L.A. County to probe contracts with Tarzana rehab center

Los Angeles County supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to investigate all county contracts with the Tarzana Treatment Center, a nonprofit drug rehabilitation provider whose executive compensation was the subject of an L.A. Times article last week.

The supervisors also ordered the Department of Public Health to step up efforts to create a competitive bidding process for all drug treatment contracts -- a move away from the long tradition of renewing agreements when they expire.

Tarzana Treatment Center is by far the largest of the scores of nonprofits that contract with the county to provide drug rehabilitation to people in poverty or in trouble with the law.

It gets 85% of its $45-million budget from the government.

During the review ordered by supervisors, the treatment center’s county contracts, which typically cover at least a year, will be scaled back to 90 days.

The Times reported Thursday that the center’s executives receive salaries that are unusually high for the industry and are involved in other lucrative financial arrangements.

Scott Taylor, Tarzana’s chief executive, earned $330,732 in salary in 2007, along with $237,956 for legal work. Albert Senella, the chief operating officer, made $428,057.

The two men also received $706,232 in deferred compensation in 2006 and 2007.

In addition, they and two other board members collected more than $2.27 million in rent in 2007 for properties that Tarzana uses as treatment sites.

Tarzana executives say they did nothing wrong.

The bulk of their compensation comes from revenue collected from the subset of patients who pay with cash or insurance, they said. The other financial arrangements were deemed in the best interest of taxpayers, they added.

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alan.zarembo@latimes.com

Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report.