protection to possible “alimony” payments from one city to another.

The city Ethics Commission told Calemine last month that he might have to register as a City Hall lobbyist. He responded that he was not a lobbyist and not legally required to register as one.

John M. Walker, a leader of the secession group Valley VOTE, appeared before the commission Wednesday to defend Calemine.

“To orchestrate that some kind of devious thing is going on is an inappropriate perspective given by the media,” Walker told the panel.

Lisa DiGilio, a Valley VOTE volunteer coordinator, urged LAFCO to resist “the politics of personal destruction.”