Wong Wielded Clout in a Low-Key Manner

He became one of the more powerful local figures that the general public never heard of.

From Tom Bradley to Richard Riordan to James K. Hahn, Leland Wong curried enough political favor with enough personal style to serve for nearly 14 continuous years on the biggest city commissions.

“He was very smooth,” said Harvey Englander, a City Hall lobbyist for 20 years. “He’s not a guy who brought a lot of attention to himself. He’s not a flamboyant guy. He’s a very classy guy.

“There were lobbyists who loved the role of being the power brokers and think of themselves as larger than life. They always want to be seen whispering in an elected official’s ear.

“That wasn’t Leland. He was very smooth, low-key, behind the scenes.”

On Wednesday, Wong, 49, was anything but low-profile, and his image was anything but smooth. Indicted for allegedly pocketing a $100,000 bribe, lying on public disclosure forms and stealing from his former employer, Kaiser Permanente, the former City Hall insider now stands out as the most significant figure charged during corruption probes started during the Hahn administration.

Yet for many Wednesday, the news seemed downright nostalgic. Wong has been out of the public eye -- and out of power -- since he abruptly quit the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power board in January 2004.

He also stepped down as director of Kaiser’s government and community relations department for Southern California. The reason: An internal investigation revealed he had directed staff members to organize political fundraisers, in apparent violation of laws that prohibit nonprofits from partisan activities.

Until his departure, Wong had kept a firm political grip by combining his skill as a solid political fundraiser with his position at Kaiser, where for 16 years he not only served as a lobbyist but directed the nonprofit’s charitable largesse to clinics, boys’ clubs and other community organizations that are important in an officeholder’s district.

It was Bradley, a Democrat, who gave Wong his start, choosing Wong for a seat on the city’s police and fire pensions board in 1989, where he served two years before the mayor moved him up to the Airport Commission.

Along with the Harbor Commission and DWP board, the Airport Commission is considered one of the most prestigious appointed posts. The departments generate copious revenue, and commissioners traditionally dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with little mayoral or City Council interference.

In 1993, however, Wong appeared to be political toast. He backed former Councilman Michael Woo, a Democrat, for mayor. Riordan, the Republican, won.

But, in an amazing feat of political dexterity, Wong gained Riordan’s confidence and was appointed in 1994 to the Harbor Commission, where he served until Riordan switched him back to the airport panel. When Democrat Hahn took over, Wong stayed on the Airport Commission until he was sent to the DWP board in March 2003, less than a year before he quit.

Long before he departed, however, Wong’s style marked him as more slick than smooth to some. There was concern he was mixing personal and city business, city sources say.

Among his closest associates was fellow lobbyist Art M. Gastelum, a Pasadena businessman and former Bradley aide. In a 2003 story about Gastelum, The Times reported that Wong allegedly pressured one airport concessionaire candidate to give a piece of the contract to Gastelum’s daughter. Wong acknowledged recommending Gastelum’s daughter and said he would not have gained personally from his suggestion, which was not followed.

After he left public life, Wong busied himself as an executive of an Asian bank in the San Gabriel Valley and also worked as a business consultant in China. Yet one attempt to keep his hand in local politics backfired in September 2004, when invitations went out listing Wong as a co-host for mayoral hopeful Antonio Villaraigosa.

The future mayor canceled the event.

“The truth is, if he would have been part of it,” Villaraigosa said at the time, “it would have detracted from the event.”

Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this report.