CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS / 9TH DISTRICT : Candidate Accepted $10,000 Trip : Campaign: Bob Gay says he was unaware the developer who paid for his travel was involved in a local project. His assertion is contradicted.

Los Angeles City Council candidate Bob Gay accepted a $10,000 international trip in 1987 from a Hong Kong businessman who was attempting to develop a huge hotel and office project in the 9th District, where Gay worked as an aide to then-Councilman Gil Lindsay, according to interviews and records.

Gay said on Friday there was nothing improper about his acceptance of the trip, which he considered a gift from a personal friend, developer Howard Yeung.

He said he was unaware of Yeung’s proposed project until a reporter asked him about it this week.

However, Sal Altamirano, another deputy to Lindsay, said on Friday that he attended meetings with Gay and a member of Yeung’s family at which the project was discussed.

The meetings occurred in 1986 or 1987, Altamirano said.

“He was aware of the project,” Altamirano said. “I sat in meetings with him.”

Gay could not be reached for comment on Altamirano’s statement.

Gay is nearing the end of a bitter election campaign against Rita Walters, a Los Angeles school board member who also is seeking the City Council seat held by Lindsay until his death last December.

Walters on Friday called on the district attorney’s office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate Gay’s acceptance of the trip from Yeung.

“Bob Gay’s lame explanation that the gift was a matter between friends is simply not believable,” Walters said in a written statement.

Gay disclosed the trip on a document filed with the City Clerk’s office in 1988, but has repeatedly said that Yeung had no business with the city of Los Angeles.

The documents describe the gift as a three-week trip to Hong Kong, China and Paris in July, 1987.

Yeung could not be reached for comment on Friday.

“He is a friend of mine and we don’t discuss business,” Gay said.

“Rita’s obviously throwing this out in the last stages of the campaign to take the attention away from what she did.”

Last week, Gay called for an array of agencies to investigate reports that Walters may have received illegal campaign help from members of Mayor Tom Bradley’s staff.

Documents provided by the Walters campaign indicate that Yeung and others drew up plans in 1986 for an office, a mart for high-tech projects and a hotel in the 9th District to be named the Tech Center-Lindsay Plaza.

The 1.4-million-square-foot project was to occupy 200,000 square feet of land near downtown.

Some formal approvals were sought for the project and discussions were held with a major hotel chain, according to Altamirano, but sufficient financial backing was never arranged and the proposal eventually died.

Gay is on leave from Lindsay’s office during the campaign, but Altamirano will remain on the office staff until a new council member assumes office in July.