Data Linked to Friend of Perata Subpoenaed

As part of an investigation surrounding incoming state Senate leader Don Perata (D-Oakland), federal agents have requested records from at least one company that hired a longtime Perata friend to promote its products.

Authorities have demanded information from a company that employed the friend, Timothy G. Staples, as it sought a contract with the Oakland school district for its products, urinals that do not use water. Perata, one of the most powerful figures in the Bay Area, asked the Oakland school superintendent to meet with Staples.

In addition, federal authorities have subpoenaed records from the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, which would have received revenue from a $1-billion bond campaign and a separate bridge toll increase that Staples raised money to promote. Perata was substantially involved in the campaigns for both ballot measures.

A longtime Oakland dealmaker and public official, Perata is scheduled to assume leadership of the state Senate after the Legislature reconvenes in early December and confirms him -- normally a formality. A grand jury is looking into the activities of Perata’s business associates, friends and relatives, according to people who have received subpoenas. The scope and target of the investigation are not clear.

Neither Staples nor Perata could be reached for comment Monday. Perata last week denied any wrongdoing and said he has not been contacted by federal authorities.

“We do know he’s acted lawfully and appropriately throughout,” said Perata’s attorney, George L. O’Connell.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (D-North Hollywood), a longtime friend of Perata, asked Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft on Monday to investigate whether federal agents leaked information about the grand jury inquiry to the media. Berman asked whether political motivation prompted the leaks, which came as Perata prepared to take his leadership post.

“Such leaks are criminal precisely for the reason that they can be, and often are, used to tarnish the reputation of the leak’s subject,” Berman wrote to Ashcroft.

Perata and Staples have worked in tandem on a variety of deals in recent years. Perata has reported receiving consulting fees of at least $100,000 in the last three years from Staples, who was his college roommate. Campaign finance reports show that Staples has received more than $370,000 from political campaigns orchestrated by Perata since 1998.

In 2001, Perata called Oakland schools Supt. Dennis Chaconas urging him to meet with Staples, who represented Falcon Waterfree Technologies, based in Michigan. A consultant for an array of business interests, Staples asked Chaconas to consider putting Falcon urinals in Oakland schools, Chaconas said in an interview earlier this year.

Chaconas could not be reached for comment Monday, but previously said he turned the matter over to a subordinate, who determined that the Falcon system would not work in Oakland schools.

“We did receive a subpoena a few days ago, and of course we are gathering the documents to comply with the subpoena,” Falcon President Jay Troger said in a statement. “We don’t have very much, but what we have we’re certainly in the process of turning over.”

Falcon Waterfree Technologies is a potential witness but not the subject of an inquiry, company attorney Marcellus McRae said.

In an August interview, Troger said Perata set up a lunch for Falcon and the head of the California pipe trades union, which is skeptical of Falcon’s products, in 2003.

A pipe trades lobbyist said the union has not been contacted as part of the federal investigation.

“Obviously, I knew that Tim Staples knew Don Perata,” Troger said, though he added that he was unaware that the senator and Staples had a business relationship.

Falcon is not new to politics. Former Vice President Al Gore and former Mayor Richard J. Riordan are on the company’s advisory board. Its chairman is Marc Nathanson, an investor and Democratic donor from Los Angeles who gave $30,000 to Perata’s campaigns in 2000 and 2001.

Staples also was a consultant to Knowaste, a diaper recycling company. At the same time Staples was working for Knowaste, in 2003, Perata carried legislation that would have imposed a fee on diaper sales to create an estimated $11 million in recycling programs around the state. Perata dropped the idea in May.

Knowaste would not discuss the federal investigation. “We don’t comment on legal proceedings,” said spokeswoman Fiona Hutton.

Staples has been paid for work on a series of Bay Area ballot measures supported and sometimes orchestrated by Perata. Staples raised money in a campaign for a measure to reauthorize a sales tax increase, a term-limits initiative and a Bay Area bridge toll increase.

In November 2002, Staples also raised funds for the unsuccessful Bay Area Measure BB, which would have authorized $1 billion in bonds for BART seismic retrofitting. Perata headed that campaign.

Perata also worked for more than three years on a Bay Area bridge toll increase -- Regional Measure 2, approved last March by voters -- that would generate $125 million annually for expanding BART, reinforcing BART’s tunnel between Oakland and San Francisco and widening roads and bridge operations.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson acknowledged Monday that the transit system had been subpoenaed in regard to Perata and others he would not identify.

“They were just asking for financial records and other correspondence,” Johnson said. “We don’t have any financial records to provide them and we are still checking on correspondence.”