Police Stepping Up Probe of Bradley’s Office : City Hall: Action comes after disclosures that the mayor’s staff helped the council campaign of Rita Walters.

The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday expanded its criminal investigation of Mayor Tom Bradley’s office after disclosures that Bradley aides used city offices and equipment to assist the City Council campaign of Rita Walters.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said a report in The Times on Thursday detailing the assistance to Walters “is consistent with what we have been looking at” since last November, when the department began a probe of improper campaign activities in the mayor’s office.

“Nothing surprises me these days. Nothing at all,” Gates told reporters outside City Hall.

Capt. Doug Watson, who is heading the investigation, said it is “too early to tell” whether it will focus on Bradley personally. But based on records published by The Times, he said, “it looked to me like a deputy mayor was involved.”

Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani, Bradley’s chief of staff, sent a computer message last Friday asking staff members to attend a weekend fund-raiser for Walters sponsored by Bradley and Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Fabiani was among six Bradley aides reprimanded Wednesday by the mayor for creating “the perception” that city staff and equipment were used for campaign purposes. Fabiani is vacationing in Hawaii and was unavailable for comment, and none of the other disciplined mayoral aides returned telephone calls Thursday.

State law prohibits public officials and their aides from using taxpayer resources for campaign purposes. Violations are a felony under state law, carrying a maximum penalty of four years in prison, and disqualify the offender from holding public office in the state, Deputy Atty. Gen. Scott Thorpe said.

Bradley, grim faced, stormed past reporters outside City Hall on Thursday and refused to answer questions about the matter. In a written statement Wednesday, the mayor expressed “outrage” over his staffers’ actions but refused to respond to questions.

Bill Chandler, the mayor’s spokesman, also would not comment Thursday.

The Times reported that Fabiani and others used City Hall computers to solicit help from Bradley staff members for Walters’ campaign for the 9th District council seat. The staff members wrote briefing papers for Walters, provided her with materials from City Hall files and met with her to discuss city issues.

Bob Gay, Walters’ opponent in the 9th District runoff election June 4, demanded Thursday that Walters withdraw from the race and called on an array of agencies to investigate the activities of the mayor’s staff.

“The people of the 9th District have been duped into believing that there was a viable candidate in this race other than myself,” Gay said. “This whole matter reeks to high heaven. This is not Chicago, this is not slate politics, this is not some East Coast machine. The people deserve to have honest, clean government.”

Walters said she will not drop out of the contest and described Gay as a “desperate person who knows that he is losing a campaign.” Walters said she would cooperate with any investigations of the matter.

“I have nothing to hide,” she said. “I asked for information that is public information available to any citizen.”

Benjamin Bycel, executive officer of the city’s new Ethics Commission, said he is prohibited by law from disclosing whether the panel will launch an investigation. He said, however, that the city ethics law, approved by voters last fall in the wake of several probes into Bradley’s financial dealings, addresses issues such as those raised in the Times story.

“It is clear that when the people voted for Proposition H, that they wanted both the appearance and the actual conflicts of interests to be ridded from city government,” Bycel said. “If the accusations posed in the Times story are accurate, I think there is at least a perception problem if not a potential violation of the ethics law.”

Council President John Ferraro, who has been at odds with Bradley over the police beating of Rodney G. King, criticized the mayor Thursday for not taking stronger disciplinary action against the six staff members. In addition to the reprimands, Bradley ordered two staffers to reimburse the city a total of $37 for “staff time and computer time” spent on the Walters campaign.

“The mayor said he was outraged, but he has been outraged so many times with his staff, yet nothing ever happens,” Ferraro said. “If he was really outraged, some heads would roll. It is shocking that they used such poor judgment.”

Councilman Ernani Bernardi said he feared that the city may face a multimillion-dollar lawsuit because of the assistance provided Walters. Two weeks ago, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury ordered the city to pay political activist Michael Zinzun $3.83 million because Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon used a Police Department computer to retrieve newspaper articles about Zinzun and leaked them to Zinzun’s political critics during his 1989 run for the Pasadena Board of City Directors.

“This is a serious matter that could cost the city an awful lot of money,” Bernardi said. “There ought to be a thorough investigation of this matter.”

Councilman Nate Holden, who has endorsed Gay, said, “I’m supporting him thoroughly, but I’m not going to run his campaign out of my office.”

Watson, the captain heading the police investigation, said detectives “are actively moving ahead because of the freshness of information” disclosed Thursday.

The probe began last November after The Times reported that Bradley staff members for at least five years had been doing Bradley campaign work using city equipment and materials. The probe focused on the 1985, 1986 and 1989 Bradley campaigns.

Stepping up an investigation of Bradley’s office at a time when the mayor and his appointees have been trying to remove Gates in the wake of the King beating is politically volatile.

Watson declined to discuss the sensitivity of the move. He and a supervisor agreed to investigate the new disclosures, but ultimately Gates approves all such actions, Watson said.

Times staff writer Rich Connell contributed to this story.