The Friends of Tom Bradley (Cont.)

Among the several unresolved allegations of legal and ethical improprieties still hanging over Tom Bradley and his administration, those involving Juanita St. John, the mayor’s former business partner, are particularly unsettling.

St. John, one of Bradley’s longtime friends and political supporters, formerly headed the city-funded Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations and served as treasurer of International Alert, a UCLA-based anti-genocide organization. The mayor was an enthusiastic backer of the task force, attended its meetings and fought to push its appropriation through the City Council. At the same time, he was a partner in a Riverside County real-estate partnership run by St. John.

Last week, the L.A. County district attorney’s office lodged felony charges against the former task force director, alleging two counts of grand theft and three of filing false state tax returns. At least $31,000 of the missing money, prosecutors charge, was used to pay investors in the partnership, including Bradley. The prosecutors also say, however, that they have no evidence that the mayor knew he was being paid with stolen funds.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office has sued St. John in hopes of recovering nearly $400,000 it alleges the San Marino investor misappropriated from the task force’s budget. A decision is pending on whether to seek a similar recovery from the mayor.

Taken as a whole, this affair paints a depressing picture of an administration in which ethical insensitivity, sloppiness, cronyism and, perhaps, deceit created an environment in which betrayal of the public trust became almost inevitable. As such, it is another convincing exhibit in the compelling case for passage of the ethics-reform package, which will appear on the June ballot.

No matter what the law is, people willing to stoop to the sort of conduct with which St. John is charged always will be with us. But if the reform measure’s complete financial disclosure requirements, clear conflict-of-interest regulations--and the independent ethics commission to enforce both--were in place right now, the St. John affair already would be behind us.