Mayor Angrily Disputes Report of Offering Special Treatment

Mayor Tom Bradley, angrily disputing a Times report that he offered preferential treatment to a personal friend and her business clients, declared Tuesday that the access given to Mary Anne Singer was no more sweeping than that accorded to hundreds of lobbyists and public relations executives.

“I can tell you that there are hundreds of PR firms and representatives who have access and who are campaign contributors who are able to reach me,” the mayor said at a City Hall press conference.

“There are political lobbyists who are able to reach me. They do so because there has been a pattern that has been the principle of my office. I serve the public.”

The article in Tuesday’s Times detailed how Singer, a 47-year-old contact lens technician, has used her connections to Bradley to build a small public relations business. At the same time, she was raising tens of thousands of dollars for Bradley’s election drives.

Bradley, at 71 recently elected to a record fifth term, has been engulfed in controversy since spring because of his financial dealings. A federal grand jury recently convened to investigate possible violations of securities and public corruption laws by the mayor.

According to Times sources in Tuesday’s article, Singer had virtually unrestrained access to the mayor. “Nobody had access like Mary Anne,” one former Bradley aide said. “Whatever she wanted, she got and she let people know it. If you said ‘No’--for whatever the request was--Bradley would call. So you would just learn.”

Bradley, who had refused several requests for an interview before the article was published, similarly declined to discuss Tuesday any specifics about his relationship with Singer. Singer, too, has declined to discuss the matter.

But in questions posed after a news conference on homeless programs, Bradley angrily answered, “No, no, no, no,” when asked if Singer had special access.

He also criticized The Times for publishing the article, calling it a “non-story.”

The mayor repeatedly sought to frame his connection to Singer as part of a vast network of associates he maintains, and not as a special and isolated case.

“Whether it is somebody that I’ve known for 20 years or someone that I know only by virtue of a phone call, I try to respond to their needs,” Bradley said, “and I believe that is the function of an elected official.”

“I try to provide the kind of case-by-case evaluation so that whatever my response is in connection with that inquiry, that is not something that is improper or illegal.”

“I immediately go to work to try to get somebody to take some sort of action,” the mayor said. “I think the process in far too many cases is much too cumbersome.”