Bradley Records: His Private Ritual Now a Public Issue

When Mayor Tom Bradley sat down each year to fill out public disclosure forms on his personal financial dealings, aides and close associates say, it was an intensely private ritual.

The pattern began with the earliest and simplest of Bradley’s disclosure statements, aides say, 14 years ago when Watergate-era voters first required California’s elected officials to reveal holdings and income sources to avoid possible conflicts of interest.

At first the mayor, who had only a few investments, filled the forms out by hand, aides say. But even in later years--as both the information required and Bradley’s investment portfolio grew more complex--the mayor prepared the forms by himself, then sometimes hovered over a personal secretary as she typed them up.

Shunned Assistance

He worked from memory and from whatever records were available, and he neither sought nor obtained help, say his aides and his accountant.

“I never offered because I know he’s very private about such things,” said Anton Calleia, the mayor’s longtime chief administrative assistant.

“He did it himself and he wasn’t very good at it,” said Jules Glazer, the mayor’s accountant.

That is the explanation the mayor and his supporters are offering for what they describe as inadvertent and “highly technical” mistakes in the mayor’s public accounting of his personal investments.

Public’s Right Cited

However, the volume of errors and the nature of some of the omissions, as revealed in a massive series of amendments filed by Bradley on Friday, may add to the public’s suspicions about the embattled mayor, said Walter Zelman, executive director of California Common Cause.

Describing the extensive errors as “openly negligent,” Zelman said: “The public has a right to question whether this (results from) the general inability of the individual to do the job himself, or some larger effort of concealment, or some kind of disrespect for the law.”

After months of controversy, and amid a series of city, state and federal investigations of Bradley’s business dealings, the mayor filed 66 pages of amendments to his financial disclosure statements spanning 1984 through 1988. The filing with the state Fair Political Practices Commission--two weeks past deadline--corrected more than 100 errors, ranging from substantial omissions to minor technical errors.

The tangled nature of the mayor’s earlier reports had helped fuel suspicions that the mayor might have mixed personal and public business. Bradley’s lawyers had to spend months reconstructing an accurate and complete picture of the mayor’s investment activities.

To avoid such problems in the future, Bradley in April announced that he would place all of his investments in a blind trust. On Saturday, Deputy Mayor Michael Gage said creation of the trust is “imminent.” UCLA professor of management William Ouchi and William Doheny, managing director of the U.S. Trust Co. of California, had been been selected to administer the trust. And the prominent downtown law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher will be legal counsel, he said.

No Direct Control

Gage said Bradley will have no direct control over his investments and will only receive periodic reports on his worth and earnings.

The corrections filed Friday showed that Bradley apparently obtained several securities--such as BCI Holding, Inc., junk bonds handled by Drexel Burnham Lambert--when they were readily available to the general public. Bradley’s relationship with Drexel and its indicted former junk bond king, Michael Milken, is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But they also revealed previously undisclosed investments in two California land partnerships, Sierra Investors, Ltd., and Yosemite Investors, Ltd.; a television shopping channel, CVN Inc.; a New York-based mortgage firm, American Insured Mortgage Investors; Cadence Design Systems Inc., a San Jose-based computer software supplier; as well as junk bonds and warrants Bradley held in Columbia Savings & Loan.

The Times has reported that Bradley lawyers have been exploring the mayor’s dealings with Columbia vice chairman Abe Spiegel, a longtime friend and fund-raiser.

Data on Stock Trades

In addition, the amended statements show the mayor failed to accurately report a series of transactions, ranging from the amounts and dates of stock trades to the circumstances surrounding loans. In a few cases he listed properties and securities he no longer owned.

The reports showed Bradley obtained shares of two hard-to-get, hot new issues of stock--L.A. Gear athletic wear and Worlds of Wonder toy company--and and turned a quick profit of about $1,000 each.

Among the new questions raised by the reports are the previously undisclosed or misreported transactions involving Columbia Savings & Loan. Bradley, on his original forms, had reported receiving a personal loan from Columbia. On his amended forms, he reported the loan actually went to a Riverside land partnership, KSTJ II.

One of his partners, Juanita St. John, said Saturday that the loan was for $50,000 and was used to pay a balloon payment on a previous mortgage. She said she was not certain who arranged the loan or what the interest rate was, but she maintained that the partnership did not get special treatment because of Bradley’s ties to Columbia executive Spiegel.

St. John heads the mayor’s city-funded Task Force for Africa Relations, which the city attorney and controller are investigating for possible misuse of tax funds.

Bradley also reported Friday for the first time more details about foreign governments and others who helped pay some of his travel expenses. He said a $3,000 tab for his 1987 trade trip to Africa was paid by the Asian American Economic Development Enterprises and Small Business Development Group. The city attorney is investigating the exact source of the funds, which originated with a charitable donation from Matsushita Electric Co. of America, the parent company of Panasonic Co.

A spokesman for the firm said Matsushita did not intend the funds to be used for Bradley’s trip.