Commissioner May Not Meet Residency Requirements : City Hall: The chairman of the cultural heritage panel may also be in violation of the state election code by registering to vote from his L.A. business.

The chairman of the commission that selects the city’s landmarks appears to be a resident of Malibu and not Los Angeles--in violation of residency requirements for city commissioners.

And records show that he is registered to vote from his Los Angeles business address, in apparent violation of that state election code.

Amarjit S. Marwah, 63, one of Mayor Tom Bradley’s largest campaign contributors, was appointed by Bradley to the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 1981.

Property records show that Marwah has owned his Malibu home in an unincorporated area for more than 20 years. His car is registered there, and neighbors say he lives there.

The Los Angeles Administrative Code states that a member of the Cultural Heritage Commission must, like most other commissioners, be a “qualified elector of the City of Los Angeles,” which the city attorney’s office defines as a “resident for voting purposes.”

Marwah, a dentist, is registered to vote at his Crenshaw district office at 3701 Stocker St. in Los Angeles. But, according to the California Election Code, it is illegal to register to vote from a place of business or in a city where you do not reside.

“You sign your voter registration card under penalty of perjury,” said Melissa Warren, spokeswoman for the California secretary of state’s office.

Reached at his Malibu home one recent weeknight, Marwah said he meets residency qualifications because “my voter registration is 3701 Stocker St.” and because “I live at 4220 Terraza Drive. I spend the week there and come here on weekends.”

The 4220 Terraza address turned out to be a vacant lot in Baldwin Hills. Contacted a day later, Marwah amended the address, saying that he lives at 4226 Terraza Drive. That is a four-bedroom home owned by Albert and Gailya Mayfield.

“I just have a room with them,” Marwah said.

The Mayfields said in interviews that Marwah, a longtime friend, pays them no rent. Gailya Mayfield said that Marwah was not always there on weeknights: “Sometimes yes, sometimes no.” She recalled that Marwah had stayed at the house “seven or eight times” in the last month.

According to a city attorney opinion written for the mayor in 1988, “A commissioner must be a resident of the city for voting purposes. Residence . . . refers to the place of the commissioner’s domicile.”

A “domicile,” according to the California Election Code, is “that place in which his or her habitation is fixed, wherein the person has the intention of remaining. . . . At a given time, a person may have only one domicile.”

In contrast to the borrowed room, Marwah’s 10-acre Malibu estate is a gated complex on Pacific Coast Highway with a house and other buildings, a pool, a tennis court and a horse barn.

His 1985 Buick is registered to the Malibu home. His telephone number is listed in the Malibu phone book--only his office number is listed in the Los Angeles directory. Neighbors say they often see him, and not just on weekends.

“Of course, he’s here all the time,” said Darlene Gardner, one neighbor.

When asked about this, Marwah said: “Sometimes I do come down to Malibu during the week. . . .”

His wife stays in Malibu, he said.

Marwah, when informed that using a business address for voter registration violates state law, said, “I can give them the address of Terraza Drive. I don’t care.”

A spokesman for the mayor said Marwah gave “his primary address” as 4226 Terraza Drive. “If a challenge arose to any commissioner’s designation, the city attorney will review the matter,” press secretary Bill Chandler said.

The city has 42 commissions, with more than 200 commissioners appointed by the mayor. Appointments are considered prestigious, though commissioners receive only token payments for their work. Cultural Heritage commissioners, for example, are paid $25 for each meeting and meet twice a month.

The City Charter includes a residency requirement for members of certain commissions, such as the Fire, Police and City Planning commissions.

Residency is also required for many commissions established by the City Council.

Members of the Cultural Heritage Commission were required to be city residents after the City Council amended the 1962 historic preservation law in 1984.

At that point, Marwah had been a board member for three years. According to Los Angeles County Registrar spokeswoman Henrietta Willis, records show that Marwah had been registered to vote at his Malibu address but changed his registration in September, 1984, to 3701 Stocker St., his Los Angeles dental office.

Marwah has been among the top 20 contributors to Bradley campaigns for several years. Between 1983 and 1988, he made donations totaling $40,075.

Marwah, chairman of the Cultural Heritage Commission since 1985, said he believes that Bradley named him to the commission because “I love architecture. He most probably knew this.”