Mayor Was Paid for Land Sale, Firm Says : Lancaster: He received a commission after helping a business partner get an exemption, the realty company confirmed. The D. A.’s office will review the case.

Lancaster Mayor William Pursley earned a real estate commission of nearly $10,000 on the sale of property that he promoted by obtaining a special city exemption, according to associates.

Mid Valley Real Estate in Lancaster, where the mayor works as an agent, confirmed Monday that Pursley received a $9,780.15 sales commission for representing his business partner, who was selling the land when Pursley asked the council for the exemption.

The county district attorney’s office said Monday that it will review the case to determine whether to open a criminal investigation because of the disclosure that Pursley may have profited from his June council vote.

Pursley, who was elected to the Lancaster council in March, 1989, and was selected mayor by his council colleagues in April, was out of the city and unavailable for comment Monday, city officials said. He had previously denied any wrongdoing in the vote.

The Times reported Sunday that Pursley had introduced and voted for a measure passed by the Lancaster council June 18 to reduce the size of a city-required street easement along one edge of a parcel of nearly one acre that Pursley’s business partner was on the verge of selling.

The council action helped clinch the sale, according to Lancaster insurance broker Clyde Golding, half owner of the site and partner with Pursley in a separate real estate venture. It also earned a commission for the real estate office where Pursley works, which handled the sale.

But Monday’s disclosure was the first that Pursley himself had directly profited from the transaction, broadening the legal conflict-of-interest questions in the case beyond whether the mayor’s official actions may have improperly benefited only his partner and his employer.

Routine conflict-of-interest cases are typically reviewed by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which can fine violators. The FPPC is already investigating Pursley for failing to disclose several hundred thousand dollars of income last year in unrelated cases. The agency had no comment Monday.

However, in some cases, such as those involving evidence that a politician has personally profited from an official action, the district attorney’s office can file criminal conflict-of-interest charges. Those convicted can be banned from running for office for four years.

The Pursley case recalled the criminal conflict-of-interest charges brought by the district attorney’s office in December, 1985, against then-Lancaster Councilman Louis Bozigian, a real estate agent who now is a co-owner of Mid Valley Real Estate where Pursley works.

Prosecutors charged that Bozigian, as mayor, had voted in 1984 for a street grid that benefited property, in escrow at the time, that Bozigian was representing as a real estate agent and for which he received a commission of about $150,000.

Bozigian was acquitted by a Municipal Court jury in May, 1986.

State law makes it illegal for any public official to participate in or vote on any decision having “a material financial effect” of $250 or more on the officeholder’s income.

Golding and others have said his property was in escrow at the time of the council’s vote. Pursley acknowledged previously bringing the listing to the Mid Valley office. And an official there said Monday that it is “pretty normal” for agents who bring in listings to get some payment at the time of sale.

Jim Gilley, a co-owner of Mid Valley along with Bozigian and his brother Ralph, said Golding’s property sold for $221,772. Of the 10% commission--$22,177.20--Gilley said Pursley’s share as the agent for Golding was the $9,780.15 amount, paid in mid-August after the close of escrow.

Gilley, a former city manager of Lancaster, said Mid Valley took about $4,163 as its share. The remaining $8,234 went to Charla Abbott, another Mid Valley agent and Pursley’s appointee to the city’s parks commission, who represented the buyer, Farmers Insurance Exchange.