Former OnTrac official enters plea

The former city official who headed a troubled $650-million rail project for Placentia pleaded no contest Friday to felony conflict-of-interest charges in a deal that could allow him to avoid a jail sentence.

Prosecutors alleged that as the city’s public works director, Christopher Becker violated conflict-of-interest laws in the creation of the OnTrac rail project in April 2000 and used his influence to be hired by the city to manage the project as a private consultant.

He was allowed to stay on as public works director for more than two years while simultaneously working as a consultant.

The settlement reached Friday requires Becker to pay the city of Placentia $500,000 -- money he obtained from the city when he worked as the town’s public works director and as head of the OnTrac rail project, said James A. Coulter III, an assistant district attorney.

Becker has, in effect, already paid $173,000 of the restitution because he waived money the city owed him.

If Becker pays the restitution by 2012, he will avoid jail time and the charge could be reduced to a misdemeanor, Coulter said.

If he does not pay the restitution, he could face up to three years in prison.

Becker’s attorney, Paul Meyer, said Becker entered the plea because the settlement avoided a felony conviction and custody time if Becker pays the restitution.

Meyer maintains that Becker did nothing wrong.

“For some inexplicable reason, no one realized that there was a conflict of interest,” Meyer said. “There is no allegation of fraud. There is no allegation of the city losing money because of Mr. Becker. There is no allegation that Mr. Becker had any bad intent. There has never been any allegation, except that the city and Mr. Becker had no idea that it had violated any conflict-of-interest provision.”

Becker’s original consulting contract guaranteed him $4.5 million over 10 years, or $450,000 a year, which made him one of the highest-paid transportation officials in the nation at the time.

The OnTrac project, a plan to build 11 overpasses and lower five miles of railroad tracks into a concrete trench to help revitalize downtown Placentia, was shelved in 2006 after it failed to receive federal funding and the city ran out of money to keep it afloat.

In October, a state appellate court dismissed a conflict-of-interest charge against the former city manager, Robert D’Amato, another central figure in the OnTrac rail project.

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my-thuan.tran@latimes.com