Tuttle Puts Bradley Back in Witness Chair

One day after he was questioned by the city attorney and his investigative team, Mayor Tom Bradley again found himself in the witness chair Friday when he was interviewed for several hours by City Controller Rick Tuttle and his staff.

Tuttle’s session with the mayor was a clear signal that the controller’s special audits of questionable financial transactions were back on track. They had been derailed several weeks ago when police investigators working with City Atty. James K. Hahn requested that the controller hold off on interviewing certain people until the city attorney’s investigators were finished with them.

Hahn’s office is leading a wide-ranging investigation of the mayor’s financial ties with people and institutions that do business with the city. Once Hahn wrapped up his two days of questioning Bradley on Thursday, Tuttle lost no time in resuming his own inquiry.

Tuttle has said his office is conducting a regular annual audit of the treasurer’s office as well as three special audits. They include the city’s transactions with Far East National Bank, which employed Bradley as an $18,000-a-year adviser and which received city deposits during that time; the city’s funding of the Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations, which is headed by Bradley business associate Juanita St. John, and procedures in the city clerk’s office, which has responsibility for authorizing payments to such groups as the Africa task force.

The controller was joined by investigators from the city attorney’s office Friday, but they were there only to “assist” the controller and did not ask any questions, a spokeswoman for Tuttle said.

Neither Tuttle nor Bradley would comment on Friday’s session, but aides to both officials confirmed that the meeting took place in the mayor’s City Hall office and lasted for several hours.

In recent weeks Tuttle has interviewed under oath key aides to Bradley, including Deputy Mayor Mike Gage. A source in the mayor’s office said it was “presumed” that Tuttle put Bradley under oath, although the city attorney did not.

Tuttle’s staff is also wrapping up its regular annual audit of the city treasurer’s office. Revelations about practices in that office rocked City Hall last month when a council hearing into the treasurer’s dealings with Far East revealed that officials had placed $2 million in deposits there after an inquiry from Bradley, had attempted to hide a reference to the mayor and then had tried to hide the lack of competitive bids.