Purpose of Carnivals Clouded : Politics: Mayor Tom Bradley’s name was removed from flyers advertising fund-raising events. Money garnered for his campaign may not have been properly reported.

Mayor Tom Bradley’s name was removed from key promotional material for a series of controversial carnivals, even though he now is saying that the carnivals were clearly identified as his political fund-raisers, The Times has learned.

Ross Phipps, a carnival booking agent who staged at least 11 Bradley fund-raising carnivals in central Los Angeles in 1987 and 1988, said he took Bradley’s name off flyers promoting the events after a junior high school principal raised a complaint more than a year ago.

How the carnivals were advertised is central to the question of whether the inner-city residents buying tickets at the neighborhood fairs knew they were contributing to Bradley and whether handling of the proceeds violated state campaign reporting laws.

Bradley campaign officials reported thousands of dollars in receipts from the carnivals as small, anonymous donations. But state law also requires that the campaign prove that the carnivals were clearly identified as a political event, so that people buying tickets would be aware that they were making a political contribution.

Carnival operators and employees said no signs indicating Bradley’s involvement were posted, but the carnival organizers and the mayor contend that there were signs.

At least two of the campaign fund-raising carnivals were held without approval on city-owned property near Martin Luther King Jr. and Avalon boulevards, a violation of written city policy.

The Times reported Wednesday that funds generated by the carnivals, arranged by Westside public relations consultant Mary Anne Singer and her one-time client, Long Beach businessman Allen Alevy, did not go through normal campaign channels and may not have been properly reported by the Bradley campaign.

At the same time that Alevy and Singer were organizing the carnivals, Bradley was intervening with city officials to help Alevy buy the city-owned land where some of the carnivals were held.

Bradley has refused to answer any questions about the carnivals, and has ordered a staff review of the events. Singer, a personal friend of Bradley’s who The Times reported has received a series of official favors from the mayor, also has declined to be interviewed.

Phipps and other carnival operators said flyers, distributed by the thousands in the neighborhoods around the Bradley events, were the principal means of advertising. Phipps said Bradley’s name was removed from the flyers after “the mayor’s office” complained to Alevy.

The complaint was initiated by Carver Junior High School Principal Charles Caballero, a former Bradley Community Redevelopment Agency commissioner, who was concerned that the mayor’s name was being used without his permission.

Caballero said he became suspicious when a man showed up at his campus in South Los Angeles, asking him to distribute carnival flyers bearing the mayor’s name to students.

“I didn’t like the person who came in (and) we screen things before we use the children for advertisement.

“It sounded like someone was using the mayor’s name without authorization,” Caballero said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It did not look legitimate.”

Caballero said he refused to distribute the flyers and called the mayor, who assured him that he had not authorized use of his name on the flyers or their distribution at schools.

Phipps, the carnival agent, recalled that the mayor’s office then complained to Alevy, and that Bradley’s name was not used on flyers for the mayor’s carnivals after that. He said that he could not recall how many additional carnivals were held for the mayor.

Bradley’s staff maintains that the carnivals were properly identified and that signs were placed on ticket booths at the mayor’s fund-raisers. Bill Chandler, the mayor’s press secretary, said that information came from a campaign staff member whom he would not identify.

Carnival operators and employees have told The Times that they saw no such signs and that those attending the events probably had no idea a share of the funds were going to Bradley’s campaign coffers.

Alevy, in an interview Wednesday, insisted that there were signs on the ticket booths, although he refused to say whether he attended any of the carnivals.

“If they can read,” Alevy said of the carnival-goers, “they would know it.”

Alevy said the signs were entirely the responsibility of Phipps.

Phipps at first told The Times that those attending the carnivals would not necessarily know that the events were Bradley fund-raisers.

Later, however, he said he recalled that there were Bradley signs on the ticket booths and said Wednesday that the signs no longer exist.

Phipps said they were the size of “typewriter paper” and said that 20% of the cost of the tickets would go to Bradley’s campaign.

Bradley campaign officials could not say how many carnivals were held or how much money was raised. The Times obtained copies of money orders totaling $20,000, representing a portion of the proceeds.

Alevy refused comment on the carnival proceeds. He declined to say whether he had obtained approval to hold at least two of them on surplus city land that he was trying to acquire.

Alevy lined up sites free of charge for the fund-raising carnivals. The Bradley campaign received as much as $5,000 for a typical five-day run, according to Phipps. He said that cashier’s checks would be made out to the “Committee to Re-Elect Tom Bradley” and delivered to Alevy.

Then Alevy sent money orders and cashier’s checks directly to the mayor.

Bradley told his campaign accountant, Jules Glazer, to report the money as miscellaneous small contributions of less than $100 from anonymous donors, Glazer said.

For such small donations, the campaign must prove that individual donors who attend events such as the carnivals knew that they were contributing to a political campaign, said Sandra Michioku, spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

If the Bradley carnivals were not clearly identified as fund-raisers, the land owners and the carnival organizers would need to be listed as the contributors.

If the true source of donations is not reported, Michioku said, it could constitute “laundering” of contributions.

Alevy refused to comment on whether there was a relationship between his fund-raising activities for Bradley and the mayor’s simultaneous efforts to help Alevy obtain the vacant land for the development of two small shopping centers.

But he did note with sarcasm that “anybody who contributes to the campaign of any elected official in the city of Los Angeles may never meet with, talk to, or work with said official during his term.”

Contributing to this story was Times staff writer Glenn F. Bunting.