FBI looking at Delgadillo, paper says

Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports that "FBI agents have begun a criminal investigation of Los Angeles City Attorney Rockard 'Rocky' Delgadillo, a one-time rising star of California politics whose career stalled after a series of admitted ethical lapses." Delgadillo spokesman Nick Velasquez said Delgadillo knew nothing of an FBI investigation, and said "Any allegation of any wrongdoing is nothing more than trash." The Chronicle says:

Sources familiar with the FBI investigation said agents recently went to Los Angeles to conduct interviews in what appears to be a wide-ranging probe of Delgadillo, 48, a moderate Democrat now in his second four-year term.

The probe began after Delgadillo was criticized for allegedly using city resources for personal benefit.

Delgadillo admitted last year that he had his city-owned SUV repaired at taxpayers' expense after his wife hit a pole in a parking lot. He has also acknowledged that he used city employees to run personal errands for him and to babysit his children, but he denied misusing taxpayers' funds....

The investigation is being run out of San Francisco because conflict of interest concerns might arise if the case were assigned to the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, which sometimes works cases with the city attorney.

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Another prospective target for investigators, said a source familiar with Delgadillo, was a local consulting business run by his wife, Michelle, a former city council aide. The firm had no business license and paid no state taxes for more than five years, records show. Velasquez, Delgadillo's spokesman, said she corrected the problems after they were brought to her attention.

Delgadillo has been clashing recently with Controller Laura Chick over her powers to audit his office and yesterday had an Op-Ed piece in the Times about gangs in other countries.