9 Council Members Use Public Service Funds for Staff Salaries : Government: Activists criticize the transfer of money from allotments for community groups. Officials defend their actions, saying they improve service to constituents.

During the last three years, members of the Los Angeles City Council have diverted nearly $130,000 intended for public service and neighborhood cleanup programs to pay for their staffs’ salaries, city records show.

With the entire council’s approval, nine members have almost routinely transferred money from the $20,000 annual city allotment given to each of the 15 council members for donation to nonprofit and other community groups.

“I’m shocked. I’m shocked,” said Nina Royal, an activist involved in graffiti cleanup and neighborhood patrols in Sunland-Tujunga. “If it’s allotted for community projects, it should not go to staff.”

It is legal and within the council’s jurisdiction to spend the funds on salaries, but that use clashes with the council’s original intent for the money: to help community groups fight crime, blight, gangs, graffiti and other social ills.

City records show that between July, 1991, and June, 1994, nine current council members transferred a total of $127,454 to their office salary accounts from their public service and cleanup accounts.

Councilman John Ferraro transferred the most, using nearly $43,000 during the last three years to pay staff salaries, according to the city records. Councilman Joel Wachs diverted the second-highest total, nearly $39,000 during the same period, the records indicate.

The public service and cleanup accounts--which each contain $10,000 annually--are provided in addition to each council office’s annual $640,882 budget, which pays salaries for the council members and their staffs. Council President Ferraro has a $680,367 annual budget.

Council members who used the money for salaries instead of donations to community groups defend their actions, saying the money they spent on staff salaries or training helps their offices better serve their constituents.

Ferraro said he believes the best use for some of the money was to pay his staff so they could better respond to problems raised by constituents.

“I’m sure there are a lot of groups that would like to have the money, but we have to decide how best to serve the district,” Ferraro said.

A Wachs spokesman said that in previous years Wachs has donated money from the accounts to community groups but that this year all the money was used to retain staff members who would have otherwise been eliminated by budget cuts.

“It’s a matter of which way we chose to help our district,” said Greg Nelson, an aide to Wachs, whose district stretches from Sunland-Tujunga to Studio City.

News of how the money was spent sparked criticism from other city officials, taxpayer watchdog groups and nonprofit organizations that depend on such donations.

Royal, the Sunland-Tujunga activist, suggested that the funds could be used to help equip the city’s Police Department with new crime-fighting tools, such as computers.

This year, Councilwoman Laura Chick donated all $20,000 from her two accounts to the West Valley Police Activity League, a law enforcement booster organization that has donated computers and other equipment to the LAPD’s West Valley bureau.

Chick was among six council members who did not divert any money to salary accounts during the last three years. The others are Zev Yaroslavsky, Mike Hernandez, Hal Bernson, Nate Holden and Richard Alatorre.

Besides Ferraro and Wachs, the council members who transferred money from the accounts over the past three years were:

* Mark Ridley-Thomas: $14,994

* Rita Walters: $9,828

* Richard Alarcon: $9,197

* Ruth Galanter: $5,700

* Jackie Goldberg: $3,175

* Marvin Braude: $3,000

* Rudy Svorinich Jr.: $2,000

The public service and cleanup accounts for nonprofit organizations were created by the City Council in 1987 in an attempt to end the squabbling among council members over money for pet projects, which broke out every year when the budget was adopted.

For similar reasons, the Board of Supervisors decided several years ago to give each member about $1 million annually to support groups or causes in his or her district. In the past year, Supervisor Mike Antonovich has diverted about $50,000 from that account to pay staff salaries.