THE MAYOR UNDER FIRE : Africa Task Force : Business, Personal Relationships Raise ‘Serious Concerns’

Mayor Tom Bradley’s business and personal relationships with principals of a city-funded Africa trade group raised “serious concerns” about possible conflicts of interest, even though there is no evidence “thus far” that the mayor’s ties to the group violated the law, City Atty. James K. Hahn said Wednesday.

Hahn said his five-month investigation of the Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations found no violations of statutes that prohibit public officials from benefiting directly or indirectly from official actions or influence.

But Hahn nonetheless criticized the mayor’s dealings with the task force and emphasized that criminal investigations of the group and its executive director, Bradley business partner Juanita St. John, are continuing. Los Angeles police and the district attorney’s office are investigating St. John for possible misuse of some of the $400,000 in city funds Bradley helped secure for the task force since 1985.

Financial Problems

St. John, who is Bradley’s friend and a partner in a Riverside land venture, owes the city more than $260,000 and has failed to account for nearly $180,000 in personal withdrawals from task force accounts, according to a city audit released last week. St. John has a long history of personal financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings.

Bradley’s daughter, Phyllis, was hired by the task force immediately after it received city funding, and St. John’s daughter, Kathy, works in the mayor’s office and is also a partner in the land partnership.

Through her lawyers, St. John declined to comment.

But Bradley, who helped create the task force and regularly attended board meetings, defended his support of the group. He suggested that the city attorney’s finding showed that his actions in seeking funds were all “legal and proper.” He said the funding of the “worthwhile” group was no different than city funding of “hundreds of other city programs each year.”

At his news conference, Bradley refused to answer more detailed questions about task force finances or his view of St. John’s performance. But he told city attorney’s investigators that he had no inkling of St. John’s personal financial problems until they were reported recently.

Little Evidence of Success

Hahn’s investigation found little evidence that any of the task force’s much-touted projects ever really materialized or brought business to the city.

While Bradley claimed vindication on the task force affair, Hahn’s report concluded “there are serious concerns involving the mayor’s relationship to the (task force).” He said the mayor’s personal lobbying efforts to secure funds for the task force, and the recent allegations of financial irregularities, have “understandably” created public suspicion.

Hahn, in an interview with Times reporters and editors, also criticized the mayor for not taking a more active role in ensuring that city funds poured into his pet project were properly spent.

“I think he should have watched this a little more carefully. . . . He should have been more on top of what the task force was doing,” Hahn said.

Hahn’s report shed light on circumstances surrounding the hiring of Bradley’s daughter by the task force.

Unaware of Hiring

The mayor, St. John and Phyllis Bradley all told investigators that the mayor did not know that his daughter had been hired by the group until several weeks after she was on the job. St. John said Phyllis Bradley was a skilled, 85-word-a-minute typist, but Phyllis Bradley told investigators she was never tested by St. John. St. John also said Lorraine Bradley, the mayor’s other daughter, recommended Phyllis for the job.

Transcripts of the investigators’ interview also show that St. John and the task force chairman, Richard Parsons, consulted with Bradley before firing Phyllis Bradley for poor work habits and running up phone bills.

The report criticized Bradley’s office for misrepresenting one of the key justifications for a 1987 trade trip to the Ivory Coast that was supposedly co-sponsored by the task force. The mayor’s trip was paid for by a private, community grant given to a Chinatown nonprofit group by Masushita Electric Corp., although the firm says it never intended the money to be used that way.

A 1987 press release from the mayor’s office said Bradley and his entourage would, among other things, be investigating a proposal to export African pineapples to Los Angeles.

But the city attorney’s investigators found that the pineapple project had died months before the trip.