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Corruption at Los Angeles Building and Safety
FBI probes whether a Koreatown inspector did business via cash-stuffed envelopes
"Under Adelman, it was, 'Get the calls done,' " Yutronich says. "That was all that mattered, not supervision. It was quantity over quality."
Ovrom appeared to copy Adelman's sloppy approach last year when he quickly placed top insiders with potential conflicts of interest — Chan, Steinbach and possibly others — in charge of a performance audit of about 460 Building and Safety employees, which arose from the FBI probe of Gonzalez and Germain.
ILLUSTRATION BY PETER HOEY
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The city later hired an outside, independent investigator, Martha Supernor, to review their completed performance audit.
Glover and other L.A. inspectors say they are worried that letting Chan and Steinbach run the initial audit may have tempted insiders to remove or manipulate information and data that might have damaged reputations or shown them to be asleep at the wheel.
"We needed to do something right away," Ovrom says. "We did it to the best of our ability without trained investigators."
Steinbach defends his corruption-fighting credentials by saying he "personally fired Albert Acosta." And Ovrom says of Steinbach, "He is a primary leader in our efforts to improve our supervisory training efforts."
The department now has turned over to federal investigators the files on more than 10 employees engaged in possible suspicious activity, none of which Ovrom knew about before the FBI arrests last spring.
Ovrom says his department also has given the feds the names of at least 10 contractors and 10 expediters — firms hired by builders to cut through the department's red tape — who may be involved in wrongdoing.
That's some 30 employees, builders and expediters — a lot of people to investigate in a system described as being healthy.
Reach the writer at bbarr223@yahoo.com.
3 comments
This is how incompetent our public official are. They just want the high salary but does nothing. We just pay people to retire with no work needed.
BUD OVROM IS STILL FOOLING THE PUBLIC. NOTICE IN THE FOLLOWING LIST, THERE IS NOT A SINGLE RESIDENT ON ISSUES THAT AFFECT THE COMMUNITY'S QUALITY OF LIFE. IT IS TIME HE IS FORCED TO RETIRE.
From: Bud Ovrom [mailto:LADBS.Newsletter@lacity.org] Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 2:59 PM
Subject: Good News from LADBS!
Listening to our Customers
Development Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC) Deputy Mayor, Matt Karatz, at DIAC meeting. During the development reform strategic planning phase, the Mayor established the Development Reform Advisory Committee (DRAC) in order to provide direct industry input to the process. To ensure on-going private sector involvement after the strategic plan was adopted, the Mayor directed that the City formally continue DRAC’s mission via the formation of the Development Industry Advisory Committee (DIAC).The Committee consists of 12 members who are carefully selected to represent small and large developers, commercial and residential builders, architects, engineers, transportation specialists, land use lawyers and consultants.DIAC meets once a month to provide private sector input on development-related issues and serves as a sounding board for process improvement proposals.The current members of DIAC are:•Daniel Gryczman, Chair – Regent Properties•Allyn Rifkin –Rifkin Transportation Planning Group•Ann Sewill – Community Foundation Land Trust•Arpy Hatzikian – Gensler Architects•Arturo Sneider – Primestor Development Inc.•Cindy Starrett – Latham & Watkins•Chris Joseph – CAJA Environmental Services•Renata Simril – Jones Lang LaSalle•Rick Davis – KPFF Engineering•Shawn Evenhaim – California Home Builders•Tina Choi – Englander Knabe & Allen•Veronica Becerra – RA Build Commercial LLCIf you would like to bring any suggestions or criticisms directly to DIAC, you are encouraged to contact the Committee Chairperson at:dgryczman@regentproperties.....
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