Former Pension Commissioner Sean Harrigan speaks......

"My responsibility first and foremost has been to the beneficiaries of the fire and police pension system,"

Those were the words of Former Police and Fire Pension Board Member Sean Harrigan, as stated to Los Angeles Times reporter David Zahniser, as more details of his actions come to light in today's edition of the "OLD GRAY HAG IN SPRING STREET".

......and the dealings are troublesome, as noted in these excerpts from Zahniser's story.

Still, one of Harrigan's potential conflicts was considered so problematic that Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo instructed the pension board to undo a decision that favored one of Harrigan's clients, the law firm of Grant & Eisenhofer.

Harrigan, a longtime executive with the United Food and Commercial Workers, (hmmmm. which cousin of a certain Mayor, was a former employee of this union ??) became a consultant to the law firm on May 1, 2007, agreeing to introduce members to labor unions across the country, according to Jay W. Eisenhofer, the firm's managing partner.

Two days after that consulting work began, Harrigan publicly complained to Delgadillo's lawyers that he and his colleagues were being excluded from the search process to select several outside law firms to handle securities law cases for the pension board.

Delgadillo's office had received proposals from 15 firms, including Grant & Eisenhofer, and eventually planned to ask the board to approve a pool of five that could be used on an as-needed basis. "We'd like to see the list of 15 and provide you with our input with respect to that list of 15 -- the firms we think maybe shouldn't be considered, or maybe the firms that should be," Harrigan said, according to an official recording of the meeting.

At a board meeting in July, city lawyers presented a list of nine finalists -- and Grant & Eisenhofer was among them.Harrigan did not publicly disclose his work for the law firm until four months later, speaking up minutes before his colleagues were slated to vote for the Delaware-based firm.

Although he recused himself, city lawyers were so concerned about the legality of the vote that they came back two weeks later, on Nov. 15, 2007, and instructed the board to drop Grant & Eisenhofer from the legal pool.

Then this about Harrigan questionable qualifications to serve on the pension board.

Harrigan was picked by Villaraigosa in August 2005, months after he concluded a turbulent two-year tenure as president of the California Public Employees' Retirement System board, the nation's largest public pension fund.

While he was on the CalPERS board, Harrigan was living in Corona. But three weeks before he was named by Villaraigosa to serve on the fire and police pension board, Harrigan registered to vote at an apartment on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles, according to county officials.

The City Charter requires volunteer commissioners and board members to be registered to vote in Los Angeles. Harrigan said his wife still resides in Corona but he lives in Los Angeles, visiting her on weekends.

Harrigan said he rented his apartment from CIM Group in July 2005 as part of his effort to create a Los Angeles-based consulting firm. When he voted on CIM's real estate trust four months later, Harrigan saw no need to recuse himself, he said.

Then there is this connection to a "social friend of Villar".

As he finished his first year on the board, Harrigan agreed to consult with Yucaipa Cos., an investment fund created by supermarket magnate Ron Burkle, and Wetherly Capital, which acts as a placement agent -- similar to a lobbyist -- in promoting investment opportunities to pension agencies.

Harrigan voted on June 1, 2006, to invest $10 million in two Wetherly clients. In mid-August, he was hired as a consultant to Wetherly, advising it on strategies at pension agencies outside of California.

......and did this for another friend of Villar.

Harrigan did vote twice, however, on one client that Wetherly represented on other investment matters: CityView, the real estate fund founded by former cabinet secretary Henry Cisneros, was given $25 million by the Los Angeles board in the spring of 2007.

Just another ethical day at Villar's City Hall.........