Alatorre’s Ex-Secretary Questions Cash’s Source

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, hard-pressed to pay his personal bills, would show up with thousands of dollars in cash after hastily arranged meetings with people who had business ties to the city, according to a former aide entrusted with managing the lawmaker’s money.

Linda M. Ward, who had authority to sign Alatorre’s personal checks and who was his executive secretary for nearly a decade, said she deposited about $25,000 during a three-year period ending in 1995, when she unwillingly left his office and was hired by the city attorney.

In a practice she called “routine,� Ward said Alatorre would give her a few thousand dollars every several months that she would then deposit in a bank in Chinatown, just minutes from City Hall. In a written statement to The Times on Monday, Alatorre disputed Ward’s account.

“I do not believe that the allegations you apparently intend to make are accurate,� he wrote, describing Ward as a “disgruntled former employee who was discharged several years ago.�

Ward’s allegations come at a time when authorities have begun focusing on whether the councilman has been improperly receiving income from individuals and firms with a stake in government decisions. As part of that inquiry, investigators have obtained his personal banking records under a federal grand jury subpoena, The Times has learned.

As a rule, according to Justice Department sources, such records can be sought only when there is “reasonable suspicion� that they relate to possible criminal matters.

Alatorre, in his statement Monday, said he was unaware that any of his banking records had been obtained.

“I believe I would have been notified if any such action had actually taken place,� he said.

Ward’s allegations also follow disclosures in The Times last week that the councilman, in buying a home last year, received assistance from associates of a businessman with a multimillion-dollar deal being championed by Alatorre at City Hall. The councilman and the businessman have denied any wrongdoing but have refused to answer specific questions.

During most of Alatorre’s time on the council, Ward had more than secretarial responsibilities. She not only handled his schedule but in time was also given more sensitive duties.

Ward said her involvement with Alatorre’s personal finances began in the early 1990s after the councilman was divorced from his second wife, who was handling his money matters. Ward said Alatorre gave her authority to sign checks on his personal account in case of an emergency.

Copies of financial records obtained by The Times confirm that Ward had the authority to write checks on his personal First Interstate Bank account.

Gradually, Ward said, she began to pay most of the councilman’s personal bills and balance his checkbook. “I just felt like it was kind of my job to keep his life in order,� she said. “We were expected to do anything we were asked.�

During her last several years with Alatorre, Ward said, she repeatedly had to alert the councilman that he was running short on money to cover personal debts. The councilman, she said, would instruct her to contact one of three individuals, whom she would not identify on the record except to say they had business connections with the city. “I’m afraid of them,� she said, adding that they had done her no wrong.

Typically, Ward said, the councilman would arrive at her desk the day after the meetings with between $2,000 and $3,000.

“It was pretty much always $100 bills folded in half,� she said. “I was suspicious that the money came from these people. There was a pattern, a definite pattern.�

Ward portrayed Alatorre--despite his 20 years in public office--as a man struggling to make ends meet, living beyond his annual salary of just under $100,000.

“He [had] every credit card you can get,� Ward said. “And he spent a lot of money on clothes,� including expensive suits.

“He never had any savings and he used his whole [bank] overdraft. . . . Every month he would go to the maximum, which was $10,000.�

“He was the type who would pick up and decide [he and his wife] were going to Las Vegas. They went there a lot, like every couple of months. He played blackjack.� But Alatorre paid a price, Ward said. He would not have money in his checking account to cover his out-of-town trips and other spending, she said, seriously burdening his American Express card.

Usually, Ward said, it was such large outlays that preceded the councilman’s directions to contact “this little handful of people.� Within a day or so, she said, “he would walk in and say, ‘Here is the money you need.’ �

Ward said her long professional relationship with Alatorre began to sour a couple of years ago. He grew rude and gruff, she said. Then, in 1995, the councilman told her that she had outgrown her job and that he would help find her another.

Despite Ward’s expressed desire to stay, Alatorre refused. Ward then filed a stress-related workers’ compensation claim, alleging verbal harassment by the councilman. Although she said in workers’ compensation records that she paid Alatorre’s personal bills, she did not mention making any cash deposits on the councilman’s behalf.

The city ruled against Ward, saying her stress was not job-related, a position that is not uncommon for the city to take in the early stages of such disputes. Two days later, however, Ward landed a job as a legal secretary with the city attorney’s office and dropped her claim.

Ward’s allegations against her former boss will probably intensify the ongoing investigation surrounding his activities as one of the region’s most powerful government officials. Not only is Alatorre a veteran council member, heading the Budget and Finance Committee, but he also sits on the governing board of the far-reaching Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

That agency’s inspector general is leading the probe of Alatorre’s financial affairs, focusing on whether he has received improper income from contractors or others doing business with the transit agency, according to knowledgeable sources.

His banking records were obtained by the MTA in cooperation with the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. “They are looking at his personal accounts to see what’s going in there,� said one source familiar with the inquiry.

It is unclear to what extent, if any, the cash deposits alleged by Ward figure in the MTA investigation. She said that she has not been contacted by investigators.

The MTA inspector general, Arthur Sinai, declined to comment, as did the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Earlier this year, The Times reported that authorities were examining financial links between Alatorre and two children’s charities, which exclusively hired a small event-planning firm founded by his third wife, Angie. The councilman helped create the charities and solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from individuals and companies with business at the MTA and City Hall.

After the story’s publication, the lawmaker agreed to pay $8,000 in state and local penalties for failing to fully disclose income from that firm and for improperly intervening on the company’s behalf with city regulators.

During the last several years, the Alatorres’ public disclosure statements have shown no significant investments or other sizable financial assets besides their personal residence.

Although Alatorre did not respond in detail Monday to questions about the alleged cash deposits, earlier this year he insisted in an interview with The Times that his household income is limited to the couple’s paychecks, which records indicate totaled about $165,000 in 1996. “I wish I made more,� the councilman said. “But I mean we don’t. It’s my salary and her salary, and that’s it, man.�

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story from Washington.