GOP Rival Says Anderson Improperly Aided Wife’s Bank : Campaign: Sanford Kahn says a phone call to regulators on behalf of Rancho Dominguez Bank of Carson was ‘morally wrong.’ The congressman denies any impropriety.

U.S. Rep. Glenn M. Anderson’s opponent in the Nov. 6 election is charging that the 11-term congressman improperly intervened in the chartering of a national bank whose organizers included Lee Anderson, the lawmaker’s wife.

Anderson (D-San Pedro) denies that he acted improperly.

At issue is a phone call the congressman or an aide placed to the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shortly after the agency, in early 1986, rejected an application by organizers of the Rancho Dominguez Bank of Carson for a federal charter.

The organizers submitted a revised application in October, 1986, and won approval from the comptroller’s office in January, 1987, agency records show. The bank opened for business on March 31, 1989, with Lee Anderson as chairman of the board.

“Anderson was intervening on his wife’s behalf, and, hey, that’s not right,” Republican Sanford Kahn said last week. “I do not know whether this violates the law . . . but it’s morally wrong.”

Kahn is making his second bid to unseat Anderson in the 32nd Congressional District, which includes San Pedro, Lomita, Lakewood, Hawaiian Gardens and parts of Long Beach, Bellflower and Downey.

Rep. Anderson acknowledged on Saturday that a phone call from his office was made to the comptroller’s office but he denied any impropriety.

“We get lots of calls from people who have problems with government agencies . . and we often call the federal agencies and see what the situation is,” Anderson said. “I wouldn’t have done it if I had thought it was improper.”

Anderson said he does not remember whether he or an aide made the call, when it occurred or the name of the official contacted.

An official with the comptroller’s office said Friday that his agency received a telephone call from Anderson’s office about the bank charter application, but he could not determine the exact date or content of the call, or whether it was made directly by the congressman. Another official said Anderson’s call had no influence on the agency’s handling of the application.

Lee Anderson said Wednesday that her husband, at her urging, contacted the comptroller’s office--but only, she said, to ask when the agency would respond to an inquiry by her group about its efforts to secure a charter.

“He gets these kinds of responses constantly for constituents,” she said. “It just so happens that he’s married to this one. If (Kahn) is making a case of this, then he could make a case of every time a congressman picks up the phone.”

Two current Rancho Dominguez directors interviewed last week supported Lee Anderson’s account. But two other participants in the bank’s formation said they were led by Lee Anderson to believe that the congressman’s efforts on behalf of the bank went beyond a mere inquiry.

The Andersons own more than $250,000 worth of stock in Rancho Dominguez, according to a joint 1989 financial disclosure statement Rep. Anderson filed with the federal government. Bank records show that when the institution opened, Lee Anderson was one of the bank’s largest shareholders, with 9.61% of its stock. She receives no salary as chairman, said Melinda Briggs, the bank’s acting president.

Rancho Dominguez organizers first applied to form a national bank on Aug. 6, 1985, according to the comptroller’s office. The application was turned down April 1, 1986.

The rejection cited “weaknesses in the market analysis and operating plan” as the primary reasons for the denial.

Among the deficiencies listed by the agency were outdated information on economic activity in the Carson area, overly optimistic income and expense projections, and a lack of details on how the bank would attract customers.

Bank organizers then wrote the comptroller’s office on April 25, 1986, addressing the deficiencies, but they did not get what they considered a timely reply, correspondence shows.

The step taken next--Anderson’s call to the comptroller’s office--is what has prompted Kahn’s charge.

Frank De Santis, then the official spokesman for the Rancho Dominguez group and now a director of the bank, made specific mention of Anderson’s call in a July 24, 1986, letter to the comptroller’s office.

Addressed to Ballard Gilmore, director of the bank organization and structure division in Washington, the letter refers to Anderson’s attempt to find out when the group’s April 25 letter would be answered.

“Congressman Glenn Anderson spoke with you regarding the timing of a response to our transmittal dated April 25, 1986,” De Santis’ letter says. “He indicated that your office would have a response by June 27, 1986.”

Ultimately, Rancho Dominguez organizers met with officials in the comptroller’s San Francisco office in August, 1986, to discuss getting their charter efforts back on track. Two months later, the group reapplied for a charter.

At issue is whether Anderson did more for the bank group than he would have done for other constituents in his district.

House rules permit members to contact federal agencies on behalf of constituents to express their opinion on an issue, request information and status reports, and urge prompt consideration, among other purposes, according to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

But the committee has said the service should be made available to all “constituents equally and should be pursued with diligence irrespective of political or other considerations.”

“That means that as a representative, you’ve got to represent constituents,” said David Eppler, an attorney for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, a lobbying group founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader. “But you can’t do special favors for special constituents like campaign contributors or relatives. You’ve got to do the same for everybody.”

Anderson said the call to the comptroller’s office was the same type of service that his office would provide any constituent. He portrayed Kahn’s allegation as an ill-fated attempt to find a political issue.

Said Anderson: “If this is what his campaign platform will be, it’s kind of weak.”

Participants in the formation of Rancho Dominguez Bank disagree on whether Anderson made a special effort on behalf of his wife’s group.

De Santis said the congressman merely helped to obtain a reply from a federal agency that had turned a deaf ear to the Rancho Dominguez group.

“It was an appeal,” De Santis said. “We were left out to dry. We didn’t hear (from the comptroller’s office), and our operational costs were going on every month.”

Said Lee Anderson: “In frustration, I said (to Rep. Anderson): ‘Do you know anyone?’ He said he’d make a call and found out that we would hear from them shortly. I think that’s all that was done.”

Wesley Kirchoff, who served on an interim board of directors for the bank while the institution was being formed, said that, based on remarks Lee Anderson made after the charter rejection, he believes that Anderson’s involvement was more extensive than a single, neutral phone call.

“The directors were told by Lee that she had asked Glenn to intervene to see if he could expedite the approval,” Kirchoff said.

Another man who served on the interim board but who declined to be identified by name, said he got the impression from Lee Anderson that the congressman “was quite influential in the whole cotton-picking thing. He had more than a passing involvement.”

Dean DeBuck, a spokesman for the comptroller, said the banking group won approval for its second application because it solved the problems that prompted the rejection a year earlier.

“They did what should have been done the first time,” he said.

Kahn said that even if Anderson’s role was limited to a single inquiry, as the congressman and his wife assert, the call was still improper because he made it on behalf of an investment group that included his spouse.

The Republican, who lost to Anderson in the 1988 general election by a margin of more than 2 to 1, said he will use the case to illustrate a key plank in his campaign platform--that long-term incumbency leads to abuses of power.

“When his wife is involved, he should say, ‘Hands off,’ ” Kahn said. “Judges recuse themselves when they are dealing with a case in which they have a personal involvement. . . . It’s sort of like a web. You’ve got to draw a line somewhere.”

CHRONOLOGY OF BANK’S FORMATION

Aug. 6, 1985--Rancho Dominguez Bank of Carson organizers apply to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for permission to form a national bank in the Carson area.

April 1, 1986--Comptroller rejects the application, citing outdated information on economic activity and overly optimistic income and expense projections, as well as a lack of details on how the bank would attract customers.

April 25, 1986--Bank organizers address the deficiencies in a letter to the comptroller’s office and await response.

Anderson or an aide, on a date Anderson does not recall, places a call to the comptroller’s office about the charter application.

July 24, 1986--Bank organizer Frank De Santis writes to an official in comptroller’s office and mentions Anderson conversation with the official.

Oct. 20, 1986--Bank organizers file new application to comptroller’s office.

Jan. 30, 1987--Bank organizers receive approval to charter the bank.

March 31, 1989--Rancho Dominguez Bank of Carson opens for business.