LA County Probes Vernon Energy Deal
VERNON (AP) — The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is looking into a 2009 contract between the city of Vernon and an energy firm owned by the wife of the then-city administrator.
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The Los Angeles Times reports that the inquiry follows the newspaper's report last month that Donal O'Callaghan received $243,898 in consulting payments through the first half of this year through Tara Energy, Inc. a company headed by his wife, Kimberly McBride.
The payments were in addition to O'Callaghan's yearly salary of $380,000.
The DA's office says prosecutors are trying to determine whether the contract represented a conflict of interest.
O'Callaghan's attorney Mark Werksman says his client has done nothing wrong and his pay was "absolutely appropriate and reasonable."
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