Cunningham Joins Securities Firm, Will Work in L.A.

Former Los Angeles City Councilman David Cunningham, who resigned from public office amid reports he was leaving to join Cranston Securities Co., was introduced Thursday as that investment banking firm’s newest vice president.

In a lush corporate setting replete with champagne, Cunningham appeared with Cranston executives at a news conference and announced that he has joined the Washington-based company, which competes in the hard-sell world of public finance and municipal bonds.

“His precise duties will be developing business in Los Angeles as well as throughout the country,” said Danny Bakewell, president and chief operating officer of Cranston Securities.

Calling the 51-year-old Cunningham a “valuable addition,” Bakewell said the former councilman, who resigned on Sept. 30, will work out of the firm’s Los Angeles office. But Bakewell said that, for now, Cunningham will not be lobbying his old colleagues at City Hall because of some uncertainty over whether the former councilman will be hamstrung by any legal restrictions.

One-Year Ban

According to the city attorney’s office, the municipal Charter bans any former city officer or employee from representing a client before a city department or city agency for at least one year after departing.

In addition, a former elected official is prohibited from representing a client on a matter in which he either voted or became personally involved while in office, said Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for the city attorney.

As a council member and former chairman of the Grants, Housing and Community Development Committee, Cunningham participated in or voted on a number of municipal-financing deals and bond contracts that affected Cranston and other investment banking firms. Company officials said it was unclear to what extent Cunningham could help the Cranston firm obtain business on current city projects.

Bakewell said his firm has requested an opinion from the city attorney’s office, and Cunningham, who started work Oct. 15, said that whatever the outcome, “we certainly are going to live within those parameters.”

Denied Reports

When Cunningham’s resignation plans first surfaced at City Hall, published reports, including those in The Times, indicated that Cunningham would join Cranston Securities, a firm founded in Columbus, Ohio. But Cunningham and the company denied those reports.

At Thursday’s news conference, which was held in a carpeted, corporate board room of a high-rise office building, Bakewell insisted that no prior arrangements had been made and that the deal was struck only after Cunningham announced his plans to leave office.

Bakewell said Cunningham will be one of eight vice presidents in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Asked whether he received a substantial increase from his $53,266 annual council pay, Cunningham told reporters: “It’s at least a dollar more than my council salary.”