Stiffer Campaign Funding Rules Sought by Bernardi

Amid angry charges by its author that Los Angeles’ campaign financing reform law has not worked as was intended, the city attorney’s office is drafting recommendations to tighten the measure by giving prosecutors broader investigative powers, officials said Monday.

Councilman Ernani Bernardi, who wrote the Charter amendment on campaign reform that won overwhelming voter approval in the 1985 municipal elections, vowed to put the legal refinements on the next local ballot in April.

The actions come on the heels of the first test of the new campaign reform law--allegations that Councilman Richard Alatorre’s campaign accepted nearly $85,000 in illegal contributions in his successful race for a council seat last December.

In a decision last Thursday, City Atty. James K. Hahn filed a 16-count criminal complaint against three Alatorre campaign workers--including the councilman’s sister--and two campaign committees. Alatorre himself was not charged because there was insufficient evidence that he knew of, or directed, the illegal contributions, Hahn said.

Bernardi, in a blistering attack, said in a City Hall press conference that he was “outraged” by the city attorney’s decision not to prosecute Alatorre.

“The message I got from the city attorney’s office last week was this: ‘If you are careful to keep your mouth shut and not sign any checks, you can ignore the city’s campaign reform law,’ ” Bernardi said.

Hahn cited the absence of any documents linking Alatorre to the allegedly illegal contributions as a major reason for the decision not to prosecute the councilman.

Brad Sales, an Alatorre spokesman, said the councilman was “just not going to have any comment” on Bernardi’s statements. Sales said Alatorre declined to speak on the advice of his attorney.

Bernardi called on Hahn’s office to reconsider the decision not to file charges against Alatorre and to forward to the council recommendations on how to strengthen the campaign reform law, which placed a $500 limit on donations to a City Council candidate.

Assistant City Atty. Shelley Rosenfield said she is already reviewing the campaign financing law and hopes to provide recommendations to Hahn within the next several months.

“What we’re looking at is a bit more teeth in the law,” she said.

Hahn, in announcing the criminal complaint last week, criticized the financing law.

“There are some difficulties with this campaign law,” he said. “It was not really designed with a criminal prosecutor in mind. It does not hold candidates strictly liable for the actions of their committees.”

The statute requires that individuals be found to have “knowingly and willingly” violated the financing restrictions, which Hahn said places a burden on investigators trying to determine someone’s state of mind.

“You have to ask people what they know and what their state of mind was when they signed these things (campaign spending statements),” he said. “If they are not willing to tell you what their particular state of mind is, it’s very difficult to prove any evidence.”

Hahn and Rosenfield suggested that a key tool for investigators would be the granting to the city attorney’s office the power to subpoena witnesses to testify. In the Alatorre case, about a dozen potential witnesses, including the councilman, refused to talk to investigators.

“We do not have the power to compel testimony under penalty of perjury,” she said. “We do not have subpoena power. What we’re essentially stuck with is a paper trail.”

Hahn and Rosenfield also suggested that the addition of civil penalties--such as fines--to the criminal statute would strengthen a prosecutor’s hand. Civil cases also require a lower standard of proof--usually a “preponderance of the evidence”--than criminal cases, which require prosecutors to prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

Fred Woocher, an attorney with the Center for Law in the Public Interest, which helped draft the campaign reform law, said he would push for more aggressive investigations of candidates.

“We’re really not that interested in the Cecilia Kunkels of the world,” he said, referring to Alatorre’s sister, who was named in the criminal complaint. “It’s the candidates. . . . The candidates should be held responsible.”