The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office and California attorney general are investigating whether members of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board broke conflict-of-interest laws in 2005 when they voted to offer their own chairwoman a job in San Diego.

During a closed session on Halloween three years ago, the appeals board offered Cynthia K. Thornton a six-figure job as an unemployment insurance appeals administrative law judge, board minutes show.

Three members of that board, including former Democratic Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, voted to give Thornton the judgeship in San Diego, where she now earns $109,000 hearing claims from workers who say they were unfairly denied state unemployment benefits.

On Wednesday, two board members who voted to offer her the job declined to comment. A third said he presumed the job offer was legal if it came to the board for approval.

Thornton said neither cronyism nor improper conduct by the board landed her the job.

"Another way to look at it is we got somebody good, right away," Thornton said of herself. "The state got an experienced, low-maintenance, highly productive employee. They knew I would work out."

The investigations were prompted by state Auditor Elaine Howle, who said in a report issued last month that a former unemployment insurance board may have violated state conflict-of-interest laws by approving a contract in which one of its members had a financial interest.

The report gave no further details but said the matter had been referred to the Attorney General's Office and Sacramento County District Attorney's Office for criminal investigation. Neither agency would comment.

But in an interview from her office in San Diego, Thornton admitted her job offer was the focus of the probe, though she said she has not been contacted by investigators. She said former members of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board have in the past become unemployment insurance judges.

Thornton was given the job without other candidates being considered or interviewed. Unlike other similar positions, the San Diego vacancy was not advertised.

The vote was recorded in board minutes: "It was reported that the board voted in closed session to offer Cynthia Thornton an ALJ position in the San Diego Office of Appeals."

At the time of the vote, Thorton's four-year board term was set to expire. She was given the job a month after she told fellow board members she had no news about her political reappointment as chairwoman, minutes of the meeting show.

The minutes do not say if Thornton was present for the vote. But Thornton said she wasn't in the room when Jack Cox, Ann Richardson and Strom-Martin voted to offer her the job.

Cox, now retired, said he has had health problems since 2005 and could not recall the circumstances of the vote. "If it was coming before the board, I would have assumed it was proper," Cox said. He said he has not been contacted by investigators.

In an e-mail, Strom-Martin, now a lobbyist for the Los Angeles Unified School District in Sacramento, said she would not discuss the matter. "This issue is still under investigation so no comment," she wrote.

Richardson, who remains a board member, declined to comment through a board spokeswoman.

Knut Johnson, a San Diego attorney who represents Thornton, said the appeal board's vote was irrelevant and did not breach state conflict-of-interest laws.

He said former executive director Jay Arcellana had already offered Thornton the administrative law job and she had accepted it – after passing exams. Those details are not reflected in board minutes.

"It was a meaningless board vote," Johnson said. "She received an offer and a contract from the chief judge. So it's not a violation of Government Code 1090 (the state conflict-of-interest law)."

Johnson said Arcellana, who was fired from his post in July, asked the board to vote on Thornton's hiring to help deflect criticism. "The chief judge had been criticized in the past for hiring former board members as ALJs. The board vote was political cover," Johnson said.

Reached at his Oakland home, Arcellana said he doesn't remember anything about how Thornton landed her job.

Call The Bee's Andrew McIntosh, (916) 321-1215.