Controller Says St. John Owes City $260,714, Calls for Expanded Probe

A city audit concluded Friday that Juanita St. John, head of a controversial Africa trade task force, committed numerous financial irregularities, violated her contract and owes the city $260,714.

In releasing the audit, Los Angeles City Controller Rick Tuttle called for an expanded criminal investigation of St. John.

Charging that St. John failed to account for nearly $180,000, Tuttle told a crowded City Hall press conference that he was referring the audit to both the district attorney’s office and the city attorney to determine if “criminal or legal action is warranted.”

Both offices said they were reviewing the report to determine whether a criminal probe was warranted. Previously, only the Los Angeles Police Department was conducting a criminal investigation of St. John’s handling of task force funds.

‘Doesn’t Surprise Me’

St. John could not be reached for comment, but her attorney, Richard Hirsch, said his client had been cooperative while preserving her legal rights.

“It doesn’t surprise me that there is some investigation which is under way,” Hirsch said. “It’s my belief that when the dust settles in this matter, that she’ll be vindicated and all of the funds will be accounted for.”

But Tuttle said St. John had “obstructed my auditors from getting an accounting of how city money was spent.” He said she gave varying accounts of where and what records were available. He said she first said records were at her home, then said they were stolen during a break-in at her task force office, although she never reported the burglary to police.

Tuttle said St. John also gave auditors copies of federal tax forms purporting to show the salary she claimed. But the Internal Revenue Service “told our auditors the forms were never filed.”

Overall, the audit found St. John had no controls on how she spent nearly $400,000 in city funds that flowed to the task force, largely at Mayor Tom Bradley’s urging, since 1985. The task force, on which Bradley served as a board member, had no clear policies and procedures for financial expenditures, the report said.

Tuttle also faulted Bradley, whose business ties with St. John are part of a wide-ranging conflict-of-interest probe, and the mayor’s staff for failing to alert the proper city officials about financial problems the task force was having at UCLA. University officials called the mayor’s office in 1986 and wrote the mayor directly in 1988 because the task force was failing to pay its bills.

“He should have notified the department administering the funds--the city clerk,” Tuttle said.

Bradley said in an a sworn interview released with the audit that he learned only last year of the task force’s financial problems and the difficulties it was having with UCLA.

The mayor said that he spoke with St. John at the time, and “I presumed it (the problem) was taken care of.”

Bill Elkins, the mayor’s special assistant, appeared to contradict the mayor in a separate sworn interview. He said that he “quite probably” relayed concerns about the task force to the mayor more than two years ago.

The task force was based at UCLA, and under an agreement signed by Bradley and St. John, a portion of the nearly $100,000 in city funds annually allocated to the task force was to be deposited in university accounts to cover St. John’s salary and other expenses. But in June, 1987, the task force had to borrow $32,000 from the Bank of America to pay the university for overdrawn accounts.

Little New Light

The audit shed little new light on the key question of whether St. John misused public funds as executive director of the Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations.

Tuttle said, “we don’t have any accounting” for nearly $180,000 that St. John withdrew in cash and checks made out to herself. Auditors withheld some details of their findings, particularly in the area of St. John’s commingling of task force and family funds, at the request of police investigators.

But they did for the first time provide records showing that more than $13,000 in task force checks were deposited in accounts of St. John’s husband, John, and her daughter, Kathy.

The auditors noted that St. John, only two months after receiving the first city funding, wrote herself checks and withdrew cash totaling more than $41,000. In other years, the pattern was the same, with large cash and personal withdrawals shortly after the city funds arrived.

In addition to unaccounted for funds, the auditors found that St. John had been “in direct violation of her contract” with the city by paying off $40,000 in debts run up years before city funding began flowing to the group.

The auditors also said St. John owed the city $32,000 in interest on the unaccounted funds and $5,500 in unauthorized or unsubstantiated travel costs. All told, the audit found St. John spent about $18,000 on travel, including a nearly monthlong $6,770 tour of Africa in early 1987.

St. John told auditors her salary was $65,000 to $70,000 a year--more than the $40,000 a year she had reported in some city documents.

St. John failed to meet a Friday deadline to file records sought by the state attorney general’s office as part of a separate investigation of the task force. Deputy Atty. Gen. James Cordi had said earlier that he would recommend a lawsuit be filed against St. John, but Hirsch said Friday evening that an extension had been granted.

Because of St. John’s handling of task force money, the controller’s office has announced that it is also auditing a Los Angeles “sister cities” program that St. John chaired until this week. The audit will cover $55,000 in city funds, focusing in particular on an unusual $35,000 bailout that the mayor initiated after St. John ran up a debt hosting a large conference.