Bradley Seeks Legal Opinion on Cultural Panelist’s Residency

Mayor Tom Bradley asked City Atty. James A. Hahn on Tuesday to investigate whether Cultural Heritage Commission Chairman Amarjit S. Marwah lives outside the city of Los Angeles, in violation of residency requirements for city commissioners.

Bradley spokesman Bill Chandler said the mayor, as a result of a Times article Tuesday, directed his staff to send a letter to the city attorney asking him “to look into the question of Dr. Marwah’s residence and recommend to us whether any action is appropriate.”

Marwah, a 63-year-old dentist who has been one of Bradley’s largest campaign contributors, has owned a large home in Malibu, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, for more than 20 years.

The Los Angeles Administrative Code requires that any member of the Cultural Heritage Commission must, like most other commissioners, be a city resident. In 1981, Bradley appointed Marwah to the panel, which chooses buildings for city landmark status.

In an interview last week, Marwah maintained that he met the residency rule by borrowing a room at a friend’s home in Baldwin Hills, in Los Angeles, and by filing a voter registration from his Los Angeles office.

The city attorney will “render an opinion based on the law” regarding Marwah’s residency, spokesman Mike Qualls said, but declined to be more specific late Tuesday because the directive from the mayor’s office had not yet arrived.

He could not say how long it could take to render an opinion, and noted that after the opinion is given, “it’s up to the appointing authority to apply the law to the fact.”

Chandler would not say what the mayor might do, except to say, “The mayor will take appropriate action based on the city attorney’s recommendation.”

By registering to vote from his office, Marwah had apparently also violated the state Elections Code, which requires registration listings to be from one’s residence.

Marwah changed his registration from his Malibu home to his office at 3701 Stocker St. in Los Angeles in 1984, after the City Council amended the landmarks preservation law and made city residency a requirement for commissioners.

The county registrar of voters concluded Tuesday that Marwah’s voter registration is invalid. Henrietta Willis, spokeswoman for Registrar Charles Weissburd, said, “We sent a letter of non-residency to Dr. Marwah,” alerting him that his registration will need to be changed.

Although it is rare, false registrations can be turned over to the Los Angeles district attorney’s office for investigation and prosecution for perjury, Willis said. In Marwah’s case, she said, “I can’t answer what will happen at this point.”

The Times learned on Tuesday that Marwah was prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office in 1982 for submitting false claims for dental work on Denti-Cal patients, and for receiving payments for work not performed from the state-funded dental coverage program for low-income people.

Originally charged with felony grand theft, Marwah pleaded guilty to misdemeanor petty theft and paid a $750 fine. As a result of that prosecution, the state Board of Dental Examiners, which licenses dentists in California, placed Marwah on probation from 1984 to 1987.

“The mayor and his staff had no knowledge of this matter,” Chandler said.