CA: Perata probe touches Caltrans (PeRATaGate)

Oakland Tribune ^ | 3/3/05 | Sean Holstege

[NormsRevenge]

A federal grand jury probe of possible public corruption involving state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has expanded in recent weeks, with at least one new agency ordered to cough up records.

The California Department of Transportation received a subpoena last month from the FBI's Oakland office. Obtained Wednesday by the Oakland Tribune, the subpoena is the first sign of the ongoing investigation since federal agents searched the Oakland homes of the state's most powerful elected Democrat and his son in mid-December.

The subpoena demands any and all documents related to Caltrans' communications with or regarding Perata; his political consulting firm, Perata Engineering; Sacramento political consultant Sandra Polka; and former Perata aide Ezra Rapport of Oakland.

This list of names led some Bay Area transportation sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, to speculate federal prosecutors could be interested in the campaign by which Perata achieved a regional bridge toll hike.

Perata's Senate Bill 916, passed and signed into law in 2003, called a special election in seven Bay Area counties on whether the region's bridge tolls should be increased to $3, with the new money going to Bay Area transportation projects. Voters approved the toll increase as Regional Measure 2 on the March 2004 ballot.

Rapport, whom Perata employed as a consultant to the Senate Select Committee on Bay Area Transportation he chaired, helped Perata get the bill and the ballot measure passed. Rapport, 50, is a former Oakland deputy city manager and former Oakland Football Marketing Association director who helped broker the Raiders' return to the city. He couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

Polka earlier had done consulting work on a similar campaign, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District's 2002 seismic retrofit bond measure. Oakland lobbyist and former Perata aide Lily Hu consulted on that measure as well. The grand jury subpoenaed BART in October for records related to people and businesses including Perata, Polka and Hu.

Caltrans declined Wednesday either to acknowledge receipt of the subpoena or to comment on it. Caltrans public records officer Lesa Saville said releasing any subpoena records would violate a federal law on grand jury secrecy and expose the state agency to a contempt of court charge.

BART, responding to an identical request in November, turned over the subpoena and nearly 925 pages of records gathered in response to it. That agency said all such records were public.

Officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Transbay Terminal Authority and the Bay Area Water Transit Authority said Wednesday they have not received any subpoenas in this investigation.

Perata spokesman Jason Kinney said the senator remains confident he has always acted appropriately and would make no other comment Wednesday.

This federal probe became public knowledge in November, just as Perata was ascending to the Legislature's top post.

Subpoenas were issued to several businesses and public agencies seeking documents related to Perata; his son, Nick, of Oakland; his daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca Perata Rosati and Michael Rosati of Alameda; Hu; Polka; Perata's friend and sometime business partner Timothy Staples of Sacramento; and several of these people's businesses. It appears the grand jury is probing whether any of these people or entities funneled money to Perata illegally.

Don Perata and political entities under his direct control paid Nick Perata's consulting business — Exit Strategies — at least $721,000 since 1999, state records show, while Rebecca Perata Rosati's business got almost $27,000 from 2001 through 2004.

Meanwhile, other records show Exit Strategies rented Alameda office space from the elder Perata; Nick Perata bought two homes from his father in recent years; and until 2003 Nick Perata paid his father rent for use of another family home in Alameda.

Perata's personal financial disclosures show Perata Engineering brought him more than $100,000 in 2003 and between $10,000 and $100,000 in each of the four years before that. Perata Engineering's bigger clients during those years included Exit Strategies, as well as two of Tim Staples' businesses, Ascendent Solutions and Staples Associates.

Federal agents searched Hu's home office in November, and then searched Don Perata's and Nick Perata's Oakland homes on Dec. 15, carting away boxes, computers and other items.

[rllngrk33]

Is this the same gun grabber who justified his need for a concealed carry permit on the basis of his fear of pro gun activists?

[NormsRevenge]

One and the same,, the tax bullets and diapers dude.

[Zathras]

I used to think Willy Brown was the most dangerous man in CA politics.
"The Don" seems to have taken that roll to new levels of corruption.