Board Asks Head of Job Program to Resign : Employment: The director of a federal consortium allegedly misused organization’s credit cards. He has been suspended but refuses to quit.

The executive director of a $3-million-a-year federal employment training program in the San Gabriel Valley has been suspended without pay and asked to resign for allegedly using agency funds for gambling and other questionable practices.

Douglas L. Shaw, 50, head of the El Monte-based Mid-Valley Manpower Consortium since 1979, was removed from his $63,000-a-year post May 12 by the consortium’s Board of Directors after a preliminary county audit of records for the last two years resulted in the allegations.

Charges include allegations that Shaw charged a personal trip to Las Vegas and gambling bets to a consortium credit card, that he used a consortium gasoline credit card to fill the tank of his car for non-business use, and that a secretary employed by a nearby city was paid through agency job-training funds for nearly five years even though federal regulations limit such payments to six months.

Shaw, who has been unavailable for comment, may ultimately have to answer for as much as $100,000 in misspent funds when the audit is completed, county officials said.

“The whole thing is regrettable and we’re working as hard as we can to protect the integrity of the consortium,” board Chairwoman Audrey Chamberlain said.

The investigation of Shaw’s activities has prompted county officials to review contracts with six other job-training consortiums whose annual budgets total more than $28 million, said Jose Martinez, who oversees some federal contracts for the county.

Meanwhile, federal criminal investigators have entered the Mid-Valley case. Shaw, who lives in Diamond Bar, could be prosecuted for fraud, theft or embezzlement, said a spokesman from the Office of the Inspector General in San Francisco.

More than $50 million in federal Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) funds is sent via the county Department of Community and Senior Citizen Services to 50 nonprofit agencies in the county, including the six consortiums. Consortium board members, in addition to holding down full-time jobs, serve as council members in their own cities.

Mid-Valley opened its office at 4026 N. Peck Road in 1975 as a nonprofit, joint powers agency to provide federally funded training programs and job placement for low-income residents and youths. Four cities--Baldwin Park, El Monte, South El Monte and Bradbury--oversee the 20-employee agency.

Mid-Valley performs no training. It contracts with schools and community organizations, which train or employ about 500 adults and 500 teen-agers annually.

Martinez said the investigation of Shaw and Mid-Valley is a rare occurrence. He said it was sparked two months ago after county officials were contacted anonymously and provided documents alleging improprieties.

A preliminary audit turned up evidence that Shaw had destroyed receipts, or failed to turn them in, for a personal trip to Las Vegas, a source close to the investigation said.

The audit also showed use of the gasoline credit card for two days in a row at an El Monte service station. Shaw also may have listed fictitious employees on the Mid-Valley payroll, a source said.

In addition, auditors could not find a contract for Claudia Vestal, who was hired in 1988 as a secretary for then-Bradbury City Manager Aurora (Dolly) Vollaire, Martinez said. Vestal was paid $24,000 annually through Mid-Valley job-training funds, Bradbury city officials said. Those payments ended in April, when Vestal was named city clerk and the city began paying her, city officials added.

Under federal rules, the city of Bradbury should have paid at least half of Vestal’s training salary, Martinez said. In addition, Bradbury should have put Vestal on the city payroll after six months of employment, or terminated her from the job-training program, he said. Shaw is a close friend of Vollaire, who was fired last month and is the subject of a district attorney’s investigation into allegations that she misused city funds.

The allegations were contained in the preliminary audit given to the Mid-Valley board. In a closed session May 12, the board suspended Shaw without pay and gave him two days to resign. Looking surprised and shaken, board members said, Shaw refused, insisting that he did nothing wrong and that he had paid the money back. The board meets again in special session tonight to hear from Shaw.