http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/13/da-serves-search-warrant-at-oxnard-city-hall/A team of investigators with the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office converged on Oxnard’s City Hall on Friday afternoon, locking down the building for several hours while they served a search warrant. Late Friday the DA’s chief investigator, Rob Briner, came out of City Hall briefly and confirmed his office was conducting an investigation of the city of Oxnard in conjunction with the FBI. Briner offered no further information on the investigation. Much of the city’s top management remained in the building throughout the afternoon and early evening, and “temporarily closed” signs were taped to front doors while deputies in green polo shirts stood guard in the lobby. The warrant came after several top city officials were interviewed by investigators, city sources said.
Among those interviewed were City Manager Ed Sotelo, Assistant City Manager Karen Burnham, the city’s finance director James Cameron, the Director of Community Development Services Curtis Cannon, the Deputy Director of Public Works Mark Norris and Michael Moore, an official in the finance department. One city source said the investigators went floor by floor Friday, first going through the Human Resources Department, then the City Attorney’s offices and finally the City Administrator’s offices on the top floor. The investigators obtained computer pass codes from employees and then took cell phones, a source said. They also obtained travel records and information from the city’s main computer system, the source said. Investigators also searched the top two floors of an adjacent building that houses the Public Works Department. About 7:45 p.m. a handful of DA investigators carried about 15 boxes from the Public Works building and placed them in a dark van. They said they still had to get several more boxes of files from the City’s Administrator’s Office.
Mayor Tom Holden was golfing Friday with his three sons and didn’t hear about the investigation until early in the evening. “I’m completely caught off-guard by this,” he said. “You have to keep in mind that I haven’t been questioned by the DA. I’m at a loss for words of what is happening.” Holden said he thought the investigation was centered on former Public Works Director Ken Ortega and whether he had properly filled out conflict of interest forms. Holden said that obviously something more is going on.
Ortega resigned in June.
City Clerk Daniel Martinez said investigators requested financial forms from his office. Among them was the Form 700, which are statements of financial interest that track not just business interests of top officials and City Council members, but also property owned by those officials and any gifts they received.
Martinez said they requested other records, including council minutes and resolutions and several items that deal with public works and contracting.
When asked when the investigators would be finished, he said, “It’s still going on, and they told me they might be here until 10:30 p.m. or 11.”
City Councilman Andres Herrera said he was interviewed by investigators on Thursday.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss it, but I will discuss it as soon as I’m allowed to,” Herrera said.
Other top city staff could not be reached on Friday for comment.
Other city sources said several officials over the past few weeks were asked about companies that had done business with the city, specifically contracts related to large public works projects. Of particular interest was the massive Groundwater Recovery Enhancement and Treatment Program project. The project cost upwards of $250 million in contracts and includes several components — a desalination plant to convert salty groundwater for drinking and a water recycling plant to clean and reuse wastewater to replenish groundwater for use in agriculture.
The project is meant to free the city from the need for more imported water to serve its growing population. But the projects have entailed complicated multimillion dollar bonds, as well as state and federal grants to complete. The last component of the project — a $70 million water recycling plant, the Advanced Water Purification Facility — is now being built.
Last year The Star reported on cost overruns, contract irregularities and an elaborate grand opening party for another key component of the GREAT project, the city’s “desalter” plant. Ortega was criticized for spending $70,000, including $22,000 of city money, on the grand opening party in November 2008.
After details related to some of those expenditures came to light there was new scrutiny placed on contracting.
The city hired an outside consultant to audit the spending on 17 large-scale projects. The “value engineering” analysis saved $6.9 million, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Star.
At the same time proposed changes to the administrative building for the water recycling plant, which would have saved $2.2 million by removing a second-story observation deck and a community meeting room, were nixed in a 4-1 vote last month by the City Council. At that time, Holden said he was unaware of the changes and chastised Sotelo for essentially redesigning the project without informing the council.
Several months ago, DA investigators requested conflict-of-interest forms for all top city officials. Those are the Form 700.
Jim Ellison, chief assistant district attorney, said his office would not comment on the matter, and it’s unclear if the warrant is related to that request.
Herrera said he was interviewed about that issue by DA investigators but that his interview this week was related to another matter.
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http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/13/da-serves-search-warrant-at-oxnard-city-hall/#ixzz0waWbd3LX- vcstar.com
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