2 Inquiries Target MTA Official

The FBI and the inspector general of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have launched inquiries into the role that MTA board member Martin Ludlow played in a development project.

The contractor for the project, a bus yard, was RAD Jefferson. Ludlow, who is also a Los Angeles city councilman, was disqualified from voting on the project as an MTA board member by state conflict of interest laws because he had received a $500 contribution to his council campaign from an affiliated firm.

After the MTA board gave initial approval to the project, Ludlow proposed that the transit agency spend $282,000 on a community outreach contract to persuade the public to support the development, the West Los Angeles Transportation Center.

The developer hired a woman whom Ludlow had recommended to the MTA to do the outreach, but later ended her contract.

Ludlow ultimately opposed the project.

His actions on the project, which is in his council district, have drawn the attention of the MTA’s inspector general and the FBI, which have interviewed agency employees, including MTA Chief Executive Roger Snoble, according to four sources familiar with the investigations.

Ludlow, who said he had not been contacted by investigators, said Wednesday that he believed that he had acted appropriately.

He declined to say whether he believed that pushing for the outreach campaign violated the conflict of interest rule.

The councilman, who was appointed to the MTA board by Mayor James K. Hahn, said he simply suggested to MTA officials that outreach on the controversial project needed to be improved.

But documents on his City Council letterhead indicate that he made a proposal with a detailed budget, including the cost of pens and paper cups.

“We believe that building community awareness and input for the project with all the relevant stakeholders will ultimately lead to their support,” said Ludlow’s written proposal.

Ludlow confirmed that he had given MTA officials a list of possible community outreach contractors, including Lola Smallwood Cuevas, whom he knew from her work with a janitors union.

“The community outreach by the MTA was pathetic,” he said.

After talks fell through for the MTA to hire Cuevas, RAD Jefferson, the private developer of the bus yard, hired her.

Ludlow declined to say whether he had asked the developer to hire Cuevas and whether his eventual opposition to the project stemmed from the developer’s decision to let her go.

“I think I should do my homework on this before I say anything,” he said.

Jerold B. Neuman, an attorney for the development company, and its president, Robert D’Elia, declined to say whether his clients had been interviewed by investigators.

“We have been cooperating with the MTA on all aspects of this project and will continue to do so,” said Neuman, referring further comment to MTA Deputy Inspector General Mimi Strauss.

Strauss declined to comment.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said agency policy required her to neither confirm nor deny any investigation.

State law prohibits MTA board members from using their official position to influence a contracting decision for four years after the board member receives a contribution of $10 or more from a company or individual seeking a contract.

Ludlow’s council campaign committee received $500 from RAD Venice, an affiliated firm of D’Elia’s, on April 30, 2003. He recused himself from MTA board votes on the facility.

But Ludlow said a legal opinion from the city attorney’s office indicated that he could be involved in the public debate on the project as a city councilman. Ludlow and the city attorney declined to release the opinion.

At issue is a proposal for RAD Jefferson to build a $20.9-million West Los Angeles Transportation Center for a fleet of 175 clean-fuel buses.

The project is proposed for 4.66 acres on the east side of Jefferson Boulevard, between Rodeo Road and National Boulevard.

The project drew some community opposition early on, said John Catoe, the deputy chief executive officer of the MTA, so Snoble hired a community outreach firm for $187,000 in April 2003.

Sharon Delugach, a former Ludlow aide, recalled that the councilman was not satisfied that the community was being adequately involved.

So, on Ludlow’s behalf, she circulated to MTA board members a proposal for a new outreach effort.

Ludlow sent MTA representatives a community outreach proposal in February 2004 on his councilman letterhead that suggested that the MTA spend $282,000 on a 131-week program that would reach each of the 21,000 homes in the area.

When asked whether Ludlow recommended that MTA hire a specific firm, Catoe said, “I’m not going to comment on that.”

On Nov. 23, 2004, Ludlow informed the MTA chief that he had decided to oppose the development.

“I base this decision on input from my constituents as well as my own concerns about the negative environmental and traffic impacts associated with your project,” Ludlow wrote.

He added that the agency had “put a very weak, poorly funded publicity operation together.”

Times staff writer Caitlin Liu contributed to this report.