Suit Accuses 3 of Illegal Donations to Yaroslavsky

Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn filed a lawsuit Friday accusing three Sherman Oaks real estate executives of illegally contributing $9,500 to Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s election campaigns and masking the true source of the illicit gifts by reporting that their children gave the money.

The lawsuit was the second filed by Hahn this year against the same three executives at Lycon Properties Inc., one of the state’s major apartment construction firms. In April, in a suit still pending, Hahn accused the three of illegally contributing $3,500 to Councilman Michael Woo.

Named in the lawsuit are Dale Francescon, Lycon’s chief executive officer; his brother, Robert J. Francescon, chief financial officer; and William Lyons Jr., the firm’s secretary.

The suit charges the three with violating provisions of the city’s 1985 campaign finance reform law, which prohibits individuals from giving more than $500 to a City Council candidate or more than $1,000 to a mayoral candidate.

The lawsuit, which cites 19 causes of action, seeks civil penalties and an injunction forbidding the three men to make future illegal contributions.

A phone call to Lycon’s executive offices for a comment on the lawsuit was not returned.

No charges have been filed against Yaroslavsky.

Katharine MacDonald, Yaroslavsky’s press secretary, said her boss “was not aware” of any irregularities involving the contributions when they were received in June, 1988, and March, 1989. Yaroslavsky has “collaborated with the city attorney’s investigation” and plans to abide by the city attorney’s “request” to give up the $5,500 in contributions from Lycon’s executives, MacDonald said.

The $5,500 will be transferred to the city’s general fund, MacDonald said.

The remaining $4,000, which was contributed to Yaroslavsky’s aborted 1989 campaign for mayor, had already been returned, MacDonald said.

The lawsuit alleges that 13 illegal contributions were made by the three in the names of their seven minor children.

Dale Francescon and Lyons each made contributions of $3,000 on June 15, 1988, in the names of their children to Yaroslavsky’s mayoral campaign after the two men and their wives had already contributed the maximum allowable to that campaign, Hahn charged. Each man has three children; at the time of the contributions Francescon’s children were ages 2, 5 and 9 and Lyons’ were 8, 11 and 13.

Additionally, the suit alleges that the Francescon brothers and Lyons and their three wives each made donations of $500 to Yaroslavsky’s council reelection campaign in March, 1989, and that the men then gave $500 in the names of each of their children, including Robert Francescon’s 17-year-old son.

In July, 1989, The Times also reported that the Lycon firm was requiring its subcontractors to make political contributions as a condition of getting its business.