Documents Show Mayor Falsified Insurance Form

HERMOSA BEACH — Nearly a year after City Councilman Jack Wood acknowledged that he had improperly signed up his girlfriend for the city’s health insurance program, city officials have released copies of an enrollment form showing that Wood falsely identified the woman as his wife, listed her with a hyphenated version of his last name and included a fictitious wedding date for the couple.

“What can I say? I did it,” Wood, who now serves as mayor, said last week. “I am fully and totally responsible for any action I took.”

In the past, Wood admitted enrolling his girlfriend and said an unnamed city official told him it was all right. But the insurance form released last week shows that Wood, 42, falsely listed the woman as his wife in order to qualify her for coverage. City officials have said the city’s insurance companies allow only children and spouses to be declared as dependents.

When asked if he believed it was wrong for him to put false information on the enrollment form, Wood responded, “I have no moral compunction, whatever. . . . A spouse to me is someone whom one is emotionally devoted to.”

Wood’s insurance forms and those of the former Personnel Director Carolyn Smith, 43, were released last week under terms of a settlement between the city and civic activist Roger Creighton, who suspected both had enrolled ineligible dependents.

Creighton, a persistent critic of Hermosa Beach government, had sued the city for the documents last May after City Atty. James P. Lough refused to release them on grounds it would be an invasion of privacy.

Creighton, 47, said he will take the information to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office by the end of this month and request a criminal investigation of both Wood and Smith.

“It appears to me that some government records have been falsified,” said Creighton, who said he has spent $3,000 in legal fees to get the information. “Something is not right here.”

The city’s insurance broker, however, has said the city’s insurance companies are not interested in any prosecution. Lough said he saw no grounds for a criminal case.

Wood, who took over the largely ceremonial role of mayor in July, has acknowledged since February, when enrollment of his girlfriend first became public, that he is not married. He explained at a City Council meeting then and reiterated in an interview last week that signing up the woman was a “business transaction.”

“I felt the insurance was available to me, and purchasable by me,” Wood said in the interview. “When I was informed that it was not considered a legitimate relationship, that I am not allowed to purchase it, I said, ‘OK,’ and I took her off.”

A civic activist said he spent $3,000 in legal fees to get the information.

Wood told reporters last February that he was given clearance by a city employee to include his girlfriend as a dependent, although he refused to identify the employee. He would not elaborate on those comments last week.

According to the information released last week, Wood enrolled Helena Toulmet, 35, in the health and dental insurance programs for three months beginning Nov. 30, 1984, and ending March, 4, 1985. Wood paid the monthly premiums for Toulmet totaling $113.51, said Robert Blackwood, who succeeded Smith as personnel director.

On the health insurance form, Wood listed Toulmet as his wife and wrote her last name as “Toulmet-Wood.” While the rest of the form was handwritten, a wedding date of Sept. 25, 1984, was typewritten in a box in the upper-right corner.

Wood announced at a recent fund raiser for his reelection campaign in April that he and Toulmet actually will get married May 17, 1986. He said last week that he didn’t remember completing the wedding question but said the September date was the day Toulmet “arrived at my house” in Hermosa Beach from New York. He repeated that he takes full responsibility for the form.

“There is nobody responsible for my action but me,” he said. “It has been pointed out to me that what I did was a mistake because I didn’t know the rules for a spouse.”

Smith, who resigned as personnel director in July to enter private business, enrolled an “alleged spouse” as a dependent on insurance forms, according to the suit filed by Creighton, even though the two listed themselves as unmarried on other legal documents. The lawsuit did not mention Smith by name, but Creighton has identified her in interviews as the employee in the lawsuit.

Efforts to reach Smith last week were unsuccessful, but in previous interviews she has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. She said in May that she and James Brisson, 44, the dependent listed on her forms, are legally married. She explained that she lists herself as single on various financial and legal documents so she can maintain credit in her own name. She did not provide proof of her marriage, and the city never requested it of her.

The city paid about $100 a month for Brisson’s coverage, Smith said. Blackwood said coverage for both Smith and Brisson ended in July when she resigned. (Although elected officials must pay for their dependents’ coverage, the city pays for coverage of staff members’ dependents.)

Although Creighton intends to pursue criminal action against Wood and Smith, several city officials said he would have difficulty proving that the two employees intentionally tried to defraud the city. Blackwood said the enrollment forms do not include provisions that require employees to sign under oath.

In a letter to City Manager Gregory Meyer last February, Daniel V. Maniaci, the city’s insurance broker, said insurance companies who contract with the cities are not interested in taking legal action against claimants who file incorrect information.

“It is not the intent of the insurance companies involved to prosecute the offenders in a situation of ineligible dependents,” he wrote. “Rather it is their intent to correct the error and be assured the situation will not arise again.”

Blackwood and Meyer said the problem has been corrected. Shortly after the Wood incident came to light in February, the city required all employees to sign forms stating that their dependents are legitimately enrolled in the insurance plans. Blackwood said no problems have arisen since then.

Creighton, however, said he does not intend to give up.

“It is rather school-child knowledge that if you have to falsely fill out a form to get some benefits that it is not the right thing to do,” he said.

Wood, for his part, said he is not worried about Creighton’s crusade. He said the insurance problem has become an issue for his political opponents, many of whom will want to use it in an effort to defeat him in April.

“It is like throwing tidbits to the piranhas. They are always there,” he said. “All I can do now is allow the people to judge me.”