El Segundo Official Won’t Face Bribery Charges

The Los Angeles County district attorney will not file criminal charges against an El Segundo city councilman who was accused in January of bribery by a fellow councilman and political adversary. Deputy Dist. Atty. James E. Koller said in a letter released Wednesday that there is “insufficient evidence” of bribery to win a conviction.

Councilman Alan West, in an affidavit to the El Segundo Police Department, had accused Councilman Scot D. Dannen of trying to coerce him into helping a Dannen political friend. In return, West said Dannen told him he intended to back off plans to file conflict of interest charges with the state Fair Political Practices Commission against Councilman H. R. (Bob) Anderson.

West and Anderson are council allies. West is seeking reelection in April, but Anderson filed for reelection and then withdrew from the race.

In a letter to Police Lt. Ron Green, who investigated West’s complaint and took it to the district attorney, Koller said: “Bribery in its simplest form requires a specific intent to corruptly influence by favors or gifts. It is unclear whether or not the facts in this matter show such a specific intent.”

Koller said: “There is legally insufficient evidence” without proof of intent.

“They’re not indicting me,” said Dannen at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. He said he had been told that afternoon by the district attorney’s special investigations unit that he would not be charged. Earlier, he branded West’s charge “unfounded.”

West said he considers the matter closed. “I simply did what I felt my conscience said I ought to do. I felt uncomfortable in the type of dealing we were trying to arrange,” he said.

In his affidavit, West said that during a Jan. 6 bicycle ride along the beach, Dannen said he wanted West to state at the next council meeting that resident Nicky Wislocky, who is his friend, was “just trying to do the city a favor” by doing work on a Municipal Code revision project in the city clerk’s office. If he didn’t, West said Dannen told him he was prepared to file conflict charges against Anderson. West said Dannen told him the charges “were not substantive” but would result in the indictment of Anderson and block his reelection.

West did not make the statement about Wislocky before the council, and Dannen in an FPPC filing charged that Anderson broke conflict of interest laws in participating in council votes and discussions affecting Chevron U.S.A. while owning company stock then valued at $470,000. Chevron is a major landowner and taxpayer in the city. Anderson has denied the charges.

Dannen said he did tell West that Wislocky was “a friend of mine” and that criticism of her “was destroying volunteerism in El Segundo.” However, Dannen said, he did not promise to halt the FPPC filing on Anderson, calling the conflict charges “substantive.”

Anderson and West in a January interview called Wislocky a behind-the-scenes political power in El Segundo, implying that she was asked to do work on the code because of her political connections. Wislocky, also in an interview, described herself as a housewife and 30-year city resident who had the computer equipment to do the code work and volunteered her time. Anderson asserts that Wislocky planned to ask for payment, but she said she had “no intention” of charging the city.

The council on Jan. 16 authorized an outside investigation of the code project and Wislocky’s involvement in it. In a report made public Tuesday, the investigator--retired Torrance Municipal Judge Thomas P. Foye--concluded that “no violation of law or procedure has been found.” He called Wislocky’s action an “innocent and spontaneous act of volunteerism.”

Dannen asked Anderson and West to apologize to Wislocky, but they refused.