Top 25 L.A. Lobbyists Got $1.2 Million in 3 Months

In an effort to track the flow of special-interest money through City Hall, the city’s new Ethics Commission released a study Friday showing that during a three-month period this year, 25 well-connected lobbyists were paid $1.2 million by businesses seeking political clout.

Many of the top-paid lobbyists are former or current Los Angeles officials and prolific political contributors. They have been hired by a host of firms hoping to sway policy-makers on a range of issues, including waste disposal, transportation projects and construction contracts.

“We’re not challenging the legitimacy of lobbying,” emphasized the commission’s executive officer, Benjamin Bycel. “We’re simply saying the public has a right to know how money moves around City Hall and who has influence.”

The commission’s study of lobbyists and the businesses who pay them is the panel’s first public report since its creation in the wake of scandals involving Mayor Tom Bradley’s personal finances in 1989. The commission has been slow to begin its work because of staffing problems and vagueness in the voter-approved law that brought the panel to life.

In all, according to the study, the city’s top 25 lobbyists were paid $1,193,930 by clients between April and June of this year--an amount totaling 73% of the earnings reported by the city’s 300 registered lobbyists.

“This is an enormous amount of money being spent by a very few people representing very special interests in City Hall,” said Lisa Foster, a spokeswoman for California Common Cause, which campaigned hard for passage of the city’s political ethics law. “The public can’t begin to match the money or influence of that elite crew.”

Added Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky: “These are staggering sums of money, and it reinforces the perception, if not the reality, that it is not what you know but who you know that gets results at City Hall.”

In the analysis of the businesses that paid lobbyists during that same period, Otto Industries Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., headed the list. The waste management company paid six lobbyists nearly $80,000 in its drive to participate in the city’s new and lucrative recycling program. Otto paid $55,000 to the City Council’s former legislative analyst, Ken Spiker alone.

Late last year, the council awarded Otto a major portion of a highly coveted multimillion-dollar contract to produce refuse containers for the program. Over the next three years, Otto will be eligible to bid on future portions of the contract, worth an estimated $76.6 million.

Spiker said Friday that the study gives a false impression of Otto’s payments because he is paid for services that extend beyond lobbying. Spiker said that, as Otto’s West Coast representative, he handles a variety of responsibilities.

Second on the list in payments to lobbyists is Shapell Industries, developer of the vast Porter Ranch project in the northern San Fernando Valley. The firm paid former City Councilman Robert Wilkinson $45,000 during the three months studied by the Ethics Commission.

Although the controversial development won City Council approval last year, backers are seeking an agreement that would protect the project from slow-growth restrictions for the next 20 years.

Philip Morris U.S.A., the giant tobacco conglomerate, ranked third with its payment of $36,000 to two lobbyists. During the past decade, the City Council has approved increasingly tough measures on public smoking. Last October, after an intense lobbying effort by tobacco and restaurant interests, the council rejected a sweeping proposal to ban smoking in restaurants throughout the city. Less stringent proposals are now under consideration.

One of the lobbyists, Alma Fitch, said Philip Morris pays her and a partner a monthly retainer to monitor legislation that might affect the company.

Judging from the Ethics Commission study, the lobbyist most in demand is Maureen Kindel, a former Board of Public Works member and close associate of the mayor. She was paid $160,250 from clients with interests in real estate, transportation and financial services companies.

She was followed by Howard H. Sunkin of Cerrell & Associates. He earned $145,000 from clients involved with transportation and oil.

Third on the list is Douglas Ring, who earned $142,663 during the three months studied. He is a Bradley appointee on the city’s Library Commission. Ring is married to a top aide to Councilman Marvin Braude.

Ring, who has contributed $52,000 to local campaigns since 1983, is leading a group of Los Angeles officials and their families in a lawsuit seeking to prevent enforcement of the city’s ethics law on grounds its financial disclosure requirements are excessive and invade their privacy.

Not listed is former City Councilman Arthur K. Snyder, one of City’s Hall’s most ubiquitous lobbyists. He refused to submit earnings reports requested by the commission. Snyder argued that during the period under review, he was working as a lawyer on behalf of a client seeking approval for a development plan and that his earnings are confidential under his attorney-client privilege.

Bycel, the commission’s executive officer, disagreed. “We will recommend that the commission take appropriate action,” adding that it remains unclear what measures can be pursued under the law.

Some of the top lobbyists named by the commission downplayed the report saying it contained easily obtainable public information. They said the commission’s efforts would be better spent untangling the confusing ethics law.

“Is this the most valuable use of Bycel’s staff’s time?” asked lobbyist Ring. “Or should he be implementing the law instead of grandstanding like this?”

Foster of California Common Cause said she was “troubled” by another of the report’s findings: that City Council members Hal Bernson, Mike Hernandez, Joel Wachs and Rita Walters paid a total $62,011 to three lobbyist firms--Afriat, Blackstone; Cerrell & Associates and Fitch & Davis--to help with their campaigns.

“It shows that council members are paying the same people advising them on how to run their campaigns and how to vote on particular issues,” Foster said.

But the newly elected Walters had this to say: “Just because you hire them to do a job doesn’t mean they’ll get a ‘yes’ vote.”

Leading Lobbyists

For the first time, the city’s Ethics Commission has listed the top-paid lobbyists at City Hall and how much money was paid to lobbyists by businesses seeking influence with policy-makers. The amounts below are from April through June of this year.

TOTAL REPORTED TOP 10 LOBBYISTS COMPENSATION 1) Maureen A. Kindel $160,250 2) Howard H. Sunkin $145,000 3) Douglas R. Ring $142,663 4) Ken Spiker $123,643 5) Steven C. Afriat $94,141 6) Richard D. Gervais $62,540 7) Clark S. Davis $59,050 8) Alma Fitch $59,050 9) Robert M. Wilkinson $45,000 10) Michael S. Gagan $38,000

TOP 10 TOTAL PAID TO LOBBYIST EMPLOYERS LOBBYISTS 1) Otto Industries $79,076 2) Shapell Industries/Porter Ranch $45,000 3) Philip Morris U.S.A. $36,000 4) Lincoln Property Co. $33,008 5) Micor Devel. $30,661 6) Pacific Gas Transmission Co. $30,000 7) The Yellin Co. $29,783 8) Catellus Devel. Corp. $27,153 9) Richard Dixon/L.A. County $26,600 10) L.A. Trade Tech College $26,469

Compiled by Times editorial researcher Cecilia Rasmussen