RTD Finds Itself on Rocky Road With Contractor : Inquiry: Questions are raised over minority status. They lead to charges of favoritism and forgery, and then to firings. Now, the D.A. is investigating.

It all began with Alvin Rivera’s memos.

The documents appear innocuous enough--routine queries within the Southern California Rapid Transit District regarding a company seeking minority contracts.

But Rivera’s questions last year about Communications International Inc. soon snowballed into a major controversy involving accusations of favoritism and forgery, an RTD internal investigation, the subsequent firing of the investigators and an ongoing inquiry by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Communications International was founded by Joseph Profit, a black former running back with the Atlanta Falcons who is the majority owner and president. The Atlanta-based firm, which is designated a disadvantaged business by the federal Small Business Administration, boasts in promotional literature of obtaining $110 million in government contracts last year. It also touts its connection with Catalina Vasquez Villalpando, part owner of the company and treasurer of the United States.

Communications International entered the field of minority companies vying for rapid transit work in Los Angeles in 1985 and was subsequently awarded a $140,000 minority contract. The company began work even though it had no contractor’s license, as required by law.

After transit officials discovered in June, 1988, that Communications International did not have the license, the firm hired a San Leandro contractor, Richard B. Eggers, to act as the company’s “responsible managing employee.” Eggers obtained a contractor’s license on behalf of the company the next month and in September, 1988, the firm was awarded another minority rapid transit job in Los Angeles worth $564,000.

But Alvin Rivera, contract compliance officer for the RTD, was disturbed by the size of Communications International and by his belief that Eggers is not a member of an ethnic minority.

On April 4, 1989, Rivera wrote to Walter Norwood, head of the RTD’s equal opportunity office:

“For your information, Communications International Inc. is up for recertification as a (disadvantaged business). A problem with their continued certification is that their license holder and (responsible managing employee) is non-minority. This situation is not unlike others, which we have denied routinely in the past.”

“(H)ad this fact been uncovered during the (certification) investigation,” Rivera wrote in another memo to Norwood three days later, “this firm would not have been certified.” Rivera declined to talk to The Times about why he concluded Eggers is a non-minority.

George Armstrong, vice president of Communications International’s Western region, subsequently said Eggers is indeed a minority because he is of Portuguese descent, an ethnic group designated by federal authorities as disadvantaged.

“Mr. Eggers is a minority . . . , “ Armstrong told The Times. “I don’t know if Mr. Eggers wants everybody to know that.”

When The Times asked Eggers during a phone interview if he belonged to a minority group, he identified himself as Spanish rather than Portuguese. Asked the extent of his Spanish lineage, Eggers said, “I’ll have to find out.”

He went on to say that he might be 90% Spanish but would have to ask his mother. In a subsequent interview, he said that he is of Spanish and Portuguese descent and that his father was 100% Spanish.

RTD officials said they have no documentation that Eggers is a member of an ethnic minority except for a letter Armstrong wrote last summer saying that the contractor is Portuguese. RTD officials said the letter has been misplaced.

Curiously, Norwood contended that the question of Eggers’ minority status is irrelevant because Eggers was not in reality directing work for Communications International--as state law requires the holder of a contractor’s license to do.

“They only used Eggers for his license . . . , “ Norwood told The Times. “He didn’t direct the activities of anyone. . . .”

“I did, too,” Eggers said in a phone interview. “I was there . . . working.”

On April 19, 1989, Norwood overrode Rivera’s concerns about Communications International and ordered a secretary to stamp Rivera’s signature on a document notifying the company that it had been recertified as a disadvantaged minority firm. Norwood said he was acting within his authority as head of the office of economic opportunity.

When Rivera discovered that his signature stamp had been used, he wrote on a copy of the recertification document: “This is not my signature. It is a stamp, used unbeknownst to me.” An investigation into alleged favoritism and forgery involving Rivera’s signature stamp was subsequently demanded by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 12--which was angry at Communications International over the hiring of non-union workers.

The inspector general’s office of the RTD began an inquiry into the complaint last February, but investigators Richard Yeats and Allen Laster say that they were unable to obtain needed documents because Norwood did not cooperate. They also accuse RTD Inspector General Ernesto V. Fuentes of failure to use the power of his office to obtain documents.

Norwood and Fuentes deny the allegations.

The matter finally came to a head when Rivera complained to investigators that Inspector General Fuentes warned him that his career might suffer if he continued to cooperate with the inquiry, according to Yeats and Allen. Rivera would not comment to The Times.

The RTD investigators say that they were fired by Fuentes on July 18, when they informed him that they intended to tell the district attorney’s office that he had been accused of interfering with the inquiry.

Fuentes was reluctant to discuss details of the case because of the ongoing district attorney’s investigation, but he denied advising Rivera not to cooperate with Yeats and Allen.

Terming the allegation of interference “ridiculous,” Fuentes said he subsequently ordered the investigators’ report--including the allegation against himself--sent to the district attorney’s office. He said he is prohibited by law from disclosing why Yeats and Allen were fired.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Herb Lapin said he is still investigating allegations of forgery involving the use of Rivera’s signature stamp. He said he is also looking into the accusation that Rivera was intimidated by Fuentes, as well as the possibility that state “whistle-blower” laws were violated in connection with the firing of Yeats and Laster.

“They need to start over, over there,” Lapin said of the RTD. “Dismantle it and start again.”

As for Rivera, he transferred from his job as a contract compliance officer and works in promoting and marketing the RTD.

Times staff writer Greg Krikorian and research librarian Nona Yates contributed to this story.