CHICK CRITICAL OF CITY AGENCY L.A. PUBLIC WORKS NEEDS TO DOCUMENT ACTIONS, AUDIT SAYS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

In another audit blasting city contracting practices, Controller Laura Chick released a report Thursday that said the board overseeing $1 billion in public works projects is ``AWOL'' in ensuring the public's interests are protected.

While the audit found the Board of Public Works followed accepted contracting procedures, it failed to provide adequate documentation for its actions.

``In terms of outright public corruption, fraud and misuse of public funds, no, we did not find evidence of that,'' Chick said. ``But what we found was an environment where it's hard to tell exactly what did happen.

``Over and over again, we found documentation and key pieces of the typical contractor process missing from the files. This certainly creates an unacceptable, high-risk environment in which fraud, corruption and misuse of public funds is more likely to occur.''

Appointed by Mayor James Hahn, the Board of Public Works is the city's only full-time, salaried policy-making board, with each of the five members earning $108,179 annually.

With a $1.4 billion budget, the 5,500-member Department of Public Works is responsible for filling potholes, picking up trash, trimming trees and overseeing various construction projects.

The commissioners were unavailable to comment, but Public Works Department spokeswoman Cora Jackson-Fossett noted that the audit did not find ``widespread mismanagement and inconsistencies.''

``Of course, any mismanagement is unacceptable,'' she said. ``If that means constantly re-evaluating our contracting procedures, even though there were really only three items she brought to the forefront out of more than $1 billion worth of contracts, we certainly will investigate.''

Mayor James Hahn said he welcomed Chick's audit and he wanted to review its findings before commenting.

``I served as controller and appreciate her efforts,'' Hahn said. ``I have formed a commission to look at all contracting procedures and we want to make sure we have the best practices in effect.

``If there's a problem anywhere, we want to correct it.''

It was Chick's audits nearly two years ago into the Airport Department and later the Harbor and Water and Power agencies that led to criminal investigations. Those audits raised questions on whether there was a pay-to-play operation with companies believing they needed to make political contributions to win city business.

``Over and over again, as I'm looking at the contracting process in the city, I'm seeing problems,'' Chick said.

In the audit, Chick recommended the board improve how it manages the awarding and monitoring of contracts.

Chick, who has endorsed Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa in the May 17 mayoral runoff, cited several examples of how the process is troublesome.

She said the board had failed to conduct cost-benefit analyses for $6 million in contracts awarded to truck haulers and $2 million in contracts to tree trimmers annually. She noted that the same small number of private truck companies that haul debris continue to receive the vast majority of awards despite the department's policy to the contrary.

``The commissioners are AWOL and they need to look at this audit and move quickly to adopt the very clear-cut and, quite frankly, simple recommendations,'' Chick said.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com