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Settlement-gift link denied Auto-repair firm says there's no connection between donation to Davis, agreement with state on fraud allegations. John Howard The Orange County Register
May 30, 2002 SACRAMENTO – An Irvine-based auto body-repair chain donated $10,000 to Gov. Gray Davis' election campaign at the same time it was negotiating a settlement with the Davis administration over consumer- fraud accusations leveled against its Costa Mesa shop. The contribution by Caliber Collision Centers was reported by the Davis campaign March 5, records show. The administration's Department of Consumer Affairs approved the final agreement three weeks later. The settlement, in which Caliber agreed to pay an $8,000 fine, shut its Costa Mesa shop for three days, and expedite state inspections, took effect at the end of April. Caliber, which during the same period also hired a top Sacramento firm to lobby the administration, operates more than 60 repair shops in California and Texas. The March 21 agreement enabled the company to avoid administrative hearings that could have resulted in more serious state sanctions, up to and including license revocation, said Deputy State Attorney General Susan Fitzgerald. A Davis campaign spokesman said there was no connection between the settlement and the donation, which is permissible under state law. Davis, who has raised more political money than any other governor - about $42 million since taking office in January 1999 - has rejected critics' complaints that he uses the power of his position to leverage donations from special interests. "We have no control over what people's motives are when they give campaign contributions," said Roger Salazar. "We don't promise anybody anything. If they're giving to the campaign in the expectation of getting something in return, they will be sorely disappointed. That's just not how we operate." Caliber agreed that there was no connection. "We made a mistake, we settled, we paid a price, and it was a lesson for us," said Matthew Ohrnstein, Caliber's chairman and chief executive officer. He said Caliber verbally agreed to the settlement Feb. 6 and signed the document Feb. 13 - weeks before the campaign reported the donation. The draft settlement remained unchanged between the time it was signed and its adoption March 21. Ohrnstein said his first meeting with Davis was at a March 11 reception, nearly a month after the company agreed to the settlement. During the same period, Caliber also hired Sacramento lobbyist Darius Anderson, a friend of Davis and of Davis' wife with close tiesto the administration. According to lobbying reports, Caliber paid $27,000 to Anderson's firm, Platinum Advisers, between Jan. 1 and March 30. The money went to lobby the governor's office, the state attorney general's office, the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Bureau of Automotive Repair, the state office that licenses repair shops. Until this year, Caliber was not a major political player in Sacramento. The company in 1997 gave $500 each to former Insurance Commissioner Charles Quackenbush's re-election campaign, and to the unsuccessful Senate race of his wife, Chris Quackenbush. This year, apart from the Davis donation, Caliber gave $2,800 to the re-election campaign of Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Cudahy, the head of the Latino caucus. Robert Stern, formerly the top lawyer at the Fair Political Practices Commission and now with the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said the contribution to Davis raises questions. "The timing is very suspect, and the hiring of someone close to the governor is suspect. Clearly, this is called insurance," Stern said. "Whether the settlement was more favorable than it otherwise would have been doesn't really matter. The point is, they felt this was necessary to get close to Davis." The settlement stemmed from the allegations of three motorists, all involving repairs to Toyota vehicles. The Bureau of Automotive Repair contended that Caliber failed to describe the repairs, used inadequate materials in repairing accident- damaged vehicles, didn't provide proper documentation, and made false or misleading statements. The company, while agreeing to the terms of the settlement, rejected allegations that it acted fraudulently. The disputed complaints each involved several hundred dollars. In a case involving a 1991 Toyota Land Cruiser, a $483 replacement oil cooler was not included in the roughly $6,000 worth of repairs as promised,the bureau alleged. In another, the company said it included a $300 fender part in the repair work, but had not done so. A third case involved a $7,500 repair job to a 1999 Toyota 4Runner, in which Caliber didn't replace a $474 apron as promised.
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