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