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The FBI and the inspector general of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have launched inquiries into the role that MTA board member Martin Ludlow played in a development project.
The contractor for the project, a bus yard, was RAD Jefferson. Ludlow, who is also a Los Angeles city councilman, was disqualified from voting on the project as an MTA board member by state conflict of interest laws because he had received a $500 contribution to his council campaign from an affiliated firm.
After the MTA board gave initial approval to the project, Ludlow proposed that the transit agency spend $282,000 on a community outreach contract to persuade the public to support the development, the West Los Angeles Transportation Center.
The developer hired a woman whom Ludlow had recommended to the MTA to do the outreach, but later ended her contract.
Ludlow ultimately opposed the project.
His actions on the project, which is in his council district, have drawn the attention of the MTA's inspector general and the FBI, which have interviewed agency employees, including MTA Chief Executive Roger Snoble, according to four sources familiar with the investigations.
Ludlow, who said he had not been contacted by investigators, said Wednesday that he believed that he had acted appropriately.
He declined to say whether he believed that pushing for the outreach campaign violated the conflict of interest rule.
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