Trustee
of Southern California Pension is an alleged FRAUD
Please Read the following
article carefully, even though it's long it will tell you who is running our
unions.
Note that mid article it mentions the CARPENTERS
CONTRACTORS COOPERATION
COMMITTEE.
This organization is non-union, yet it is run out of our District
Council. Financial records cannot be
obtained for this organization because it claims it is non-union, yet it is run
with Union Contractors money. Ron Tutor
is a member of the executive board of CCCC.
Please note that five Business Agents sued this
organization for not paying overtime wages, even though this is a watchdog
organization which cracks down on contractors that don't pay prevailing wage.
The Executive Director of this organization, Bill
Luddy is on McCarron's payroll, he is Mac's assistant. The UBC's LM-2 report shows him making $129,000.00 as McCarron's assistant.
Last but not least the infamous Co-Chairman Trustee of the Southern California Pension
Fund Ron Tutor who is accused of filing false claims and defrauding the
Metropolitan Transit Agency.
These folks are the running our UNIONS. It starts in California and will move very
fast towards the other coast. Remember
that Tutor runs PERINI.
Write California Senator Dianne Feinstein and ask
her why she doesn't start investigating these activities.
In my opinon Dianne Feinstein in California and
Ted Kennedy on the East Coast are the ones responsible for letting these people
get away with this kind of stuff. They
can pull strings in the courts. This is
why Dianne opposed Ashcroft's appointment, to cover her husband and these
delinquents. This is my opinion.
Firm's Backing in Campaign Poses Tricky Situation Hahn's sway on MTA board could aid a key supporter: a subway contractor battling the agency. Aides say he won't show favoritism.
By JEFFREY L. RABIN,
Times Staff Writer
As James K. Hahn moves into his new office at City Hall, he has
Ronald N. Tutor, in part, to thank for it.
Tutor, president of
construction giant Tutor-Saliba Corp., spent $75,000 to help Hahn win the
mayor's race. That money went for mailers that backed Hahn as an experienced
crime-fighter and branded his rival, Antonio Villaraigosa, as "armed and
dangerous."
The contractor also
hosted two fund-raisers for Hahn during the long mayoral campaign. And Tutor,
his employees and their spouses made at least $39,000 in contributions directly
to the Hahn effort.
Now Hahn is in a
position to help Tutor. When Hahn officially became mayor on Sunday, he also
assumed the role of the most powerful member of the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority board. Hahn aides, conscious of the potential for conflict, insist
that the new mayor will not use his position to favor his ally.
The MTA is locked in
a bitter and costly legal battle with Tutor-Saliba over work on the Metro Rail
subway. The case is so serious that Tutor-Saliba could be barred from bidding
on some future public works projects if it loses--a potentially devastating
blow to a company that lives on government contracts.
Determined to press
forward with its allegations that Tutor-Saliba filed false claims and defrauded
the transit agency on several subway contracts, the MTA board rejected
overtures to settle the case before it went to trial in May.
But the board's
composition is about to change. Four of the board members involved in that
decision were former Mayor Richard Riordan and his appointees, and they are
about to be replaced by Hahn and three of his. Those four votes represent a
formidable bloc on the 13-member board.
The question for the
new mayor is simple: Will he change direction at the MTA to benefit a rich
contributor who helped secure him his job?
Hahn spokesman Kam
Kuwata said Tutor will receive "no special treatment."
Tutor did not return
numerous phone calls from The Times. In recent testimony, he told jurors that
the accusations by the MTA's lawyers are "a series of lies."
The MTA alleges that
Tutor-Saliba violated state law by filing false claims and fraudulently billing
the agency for work on the subway.
The agency also
contends that Tutor promised to use minority subcontractors on the job, but
that some of them turned out to be fronts for other businesses that did the
work.
"The evidence
will show that not only did they not issue subcontracts for the required
amount, but that the disadvantaged business enterprises they used were not all
legitimate, independent disadvantaged business companies," MTA attorney
David B. Casselman said as the trial began.
For its part,
Tutor-Saliba contends that the MTA failed to pay more than $2.5 million that
the company says it is owed for work on the subway project, including the Metro
Rail station at Wilshire Boulevard and Normandie Avenue.
Nomi Castle,
attorney for Tutor-Saliba and a member of the company's board of directors,
said in her opening statement: "This case is really very simple, although
it has a lot of peripheral issues and complex things and nit-picky pieces. My
client wants to be made whole."
Tutor-Saliba
Subway's Biggest Contractor
Tutor-Saliba has
received billions of dollars in contracts to build subway and rail projects,
airports, highways, bridges and government buildings across California.
The MTA and its
predecessor agencies paid Tutor-Saliba and its joint-venture partners nearly
$945 million for work on the Metro Rail subway, making the company the biggest
contractor on the $4.7-billion project.
Over the years, The
Times has reported that the walls of some of the subway tunnels Tutor-Saliba
built in downtown Los Angeles were thinner than required. Two of the three
workers killed in accidents during subway construction were Tutor-Saliba
employees.
One of California's
best-known contractors, Tutor also has a long history of contributing to
politicians at the local, state and federal levels. Hahn is just one of the
beneficiaries of the contractor's financial support.
But the $75,000
that Tutor spent to boost Hahn's election prospects stands out as one of the
contractor's biggest political donations.
The amount
eclipses, for instance, the $50,000 that Tutor-Saliba sent last year to support
the reelection campaign of Gov. Gray Davis.
Tutor's independent
expenditure in the closing days of the mayor's race was notable not only for
its size but also for its tone: The money paid for 240,000 mailers that warned
voters of dire consequences if former Assembly Speaker Villaraigosa was
elected.
In attacking the
former lawmaker's record on certain crime bills, it said, "Villaraigosa is
dangerous and must be defeated." The mailer described Villaraigosa as
"an extreme left-wing fringe Democrat who is more concerned
about the rights of criminals than the rights of victims and
potential victims."
The mailer, which
contained a message strikingly similar to that in other last-minute mail
pieces, carried Tutor's name and the address of his Sylmar-based company.
Such
"independent expenditures" by law are supposed to be just
that--independent of the candidate and his or her campaign. They fall outside
the city's complex campaign finance system, which limits direct contributions
to candidates and provides public matching money to those who agree to abide by
certain restrictions.
The just-concluded
Los Angeles city elections, particularly the mayor's race, saw an explosion in
such independent spending. The mayoral contest turned out to be the most
expensive in city history.
The Villaraigosa
and Hahn campaigns both benefited from independent spending, and just before
the June runoff election each side demanded that Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley
investigate the other for possible violations of city and state campaign
finance laws.
Documents faxed to
the Los Angeles Ethics Commission show that Bill Luddy, political director of
the Carpenters Union in Los Angeles and a major Hahn supporter, sent a memo May
24 to Tutor on independent expenditures. Luddy did not return phone calls from
The Times.
Luddy is executive
director of the Carpenters Contractors Cooperation Committee.
Tutor is a member of the executive board of that organization. Tutor also is a
trustee of the Carpenters Union pension fund in Southern California and Nevada.
"This is a
form that has to be filed with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission to report
the independent expenditure," Luddy wrote in the one-sentence memo.
Tutor-Saliba's
chief financial officer, Bill Sparks, faxed the completed form back to Luddy on
June 1, and it was forwarded to the Ethics Commission.
Mailers for Hahn
and Delgadillo
The form shows that
on May 23, Tutor spent $75,000 on the mailer supporting Hahn. On May 31, Tutor
paid $25,000 for 200,000 mailers supporting Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo in
his quest to replace Hahn as city attorney. Tutor also hosted a fund-raiser for
Delgadillo at his Hidden Hills home.
The independent
spending notification form and four pages of instructions about the city's
reporting requirements for such expenditures carry the fax transmission line of
Wetherly Capital Group, a Beverly Hills firm headed by consultant Daniel
Weinstein, a longtime Hahn supporter and fund-raiser, but not an official
member of the Hahn campaign.
Weinstein raised
$19,000 for Hahn at two fund-raisers and helped arrange for a $100,000
independent expenditure from the Soboba Band of Mission Indians.
Hahn spokesman
Kuwata insisted that the mailings by Tutor and the Soboba tribe of Riverside
County were made without the knowledge of Hahn campaign officials. "It had
nothing to do with the Jim Hahn for Mayor campaign," he said. "It was
not authorized."
Kuwata confirmed
that Tutor held two fund-raisers for Hahn during the mayor's race. Campaign
records show a total of $39,000 given to Hahn's campaign by Tutor, his
employees and their spouses, beginning in 1999. But most of the money came from a May 19 fund-raiser that
Tutor held for Hahn.
Tutor-Saliba has
supported Hahn in the past, giving $6,000 late in his 1997 race for reelection
as city attorney.
As city attorney,
Hahn and his staff had opportunities to review Tutor-Saliba's efforts to get
city work. In one recent case, Tutor-Saliba and a joint-venture partner sought
a $250-million contract on a major sewer project. Tutor-Saliba withdrew its
proposal after city officials found that information submitted by the company
"reflects adversely on the qualifications and responsibility of
Tutor-Saliba."
Kuwata cited that
as evidence the firm has not and will not get special consideration from Hahn.
As city attorney,
Kuwata said, Hahn instructed his staff that there was to be no special
treatment for anyone. "As mayor, Hahn will give the same explicit and
implicit order: There will be no special treatment," he added.
* * *
Building Ties to
City Hall
Construction
company executive Ronald N. Tutor spent $75,000 on a mailer attacking Antonio
Villaraigosa and promoting James K. Hahn. Tutor and his company are locked in a
legal battle with the MTA over work on the Metro Rail subway. The MTA board
rejected an offer to settle the case before it went to trial. Will that
position change now that Mayor Hahn is the most powerful member of the MTA
board?
* * * Tutor paid for 240,000 mailers sent to
voters in the final days of the Los Angeles mayor's race. The contractor,
Tutor-Saliba employees and their spouses also made at least $39,000 in
contributions to Hahn's campaign.
* * * The MTA has paid Tutor-Saliba Corp.
almost $945 million for work on the Red Line, more than any other contractor on
the Los Angeles subway project.
* * * Source: Campaign contribution and
independent spending reports
Researched by:
JEFFREY L. RABIN/Los Angeles Times