Bradley Gets Help on His Big Legal Bills : City Hall: The mayor’s supporters have chipped in to help cover $576,000 in attorneys’ fees. He still owes nearly $245,000, a fund-raising report shows.

Mayor Tom Bradley was hit with $576,000 in legal bills last year from attorneys hired to defend him in a variety of investigations stemming from disclosures about his personal finances, according to fund-raising reports filed with the city clerk’s office Thursday.

Bradley has paid off more than half the bills through donations raised from scores of prominent business and labor leaders, but still owes nearly $245,000 to three Los Angeles law firms, the mayor’s filing showed.

In all, Bradley gathered $419,845 last year for a special “officeholder account” he set up largely to deal with the costs of the mounting investigations. The fund is separate from the political account Bradley set up to pay for his mayoral campaign last year.

Bradley began running up legal bills last spring after disclosures that he had worked as a paid adviser for two local banks. His financial dealings have been investigated by a number of agencies, including the city attorney, the district attorney and the U.S. Department of Justice.

City Atty. James K. Hahn found no grounds for criminal prosecution, but sued Bradley for failure to properly report some of $160,000 in investments. Two months ago, the mayor agreed to pay a $20,000 fine to settle the suit.

Last month, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office began investigating whether any campaign laws were violated in the handling of Bradley fund-raising carnivals.

A federal grand jury is investigating possible violations of securities and public corruption laws by the mayor.

With legal bills running as high as $100,000 a month last year, Bradley decided to launch a fund-raising effort.

A close circle of Bradley’s friends pledged to bring in at least $300,000 to help the beleaguered mayor cope with legal bills.

The fund-raising kickoff was last Aug. 5 at the mayoral mansion in Hancock Park. Bradley had summoned 30 longtime contributors and advisers--some of whom do business with the city--to devise a strategy for raising the funds. The mayor had emerged smiling after the hourlong meeting, confident that his supporters would rise to the challenge.

Apparently, his confidence was well-founded.

The reports show that 10 supporters alone raised well over $100,000 by tapping a variety of sources, including local business people and labor unions. Bill Robertson, Los Angeles County AFL-CIO director, raised $32,600, primarily from local unions.

Developer Lou Moret brought in $15,200 and former planning commissioner and attorney Dan Garcia raised $14,150.

Garcia said Friday that he had little trouble raising the contributions. “Most of the people I deal with are players and know it’s part of the process,” Garcia said.

Jona Goldrich, a downtown developer, collected $9,500 and Harbor area businessman Al Galletti raised $9,000.

Corporate giants such as Arco and the Northrop Corp. pitched in with donations of $1,000, the maximum allowed by law.

Money also came from some unexpected sources. Entertainer Pia Zadora and her husband, businessman Meshulam Riklis, donated $1,000 each.

Multimillionaire Sol Price, founder of the Price Club discount stores, kicked in $100.

The law firms involved are:

- Miller & O’Connell, specialists in securities matters who are assisting Bradley with the federal investigation. The firm was paid $83,833 and is owed $36,758.

- Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, where longtime Bradley friend and adviser Mickey Kantor is a partner. The firm received $68,833 and is owed $11,582.

- Fogel, Feldman, Ostrov, Ringer & Klevens, specialists in criminal law. The firm was paid $178,333 and is owed an additional $196,608.

Lester Ostrov, a partner in the Fogel, Feldman firm, said Thursday his firm was retained along with the two others to represent Bradley “in all of the ongoing inquiries.”

Ostrov and Daniel Fogel, another partner in the firm, worked out a settlement of the city attorney’s lawsuit against Bradley.

Bill Chandler, the mayor’s press secretary, said the officeholder account was handled by an outside fund-raiser who works independently of Bradley’s office. “The mayor has always had a large reservoir of support, and he has no doubt that all of his (legal) obligations will be met,” Chandler said.