Peace Associate Hired as Willie Brown Aide : ‘Killer Tomatoes’ Writer Shares Office With Chula Vista Assemblyman

A longtime friend and business associate of Assemblyman Steve Peace has been on the government payroll since January, working out of Peace’s Chula Vista office, but designated as Assembly Speaker Willie Brown’s assistant for San Diego.

Constantine Dillon, a high school classmate of Peace and a co-writer of three movies with the lawmaker, was hired in January for the $32,000-a-year job, though he has been on unpaid leave since June 12 to help Peace write a sequel to their 1977 horror film spoof, “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.”

Dillon’s Assembly job is the latest confluence between Peace’s political operation and his private business, Four Square Productions Inc., of which he owns 29%.

The National City-based company was formed 15 years ago to produce football highlight films and later, feature movies. But it has since branched out to offer a wide array of political consulting services. Peace and Sen. Wadie Deddeh, both Democrats from Chula Vista, last year paid the company more than $135,000 in campaign funds for various services, according to the lawmakers’ campaign expense statements.

Dillon, 33, declined to talk to The Times about his job, referring all questions to Brown, the powerful Speaker of the Assembly from San Francisco.

Brown Wanted More Visibility

Brown said he hired Dillon, his first full-time assistant for San Diego, because community activists were “ragging” on him to increase his visibility in the county. Before hiring Dillon, Brown, like his predecessors, handled San Diego matters out of a Los Angeles office.

Brown said Dillon investigates issues for him, makes presentations to groups, and helps train new employees in Assembly district offices in San Diego. The Speaker said Dillon also arranges the schedule when Brown visits San Diego about once every two months.

“He has been doing whatever I need to have him do,” Brown said.

He said Dillon’s major project has been to help coordinate Brown’s efforts to win passage of a $150-million state bond issue that would go toward cleaning up raw sewage spilling into San Diego County from Mexico.

Brown said he hired Dillon on the recommendation of several San Diego politicians, including Peace, who said that he informed Dillon of the opening late last year. At the time, Dillon, a former national parks service ranger and administrator, was in San Diego working on a film with Peace and sorting out his life amid a personal tragedy.

“What brought him back to San Diego after eight years in the federal parks service is that his mother died of cancer, and that was earth-shattering,” Brown said. “When he came back to put his mother’s affairs in order, his sister was killed in a drunk-driving accident. That shattered him. I was fairly lucky. I got him for a lot less than he was making.”

Dillon, who is spending his summer on the set of “Return of the Killer Tomatoes,” now in production in San Diego, said he does not own stock in Four Square Productions. Instead, Dillon said, he receives a share of the earnings from films he co-writes, which so far have included “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” and “Happy Hour,” which was released last month. “Killer Tomatoes” has grossed $15 million over the past decade. Four Square was founded when one-time high school classmates Peace, Dillon and John DeBello wrote “Killer Tomatoes,” a low-budget take-off on bad horror films that has become more of a hit through videocassettes than it did at the box office.

Peace said he sees no conflict in his helping a friend and business associate obtain a job with Brown.

“I don’t think it’s unusual to hire people you know or recommend people you know,” Peace said. “In fact, I don’t make recommendations of people I don’t know. I’m very careful about that.”

Dillon, Peace said, was “particularly well-suited” for the job because of his environmental background and other talents.

“Costa can write and he can speak, and that’s what you do in this business, you write and you speak,” Peace said.

Peace said Brown told him in January that Dillon would only be stationed in Peace’s district office for a short time.

“I want him out of that office,” Peace said of Dillon. “The Speaker didn’t want to spend the money to have a special office. He prevailed upon me. He’s abusing his welcome. It was supposed to be a few months and a few months turned into more than a few months.”

Dillon Not an Owner

Peace downplayed his business connection to Dillon, pointing out that he and Dillon do not share ownership of Four Square Productions. Peace also said payments from his and Deddeh’s campaign committees to Four Square last year amounted to less than 5% of the company’s income.

Peace’s campaign committee during 1986 paid Four Square $55,243, according to campaign statements filed with the Secretary of State. Deddeh’s campaign paid the company $80,786, the reports show. Much of that money simply passed through the company’s coffers and was paid out to other firms for campaign expenses.

Peace’s payments to Four Square went for the production of television advertisements and for purchasing the time to air them, and for an elaborate poll and computer work that the campaign used to target the placement of lawn signs.

Deddeh’s payments were almost entirely for the production of advertisements and the purchase of television and radio time.

Peace said his company charges his and Deddeh’s campaigns competitive rates for the work it does. He said DeBello negotiates the rates with Peace’s campaign treasurer, Sue Reno. Sue Reno’s daughter, Beth, is business manager for Four Square and runs the campaign’s day-to-day operation, Peace said.

Four Square Paid 15%

In a typical example, Peace’s campaign paid his company $15,000 to line up $12,751 worth of advertising time on three San Diego television stations in October, 1986. The difference between the price of the advertising time and the amount the campaign paid was 15%--the standard rate charged by advertising agencies and political consultants.

Peace is not the only California legislator whose campaign does business with his own firm.

Campaign statements show that Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) retained his public relations and political consulting firm in 1986 to assist in fund-raising and producing campaign literature. Assemblyman Bill Jones (R-Fresno) hired his own firm to handle direct mail to the voters. And Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora) uses his company to perform a variety of campaign-related jobs.

Legislators who have such relationships with their own firms run the risk of violating a state law that prohibits the personal use of campaign funds, though no one has ever been prosecuted under the 5-year-old statute.

Senior Assistant Atty. Gen. N. Eugene Hill, responsible for enforcing the law, said that a legislator may personally profit from business his campaign does with his own company as long as the transaction is carried out just as it would be with any other company.

Peace said he is well aware of the prohibition and is careful to avoid stepping over the line.

“You have to be real careful not to undercharge and not to overcharge,” Peace said. “You do it in the same way you deal with any other clients. I never participate in any side of those discussions.”

But Peace added that he has no intention of severing the relationship.