Los Angeles pension official's retirement bash raises ethical questions

Six weeks before he left government, Aguallo staged an elaborate send-off for himself at the California Club, where attendees paid $1,000 or more per person to dine on crab cakes and filet mignon -- with proceeds going to a scholarship that would bear his name.

To drum up contributions, he hired a party planner, providing her with lists of potential donors. Included were dozens of business leaders who had sought or secured millions of dollars from the pension fund during the five years he ran it.

Using the city's e-mail system, Aguallo hit up a few donors himself, asking them to sponsor a table for as much as $10,000. At least four other city employees also took time from their workdays to organize the bash.

Details of the March 27 event appear in nearly 400 city e-mails from the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System, or LACERS. The messages, obtained by The Times under the state's public records law, show LACERS employees performing an array of party-related tasks, such as choosing the menu and reviewing the inscription planned for a commemorative "whisper cut" crystal bowl.

Aguallo's employees also participated in party planning conference calls, created a five-minute tribute video, reviewed the souvenir program and gathered names of potential donors from their agency's lists of consultants, brokers and other pension professionals.

Under the city's ethics laws, department heads are allowed to collect charitable contributions from city contractors. Such contributions would become illegal only if those contractors received city business in exchange for their donations.

Still, one government watchdog criticized theparty, saying companies that wanted to keep doing business with the pension system would have felt pressure to buy tickets.

"The more I learn, the more troubled I am," said Robert Stern, president of the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies. "It's clear that people feel obligated to give to charities when there are people in positions of power who are asking for the money."