Firm Seeking Key L.A. Project Fields a Team With Ties to Bradley

A top contender in the competition to build a $200-million expansion of the Los Angeles Civic Center has added to its development team six influential partners, each of whom has close ties to Mayor Tom Bradley and wields considerable influence at City Hall.

The move was criticized by two City Council members as a last-minute political tactic to gain the upper hand in a high-stakes lobbying battle over one of the city’s larger redevelopment deals.

Last week, the firm of Barker Interests Ltd. informed city officials of the new investors, including Bishop H. H. Brookins, a longtime adviser to Bradley, and prominent attorney Sam Williams, The Times learned.

These investors, along with Louis Moret, Andy M. Camacho, David C. Lizzarraga and Danny Bakewell, have committed a total of more than $1 million in capital to Barker’s proposal to develop the 1st Street North project, said Michael D. Barker, managing general partner of First Street Plaza Partners.

The timing of Barker’s announcement--only weeks before Bradley and the City Council will choose the builder--suggests that the new investors were added to “influence the decision of the council,” Councilman Marvin Braude said.

“The rules of the city were that the presentations had to end on Oct. 29,” Braude said. “. . . (The naming of the new partners) is contrary to the rules that were established. So that raises in my mind serious doubts about the sincerity of these participants and the purposes for which they were put forward.”

Councilman Ernani Bernardi added: “It’s pretty blatant and brazen. It’s just part and parcel of what’s been going on.” Bernardi was particularly critical because some of the new investors are current and former city officials. “It disturbs me. . . . I think there ought to be provisions to prevent that.”

Barker denied that he sought the new investors to help win final approval for his proposal.

“If there is a political advantage to be gained, then that is all well and good,” Barker said. “. . . It is not just a political move. . . . It is a broadening of participation in ownership and direction of this project.”

Barker said he indicated to city officials long ago that his firm would bring in additional partners. “Rather than do this later, we decided to do it up front,” he said.

Located on 7.8 acres of city-owned property, the redevelopment project will include a large municipal building, a 500-room hotel, hundreds of apartments, stores, a plaza and a museum in a major buildup of Little Tokyo. Expected to be open in 1992, the project will turn a profit from private use of public land.

The new Barker investors are Williams, a longtime Bradley adviser and one of the mayor’s appointees to the city Police Commission; Brookins, a longtime black political kingmaker who helped mastermind Bradley’s rise in City Hall; Moret, formerly one of the mayor’s public works commissioners and a Latino political activist; Latino attorney Camacho, who has strong ties to Councilman Richard Alatorre, one of Bradley’s key City Hall allies; Lizzarraga, influential Latino leader in the Democratic Party and head of the East Los Angeles Community Union, and Bakewell, president of a bonding firm that does business with the city and a leading Bradley supporter.

Moret said the project was nothing more than a business venture on his part although he acknowledged that he had never invested in a city development before. The other five investors did not return phone calls.

Praised by Lindsay

City Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay said he regards the involvement of prominent minority personalities as a plus and led him to enthusiastically support Barker’s bid.

“(Barker has) a greater degree of representation among community leaders and minorities and all those kinds of things,” Lindsay said in an interview Friday. “Sam Williams! My God! Who is a better person to represent the city than Sam Williams? And he’s just one example.”

During a May 10 Public Works Committee meeting, Lindsay helped smooth the way for Barker when he refused to allow Braude to submit an absentee vote in favor of a bid by the Showa Village group. As a result, Lindsay cast his vote in favor of Barker and Councilwoman Joy Picus supported Showa, leaving the committee deadlocked and unable to make a recommendation to the council.

“It was plainly 2 to 1 (in favor of Showa),” Picus said, recalling the committee meeting. “But it was not what Gilbert wanted it to be. . . . Gilbert runs the committee in his own inimitable fashion and chose to read it 1 to 1 when Marvin left. . . . You had to be there with Gilbert to believe it.”

The council’s Finance Committee is expected to take up the First Street North Project within the next two weeks before passing it on to the full council. The council’s decision must be approved by Bradley. In January, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie recommended that the city accept the $193.8-million Showa Village proposal advanced by a partnership of the Janss Corp. and Peck/Jones Contractors.

The other two top competing teams are the J. H. Snyder Co. III, known for its Mid-Wilshire projects, and Barker. City officials said that all three companies submitted excellent proposals and that the differences are slight.

Daniel McGowan, the chief administrative analyst who rated the proposals, said he did not learn of the new Barker investors until last week.

“It’s obviously an attempt by Barker to enhance the attractiveness of his proposal vis-a-vis the others,” McGowan said.