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Green Party Takes Feinstein to Small Claims
Court
By Oliver Lukacs
Staff Writer
Jan. 13 -- In a last-ditch effort to recover a $10,000 check
it alleges Councilman Michael Feinstein illegally appropriated, the local
Green party is taking the former mayor to small claims court in Santa
Monica.
On the docket for late February, the claim comes two months after the
Los Angeles County District Attorney dropped a criminal investigation
into the matter because it lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute, effectively
clearing Feinstein of any criminal wrongdoing.
But for local Green party officials, who have repeatedly asked Feinstein
for the funds they claim he took three years ago and spent without permission,
the DA’s decision means nothing.
“Whether or not the DA thinks they have enough evidence to file a case
or not does not change the fact that our money is still very missing and
the resounding silence from Mr. Feinstein,” said Gabrielle Weeks, a Green
Party of Los Angeles County official.
The decision to take the matter into the small claims arena was unanimously
approved by the local party council and filed by its treasurer in December,
after an official request that Feinstein return the funds was rejected,
GPLAC officials said.
“It occurred to us that we never just asked for the money back,” said
Joe Crompton, the GPLAC co-coordinator. The request letter “implied that
there would be some negotiating room there.”
The response “didn’t say yes or no," Crompton said. "It was
a very lawyer-type response.”
Saying he was vindicated by the DA’s conclusion that the money was spent
on official Green Party business, as he always maintained, Feinstein declined
to comment on the small claims case.
A veteran Green party member and founding father of the local and state
parties, Feinstein has said that the issue is the result of a small group
of rival local and state party officials engaged in an internal power
struggle.
Bill Pietz, the Green party veteran who anonymously donated the $10,000
check in January 2001 with the hopes of raising the local Green party
to a more legitimate political plateau, refused to have any part of the
small claims case, GPLAC officials said.
Pietz has since quit the party, saying he was disgusted by the public scandal
created by the ongoing mudslinging within the party.
“Pietz does not wish to be contacted about this,” said Crompton, a close
personal friend of his. “He made it absolutely clear that he wants nothing
more to do with it.”
But it’s not just about the money, Weeks said. Feinstein has also refused
to share other donor information, without which the GPLAC is in the dark
about “where our donor base is” and the amount of donation money the party
must legally account for with state authorities, Weeks said.
“Feinstein has every legal right not to cooperate with us, but he can’t
do that with a judge,” said Weeks, referring to the small claims court.
Asked if the small claims case will be the final chapter in the ongoing
scandal, Crompton was ambiguous.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can only speak as an individual. As an individual,
I would like it to be the end of it, but I don’t know if it will be.”
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