Yes, lunch in LA can be so interesting.
You remember Barry Munitz, don’t you? Former UH wunderkind president, Maxxam executive, California state university administrator and besieged Getty Museum director, the talented Mr. Munitz certainly knows how to get around the key social circles in SoCal. Previous posts on Munitz are here.
And remember California attorney general Bill Lochyer? He is that gem of statesmanship who told an interviewer in 2001 during the aftermath of the California power crisis that “I would love to personally escort [the late former Enron chairman and CEO Ken] Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, ‘Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'” Of course, left unsaid by Lockyer was that Lay and Enron had little to do with that crisis, which was caused primarily by California state politicians (including then state senator Lockyer) who botched deregulation of electric utilities by freezing retail power rates while utilities bought juice from a newly-created wholesale market at prices that had no caps. Lockyer is the sort of politician who prefers to rely on myths and appeal to resentment rather than confront the truth.
Lockyer’s office launched an investigation of then Getty Museum chief Munitz in mid-2005 after the LA Times reported that Munitz had made grants to friends, demanded a raise amid cost-cutting, traveled lavishly, expense and used staff to perform personal errands, all at the expense of the non-profit Getty (subsequent post here). Munitz resigned as the Getty Museum CEO this past February, agreeing to forgo more than $2 million under his contract with the Getty and to reimburse the non-profit $250,000 to resolve “continuing disputes.”
However, it’s now almost August and still nothing has been heard from Lockyer’s investigation of Munitz. So, the LA Times started nosing around and asking questions and, earlier this week, Lockyer responded to the Times by admitting that he and Munitz had met in mid-January for lunch (at LA’s Rocket Pizza, which has very good crust), smack dab in the middle of Lockyer’s investigation of Munitz and a month before Munitz bailed out from the Getty.
Lockyer, who is now running for California state treasurer (can’t this guy get a real job?), is in full retreat over the disclosure. He actually told the Times that the get-together did not violate his unwritten policy of not meeting alone with targets of an investigation because the probe was not discussed.

“This was, in my mind, lunch with a personal friend that I’ve known for a long time and it didn’t have anything to do with the case,” he said. . . “I was being a good listener, kind of consoling him as he leaves a job that he loves,” said Lockyer, characterizing the discussion, which eventually shifted to books and movies, as “therapy with a friend.”

I bet the pizza was good, too.