Soka University’s Shrewd Lobbying Catches Park Supporters Off Guard : Capitol Hill: The school, battling acquisition, apparently relied on outside help to get anti-condemnation language included in a Senate spending bill.

How did Soka University of Calabasas manage to get a provision slipped into a Senate spending bill last week that would prevent park officials from using federal funds to acquire the school’s coveted mountain campus through condemnation proceedings?

Stunned congressional supporters of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area were scrambling to unravel that mystery following Wednesday’s Senate action--a move that caught them flat-footed, and left them admitting that they were outmatched by Soka’s shrewd, high-powered lobbying campaign.

Indeed, by week’s end none of the park’s allies could even determine who had requested inclusion of the anti-condemnation language by the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on interior and related agencies at the university’s behest. If Soka knows, it’s not saying.

“We have absolutely no idea how that language got in that report,” said Mike Wootton, administrative assistant to Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.). “Whoever did this, did it outside the California delegation.”

Adoption of such an anti-condemnation provision by Congress is not unusual, Interior Department officials said. What is extraordinary, according to Capitol Hill veterans, is the apparent intervention in a California controversy by a lawmaker from outside the state.

Soka, which is seeking to expand its 100-student English-language school for Japanese students into a 4,400-student liberal arts college, has steadfastly refused to sell nearly half of its 580-acre property for a park headquarters despite increasing pressure from state and federal authorities.

That raises the prospect of condemnation proceedings, under which the government can for the public good take land from a property owner who is unwilling to sell. A court jury would set the price based on a fair market value. Soka purchased the land in question in 1986 for $17.65 million, but the school, which says it has made substantial improvements on the property, claims it is now worth “in excess of $50 million.”

An American offshoot of the Tokyo-based Soka Gakkai Buddhist sect, which recruits legions of alienated Japanese with aggressive persuasion techniques, it might not appear to be a likely candidate for favored treatment in the nation’s Capitol.

But many lawmakers--particularly western Republicans--are philosophically opposed to the contentious, often costly condemnation process, which they regard as government trampling the rights of property owners. Well-heeled and tenacious, Soka apparently tapped into that sentiment on the Senate Appropriations panel even though Santa Monica Mountains park officials hold out the hope that the school will agree to sell its land if it fails to win government approval for its ambitious expansion plans.

“The committee, as a rule, resists purchasing by condemnation,” a Senate Appropriations spokeswoman said Friday. “And there was overall concern in this case that this would be what would happen. They are not opposed to land acquisition if a friendly sale can be worked out.” She said she did not know which senator had raised the issue.

The Senate action--adopted without any discussion--stipulated that none of the funds appropriated for buying land in the Santa Monicas in the 1992 fiscal year “can be used to acquire land by condemnation.” California lawmakers had said these funds would go toward an offer for 248 acres of Soka’s mountain property--the highest priority for the park because its central location, partially flat terrain and parking lots make it an ideal site for a visitors center, administrative office and trail head.

The House had included $14 million for the Santa Monicas in its appropriations bill; the Senate Appropriations interior subcommittee slashed the figure to $7.5 million. The amounts will have to be reconciled in a conference committee of House and Senate lawmakers--where the park’s advocates say they will seek to strike the Senate’s anti-condemnation language.

“When we try to take it out in conference, I guess we’ll find out who over there cares about it,” said Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), the park’s leading proponent. “Unfortunately, in a time of very limited federal resources, we’re up against a university that apparently has almost unlimited resources.”

This was Soka’s second major legislative victory this month. On July 17, a state Assembly committee approved a bill that would change the way compensation is calculated when a public agency attempts to condemn property owned by a nonprofit school or church, such as Soka. Park officials predicted that the measure would increase the cost of Soka’s property by $10 million after the school’s advocates succeeded in defeating attempts to exempt Soka from the bill.

In selling its case in Washington, Soka has hired well-connected consultants, lobbyists and former public officials to advise it and lobby for it--just as it has done in Sacramento. “Big time,” muttered an aide to a Los Angeles lawmaker after learning about Soka’s Senate coup from a reporter.

Among those retained by Soka is Benjamin L. Palumbo, a veteran lobbyist who ran the unsuccessful 1976 presidential campaign of Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) and represents such major clients as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Palumbo is a partner in a Washington lobbying firm with Joseph Cerrell, a prominent political consultant whose Los Angeles-based public relations firm is representing Soka in California.

Palumbo could not be reached for comment.

Cerrell has also retained Lou Gallegos, a former top policy aide to Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr., as a consultant, according to Bernetta Reade, an employee of Cerrell Associates Inc. who acts as Soka’s spokeswoman. Gallegos stepped down as Interior’s assistant secretary for policy, budget and administration on Nov. 30.

“I was flabbergasted when I heard he was now working for Soka,” said Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state agency that acquires and manages land for the park. “I remember discussions when I went back and met with Gallegos a couple of years ago to talk about the Santa Monicas. I don’t know if we ever mentioned Soka, but I would be surprised if we didn’t.”

Gallegos, who also worked for Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) for seven years, “is a part of our ongoing program that we have on behalf of our clients and this client,” Reade said in reference to Soka. She declined to be more specific about his consulting role but said he “has done no lobbying.” Gallegos could not be reached for comment.

Gallegos did, however, contact a budget officer in the Interior Department to inquire whether the department had a policy on condemnation and was told that it did not, said Steven Goldstein, chief Interior spokesman. Goldstein said that Gallegos told him last week that this represented the former assistant secretary’s only contact with the Interior Department in connection with Soka. Lujan and John E. Schrote, who is acting as Gallegos’ successor, both said they had not discussed Soka with Gallegos, according to Goldstein.

Federal post-employment rules prohibit a top-level appointee from lobbying his former department for at least one year after leaving government. Goldstein said that such an informational call as Gallegos reported making was permitted because it is not considered “a contact with intent to influence.” The rules do not forbid such ex-officials from lobbying members of Congress on any matter.

Neither the Interior Department nor the National Park Service, which is under its auspices, requested anti-condemnation language in the Senate Appropriations bill, according to the agency.

Still, Soka’s efforts in Washington have not been limited to Congress. The university’s supporters sought to set up a meeting with Lujan earlier this month through Rep. Albert G. Bustamante (D-Tex.). Bustamante said Friday that he requested the session after an old friend, Joe Perez of San Antonio, called to tell him that the government was unjustly seeking to take over Soka’s property. Perez is a Soka supporter, spokeswoman Reade said.

“He was telling me that they were not even getting what they paid for the land and they were trying to take over their buildings for headquarters” for the park, Bustamante said. “And I said, ‘Hell, if you think it’s unfair, I’ll call and set up an appointment for you.’ ”

Park officials, however, are believed to be ready to offer about $30 million for the 248-acre parcel southeast of the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Mulholland Highway, which exceeds the amount Soka paid five years ago by more than $12 million.

Bustamante was referred to the Park Service and he arranged an appointment with Jim Parham, assistant to Park Service Director James Ridenour. Perez and Jeff Ourvan, Soka’s manager of community relations, spoke with Parham on July 10.

“It was a very low-key meeting where they discussed their work on the environmental impact statement” for the proposed expansion “and their interest in the project,” the Interior’s Goldstein said. “Nothing was requested. It was an informational meeting.”

Soka spokeswoman Reade said that Ourvan informed Parham of Soka’s counteroffer to state and federal park officials. In April, the university offered to donate 71 acres and numerous buildings to the Park Service, construct a $2.5-million park headquarters and set aside a $1-million endowment for park maintenance in exchange for a commitment by the Park Service to drop its opposition to the university’s expansion plans. Park officials have rejected the offer--they contend it is inadequate for the park headquarters and fails to address the effects of establishing a major university in the mountain meadow.

Park officials, meanwhile, have suggested three alternative sites for the Soka campus--all owned by private parties. Reade said the university rejected these locations because one had contaminated water on it, another was too remote and expensive, and the third was the site of a functioning state mental hospital.

Soka Gakkai, which claims a following of about 10 million Japanese and 300,000 believers in the United States, is controversial even at home. The religion preaches compassion and claims credit for helping establish Japan’s social welfare system. But internally, its critics and some scholars say it functions as an intolerant, cultlike machine that promises material reward and happiness in exchange for unquestioning faith.

But if the Japanese organization is controversial, its efforts to lobby in America are being helped along by distaste for the use of condemnation. Even some of the California GOP lawmakers are uneasy about the use of condemnation proceedings, said advocates for the Santa Monicas who lobbied in Washington.

Sen. Seymour, for instance, was concerned about Soka’s refusal to sell and was inclined to support $14 million for the Santa Monicas “only on the basis of a willing seller,” said David Brown, chairman of the Sierra Club’s Santa Monica Mountains Task Force. Seymour did not sign a May 21 letter from Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.)--which was circulated and co-signed by 20 House members of both parties--that expressed “strong support for a very substantial amount of land acquisition funding” for the Santa Monicas.

On July 19, however, Seymour sent his own letter to Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-West Va.), the Appropriations interior subcommittee chairman, requesting $14 million for the Santa Monicas. The letter cited the oak-studded Paramount Ranch in Agoura--another park priority--but not Soka.

“Whenever you’re talking about condemnation, you’re talking about much more money,” said Richard Russell, a Seymour aide. “The senator does not like condemnation. He has no position on the specific purchase of that property. It would be much better with a willing seller.”

But, Russell emphasized, “We did not suggest to the Appropriations Committee that such language be incorporated into the bill” prohibiting use of the funds for condemnation.

Wootton, Seymour’s chief aide, said the freshman senator may not have signed the May 21 Cranston letter because he felt that the original $30 million requested by park advocates for both Soka and the Paramount Ranch was unrealistic given the competition for scarce funds and such other pressing California needs as properties in the Channel Islands National Park and Golden Gate National Recreation Area. These parks received no funds in the Senate bill.

As they seek to undo the Senate’s anti-condemnation action, advocates for the Santa Monicas must overcome the apparent opposition of Byrd, the powerful chairman of the full Appropriations Committee as well as its interior subcommittee. Byrd may have acted on a colleague’s request, but his clout in the conference committee would make him a formidable adversary if he continues to support the prohibition.

“We’re going to fight it in conference committee,” vowed Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), another park ally. But, he acknowledged, “This is a formidable obstacle.”