D.A. Checking Kickback Allegation : Unions: A letter from Steve Peace details an optometrist’s claim that she was told to make donations at the behest of the retail clerks union in order to get referrals.

The San Diego County district attorney’s office is reviewing allegations that a local optometrist was told that, in order to get referrals from a 15,000-member retail clerks union, she was required to make annual $500 donations at the union’s direction--the exact amount seven optometrists each gave to the state legislative campaign of the union president’s son.

The district attorney’s preliminary review stems from a letter it received from Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), detailing Allied Gardens optometrist M. Melinda Wells’ complaints about the alleged donation scheme, district attorney’s spokeswoman Linda Miller said Tuesday.

Wells has charged that she was told last year by another optometrist that in order to secure a place on United Food & Commercial Workers Local 135’s list of preferred health care providers, she would be expected to contribute $500 annually “to a group of the union’s choice.”

Seven optometrists on the union’s referral list have donated $500 each to the state Assembly campaign of San Diego lawyer Darrel Vandeveld, the son of union President Thomas Vandeveld, campaign finance reports show.

The senior Vandeveld has disputed Wells’ allegation, saying there was “absolutely not” any understanding that health care providers to the union would be expected to make annual contributions at the union’s direction. The donations to his son’s campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 80th Assembly District, Vandeveld said, probably resulted from a fund-raising letter he sent out last October on union stationery to optometrists, dentists and other health care professionals.

“At this point, we’re reviewing the complaint to see whether it even comes under our jurisdiction,” said Miller of the district attorney’s office.

Two other state agencies--the California Fair Political Practices Commission and the state Board of Optometry--are also reviewing the allegations for possible violations of state laws.

In his letter to the district attorney’s office, Peace wrote: “The (campaign) disclosure information, combined with Dr. Wells’ letter, leads to the logical conclusion that a person or persons connected with Local 135 may have directed that these health care providers contribute to Darrel Vandeveld’s candidacy as a condition of being retained as service providers to Local 135’s members.”

Peace, who is seeking a fifth two-year term, said he turned the matter over to the district attorney’s office on the advice of his attorney, adding that his attorney also has instructed him not to make detailed comments on the case.

“I’m sure that the various investigative authorities will handle it properly,” Peace said.

Although an officeholder normally would be delighted when controversy enveloped his opponent, Peace also has political motivations for keeping a low profile on this issue. With his latest poll showing him comfortably ahead of Vandeveld and his other Democratic opponent, lawyer Robert Garcia, Peace has little to gain from drawing extra attention to the dispute, realizing that doing so could simply increase Vandeveld’s name identification.