Cunliffe Files for Retirement as Precaution

Sylvia Cunliffe, who faces possible misconduct charges as general manager of the Department of General Services, has filed retirement papers with the City of Los Angeles in case she decides to quit her job, city officials disclosed Friday.

Cunliffe, who is a month short of having worked 30 years in city employment, informed the City Employees’ Retirement System that she intends to retire in mid-October but added that she was filing her application primarily as a precautionary measure.

“I am filing this application for protective purposes,” Cunliffe said in a handwritten amendment to her original application, which was filed Aug. 24.

Cunliffe could not be reached for comment on Friday, but earlier she told The Times that she had filed her retirement papers only as part of “a contingency plan” should she decide to leave her job and collect her pension.

However, Cunliffe insisted that she has no intentions of resigning her $90,243-a-year job while under suspicion for mismanagement, nepotism and other allegations.

“I intend to fight those charges because I have a clear conscience,” she said.

Cunliffe has headed the General Services Department since it was formed in 1979 but has been accused of favoring friends and relatives in awarding city leases and of mismanaging the city-run Los Angeles Mall. She also faces possible criminal charges for renting a city-owned house in Pacific Palisades to an employee of the Los Angeles Street Scene--a festival that Cunliffe also ran--and for disclosing the police arrest record of a department employee who had alerted authorities to the rental deal.

Mayor Tom Bradley has said that he intends to impose disciplinary charges against Cunliffe but is awaiting a report next week from City Atty. James K. Hahn to determine whether she has violated any city regulations or ordinances.

Retirement Irrelevant

Deputy Mayor Mike Gage said Friday that Cunliffe’s possible retirement will have no bearing on her case.

By filing her retirement application, she took the first step toward qualifying for her full pension benefits. Cunliffe, 54, needs the full 30 years of employment to formally retire. And if she defers her retirement benefits until she reaches the age of 55 next spring, she could qualify for about 65% of her approximately $7,525-a-month salary, based on the formula outlined in the City Charter.

Jerry Bardwell, general manager of the City Employees’ Retirement System, said that even if Cunliffe is fired from her job, she can still qualify for her pension. But he added that she also can withdraw her retirement application at anytime before it is heard by the department’s Board of Administration.

‘Legal Obstacles’

Amid City Hall speculation about Cunliffe’s future, Councilman Michael Woo said Friday that he did not expect her to return to her job and said Cunliffe’s retirement “could remove many of the legal and political obstacles which have perpetuated the mess at the Department of General Services.”

Woo’s comments came as he announced plans to hold public hearings on Oct. 14 to review the the management of the General Services Department and other city agencies. Woo, chairman of the Governmental Operations Committee, said his panel will steer clear of the specific allegations against Cunliffe but will focus on ways to improve operation of the agency and the way the mayor and City Council monitor the department.

He said the committee also will review operations of the mall and the Street Scene Festival.