With community activists packed into the Monrovia Community Center one winter night in 2000, U.S. Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) implored City Council members to purchase 165 acres he owned in the foothills and turn the land into a wilderness preserve.
Earlier that day, according to interviews with former Miller staff members and official correspondence reviewed by The Times, Miller asked one staffer to find a way to place one of the councilmen -- a pawnshop owner with no parks experience -- on the prestigious National Park System Advisory Board.
The aide said he was told to "make it a priority."
Miller then continued to push for the councilman's appointment even after staff members warned him that trying to secure the park board seat for the councilman could appear to be a bribe, internal memos show.
The move was one of many that Miller has made over the years in which he brought his congressional muscle to bear on personal business matters, according to the former staff members and the correspondence from Miller's congressional office -- handwritten notes, letters on Miller's congressional letterhead and e-mails.
All four former staff members requested anonymity to protect their current jobs in politics.
"There was never a clear line in the office between what was congressional business and what was just business," one former aide said. "The expectation was that you would do both."
A real estate developer and one of the wealthiest members of Congress, Miller, 58, routinely asked his staff to handle personal errands, such as helping his children with schoolwork, searching for rock concert tickets and sending flowers to family members and friends, according to documents reviewed by The Times.
Federal law prohibits members of Congress from using their staff for anything other than official work.
"We taxpayers trust that our members of Congress will not turn their staff into butlers. That's not what they're paid for," said Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project, a nonpartisan group. "It's a misuse of funds and an abuse of power."
Miller has also collected nearly $25,000 a year in rent from his campaign committee in each of the last three elections by using the offices of his real estate development firm in Diamond Bar as his campaign office.
Under federal election law such rents are considered self-enrichment unless a member can demonstrate that the private offices were used for legitimate campaign purposes.
