Imbroglio over Civil Service commish

City officials have postponed a public hearing to determine whether a Long Beach Civil Service commissioner who pleaded guilty to several building code violations should be removed from his position.

Leary Wade was informed by City Manager Charles Theofan in August that Theofan was seeking to remove him from his post on the three-member commission for violating the city charter and code of ordinances by renting illegal dwellings. When Wade was asked to resign, Theofan said, Wade threatened him, saying, “I’m going to get you or someone close to you.”

The hearing, initially scheduled for Sept. 14, was postponed when Wade hired veteran civil rights attorney Fred Brewington, who said Wade was being unfairly targeted by the city. Brewington also disputed Theofan’s allegations that Wade, a civic leader in the city’s North Park area, threatened him.

On July 23, Wade pleaded guilty in Long Beach City court to several building code violations stemming from an illegal occupancy in the basement of an East Market Street home that he owns. Theofan said that Wade also pleaded guilty, in another court appearance on Aug. 20, to maintaining an illegal kitchen in the basement of another property he owns, on East Hudson Street. Theofan said that the charges against Wade were serious enough for him to seek his resignation.

The Sept. 14 hearing was to have been overseen by a public hearing officer appointed by Theofan, but after a City Council meeting on Oct. 5, Theofan said he was appointing himself as the hearing officer.

Brewington responded by arguing that because the City Council appoints Civil Service commissioners, the council should hold the hearing. Brewington was not available for comment at press time.

One city official who asked not to be named said this was “another example

of the city manager overstepping his

boundaries.”

But Theofan said that there were some conflicting provisions in the city charter, one giving the city manager the power to appoint a hearing officer in such a case, the other stating that the council is responsible for removing a commissioner.

At its meeting last week, the City Council passed a resolution to hold a hearing to amend the city charter so that it could delegate a disciplinary hearing to a hearing officer. “We’re amending the law to say yes, it is the council, but that the council is delegating that to a hearing officer that the council would appoint,” Theofan explained. “To be on the safe side, we’re proceeding this way.”

The arguments over the way the violations were issued continued at the Oct. 5 meeting. Cecil Garrett, head of the Concerned Citizens of North Park, was critical of the process, saying that Theofan was present with a building inspector and three plainclothes police officers during a zoning inspection.

“Mr. Theofan, I find it appalling that the city deems it proper to utilize police resources to accompany a building inspector on building inspections instead of allocating the very same police manpower to the West End, especially considering that there have been five burglaries in the West End over the past three weeks,” Garrett said.

Council President Thomas Sofield Jr. said that the inspections of Wade’s properties were in response to complaints from neighborhood residents, and that it is not uncommon for police to accompany inspectors to certain properties.

Councilman Mike Fagen also asked whether it was standard operating procedure for the city manager and police officers to accompany inspectors when responding to complaints. Theofan said that it was “standard practice” for zoning inspections to be made in the evening with a police officer, but that it was rare that for the city manager to be present.

“It’s very rare — that particular evening I was in town with my police scanner on, I was listening to the calls, and I drove by and stopped momentarily,” he said.

Fagen went on to question the city’s aggressiveness in issuing building code violations in the West End, while Sofield said that Fagen had ignored requests by Theofan to help locate illegal dwellings.

“My job is administration, not law enforcement,” Fagen said. “If the police and Building Department have the resources to go in the middle of the night with three officers, the city manager and a Building Department inspector, then maybe you’d have the resources to protect the West End.”

Fagen, who at a Sept. 7 council meeting likened the treatment of Wade to that of African-Americans in Montgomery, Ala., in the 1950s, said that the inspection of Wade’s properties wasn’t relevant to his position on the Civil Service commission. Sofield said that Wade violated the city’s code of ordinances by renting the illegal dwellings.

“How often have you had a Civil Service commissioner break the law?” Sofield asked.

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