Bradley Wrote N.Y. Mayor Praising Troubled Firm : City Hall: Politically connected company was lauded although L.A. canceled its contract because of problems.

Mayor Tom Bradley wrote a laudatory letter last year to New York’s mayor for a politically connected firm seeking a $210-million sewage contract in that city, even though Los Angeles had canceled a similar contract with the company because of persistent problems.

The sludge treatment firm, Chemfix Technologies, had retained Frances Savitch, a key former Bradley aide and fund-raiser, as its lobbyist, records show. Also, Chemfix’s board of directors includes Ronald Brown, national chairman of the Democratic Party. Bradley and New York Mayor David Dinkins are friends, prominent Democrats and political acquaintances of Brown.

The mayor’s March 7, 1990, letter to Dinkins, which was disclosed last week by New York Newsday, praised Chemfix’s “reliability and flexibility” and said the company “served Los Angeles well.” The letter was sent one month before Chemfix was chosen for one of New York’s new sludge-handling contracts.

Two months before Bradley’s letter, Los Angeles public works officials had dropped Chemfix’s contract because of high costs and management problems. Bradley’s letter did not mention any of Chemfix’s problems.

Bradley, through a spokesman, denied any impropriety in sending the letter and said it was merely a letter of introduction, not an endorsement of the company.

Under the Los Angeles contract, which paid Chemfix $12 million between 1988 and 1990, the firm chemically treated thousands of tons of mucky residue generated by the city’s Hyperion sewage treatment plant so the final product could be placed in landfills. The Chemfix contract was issued to help the city meet a federal deadline to stop the dumping of sewage into Santa Monica Bay.

Bob Hayes, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, said Chemfix’s contract was terminated because the firm raised its price and failed to develop a permanent treatment plant for city sewage sludge as required under the contract. Hayes also said the firm failed to control odors at a temporary sludge treatment site near Los Angeles International Airport, causing complaints from residents and airport officials.

The city rebid the contract, he said, and another firm is doing the job at a saving of $2 million a year.

Before Bradley’s letter was sent, Los Angeles public works officials already had warned New York officials of the problems they encountered with Chemfix, according to George N. Lutzic, deputy director of New York City’s Bureau of Clean Water. Lutzic said Bradley’s letter was unusual. “Normally we don’t get unsolicited” information from city officials regarding contractors, he said.

Bradley’s letter was forwarded to New York officials reviewing the sludge treatment bids. Officials in New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection said the letter did not influence the choice of Chemfix, which presented a plan to correct management problems experienced in Los Angeles.

But Jennifer Kimball, a Dinkins spokeswoman, said Bradley’s letter was a surprise--so much so that before passing it on, a deputy mayor attached a note saying: “This seems unusual--a mayor pushing a private interest.”

The disclosure raises the specter of Bradley using his office to help friends or political associates--the type of ethical issue that has dogged him much of the last 2 1/2 years.

Bradley’s spokesman, Bill Chandler, said writing the letter was proper and was done at the request of a “representative from Chemfix.” Chandler refused to be more specific about the request.

He added, however, that Bradley had not discussed the Chemfix contract with Dinkins, Brown or any New York City officials.

Chandler acknowledged that Los Angeles had encountered problems with Chemfix’s contract. But he said Bradley intended only to call Dinkins’ attention to Chemfix’s special chemical process for treating sludge, which Los Angeles public works officials say is a good one.

“During its two years as one of the city of Los Angeles’ sludge management options, Chemfix Technology played an integral role in ending the city’s practice of ocean dumping,” the letter said. “The reliability and flexibility offered by this company and its patented process allowed me to direct city staff to once and for all plug the ocean discharge line from the Hyperion Waste Water Treatment Plant. . . .

“I simply wanted to call to your attention this company, which served Los Angeles well using this technology.”

Bradley’s letter was not an endorsement of Chemfix, Chandler said. “It’s a letter of introduction, possibly, nothing more than that.”

Asked why Bradley did not mention the company’s problems, Chandler said, “The mayor always knew that Los Angeles public works officials would openly discuss Chemfix’s performance with anyone who inquired from New York.”

Bradley’s calendar shows that he met with Chemfix Chairman Daniel N. Silverman in his City Hall office in January, 1990, as the firm’s Los Angeles contract was ending and several weeks before Bradley wrote to Dinkins. Chandler said he had no details on the meeting or who arranged it. Officials at Louisiana-based Chemfix did not return several phone calls.

A spokeswoman for Democratic Party chief Brown said he had no contact with Bradley, Dinkins or officials in either city about Chemfix contracts. Ginny Terzano of the Democratic National Committee in Washington said Brown only became aware of Bradley’s letter and the Chemfix contract in New York after recent news media inquiries.

Brown’s Washington law firm, Patton, Boggs & Blow, represents Chemfix, and Brown has been a director of the company since 1982, Terzano said. She declined to discuss Brown’s personal finances, although Newsday reported that Brown holds about $100,000 in Chemfix stock.

Savitch, a former top Bradley aide and a City Hall lobbyist, could not be reached for comment. She listed Chemfix as a client in the period Bradley wrote the letter, city records show. Savitch, who left the mayor’s staff in 1987, has been a contributor and fund-raiser for Bradley for many years.

Records show that Savitch and her firm donated about $4,000 to the mayor in the last four years, and that Savitch was an intermediary for at least $5,000 in additional contributions to Bradley’s special fund to pay lawyers who represented him in various criminal and ethics investigations. Records show no contributions to Bradley from Chemfix, although Brown donated $1,000 to Bradley’s 1986 gubernatorial race.

Savitch’s firm was paid about $18,000 by Chemfix in 1988 and 1989, said one of Savitch’s associates, Hope Lewis. Savitch advised Chemfix on its unsuccessful effort retain its Los Angeles city contract, Lewis said. Though Savitch reported Chemfix as a client in early 1990, Lewis said, “we wouldn’t have” asked Bradley to write the letter to Dinkins.