Attorney questions current management at cemetery
CITY HALL — The final nail has been hammered into the coffin of the city’s former funeral director, who hoped to be reinstated after being fired for alleged ethical misconduct and financial boondoggling at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Members of a five-person personnel board announced on Wednesday their decision to deny the appeal of Michael Steen, the former funeral director at Woodlawn, a municipal cemetery located between Pico Boulevard and Michigan Avenue, from 14th to 17th streets.
City Hall fired Steen in July 2005 after an eight-month investigation concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing on his part regarding financial discrepancies discovered in the cemetery’s financial books.
The personnel board serves as an advisory panel to the City Council and City Hall’s human resources director. It’s a quasijudicial review body for employee appeals of disciplinary actions. It consists of individuals who neither hold public office nor work for City Hall.
In the 11-page notice of its ruling, the board reiterated evidence provided by Irma Rodriguez Moisa of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romano, the attorney working on behalf of City Hall. The board affirmed Moisa’s position that Steen’s mismanagement of the cemetery’s business affairs and misconduct related to his involvement with his domestic partner’s monument-making business were true, inappropriate and grounds for his dismissal.
“Based on the stated findings and review of the testimony and evidence in this matter, the board finds that the city sustained its burden to prove that there was just cause for termination,” the ruling states.
William Becker, Steen’s attorney, said he was disappointed that evidence he provided the board — Steen’s performance reviews, which were positive right up to the months when he was put on administrative leave — wasn’t mentioned in the board’s findings of fact.
“We’re extremely disappointed by the decision,” Becker said. “The city seems to have ignored 14 years of excellent performances, recognized continuously in (Steen’s) performance reviews, which indicated he not only met objectives, but that his performance was rated exceptional on a regular basis.”
In light of the decision, Becker said he will consider Steen’s options, including whether his case may be more successful in civil court.
Steen was terminated last summer after three audits revealed the management of Woodlawn Cemetery’s finances was not in line with general accounting practices. In addition, city officials believe Steen was acting unethically by promoting and benefiting from his domestic partner’s monument-making business at the cemetery.
Steen appealed City Hall’s decision to fire him on the grounds that his dismissal was unjust. Becker indicated during the appeal hearings that City Hall should have done more to address issues it had with Steen’s management of the cemetery before letting him go. Instead, City Hall set up false expectations by giving Steen positive performance reviews up until the time of his dismissal, Becker argued. In addition, Becker said City Hall could have corrected particular issues it had with Steen — such as the business relationship he had with his domestic partner — which would have been more effective than firing him.
Officials haven’t said specifically how much money might not be accounted for at Woodlawn or what revenue might be realized. They have, however, paid outside firms for two audits, as well as conducted their own extensive internal audit, all of which is believed to have cost City Hall tens of thousands of dollars.
The audits have shown there to be some discrepancies in Woodlawn’s financial books.
The cemetery brings in about $450,000 a year in revenue, but it’s subsidized by City Hall because it operates at a loss. Because Steen’s firing is a personnel matter, city officials won’t elaborate on circumstances surrounding the criminal investigation, or his termination — beyond what was said in the appeal hearing, a matter of public record.
Steen was placed on paid administrative leave in December of 2004 while City Hall investigated the cemetery’s finances. Although City Hall has concluded he committed no criminal wrongdoing, city officials believe they had grounds to terminate him.
As a result of his termination, Steen has taken private funeral jobs that pay between $200 and $300 a week — a fraction of the $100,000-plus annual salary he’s believed to have earned as Woodlawn’s top administrator. Steen’s also the author of Celebrity Death Certificates, a series of popular books that trace the lives and passing of some of Hollywood’s most famous stars.
So far, there has been no replacement for Steen at Woodlawn. Steen’s manager, Gil Borboa, and other city officials have been managing the cemetery’s day-to-day operations for the past year. However, City Hall says it’s actively seeking to fill the funeral director position.
One of the most peculiar aspects of the case included allegations against Steen regarding his sale of premium burial plots on an installment plan, which is against the law.
During testimony, Steen testified that he didn’t take any steps he believed to be outside the purview of the law without first consulting with his superiors. That included the botched sale of $200,000 in premium burial plots to Rose Dimitrio, described as an eccentric widow whose husband had previously been interred at a less expensive section of the cemetery, which had already been paid for.
Dimitrio told Steen she wanted to pay for the premium plots with money she would receive from the sale of her house, which at the time of the transaction was in escrow.
Steen said he knowingly sold the premium plots to Dimitrio on an installment plan, but he said he received permission from Borboa to do so. Borboa denied that allegation during his testimony at the appeal hearing.
Testimony did reveal that in the course of more than a year and a half since City Hall discovered the botched Dimitrio sale, Dimitrio’s husband’s remains continue to be interred in the premium burial plots, despite the fact City Hall has failed to collect the revenue for it.
In light of the testimony, Becker said he’s disappointed the board didn’t address failures at Woodlawn, which he believes are continuing to this day.
“City Hall must believe that the Dimitrio sale was either not a big deal, or that it was never inappropriate in the first place,” Becker said. “Either way, it makes me wonder if the cemetery is being competently managed.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 6, 2006. Read the original PDF.