Robles Is Fired in South Gate

The South Gate City Council fired Deputy Manager Albert Robles on Tuesday night after officials accused him of squandering millions of dollars in public funds and attempting to destroy the city financially.

The announcement came after a closed session in which council members discussed a new six-page city report. It portrays Robles as an intimidating manager who, when targeted with a voter recall, vowed to leave the city penniless. “I will bankrupt this city,” the report quotes him as telling an employee.

Robles, who did not attend the meeting, denied the report’s claims when reached for comment. He said if the City Council fired him, it would be unlawfully denying him due process.

“These allegations, like popcorn, are full of hot air,” Robles said. “What the council is doing is reckless. You cannot fire someone on a whim. I have a contract. They can knock themselves out, but I will see them in court.”

Scores of residents waited hours at the meeting for the decision and cheered at its announcement by the city attorney. The vote had been unanimous, he said. Council members made no comment.

“I think it’s about time,” said Tony Monroy, president of the South Gate Chamber of Commerce. “It was worth the wait. We just hope it sticks.”

“It’s sad,” said Robles critic Araceli Dominguez, “that we’ve had to put up with him for all these months, paying him. Que verguena [What a shame.]”

Though tossed from his treasurer’s post by voters in the January recall election, Robles had remained on the payroll because his three City Council allies, also ousted in the recall, had given him the $130,000-a-year deputy manager job plus an 18-month severance package if he was ever fired without cause.

The new council placed Robles on administrative leave with pay in February, and appeared to have been struggling for a way to nullify his contract without paying for his severance and risking even more financial harm through a wrongful-termination lawsuit.

The accusations against Robles were detailed in a “statement of charges” that provide the most detailed glimpse thus far into the inner workings at City Hall during Robles’ two-year reign as the city’s most powerful politician.

The 15 charges accuse him of intimidating employees, mismanaging public funds, double-billing the city, and launching economic development projects with $11 million the city didn’t have. Robles also allegedly controlled a “retinue” of outside lawyers whom he kept loyal by paying them unreasonably high fees.

Among the report’s other findings:

* Robles disguised his political aims behind taxpayer-funded community relation events, such as the “Dream Home Raffle” in which a resident was given a free house a few weeks before the recall election. At the Christmas parade, Robles rode down the city’s main drag in a flag-draped Cadillac at a time when he was facing charges of threatening to kill rival politicians.

* Robles controlled numerous outside attorneys who fought to stop the voter recall effort and defended him and his allies in various criminal investigations. One firm -- Albright, Yee and Schmit -- was paid $3 million in 2002. That was 10 times the amount budgeted for all legal services.

* During Robles’ last seven months in office, he and Manager Jesus Marez spent 90% of the city’s $8.9-million emergency reserve, with most of it going to attorneys. On one of his last days in office, Robles and Marez pressured finance officials to issue $730,000 in legal fee payments.

* Robles redirected $12 million earmarked for improvements for the city’s aging water and sewer system to other projects. Some of them involved a former Robles business partner who was given city land at a fraction of its value to build a recycling facility.

The new City Council has struggled to keep the working-class city of 100,000 fiscally afloat. Officials have had to lay off more than 100 employees and eliminate the community services department. And the city’s finance director recently said South Gate faces a $6.8-million shortfall in its $25-million budget.

Some of the charges against Robles -- most notably the lawyer fees -- expand on various dealings that had already stirred controversy in the city and contributed to the ouster of him and his council allies: Mayor Xochilt Ruvalcaba, Vice Mayor Raul Moriel and Councilwoman Maria Benavides.

Federal and local authorities are proceeding with numerous corruption investigations. Several officials have been subpoenaed by federal and Los Angeles County grand juries. And a state audit of the city’s finances is scheduled to be completed soon.

Robles, according to City Atty. Raul Salinas, initially had agreed to attend Tuesday night’s meeting but he canceled. Asked of his plans for future employment, Robles said: “My options are wide open. I might become an elected official in Mexico; I might start an economic empire, or I might become a teacher.”