WIND FARM YEARS LATE PR ABUSES CITED AS CITY'S GREEN PROJECT LAGS FAR BEHIND.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

It was a public relations coup for Mayor James Hahn, standing in front of the Department of Water and Power on Feb. 3, 2003, with environmentalists to announce the city was going green and would nearly double its renewable energy production within 18 months by building a massive wind farm in the Mojave Desert.

Now, two years later, the project is two years behind schedule and critics cite the incident as one of the most blatant examples of the Hahn administration's abuse of the $3 million a year public relations contract that the DWP awarded to Fleishman-Hillard.

The firm, which has become swept up in local and federal criminal investigations of City Hall corruption, billed the DWP $62,526 to put together the Pine Tree Wind Farm event.

There are other examples as well of public relations events that helped Hahn politically, although little came of them.

Los Angeles World Airports paid Fleishman-Hillard more than $50,000 to promote the launch of a flight route from Ontario International Airport to Hermosillo, Mexico - an element of Hahn's strategy to win support for expansion of Los Angeles International Airport by showing he was pushing regional air service. The Hermosillo route was canceled 11 months after it was launched in January 2002.

Fleishman-Hillard collected $10,266 from the DWP to promote a program to plant 200,000 new trees in Los Angeles between February 2002 and February 2004. The Trees for a Green LA program has resulted in only 30,000 free trees being given out, officials now admit.

``Lots of money was spent on flashy showoff stuff, show-and-tell and bragging,'' said City Controller Laura Chick, whose audits have exposed many of the abuses.

``What government should never try to do is fool the public. Looking at what it costs for public relations showtime to tout this kind of program that has delivered nothing is the worst kind of sham.''

The Pine Tree Wind Farm was far and away the costliest and the one that so far has produced the least.

Fleishman-Hillard billed the municipal utility $170 to $425 an hour to strategize on points to make to reporters, coordinate filming and monitor media coverage after the event. In all, nine employees of Fleishman-Hillard - including the head of the Los Angeles office, Doug Dowie, who charged $425 to attend the press conference - billed the DWP for work on the Pine Tree project.

From a public relations standpoint, it was a smashing success.

The Daily News, Los Angeles Times and Bakersfield Californian all carried stories about how, at a cost of $162 million, 80 wind turbines would be erected on 22,000 acres 12 miles north of Mojave and generate 120 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 120,000 homes.

It would increase the DWP's renewable energy from 2.2 percent to 3.7 percent of its total power production - still far less than the statewide average.

``I am proud of the department's quick response to my call last November for a stepped-up investment in renewable resources,'' Hahn boasted at the press conference.

Environment California, a coalition of groups pressing for more green power, was ecstatic, applauding Hahn and the DWP for responding to their call. In a statement, the called it ``an exciting first step'' toward developing clean energy programs that provide 20 percent of the city's power.

Martin Schlageter, an environmentalist who spoke at the 2003 press conference about the benefits of the turbine project, said the DWP at the time was more concerned about marketing than developing energy sources.

``The Fleishman-Hillard contract is under a lot of scrutiny and I'm just as concerned as anyone about that use of public money,'' said Schlageter, campaign and advocacy director for the Coalition for Clean Air.

``The fact that it's still going on is a testament to something. I don't know if that justifies (the cost of) the press conference.''

According to Fleishman-Hillard invoices reviewed by the Daily News, then-Senior Vice President John Stodder was personally involved in promoting the Pine Tree Wind project, although most of the work was performed by subordinates. Stodder billed the DWP $1,417 in January 2003 to review and edit press materials for the wind turbine project, according to invoices.

Stodder, the first person charged in the corruption investigation, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 11 counts of wire fraud, accused of directing Fleishman-Hillard employees to pad their monthly bills to the DWP. The city is suing Fleishman-Hillard over $4.2 million in allegedly inflated billings in its $24 million in contracts with the DWP, which extended from 1998 to 2004.

Of the nine Fleishman-Hillard employees involved with the project, only one still works for the company, said Richard Kline, who replaced Dowie as regional president in charge of the Fleishman-Hillard Los Angeles office.

``Our role was to promote this particular project and that was done at the direction of the DWP,'' Kline said. ``From what I understand, we did it pretty well.''

The project is bogged down in regulatory issues and other delays, such as its impact on Indian burial grounds and land used by off-road enthusiasts, and is not expected to begin operating until the middle of 2006 at the earliest.

Enrique Martinez, the head of the DWP's power system, said the delays don't detract from the DWP's efforts to promote the turbines as part of its overall strategy of calling attention to cleaner energy sources.

``We had a project that seemed like a major change in how the city would be configured as far as its use of renewable energy,'' Martinez said. ``It had a lot of attributes that we felt would be a positive step for the community that we wanted to advertise.''

Martinez said DWP officials projected a July 2004 start date based on an optimistic view of the permitting process. But he said controversy over the height of the turbines and their effect on birds, as well as negotiating the complexities of California environmental law, have held it up.

Officials are finalizing an environmental review of the turbine project and hope to submit the final project specifications to the DWP board this spring. Once the City Council signs off on the project, it would take about a year to build, Martinez said.

A Hahn spokeswoman, Sahar Moridani, said the mayor remains committed to the project.

``This is a great project designed to increase our renewable power resources, but people thought that rushing to get it online wasn't as good an idea as taking a step back of going to all the regulatory agencies and getting all of our ducks in a row,'' Moridani said.

Schlageter, the environmentalist, said that in retrospect, much of the public relations work seemed excessive, particularly given the DWP's lagging progress toward renewable-energy goals at the time.

``Hopefully, we won't be looking back at the next press conference and saying, 'Hey, where did that project go?'''

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com