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Campaign Finance Reports Filed in Compton : Builder Gave Thousands to Incumbents

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Times Staff Writer

One of the city’s most successful developers raised and donated thousands of dollars to the campaigns of incumbent councilmen and the mayor, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.

“One of the things that I’m about is motivating black people to give to black candidates,” said the developer, Danny Bakewell. Too often, he said, black candidates must depend on contributions from white supporters who live outside the community.

‘Honored to Give’

“I feel honored to give,” Bakewell said. “I feel a responsibility to support people who are supporting good government in the city.”

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Campaign contribution and spending reports show that Councilman Robert L. Adams collected $13,000 by April 1, all of it in $1,000 contributions from 13 different people. Under state law, single contributors may not give more than $1,000 to a candidate.

Among the 13 are at least six people close to Bakewell. They include his wife, Aline; his business partner Lonnie R. Bunkley and Bunkley’s wife, Charlene, and Bakewell’s sister, Pamela Bakewell Brooks, who is on leave as executive director of the Brotherhood Crusade.

Bakewell is president of the Brotherhood Crusade, an agency similar to United Way based in the black community.

Also contributing $1,000, according to the state-required campaign report, were Brenda Marsh, who is Bakewell’s special assistant at the Crusade, and Yussuf J. Simmonds, who acts as a representative for Bakewell’s firm, Compton Community Development Corp.

The same six people also gave $1,000 each to Councilmen Floyd A. James, whose report shows that he collected a total of $12,701 between March 5 and April 1, the time period covered in the campaign reports.

“With the campaign contribution law of a $1,000 limit,” Bakewell said, “that’s what you have to do, is try to reach out to people who will give, who will support good government.”

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James lost his reelection bid in the April 18 balloting to Patricia A. Moore. Adams was forced into a June 6 runoff election against Compton school board Trustee Bernice Woods.

Bakewell said he supported the incumbent councilmen because under their leadership the city has made substantial progress in its effort to economically revitalize the community.

Need to Look at Good Done

“I think you really have to look at what good has been done for the city,” Bakewell said, pointing to his success in developing the downtown’s only shopping center. With help from the city’s Redevelopment Agency, he is developing a second shopping center.

Bakewell’s name does not appear as a contributor on either James’ or Adams’ reports, although it did show up on Mayor Walter R. Tucker’s report. The mayor, who was also forced into a runoff, got $1,000 from Bakewell. The mayor also received $1,000 from Bunkley and $1,000 from Bakewell’s development firm.

Another $1,000 contributor to both James and Adams, according to their reports, was Yoshiko A. Morris. Both reports list a Los Angeles address for Morris that is the same address listed for Lonnie and Charlene Bunkley.

James M. Woods, chairman of Hub City Developers Inc., also gave $1,000 each to Adams and James. Woods said the contributions were not connected to a recent vote by the City Council to settle a long-standing debt the nonprofit housing firm owed the city.

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Hub City was the subject of a recent critical federal audit that urged Compton to foreclose on the firm in order to recoup a $2-million federal grant that the city funneled to the company. Hub City was to use the grant, as well as about $3 million it got in direct city loans, to build low-income housing. The housing, however, was never built, and Hub City did not repay the money.

Instead of foreclosing on Hub City, the City Council on a 3-2 vote agreed to accept as payment a parcel of land Hub City had near the Artesia Freeway. Critics of the agreement claimed that the city had given Hub City the land in the first place. Woods pointed out that he gave contributions to both Adams and James, although Adams voted against the settlement.

Among the other $1,000 contributors to Adams were Shirley Mims, John Mims, Rosie Johnson, Jack Bortnick and Sonia Bresnelian. Among James’ contributors were Shirley and John Mims, $1,000 each, and William A. Johnson, $1,000.

James could not be reached for comment, and Adams said he does not know any of the $1,000 contributors listed above.

“That’s a different area of the campaign,” Adams said, saying that he has a finance committee that raises money for him. “You can’t get your message out to the people if you don’t have money for printing and postage,” he said. “It’s costly, very costly to campaign today and the people who contributed to me want the continuation of good government in Compton.”

Late Reports

Adams and James, as well as several other candidates, face fines of at least $10 a day because they did not file their campaign reports by the April 6 deadline. James filed his report last Friday. Adams filed his Monday.

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Moore, who will take her council seat July 1, did not file her report until last Thursday. But City Clerk Charles Davis said she will probably not be fined because a letter accompanied the report saying it was late because her campaign treasurer was ill and had to be hospitalized.

Moore reported collecting $8,200 between March 5 and April 1, much of it in $500 contributions from family members--her mother, stepfather, sister, cousins and an uncle. Other contributors were: Tom Stemnock of Sherman Oaks, an engineer, $1,000; Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton), $500; Duke and Jo’s Garage in Compton, $100, and Kofi Boateng, a gas station owner in Paramount, $100.

Moore also reported having raised $3,500 at a $25-per-ticket fund-raiser. Individual contributions of less than $100 do not have to be reported.

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