Nonprofit Employer Owes Baker $80,000 : Orange County D.A. Plans Investigation

The director of a nonprofit organization says he is withholding $80,000 owed to former Irvine City Councilman C. David Baker because he fears that paying it might violate the terms of Baker’s sentencing last fall on a check forgery conviction.

Last November, when Baker received a year’s probation, he promised a judge that he would perform part of his court-ordered community service by doing legal work and fund-raising for Sports Kids, a group founded by former Olympian Bob Mathias.

But while Baker was supposed to be volunteering his time to Sports Kids, the Irvine-based organization provided him with around-the-clock use of a 1989 Cadillac, according to Executive Director Chuck Foster. And five days before a judge declared that Baker’s community service had been fulfilled, internal organization records reviewed by The Times indicate that Baker was given a full-time job with Sports Kids--for as much as $240,000 a year.

Baker left Sports Kids in April after working only four months, Foster said, and the $80,000 includes compensation as well as repayment of a personal loan. Foster said Sports Kids officials rejected Baker’s request for an additional $24,000 as severance pay.

Baker did not return several calls for comment this week, but his attorney, Paul S. Meyer of Costa Mesa, said Baker didn’t receive any form of compensation during his period of community service and did nothing in violation of his sentencing terms.

“There is absolutely nothing improper about the way Dave Baker conducted himself while on probation, which he performed above and beyond the intent of the sentence,” Meyer said.

Nevertheless, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Evans--who originally prosecuted the forgery case--said this week that he intends to investigate Baker’s association with Sports Kids.

Evans declined further comment, but possible areas of inquiry were believed to focus on the extent to which court officials knew of Baker’s dealings with Sports Kids at the time his community service was up for review.

In general, court officials say, people ordered to do community service are expected not to receive compensation.

Community service should involve “some sort of sacrifice” by the defendant, acting Presiding Superior Court Judge James Smith said Thursday.

Rod Speer, a spokesman for the Orange County Probation Department, said that when judges order community service, “there is no expectation of (the defendants’) receiving compensation. . . . In fact, the individual should be compensating the community.”

During a review of Sports Kids records and conversations with officials and Meyer, a picture emerged of Baker’s relationship with the group and of his expectations of future employment. For example:

- In 1987, Baker, as an Irvine City Councilman, helped persuade Sports Kids officials to locate the organization in Irvine. And he became an active booster and occasional fund-raiser.

- Last November, just after beginning his community service work with the group, Baker and his father loaned Sports Kids $20,000.

- While doing his community service at Sports Kids, Baker submitted a proposal under which he could have earned up to $120,000 in salary and a bonus of the same amount, and received a telephone-equipped luxury car and an expense account.

In doing his community service work for the organization, Baker answered telephones, planned special events and developed a long-range business plan. Foster said Baker was given a car, as are all other Sports Kids executives.

Attorney Meyer acknowledged that Baker used the Cadillac, but said it was not his exclusively. And Meyer said Baker began full-time employment only after his community service term was over.

On the subject of the $80,000 Sports Kids now owes Baker, Foster said “we wanted to do the right thing. We will pay him (Baker) the amount . . . that we agreed to as soon as we find out that there is nothing illegal. . . . We want to honor the terms and the conditions of his community service and probation.”

Baker, a 36-year-old lawyer, last summer was the early favorite in the congressional race to replace retiring incumbent Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach). But in the closing days of the GOP primary, his campaign ran short of cash. Baker, then executive director of the Irvine Health Foundation, made out a $48,000 check from that organization to himself and signed it with the forged signature of another officer, Superior Court Judge David G. Sills.

Baker stopped payment on the check shortly thereafter, and the forgery was not discovered until after the June primary election, which Baker narrowly lost.

The Orange County district attorney ultimately charged Baker with a felony count of forgery. Facing up to three years in prison if convicted, he pleaded guilty. But Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown reduced the charge to a misdemeanor and sentenced Baker to a one-year jail term--which was suspended--plus a year of probation, on the condition that he perform community service in line with prosecutor Evans’ request that it be at least 500 hours.

In the days before Baker’s sentencing on Nov. 14, he submitted proposals to Brown outlining his intention to complete the community service by coaching basketball at Warren High School in Downey, serving the elderly at Meals on Wheels in Irvine and assisting Sports Kids, an organization designed to encourage youngsters to participate in sports. In college, Baker had been a basketball star at UC Irvine.

The Sports Kids work was confirmed in a Nov. 12 letter from former gold-medalist Mathias.

Describing Baker as “a volunteer staff member” at Sports Kids, Mathias told the judge that “recently, Mr. Baker asked if he could take a more active role in the (organization) and offered to volunteer a substantial amount of time of a daily, even weekend basis. The offer also came with a humble request that he be allowed to maintain a ‘low profile,’ prefering to work in a behind-the-scene capacity.

“Taking into consideration the ‘at least four months . . . ‘ length of Mr. Baker’s time offering,” Mathias continued, “our present legal and business development needs make this volunteer gesture extremely attractive.”

Mathias could not be reached for comment this week; Sports Kids said he was unavailable.

According to Sports Kids memorandums and interviews with Foster, Baker appeared at the organization’s door in late November to begin his community service work. At some point that month, Foster said Baker was given use of the Cadillac, which had been donated to Sports Kids by a local car dealer. Sports Kids also paid for Baker’s gasoline.

In December, Baker wrote a series of longhand memos discussing his personal goals, outlining his work progress and effectively proposing that he be given a permanent job.

If placed in a full-time position, Baker wrote, he would need to drive a Cadillac or Chrysler LeBaron that would be equipped with a car telephone. He also sought an expense account that would cover staff and office supply costs, as well as pay $400 a month in phone charges.

By Dec. 29, records show that Sports Kids agreed to employ Baker and pay him $120,000 annually, plus a potential bonus equal to his salary. Baker was also to get 5% of all funds he personally raised. He had sought--but wasn’t given--a 25% share in ownership of the organization.

Details of the verbal agreement were put in writing by Baker and dated Jan. 1, 1989, records show. Although Foster said it is not a contract in the strict sense, he believes the “memorandum of understanding” constitutes a valid employment deal.

Foster said Baker was not paid on a monthly basis because the money was not available. He said Sports Kids was in its “start-up phase,” and it was agreed that Baker would be paid retroactive to Jan. 1 later in the year.

On Jan. 6, defense attorney Meyer went to Judge Brown and said that Baker had completed a total of 550 hours of his required community service at the Downey high school, Meals on Wheels and Sports Kids. Meyer asked that the judge set aside the rest of Baker’s one-year probation sentence, which Brown did, effective May 12.

Meyer said this week that Baker had come to him in January and asked if he could work at Sports Kids after his community service was fulfilled, even though he was yet to complete the year of probation.

“When Dave came to me about finding a job, I said, ‘Yes, by all means.’ ” Meyer said. “There is no law against working for wages while you are on probation. If a person couldn’t do that, this would be the biggest welfare society in history. Dave has a family, and he has needs just like anybody else.”

Meyer discounted the issue of Sports Kids providing Baker with a Cadillac.

“Dave was allowed the use of a car,” Meyer said. “But it was my understanding that other people (at Sports Kids) used cars as well. . . . It was basically used for Sports Kids’ business. I don’t see it as a big deal.”

Meyer continued: “Just as with everything that Dave Baker has ever been involved with, he throws himself entirely into the activity. When the opportunity with Sports Kids came up, he talked to his family and decided that it was the right organization to go with. When they needed money, he decided he wanted to help.”

It was also learned this week that last Nov. 28 Baker and his father made a personal loan of $20,000 to Sports Kids’ parent company, Sports Properties International. This information was volunteered by Meyer, who questioned why Foster had discussed Baker’s employment with Times reporters without mentioning the loan.

Meyer said the loan was made at the request of Sports Kids officials.

Baker received a promissory note signed by Foster, who also serves as chairman of Sports Properties, Meyer said. The note required the organization to repay the loan over a three-month period. Baker was to receive $5,000 in January, the same amount in February, and the balance, $10,000, was due at the end of March.

The loan was not made, Meyer emphasized, to gain special treatment from the group or reduce the number of community-service hours Baker planned to work.

Foster told The Times that until Meyer mentioned the loan to a reporter, he had considered the matter to be private. Foster said it was Baker who had offered the loan, and had stressed in the document that it be kept confidential.

In any event, Meyer said, Baker has not been repaid.

Foster acknowledged this week that Sports Kids currently lacks enough cash to pay all of what it owes Baker. But he said he expects the money to be available by August.

Meyer said that when Baker resigned from Sports Kids in April, it wasn’t because of the unpaid loan.

“Dave and I have always had discussions about when he was going to get a real job,” Meyer said. “If Sports Kids provided real opportunities, fine. Dave was going to stick with it. But in the end, I think Dave concluded that it was basically a good-will organization and did not suit his long-range plans.”

Meyer declined to elaborate on what Baker is doing now: “At some point, an individual has the right to some privacy.”