Investigation may be linked to a land deal and a councilman's association with the developer.
By Doug Irving
Staff Writer
Hawthorne faces "significant exposure" to legal problems from an ongoing corruption probe, city
leaders acknowledged this week as they moved to hire a heavy-hitting law firm for their defense.
The city also indicated that the district attorney's investigation may be focused on a land deal
approved in 2005 that cleared the way for a housing project. The Daily Breeze reported last month that a city councilman, Louis Velez, has lived for more than two years in a house owned by the
family of the project's developer.
The District Attorney's Office sent armed agents to search the house, Velez's truck and an
unidentified business late last month. At the time, the head of the D.A.'s Public Integrity Division said that an "allegation of (a) conflict of interest" had launched the investigation.
Few other details have emerged since then. The District Attorney's Office had search documents sealed, and Hawthorne officials have refused to discuss the investigation. When asked about it
Tuesday, Velez walked away without a word.
Council members had scheduled a closed-door meeting Tuesday to discuss the district attorney's
investigation, citing the city's "significant exposure to litigation." But they abruptly canceled that private meeting without further explanation.
The City Council later voted with almost no discussion to hire the international law firm Proskauer Rose. Velez did not participate, nor did Councilman Gary Parsons, who said he had not heard a justification for it.
The money to pay for the law firm - whose clients have included Major League Baseball, Walt Disney Productions and New York City - will come from the city budget. City Attorney Glen
Shishido said the firm will represent the "city as a whole" and not an individual council member.
The city decided to bring in the law firm in response to the D.A.'s probe into its approval of
"developments located at Imperial Highway and Freeman Avenue," according to the agenda. That description of what prompted the investigation is the most specific to date from city officials,
although the Daily Breeze has reported that a land deal there may have come under suspicion.
The city annexed a piece of property there in 2005 and opened it up for high-density residential
development. That allowed a prominent developer, Mohamad Pournamdari, to build six homes on the property.
By then, Velez had been living for at least several months in a home owned by the Pournamdari
family, property records show. When Pournamdari's proposed development went before the City Council, Velez not only participated in the discussions, but made some of the motions to allow it to proceed.
Pournamdari said Wednesday he had no information about the district attorney's investigation. "Honestly, I do not," he said. "I don't know what is going on. I can't comment on anything; I apologize."
This isn't the first time the city has brought in Proskauer Rose to represent it during a district attorney's investigation. Last year, attorneys from the firm accompanied Mayor Larry Guidi and
other city officials when they were called before a grand jury as part of a secret investigation.
