Staff Raised Funds for Mayor Inside City Hall : Politics: Aides used city resources during campaigns, records show. Bradley says he prohibited such activities.

For at least five years, Mayor Tom Bradley’s staff operated a political fund-raising network inside City Hall, according to interviews and internal campaign records.

City telephones and postal meters were used by Bradley campaigns. During one month, City Hall aides took nearly 150 phone calls from a single Bradley campaign office.

Campaign-related memos were typed by city secretaries on city equipment. Dozens of letters transmitting campaign contributions apparently were prepared in a mayoral aide’s office.

Political donations were hand-delivered to City Hall, and sometimes fund raising was so brisk that Bradley aides provided curbside pickups of contributions outside the building.

The mayor himself collected contributions in his executive suite. Among those who evidently delivered a donation was a Chinatown banker who figured in the recent city ethics scandal.

Bradley political position papers were taken to city offices for rewriting by city staff members. “It was understood that whenever you had a (City Hall) expert in a given area . . . they were part of the (campaign) team,” said a former Bradley aide involved in fund raising.

This pattern of political activity by public employees emerged from thousands of pages of Bradley campaign documents obtained by The Times through a court order.

The records and interviews indicate that city resources were misused for Bradley’s political benefit during the past five years.

Use of public resources for personal or political purposes can be a felony. The law was designed to prevent theft of public funds. It also, in the words of the California Supreme Court, is intended to ensure that government does not “bestow unfair advantage” to anyone in an election contest.

Bradley declined to be interviewed about his staff’s fund-raising activities but said in a statement: “Any staff person who has ever worked for me knows my policy. . . . No person is allowed to fund-raise for any campaign during city time or use city facilities or supplies.

“It is clearly forbidden,” he said.

The mayor said that his office on several occasions during the last decade issued detailed guidelines from the city attorney stating that use of city resources for political purposes is illegal.

Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said Bradley instructed him to review issues raised by The Times and demand reimbursement from any city workers who violated the policy.

It is unclear how much campaign money was passed through City Hall. Records and interviews indicate that at least $350,000 either was sent to City Hall or was collected by City Hall staff during Bradley’s campaigns for mayor in 1985 and 1989 and for governor in 1986.

A special assistant to the mayor, William Elkins, helped raise more than $200,000 between 1985 and 1987.

From his City Hall office, Elkins relayed batches of checks to campaign officials from political events up and down the state, and as far away as Atlanta, records show. He carefully documented his efforts in more than 100 letters to the mayor’s campaign accountant.

“These checks were just received in my office,” Elkins repeatedly wrote on stationery purchased by the campaign but bearing the designation “Office of the Mayor” and a City Hall return address. The letters also carried the initials of Elkins’ city secretaries, indicating that they had prepared the correspondence.

Elkins also was frequently listed on attachments to the letters as the “staff contact” for campaign events, along with his City Hall office phone number.

Elkins refused requests for an interview about his fund raising. His secretaries said they could not recall the campaign-related letters, or declined to discuss them in detail.

In 1986, Maureen Kindel was Bradley’s full-time, $60,357-a-year Public Works Commission president. She also was his campaign finance chief and the top strategist in Bradley’s campaign for governor. Political donations and campaign paperwork flowed through Kindel’s third-floor City Hall office, according to records and interviews.

Hundreds of campaign expense memos carry her M.A.K. initials, indicating that she personally approved funds for everything from major fund-raising banquets to lunches for campaign workers in the field. “She was the (financial) boss, with no one a close second,” said one former Bradley campaign fund-raiser who, like several others, insisted on anonymity because of fear of retribution from the mayor’s office.

Tom Houston, Bradley’s chief of staff from 1984 to 1987, said he unsuccessfully urged Kindel to take a leave from her city post because neither the government nor the campaign jobs were going well. “Fund raising was going terribly. Also, the Public Works Department was going terribly,” he said, referring in part to a series of city sewage spills in Santa Monica Bay.

Messengers ferried campaign materials between Kindel’s City Hall office and political consultants and fund-raisers, records and interviews show.

“We will have someone coming to City Hall on Monday afternoon around 3:00 . . . to pick these up,” a campaign worker wrote Kindel at City Hall, referring to approvals for Bradley campaign hotel bills.

One letter sent to Kindel at City Hall in June, 1986, included $15,000 in donations collected by the late Travers Bell, and a promise of $5,000 more the following week. At the time, Bell’s New York securities firm had a contract related to a trash-burning plant proposed by Kindel’s department.

In another case, a City Hall employee recalled hand-delivering a donation of several thousand dollars to Kindel’s office.

Sources said that Kindel also displayed a colorful print on an easel in her office--part of a series of artworks being sold for $1,000 apiece to raise Bradley campaign funds in 1986. Kindel once suggested that a visitor buy a print, according to a source.

Campaign phone bills show that Kindel’s office was frequently called by campaign workers. “Maureen called a lot,” said one former Bradley campaign worker. “She was all over. It was clear she called from City Hall. . . . If we were in a fund-raising pinch, she might call six or seven times” a day.

Her public and political assignments became so entangled that Kindel could not distinguish campaign calls from official and personal calls on her city-supplied car phone.

Hoping “to avoid conflicts,” Kindel had the campaign pay toll charges for several months, but she continued using the city car phone for political calls, campaign records show.

Like several other present and former Bradley aides involved in fund raising, Kindel, now a City Hall lobbyist, declined to comment. She said this story would be “hurtful to the mayor and hurtful to me.”

The campaign activities of Bradley’s city aides were revealed in internal campaign documents obtained under the California Public Records Act. After the city refused to release the documents, The Times filed suit. Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe ordered city officials to surrender more than 20 boxes of Bradley records, which were in the city clerk’s office for a routine audit.

Fabiani said the newspaper was given what “may be entirely unprecedented access” to a political official’s internal campaign records.

Most of the cases cited by The Times, he said, did not involve Bradley’s most recent campaign in 1989. The Times was denied most records from the last mayoral campaign because they were returned to Bradley’s accountant before The Times filed suit.

Later, Bradley’s lawyers refused to grant access to the 1989 records.

Included in the records obtained were memos, notes, ledgers, bills, bank deposit records and copies of checks from donors to Bradley’s campaigns, which since 1985 have raised more than $10 million statewide.

Handwritten coding on the checks often indicated when City Hall aides or others brought in the money for events. Hundreds of contributions were labeled “City Hall”--meaning they were relayed from city aides or offices, according to two Bradley campaign sources.

One former Bradley campaign worker said the level of election activity at City Hall made many Bradley insiders nervous. “You were just afraid (they) were going to blow it,” said the former campaign worker, who often dealt with city aides. “It was a story waiting to happen.” Houston, the former chief of staff, said he expressed his concerns at staff meetings about mixing campaign and government business. He said he and others told mayoral aides that fund raising was to be done only on their own time, but it was “very difficult” to ensure that those and other rules were followed.

Houston said there was extensive communication between city employees and campaign staff and he had little control over the conduct of several key aides involved in fund raising who reported directly to the mayor.

Fabiani said Bradley more recently instituted reforms to closely monitor staff activities and “enhance the level of accountability and supervision.”

A century-old state law prohibits city, county and state officials and their aides from using taxpayer resources for campaign purposes. In the past 20 years, only a handful of elected officials have been fined or convicted.

State officials as a matter of policy refused to comment on the political activity in Los Angeles’ City Hall.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Scott Thorpe said that in general it is a criminal violation “if you use government resources to do campaigning or you use government resources for your own private benefit as opposed to public benefit.”

Public employees may do insignificant campaign-related tasks, such as rerouting occasionally misdirected mail and phone calls, said Thorpe, the supervising deputy in the attorney general’s criminal division.

However, state law requires that other campaign work be performed on personal time, generally outside of business hours, and “not involve the use of state property or resources,” such as staff, supplies, typewriters, copiers and telephones, according to guidelines prepared by the state attorney general.

City officials refused to provide The Times with detailed phone records for Bradley’s office, citing privacy laws and the chaotic state of city records.

Campaign bills confirm what Houston called a “tremendous” number of phone calls between the mayor’s campaign and City Hall. In just one month during the 1986 governor’s race, a single Bradley fund-raising office made nearly 150 business-hour calls totaling several hours to the phones of 15 key Bradley aides.

State legal guidelines advise officials to install private phone lines whenever regular contact is required between government and campaign staffs.

Houston said he recommended the installation of separate campaign phones in City Hall, but that was rejected by other Bradley advisers because it would look “strange.”

After catching two aides “on the phone too much . . . related to fund-raising activity,” Houston said he ordered them to reimburse the city. City officials said they are unable to find any record of reimbursement.

Bradley said in his statement, “I have personally taken great steps to ensure the separation between city and campaign functions.

“In fact,” said the mayor, “a separate phone line, paid for with campaign funds, was installed in my personal office for the occasions when I was required to make campaign calls during my 16-hour days.” Fabiani said he believes the line was installed in 1986.

The campaign records included few envelopes, but at least two were handled by the City Hall mailroom and stamped by meters paid for by the city.

The mayor’s office allowed city employees to type campaign-related memos and letters on their lunch hours or after hours at City Hall, as long as they were paid by their bosses for the extra work with private funds, Houston said. He said that city equipment “probably” was used for this campaign work.

Checks arrived at City Hall in the mail, by messenger, hand-delivered by donors and passed to mayoral aides by outside fund-raisers. “One very common technique was going downstairs (at City Hall) to the passenger loading zone” where someone would swing by for a “check drop,” a former Bradley aide said.

Bradley aide-turned-lobbyist Fran Savitch was for years Bradley’s staff go-between with downtown developers and the powerful Community Redevelopment Agency. Records and interviews show she also helped raise campaign funds among lobbyists, developers and CRA grant recipients.

In May, 1987, as Bradley struggled to reduce his huge debt from the governor’s race, records show that George Mihlsten, a leading downtown lobbyist-lawyer for major developers, had a $5,000 check hand-delivered to Savitch’s city office.

In an accompanying letter, Mihlsten noted that the donor, R & B Enterprises of Los Angeles, was a member of the L.A. Housing Council, a coalition of major apartment owners that was tangling with city tenant groups over proposed changes in the rent control law.

Mihlsten told The Times he did not remember the specific donation, or why it was sent to Savitch at City Hall.

He recalled that Savitch--with whom he sometimes had contact on city business--requested assistance in raising funds for Bradley. “The answer is ‘yes,’ she made those requests over the years,” said Mihlsten.

Savitch said that she “never” solicited campaign contributions. “I just think it was improper for me to have those kinds of (fund-raising) relationships with people I was doing business with,” she said.

Savitch said that contributors delivered checks to her City Hall office and she had her secretary send them on to the Bradley campaign.

“Everybody wanted to personally hand-deliver checks,” she said. “When people would come in with checks, I would just forward them to the campaign office.”

Among other events, notations on checks show that “F. Savitch” was credited with bringing in more than $10,000 from a September, 1986, fund-raiser involving downtown business and CRA-related interests. Savitch said of the notations, “I don’t think that means who raised it. It just means who handled it.”

Sue Laris-Eastin, editor and publisher of the weekly Downtown News, recalled organizing the fund-raising lunch at the 7th Street Bistro for about 20 potential contributors. They included Spring Street landowner and revitalization leader Leonard Glickman, attorney Murray Kane, whose firm does more than $1 million a year in business with the CRA, and Christopher Stewart, the former president of the Central City Assn., a lobbying group for major downtown business and development interests.

After some “chatting” about the campaign, Savitch told the group “you all will be hearing from me,” Laris-Eastin recalled. “Fran made the (follow-up) calls” for the fund-raiser, Laris-Eastin said.

Savitch said she attended the luncheon but denied soliciting donations. “Not so,” she said of Laris-Eastin’s comments. “Didn’t happen. Sue’s memory is faulty.”

Glickman and Kane said they could not recall how their donations were delivered, but that Savitch was not involved in soliciting the contributions.

Bradley received contributions inside City Hall.

Some Bradley donors insisted on personally delivering contributions to the mayor and would be ushered into his executive office by aides, said former Bradley aides.

“They want the mayor to know” they contributed, said one former Bradley aide. “It would drive me batty.”

Bill Chandler, the mayor’s press spokesman, said Bradley “has little personal time. So if someone wants to see the mayor, chances are the meeting will be held at City Hall. Very infrequently, a supporter will ask to personally deliver a campaign contribution to the mayor.”

Among those who delivered checks personally, the newly obtained records indicate, was Far East National Bank President Henry Hwang. Hwang’s hiring of Bradley as a bank adviser in December, 1987, while the firm was seeking city business, led to the recent City Hall ethics scandal.

On Aug. 10, 1987, shortly before Bradley began working for Hwang, the bank president met with Bradley at City Hall, the mayor’s calendar shows. On the same date, campaign records show, Hwang wrote a $2,500 check to the mayor’s campaign fund.

A note accompanying the check, apparently handwritten by Bradley, said: “For Gov. campaign debt. Henry Hwang is a banker.”

Hwang declined to comment. Bradley’s office would not respond to questions about the Hwang contribution.

A city ethics reform package, approved by voters in June, will ban hand-delivery of campaign contributions in city buildings beginning in January.

Many of the political contributions, records show, came from companies and constituents who dealt with Bradley staff members in their official capacities.

“It’s the most nauseating, ugly, corrupting thing in the world,” complained one former Bradley staff aide involved in the fund raising. “No one sold City Hall. But there was a tremendous amount of little flirtations. We would sort of intimate we can be of help” to donors, even when that was impossible.

In addition to Elkins, Kindel and Savitch, present and former Bradley aides involved in fund raising included executive assistant Jeff Matsui, special assistant Fred Schnell and area coordinators Art Gastelum and Christine Ung.

Each had a fund-raising niche that coincided with his official responsibilities. For example, Gastelum, Bradley’s longtime liaison to the Latino community until his resignation last year, tapped the region’s growing Latino business and professional community for donations.

Jeff Matsui, Bradley’s top representative to the Asian community, coordinated lucrative fund-raisers in the Japanese business community.

Gastelum, Ung and Matsui declined to comment.

Schnell, Bradley’s official representative to the city’s corporate leaders, raised tens of thousands of dollars from downtown developers and other big business interests, records and interviews show.

“I was just a conduit” for campaign funds that were raised by a committee of corporate leaders, said Schnell.

Records indicate some donations were sent to Schnell at City Hall and that his city secretary typed campaign-related thank you letters and memos. Schnell said he “probably did” instruct his former city secretary, Gloria Williams, to type campaign communications. “It was supposed to be done off (city) time,” he said.

Contrary to the office policy described by Houston, Schnell said, “I didn’t pay her anything.”

Williams declined to discuss the matter and referred questions to Schnell.

Ung, a Bradley staff liaison to Asian groups and the Harbor area, also raised campaign money in those communities.

Frank Iacono, former general manager of the San Pedro Fisherman’s Cooperative Assn., said Ung sat as Bradley’s representative on a city fishing industry task force that was studying ways to obtain grants and other economic aid for the fishermen.

At the same time, Ung acted as “the mayor’s fund-raiser . . . she was the one who would contact me” for contributions, Iacono said. He said Ung worked with the fishermen on a 1986 San Pedro fund-raiser that netted $5,000 for Bradley’s campaign coffers.

Fishermen’s checks usually would be sent to Ung--sometimes at City Hall--and she would “take care of it from there,” Iacono recalled.

Other records show Ung used official city stationery and apparently had a city secretary type memos outlining campaign-related travels in 1985 and 1986.

In one such memo to Kindel, Savitch and Houston--all full-time city employees at the time--Ung sought permission to go to San Francisco to help “nurture our relationship” with a “very influential man in the Bay Area (who has) assisted with our fund-raising efforts . . . and is absolutely committed to helping the gubernatorial race.”

Elkins, Bradley’s close friend and top liaison to the black community, raised campaign funds primarily among black groups.

He helped coordinate a statewide fund-raising network in churches, as well as receptions for black professionals, black fraternity members and minority business owners. He ran fund-raising ads in black publications and worked with a grass-roots campaign effort to strengthen support in the African-American community.

One former campaign aide said that during the 1986 governor’s race, Elkins was struggling against criticism that soft support from the black community had cost Bradley a 1982 gubernatorial victory. “He was battling a perception problem . . . he was doing everything he could to get money and get the black community,” the aide said. “He used to say it a lot: ‘Damn it, 1986 is going to be different.’ ”

As part of his drive, campaign records show, Elkins gave the address and phone number of the mayor’s office when ordering flyers and other material, including 100,000 letters printed at campaign expense in the closing days of the 1986 governor’s race.

In his stream of correspondence from the “Office of the Mayor” to Bradley’s campaign accountant, Elkins provided detailed updates on the money he was bringing in from various projects.

Elkins’ secretaries both said that it would appear they typed the dozens of letters bearing their initials.

Leonard Hamlet declined to discuss the matter in detail, at first saying he could not recall the letters. Later, he said they were “not typed in this office,” but refused to say where the work was done.

Elkins chief secretary, Erlina Partosa, said that she could neither confirm nor deny that she or others in Elkins office had performed campaign-related tasks.

“I don’t know. I can’t recall,” she said repeatedly.

Partosa emphasized that she never volunteered nor was paid for Bradley campaign work. “I don’t involve myself in politics,” she said.

BRADLEY’S CAMPAIGN DOCUMENTS

Records and interviews indicate that at least $350,000 either was sent to City Hall or was collected by City Hall staff during Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s campaigns for mayor in 1985 and 1989 and for governor in 1986. Bradley aides often raised money from the same constituents they dealt with on city matters. In the process, government offices and equipment may have been misused, The Times found.

Bradley’s longtime special assistant, Bill Elkins, helped bring in more than $200,000 in contributions between 1985 and 1987, documenting his efforts in more than 100 letters to the mayor’s campaign accountant. The correspondence indicated it was from “Office of the Mayor” at City Hall and bore the typist initials of Elkins’ city secretaries. On attachments, Elkins aften was listed as “staff contact” for campaign events, along with his City Hall phone number. Bradley’s City Hall aides used official-looking stationery, paid for by the campaign, that carried disclaimer it was “not printed or mailed at public expense.” Maureen Kindel served as full-time city Public Works Commission president and Bradley’s campaign finance chief in 1986 governor’s race. Contributions and campaign paperwork were handled through her city office, records show. In internal memos, Kindel acknowledged using city-supplied car phone for campaign business, although she sought to blunt criticism by having campaign pay monthly toll charges. Bradley personally received contributions inside his City Hall office. One such delivery evidently was made by Far East National Bank President Henry Hwang. Hwang’s hiring of Bradley in 1988 while bank was seeking city business touched off ethics scandal. In August, 1987, Hwang met with mayor at City Hall and on same day wrote $2,500 check to mayor’s campaign, city and campaign records show. Note attached to Hwang donation appears to be from Bradley. Bradley told city investigators he had no idea if Hwang visited his office or was campaign donor. City stationery and city postal meters sometimes were used to forward campaign funds and “personal” correspondence to Bradley accountant Jules Glazer. Bradley aide Christine Ung, official liaison to Asian groups and the Harbor area, helped raise campaign dollars in both communities. When Bradley was gearing up for 1986 race for governor, internal Ung memo on city stationery asked top mayoral aides to approve Bay Area campaign trip. Source: City and Bradley campaign records; Times research