Costly diversion could help city weather the storm
By KEVIN UEDA Special to the Daily Press
(Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures which appear on the upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agenda. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the city council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.) COUNCIL CHAMBERS — Officials plan to spend about $3 million tonight to update the city’s list of historic properties, divert stormwa-ter run-off, fund public outreach programs and other city services.
The bulk of the expenditures — $1.5 million — will come from City Hall’s stormwater fund, which will go toward building a new storm drain at Wilshire Boulevard and Montana Avenue.
Another $1 million will go into the planning and community development to hire outside agencies to inspect building permits and make sure developments are up to code.
City Hall plans to create a cleaning facility under Ocean Avenue, near the Wilshire Boulevard and Montana Avenue storm drains to remove bacteria, trash, chemicals, heavy metals and hydrocarbons before they hit the Pacific Ocean.
The cost of the project, which will sentative, who asked no to be identified. “If someone has to liquidate their assets in order to defend themselves then that’s what they have to do. It’s not necessarily a happy thing to do.”
Golay, 75, along with Olga Rutterschnidt, 73, of Hollywood, likely face a protracted trial for their believed involvement in the fraud ring that police allege left at least two unsuspecting homeless dead, the result of mysterious hit-and-run accidents shortly after the two women became eligible to receive life insurance claims on the men.
While Golay and Rutterschmidt are considered suspects in last year’s hit-and-run death of 50-year-old Kenneth McDavid in a Los Angeles back alley, no charges have been filed beyond those in relation to the women’s attempts to collect on more than $3 million worth of life insurance policies for McDavid and Paul Vados, a 73-year-old homeless man killed in similar fashion in 1999.
But now police are investigating whether a third man was scammed by the pair. The latest suspicions arose when investigators found that Golay and her daughter, Kecia Golay, moved a 97-year-old man from Massachusetts into a Santa Monica apartment Golay owned, acquired his home for $1, borrowed money off of it and then sold the home for $200,000, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Our robbery/homicide investigators are working on that with the LAPD,” said Santa Monica Police Lt. Frank Fabrega.
The LAPD requested a copy of the report involving the death Fred Downie in December. Downie was killed on Nov. 18, 2000 along the 2100 block of Ocean Park Boulevard while crossing the street. There was no crosswalk where Downie was struck, said Fabrega.
LAPD spokesman Lt. Paul Vernon told The Associated Press that police do not think Cheryl Clark, the woman who accidentally struck Downie, had any connection to Golay or Rutterschmidt. But he said the Golays’ relationship with Downie mirrored others that led to the scams the women have been charged with.
Authorities claim Golay and Rutterschmidt befriended vulnerable men, convinced them to sign them on to their life insurance policies and then collected millions of dollars after they were killed.
Golay and Rutterschmidt pleaded not guilty to federal mail fraud and related charges earlier this month.
Golay’s lawyer, Roger Jon Diamond — who is currently out of the country — previously dismissed the latest suspicions as nonsense based on a series of coincidences. He said no new charges were filed after Kecia Golay answered questions by a grand jury about her family’s relationship with Downie a few weeks ago.
“Life is filled with coincidences,” Diamond said. “It is a titillating issue for some lawyers. But it is not a criminal case, there was no wrongdoing, she’s not a suspect. She fully cooperated. That should be the end of the matter.”
Diamond described Downie as a close family friend who was referred to as “grandpa” by Kecia Golay.
Vernon said police are continuing to investigate close to a dozen other men, including an elderly blind man, who may have been victims — a number that has doubled in the past week.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.