Lambert Role in Hawthorne Land Decision Is Questioned : Politics: Councilwoman voted against buying property that her husband had a role in selling to a private investor.

When Robert Hollis, a Rancho Palos Verdes real estate broker, approached Hawthorne officials in late 1986 with an offer to sell the city a lot on 147th Street near Lemoli Avenue, City Manager R. Kenneth Jue thought it was a good deal.

Although the 1.7-acre lot is in a residential area plagued by gangs and graffiti, Jue recalls, he thought other factors might make it a good site for a senior citizen housing project. And besides, Hollis was asking only $390,000, Jue says, when the land’s appraised value was $420,000.

However, Jue says, the council majority disagreed and told him to turn down the offer.

Weeks after the city rejected the offer, Hollis sold the land to Batta Vujicic, a Hawthorne real estate broker, who paid $350,000 for it and eventually built a 30-unit apartment complex on the site. Last month, he began to rent the two- and three-bedroom apartments for $850 and $1,085.

Now, city documents obtained by The Times and interviews with those familiar with the issue have raised questions about whether Councilwoman Ginny Lambert should have abstained from the decision, because her husband, Olin, works at a real estate company owned by Vujicic.

Hollis said Olin Lambert negotiated the transaction on the property for Vujicic and that escrow documents, signed on Dec. 11, 1986, did not indicate if anybody would receive a commission on the sale.

Olin Lambert, a real estate agent at Prime Realty, said he did not receive a commission on the sale. “Let’s get something straight,” he said. “No. 1, for it to be a conflict of interest, I would have to benefit. I did not.”

At first, Lambert also said he was not directly involved in negotiations on the sale. However, when told in a later interview that his signature appeared on an offer to purchase the site, dated Oct. 3, 1986, he said it was possible that he had been involved.

In an interview last week, Vujicic also said Lambert did not earn a commission on the sale. However, he said, Lambert did help negotiate the initial October purchase offer with Hollis.

Councilwoman Lambert, who opposed buying the land, says that she did not know Vujicic was interested in it and that she and her husband did not benefit in any way from Vujicic’s purchase of the site.

According to the 1974 Fair Political Reform Act, a public official is prohibited from “participating in making or in any way attempting to use his official position to influence a government decision in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest.”

The act goes on to say that the official has a financial interest in a decision if “it is reasonably foreseeable that the decision will have a material financial effect . . . on the official or a member of his or her immediate family.”

Ginny Lambert said she argued against the purchase of the property because she thought the crime in the neighborhood made the site unsuitable for a senior housing project. However, she denies knowing that Vujicic was interested in the property.

“If I didn’t know Batta was involved, how would I know not to vote on it? . . . There is nothing wrong with my making that decision,” she said.

She said that if she had known Vujicic was interested in buying the property she would have abstained from the council’s decision.

But she said she did nothing wrong:

“If it was wrong, then why didn’t someone mention it to me or say something where I can retract my vote if it were in fact wrong?”

Jue said he assumed Ginny Lambert knew that Vujicic was interested in the site, but that nobody told her to abstain from the decision, as far as he knows. He said he is not sure why he did not warn her, and that, in retrospect, he thinks she should have abstained.

According to Jue, the council discussed the issue during a closed meeting on Nov. 24, 1986. In the closed session, Jue said, Mayor Betty J. Ainsworth and Councilman Charles (Chuck) Bookhammer said they were in favor of buying the property; Lambert and Councilmen David M. York and Steven Andersen were against it.

Anderson and Lambert say they recall opposing the purchase. However, York said last week that he was always in favor of purchasing the property. He said his recollection is that the council delayed a decision on the offer at the urging of Lambert, who said she wanted to study the issue further.

Real estate broker Hollis said Vujicic initially offered him $340,00 for the property on Oct. 3, 1986.

He said a document that spells out the terms of that offer was signed by Olin Lambert.

But, Hollis said, he wanted $390,000 for the land, adding that after learning that Hawthorne was looking for property to build senior housing, he asked Jue if the city were interested in the lot.

Hollis said he does not remember when he first approached Jue with the offer to sell the property, but the city received a title report on the land dated Nov. 17, 1986, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Times.

Jue said he placed on the agenda of the council’s Nov. 24 meeting a requisition to spend $5,000 to open escrow on the property. He said he did so because sometime before the meeting he had talked by telephone or in person with each council member and thought that a majority of the council wanted to buy the land.

He said his poll of the council members indicated that Ainsworth, Bookhammer and York favored the purchase.

The minutes of the Nov. 24 City Council meeting state that Lambert requested a closed session to discuss the proposed purchase of the Hollis property.

Jue said the council voted 3 to 2 during the closed session to reject Hollis’ offer.

Jue said York changed his mind during the meeting and sided with Lambert and Andersen.

Later in the meeting, according to the minutes, the council took no action on the proposed $5,000 expenditure.

Jue says he continued to believe the property would be a good site for senior housing. He said he was not overly concerned about the crime problem in the neighborhood because the site was set back from the street. It is also adjacent to Bodger Park, a feature that Jue said made the lot well-suited for senior housing.

On Dec. 5, Jue said, he sent a memo to council members, telling them that Hollis had “another hot buyer” who was interested in the property and identified that buyer as Vujicic.

But Jue said that after talking to individual council members he realized that a majority did not support the purchase.

The city rejected the offer. Hollis said he then sold the land to Vujicic and that Olin Lambert negotiated the transaction.

In interviews, Ainsworth, Anderson, Bookhammer and York said they did not know at the time of their decision that Vujicic was an interested buyer.

York said he only remembers “bits and pieces” of the matter.

However, he said, Lambert should have known. “I find it extremely suspect that she didn’t know about it when her husband works with (Vujicic),” he said.

Although Jue said he recalls that York voted along with Lambert and Andersen to reject the offer, York said he always favored accepting Hollis’ offer. “At the time it sounded like a pretty good deal,” he said.

Bookhammer said that he thought the land was an “ideal location” for a senior housing project and that he was upset when he learned later that Vujicic was involved.

Ainsworth said she also thought the site was ideal for senior housing because it is next to Bodger Park. She said she was not concerned about the crime problem because there is only one driveway to the site, which is set back from the street. “I was just very sorry we lost it,” she said.

Andersen said he thought the lot was a bad site for senior housing because it is far from any city facilities and is adjacent to the Dominguez Channel, a large cement drainage canal that runs along the border of the city.

“I think it’s a terrible site,” he said.

He said he does not remember whether he knew Vujicic was interested in the property.