HUNTINGTON BEACH : Fund-Raiser Was Legal, Mays Advised

City Atty. Gail Hutton has advised Mayor Thomas J. Mays that he violated no law by holding a fund-raising event at the home of a city planning commissioner.

Mays, who is running for the Republican nomination for a state Assembly seat, was accused by one of his campaign opponents, Peter von Elten, of creating a conflict of interest by having developers attend a May 17 party at the home of Commissioner Kenneth Bourguignon.

Von Elten said some of the developers have to get permission for their projects from both the Planning Commission, of which Bourguignon is a member, and the City Council, of which Mays is a member.

“It (the Mays fund-raiser) was nothing more than political extortion in its lowest form,” von Elten charged on May 18.

A spokeswoman at the state Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento said at the time that the agency could not comment directly on the Mays fund-raiser because state law is not precise on such matters.

Mays then asked the city legal department for an opinion on whether his fund-raiser violated any state law. Hutton, in two letters dated May 22, told Mays that neither he nor Bourguignon acted illegally.

Hutton also told Mays he does not have to disqualify himself from voting on the City Council if a matter comes before the council from a person, such as a developer, who was a donor to Mays’ state Assembly campaign.

Von Elten made his accusations against Mays after the mayor criticized a political dinner held in South County on May 16 for von Elten. That political dinner was arranged by two Orange County Planning Commissioner members, and Mays charged that von Elten had thereby let the County Planning Commission put “the squeeze on developers.”

Both von Elten and Mays were criticized for their fund-raisers by Bob Biddle, president of the citizens’ group Huntington Beach Tomorrow. Biddle said that whether or not any law was violated, both von Elten and Mays erred ethically in holding their respective fund-raisers.