Kevin James Did His Homework, But Who Was His Tutor?

So as I sat in Council Chambers watching now President of the Board of Public Works, Kevin James get confirmed, I was confused and impressed by his knowledge of the Port of LA and ways to improve the environment through stack cap technology.

For those that were dosing off here is the clip:

Also recall we were told here that the election is over and I couldn’t agree more. I just wish someone would remind Mayor Garcetti of that as well. 

Going back to the testimony of Commissioner Kevin James’s knowledge about the Port of LA I thought to myself, someone had to be his tutor.  I think I found him.

His name is Ruben Garcia.

Background

Ruben Garcia is the owner of ACTI, a fairly controversial company for lots of reasons, but first I’d like to start off with a small timeline on this gentleman and his company.

Remember 2005?

In May of 2005 then City Councilmember Jack Weiss and Councilmember Bernard Parks introduced a motion into the city council that you can read here: (Los Angeles City Council File, 05-0964))

Here is the best part of this resolution:

FURTHER MOVE that the City Attorney and City Ethics Commission be requested to immediately initiate an investigation into financial transactions between the President of the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners and any registered lobbyists to ensure full compliance with all City and State laws. FURTHER MOVE that the City Attorney and City Ethics Commission be requested to comprehensively review the relationship between Advanced Cleanup Technologies, Inc. and the President of the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners to ensure that no conflict of interest exists with his current or prior participation on the Board of Harbor Commissioners. FURTHER MOVE that the United States Attorney and District Attorney be requested to expand their current investigations to include a review of all of these allegations to ensure that any misconduct is identified. (Los Angeles City Council File, 05-0964)

The motion was killed in February 2006 and never voted upon according to the City Clerk’s website.   One month after Councilmember Garcetti became President.

ACTI – 2010

Perhaps those two councilmembers knew something was wrong with this company because in 2010 they were accused of bouncing checks to staff, at least according to a news affiliate in Bakersfield and the Cunningham Report, which you can view here: (Cunningham Report, May 17, 2010)

And here: (KCET, December 14, 2010)

Here are the best parts: 

Cunningham Report

Contract negotiations for the Advanced Maritime Emissions Control System, or AMECS, have stalled while the port waits for assurances from ACTI that their financial troubles have stabilized, said port environmental planner Heather Tomley. (Cunningham Report, May 17, 2010)

KCET Report

State of California Sues ACTI
In 2011 Attorney General Kamala Harris sued ACTI and forced them to pay for environmental damages the company caused.  You can view the lawsuit here.

Connection with Carmen Trutanich

As ACTI moved into 2012 they were pushing hard to get the Port of LA to use their unproven technology. LA Weekly’s Gene Maddaus covered the owner of ACTI because of his large campaign donations to then City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s campaign for District Attorney.  You can read his story here.

Now you might be wondering, why does any of this matter? – again I point to this clip of Kevin James at his appointment hearing:

When the City Council was giving its approval of the controversial Kevin James attached was this letter from the City Ethics Commission: (Los Angeles Ethics Commission, July 25, 2013)

In this PDF Kevin James had to show the various gifts he get, now before I really dig into why pro-immigration reform, pro-environment supporter Rick Jacobs took Kevin James to dinner, or why the Publisher of the Daily News paid for Kevin’s dinners or why a reporter would give Kevin James tickets to the Dodgers Game – don’t even have me begin to link to all the radio shows he did when the Mayor and Council were fined for Laker and Dodger tickets being received.

No, none of that is as important as Mr. Garcia paying for 3 dinners and 1 lunch with former candidate for Mayor Kevin James after the primary election in March. (Los Angeles Ethics Commission, July 25, 2013)

But we can surmise that this meeting happened after the general in May. On June 4^th 2013 Mr. Garcia contributed the maximum allowed to Kevin James campaign $1,300 a full 3 months after he came in 3^rd place in the primary.   You can view that here:

Mayor Garcetti also received money from ACTI, but it was either returned or maybe the check bounced:

But it looks more like he didn’t want anyone to know about it because after the election, Mayor Garcetti received a maxed out donation from Ruben Garcia:

It was those tutorial sessions given by Ruben Garcia where we see why Kevin James during his question and answer session decided to repeat the companies unproven claims to the entire City Council.  Weird that ACTI’s website says the same thing Kevin James testified to. (ACTI Website, AMECS)

Now while Commissioner Kevin James has not done anything unethical or wrong, we figured we would help the new City Commissioner by highlighting this relation to ensure this company never receives any taxpayer dollars. Ever.