Developer Donations Put Antonovich, Dana in the Driver’s Seat

Los Angeles County Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana are off to quick and lucrative starts in their campaigns for reelection next year.

With $1.4 million raised between them, the two incumbents say they hope to discourage potential challengers. No opponent has announced so far.

As in the past, both Dana and Antonovich, two-thirds of the board’s conservative majority, have drawn heavily from developers needing board approval to proceed with their projects.

Antonovich, Dana and Supervisor Kenneth Hahn are up for reelection in the June, 1988, primary. Hahn, recovering from a stroke, has carried over $233,000 from his last campaign but has not started raising money for 1988. The remaining board members, Ed Edelman and Pete Schabarum, do not face voters again until 1990.

After two recent fund-raising dinners, Dana had $815,000 in his campaign fund and Antonovich had $565,000, the supervisors said in interviews with The Times.

Backed by Developers

With Gov. George Deukmejian as the featured speaker, Dana netted about $400,000 at a $500-a-plate fund-raising dinner at the Century Plaza on Feb. 12. And on March 5, Antonovich called on longtime friends and supporters, including Bob Hope, who did a 15-minute routine, to raise about $450,000 at another dinner in the Century Plaza’s Grand Ballroom.

Of the 215 sponsors of these dinners, nearly half are involved in construction or real estate development, a Times survey showed. Most of the sponsors--67 for Antonovich and 148 for Dana--bought blocks of ten tickets costing $5,000, the supervisors said.

The support follows long-established patterns. Over a six-year period ending last Dec. 31, 14 of the top 25 contributors to both Dana and Antonovich were real estate developers or companies connected to construction, a Times survey of campaign reports showed. Of the five supervisors, conservatives Dana, Antonovich and Schabarum have received the most developer money since 1980. “Some candidates are totally anti-growth and anti-business, and our interest is in supporting those who do recognize how important it is that the free-enterprise system functions,” said Raymond A. Watt, chairman of home-building giant Watt Industries of Santa Monica. Watt and his brother, Donald Watt, were each sponsors of both the Dana and Antonovich dinners.

Besides real estate interests, other sponsors at the recent Antonovich and Dana fund-raisers are directly affected by votes of the Board of Supervisors. For example, political action committees for two county employee unions, deputy sheriffs and firefighters, were Dana dinner sponsors. And Five Star Parking, also a Dana sponsor, holds a board-approved parking contract.

Variety of Sponsors

Lawyers, doctors, lobbyists, publicists, engineers, architects and accountants also joined representatives of oil, investment, cable television and waste disposal firms on the dinner committees.

Many dinner sponsors also own property or businesses in communities where construction is booming or has been planned by the county--Malibu, Calabasas-Agoura and the Santa Clarita Valley. And several own businesses at Marina del Rey, an enclave of apartment complexes, restaurants, shops and hotels developed and run under lease on county land.

In general, supporters said in interviews that they contributed to Dana and Antonovich because of friendship, a common fiscally conservative and pro-business philosophy, or because they thought it might help their businesses.

“We certainly are not going to support candidates where we have no business,” said Michael L. Tenzer, chairman of Leisure Technology Inc., the nation’s largest builder of retirement communities. An Antonovich dinner sponsor, Tenzer began contributing to the supervisor in 1985, shortly after he bought land for a project in Newhall in Antonovich’s 5th District.

Stanley Moore, who through Carson-based Overton, Moore & Associates is a large builder of business parks, said he considers campaign contributions, including his recent $5,000 to Dana, a cost of doing business.

“We get a call from Dana or Hahn, and normally I support that. . . . If I like the candidate it doesn’t bother me,” said Moore, who is negotiating to build a business park on land owned by the county-supported Economic Development Corporation at the junction of the San Diego and Century freeways.

‘Buying My Philosophy’

Both Dana and Antonovich said that although large contributors do have access to them, these donors do not receive favored treatment. And other constituents also have access, they said.

“People who contribute to my candidacy are buying my philosophy, I’m not buying theirs,” Antonovich said. “I have a pro-business philosophy.”

Dana said that his contributors “are business-oriented people who are really pleased with what I’m doing. They get access, sure, but I consider most of these people pretty close friends. . . . Granted, it’s very different than when I came in 1980, when projects were just arbitrarily stopped (by the board’s then-liberal majority).”

Dinner committee sponsorships and other contributions during the last six years indicate that real estate developers have appreciated the new approach since Dana, previously a phone company manager, and Antonovich, a former state legislator who also was a teacher and project manager for a Glendale development firm, were elected in 1980.

For example, Antonovich’s top contributor, Valencia-area developer Newhall Land and Farming Co., gave him $32,225 through 1986 and donated $32,500 more to Dana. Developers Shapell Industries, Watt Industries and John B. Kilroy and engineer Wesley Lind also are among the top 30 givers to both supervisors. Each was a sponsor at one or both of the supervisors’ fund-raisers.

More Sponsors

Developers Alexander Haagen, Jack Shine, C. R. Wojciechowski, Robert Lowe and Jon B. Hedberg were sponsors of the Antonovich and Dana fund-raisers. So was Malibu builder Kaya Koral.

Santa Clarita Valley apartment builders Geoff and Dan Palmer also were Antonovich dinner sponsors. So was Nathan Shapell, who is a partner in a large condominium project near Calabasas, Paul E. Griffin Jr., whose Calabasas-based company built 810 homes last year, and Agoura developer Dale Poe. Santa Clarita and Calabasas-Agoura are in Antonovich’s sprawling northern county district.

Large developers and builders who sponsored the Dana dinner included Jack D. Bravo, Michael Choppin, Guilford Glazer, Gerald Katell, John Lusk, Wayne Ratkovich and representatives of Pardee Construction Co. and Watson Land Co. Jona Goldrich, whose firm is building an office and industrial complex on county land, and Abraham Lurie, whose company runs three hotels under county leases at Marina del Rey, were also sponsors.

Other Industries Supportive

Other industries also have been supportive of the two supervisors. With contributions of $36,300, Julian Virtue’s office and school furniture company, which holds a county contract, has been Dana’s top giver except for political ally Schabarum, who wrote off $74,800 in Dana loans in 1982. Virtue was the chairman of Dana’s February fund-raiser.

A Saugus vegetable farm, a Castaic brick manufacturer, the operator of Universal Studios, a Greek-American club and veteran Republican contributor Maxy Pope Alles also have been top Antonovich contributors.

Dana’s list includes Queen Mary operator Wrather Corp., a Malibu restaurant and Hughes Aircraft Co., which operated the Marina City Club apartment complex in Marina del Rey until recently.

Conflict Questioned

But no group has given more and had more projects before the county than real estate developers. And projects of several builders have for years prompted questions from homeowner groups and political opponents about the supervisors’ relationships with large contributors.

In December, for instance, the board selected Jerome Snyder, a sponsor at both kickoff dinners, to take over the Marina City Club apartment complex in Marina del Rey and sell off its 600 apartments on 81-year, condominium-style subleases. The county, which owns the land on which the complex is built, said it would make additional millions on the deal, but tenants disputed county estimates and said the contract would enrich Snyder at their expense. Their lawsuit to block the contract was unsuccessful.

And Wojciechowski’s nine-year-old, 257-acre Montevideo Country Club proposal, whose engineering was done by Lind’s firm, has been fought by many Topanga Canyon residents. They say its 224 homes, hotel and golf course will destroy the canyon’s fragile ecology.

The supervisors’ consideration of the project’s tract map, rejected by the Planning Commission for environmental reasons in 1980, was unexpectedly delayed for the 25th time in February on Antonovich’s motion.

The delay allowed the developer to exceed a nine-month deadline imposed by the supervisors last May and saved him thousands of dollars in refiling fees.

“This tells me that either because of political donations or some other kind of clout the supervisors respond at the will of the developer,” said Bob Bates, president of the Topanga Assn. for a Scenic Community.

Antonovich, who received $16,775 in contributions from Wojciechowski in 1985 and 1986, said he asked for the delay because Wojciechowski had made a good-faith effort to meet the county’s deadline and because he could have immediately filed another tract map and kept his project alive.

The project’s merits will eventually be decided when Wojciechowski’s applications for zone changes and a special-use permit, which are still at the Planning Department level, come before the supervisors, Antonovich said.

An Undue Advantage

Community leaders in growth areas have said they fear the supervisors’ acceptance of unlimited campaign contributions gives developers an undue advantage. Reformers point to voter approval in 1985 of a Los Angeles city initiative that placed a $500 cap on donations from a single source in City Council races and a $1,000 limit on citywide races as an indication that a majority of county voters think reform is overdue.

Laws limit political contributions in about 50 California counties and cities. No limits are placed on contributions in state races, but in federal races contributions by individuals are limited to $1,000, and political action committees may give no more than $5,000.

Even some large county contributors say they favor contribution limits. Auto dealer Bert Boeckmann, a major contributor to many local campaigns and a Dana dinner sponsor, said he worked for reform in Los Angeles and favors it for the county as well.

“I’d rather see a broader base of contributions,” Boeckmann said. “The costs of elections have escalated rather dramatically and that always affords opportunities for conflicts of interest.”

Times administrative aide Cecilia Rasmussen contributed to this story. TOP CONTRIBUTORS TO SUPERVISORS’ CAMPAIGNS As Supervisors Deane Dana and Mike Antonovich begin fund-raising for their reelection campaigns next year, here are their 25 top contributors through 1986. Since then, they have raised about $850,000 more. Deane Dana District 4

Supervisor Pete Schabarum’s political fund: $74,800

Virco Manufacturing Corp., manufacturer: $36,300

Hughes Aircraft Co., manufacturer: $34,250

Santa Catalina Island Co., development: $33,750

Newhall Land and Farming Co., developer: $32,500

Memel, Jacobs, Pierno, Gersh & Ellsworth, law: $29,450

Alexander Haagen, developer: $29,250

Summa Corp/Hughes Organization, developer: $27,500

The Adamson Companies, developer: $27,175

The Holden Group/Security First, investments: $22,500

Wrather Corp., entertainment: $22,099

Paul Flowers and Assoc., gov’t. consultant: $20,795

Pardee Construction Co., builder: $18,500

Guilford Glazer, developer: $17,500

The Sand Castle, restaurant: $17,500

Wesley R. Lind, engineering/development: $17,500

URBATEC, development: $16,950

Watt Pac Inc., developer: $16,500

Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, law: $16,100

Union Oil: $15,500

John B. Kilroy, developer: $15,250

H.M. Enterprises, real estate: $15,250

Richard L. Noble, law: $15,000

Fluor Corp., engineering/architect: $15,000

Shapell Industries, construction: $13,978

Mike Antonovich District 5

Newhall Land and Farming Co., developer: $32,225

Poe Development Co., developer: $30,050

Memel, Jacobs, Pierno, Gersh & Ellsworth, law : $29,220

The Holden Group/Security First, investments : $28,400

Castaic Clay Mfg. Co., brick manufacturer : $27,250

Shapell Industries, construction : $27,025

Sunnyglen Corp., developer : $24,500

Maxy Pope Alles, retired housewife : $23,200

Hellenic-American PAC, : $22,400

The Pacifica Corp., developer : $22,000

Boskovich Farms, farming : $21,000

Joe Crail, insurance : $20,900

Bubalo Construction, builder : $20,400

John B. Kilroy, developer : $19,000

Frank Collins, developer : $18,144

MCA Inc., entertainment : $17,525

Currey-Riach Co., developer : $17,400

Edward Deeb, dentist/property management : $17,325

Richard L. Noble, law : $17,000

C. R. Wojciechowski, developer : $16,775

Robert Kasparian, food : $16,250

Watt Pac Inc., developer : $16,000

Drexel, Burnham, investment banking : $16,000

Engineering Technology, lobbyist/development: $15,500

Santa Fe Engineers, engineering : $14,090