Lobbyists Cultivate Ties to Anaheim Politicians : Government: The two bring hefty sums to current council members’ campaigns, even more than Disney.

With a $4.7-million deal in the works, lobbyists Frank Elfend and Carmen Morinello were in good spirits before ducking into a negotiating session last winter with Anaheim city officials.

There to sell the city a prized parcel of Pastor Ralph Wilkerson’s Melodyland Christian Center, the lobbyists had already captured the attention of officials.

Together, Elfend, Morinello and their businesses had made thousands of dollars in political contributions over the past five years to the same City Council members who would not only approve the sale but in doing so also ensure payment of fees that Elfend had negotiated with Melodyland.

Despite an initial staff recommendation against the purchase and a threatening economic climate that would soon force severe municipal budget cuts and layoffs, the council agreed to buy the land with only one dissenting vote.

Now, many council members and local civic leaders say that March decision to take control of a sliver of ground across the street from Disneyland was one of several transactions that illustrate the lobbyists’ political influence at Anaheim City Hall.

According to city records, political contribution documents and interviews with council members, staff members and others outside city government, no two business people have placed such a premium on gaining access to the Anaheim council as the informal business partnership of Elfend and Morinello.

And no two have been more successful.

“You may not like how they get there,” Mayor Fred Hunter said recently. “It involves getting money to council candidates and knowing the political landscape. They know the climate better than anyone in this city. With some people that means a lot.”

Elfend, a 39-year-old consultant from Mission Viejo, and Morinello, a 36-year-old Newport Beach attorney who lives in Anaheim Hills, prefer to be known for their keen understanding of the intricacies of local governments rather than for their roles in Anaheim political campaigns.

“We understand how the process operates,” Elfend said in a recent interview. “We know who the players are. We understand staff, and we also understand the City Council and how they operate.”

Yet, a computer-assisted investigation of campaign contributions and city development records by The Times Orange County Edition shows that:

* Elfend and Morinello, their consulting and legal firms, and the clients they represented before the city since 1986, have poured $156,795 into the campaigns of the current City Council. That is more than any of Anaheim’s largest corporations, including the powerful Walt Disney Co., the Disneyland theme park and the entertainment company’s top executives combined. During the same period, Disney interests have contributed $56,080 to the current council members, even though for the past year they have been negotiating with the city over a $3-billion expansion.

“I think it’s fair to say that big givers expect access when they want it,” Councilman Tom Daly said. “I don’t think there has ever been a fund-raiser like Elfend in Anaheim.”

* So pervasive is the influence of Elfend and Morinello that city staff and council members say they cannot recall when the lobbyists--as a team or individually--have ever lost a council vote on about half a dozen projects. In addition to the Melodyland purchase, they have helped launch two major subdivisions, two major hotels and the city’s first Mello-Roos special taxing district.

* The lobbyists enjoy an especially close business and personal relationship with Councilman William D. Ehrle, who has also been the council’s major recipient of contributions from the lobbyists, their firms and clients. Since 1986, Ehrle has received $43,271, records show.

Close behind is Mayor Hunter, who received $42,450. Councilman Irv Pickler, considered the most successful fund-raiser on the council, received $33,924, Councilman Tom Daly, $21,300. And in one campaign season alone, from June, 1990, to June, 1991, Councilman Bob D. Simpson received $15,850 in his successful bid to oust longtime Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood, known for her aversion to the politics of Elfend and Morinello.

Council members say that not since the mid-1970s, when a Disney-funded lobbying group launched the political career of Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth, has Anaheim seen the kind of campaign dollars delivered now by the two lobbyists and developer agents.

Elfend and Morinello attribute their success to long workdays, good clients and the ability to assuage the concerns of community groups. They also know the value of understanding local politics.

And understanding the City Council these days, both agree, also requires an understanding of campaign finance. They do not believe, though, that big contributions have bought them more than a returned telephone call from a council member.

While acknowledging that extensive involvement in local politics is part of their business, they believe campaign fund-raising “is out of control.” Of their many contributions, both say they are merely responding to constant solicitations by council members and candidates.

“One fact of being elected and reelected,” Morinello said, “is that you have to raise money. We are not the only people who contribute. We support candidates when we believe in their philosophy.”

But many now chuckle when they recall a City Council meeting in the late 1980s when Ehrle was publicly admonished by former Councilwoman Kaywood, who claimed the councilman was taking direction on votes from Elfend seated in the council audience.

“It was just so disgusting,” Kaywood said recently, adding that she was spurred to confront the councilman after watching the alleged communications on several occasions during public meetings.

Ehrle, who remembers the incident, agrees that he was probably looking at Elfend at the time, but says Kaywood’s claims are ridiculous.

“What she (Kaywood) did to me,” Ehrle said, “I looked at it as a humorous thing.”

Still, Ehrle counts Elfend and Morinello as friends and among a short list of consultants he sometimes refers to developers who seek to do business in Anaheim.

Ehrle, who works as an agent himself for Hill Williams Development Corp. in Anaheim Hills, said he always recommends that developers find people to represent them while moving projects through the channels of city government.

While the councilman said it would be unethical for him to recommend business directly to any particular consultant, he said his short list of referrals includes Elfend and Morinello, consultant Phillip R. Schwartze of San Juan Capistrano and Santa Ana attorney Rodolfo Montejano.

All four businessmen have been contributors to Anaheim council campaigns, but Elfend, Morinello and Schwartze say they have not been referred clients by the councilman. Montejano could not be reached for comment.

“I never specifically say which one to hire,” Ehrle said.

Yet, city sources say that earlier this year, during a discussion among council members and staff about the possible hiring of an outside negotiator to lead sensitive talks with Disney about its proposed $3-billion development in Anaheim, Ehrle offered Elfend’s name to his colleagues.

“I was so goddamned shocked, I just kind of clammed up,” said one official who asked not to be identified. The official said his reaction was based on his knowledge of Erhle’s relationship with Elfend. “I had no intention of giving it any serious thought.”

Added another official present during that meeting: “I remember him just blurting it (Elfend’s name) out. It was crystal clear to me. People were surprised.”

Elfend, who said he had not sought the position as the city’s Disney negotiator, describes his relationship with Ehrle as “business-oriented,” while Morinello considers Ehrle a friend. Morinello said their sons play on the same youth baseball team and his Newport Beach firm has worked on personal legal matters involving the councilman and his family.

Morinello said his former law firm handled parts of a trust involving Ehrle’s mother. And in 1986, the firm represented Ehrle, ironically in a claim against the city of Anaheim, when the councilman requested and obtained a restraining order barring city crews from removing campaign signs he had erected throughout the city.

But neither Elfend, who said his business relationship with Councilman Pickler runs much longer, nor Morinello believe their relationships or money have won them any special favors.

“When we do discuss projects with Bill (Ehrle) or Irv (Pickler), they probably ask the toughest questions,” Elfend said. “I don’t see a cause and effect (relationship) there.

“When we got into this business, there was a perception that there is a good ol’ boys club. And if you were a member of that good ol’ boys club, your projects would be approved,” Elfend said. “We made it a point that we would not be part of that good ol’ boy system. If anything, we are mavericks.”

According to Morinello, he and Elfend began operating as a team back in the mid-1980s while working on the development of the East Hills Ranch communities proposed by Woodcrest Development Inc. and Presley of Southern California.

Working together, the businessmen helped garner city approval for the two projects, one for 1,119 homes in Sycamore Canyon sought by Woodcrest and the other a 2,147-home development called The Highlands at Anaheim Hills, planned by Presley.

Related to the ranch projects, Elfend and Morinello also had a hand in winning city approval for the first Mello-Roos taxing districts in city history. The council vote in 1989 established a homeowners tax in the communities to pay for millions of dollars in road and park improvements. Prior to the formation of the tax districts, the developers had agreed to make the required improvements.

Woodcrest Vice President James A. Highland said the company still retains Elfend and Morinello and initially hired them after learning that “they did a good job at getting the entitlement process through the city.”

“They are good at getting background information and making presentations to public bodies,” Highland said.

The vice president also said Elfend is one of many people that the company consults before making contributions to political candidates in Anaheim.

Presley officials said Elfend and Morinello had stopped working for the company about a year ago in their separate capacities as consultant and attorney respectively.

“Anything he (Elfend) did for us, the city knows about and we know about,” said Nancy Harlan, the company’s general counsel, declining to provide further details of their employment.

As part of their consulting work, Elfend and Morinello say, they are often solicited with requests for political contributions.

“Those requests are often and we respond in kind,” Elfend said.

Said Morinello: “You always have to be aware of the political climate. It’s hard to really put a (value) on that. It goes hand in hand with the work we do.”

In recent times, Elfend and Morinello have been virtually inseparable on Anaheim development projects and have maintained a major presence on the city’s political scene with campaign contributions and appearances at fund-raisers. Elfend, tall, lean and animated, refers to the stocky and soft-spoken Morinello as his “alter ego.”

In addition to Melodyland, Elfend won city approval last April for a controversial medieval-theme dinner theater called King Henry’s Feast, and the two are pushing the construction of seven hotels just east of Disneyland as part of a project called Hotel Circle, developed by Tarsadia Inc.

Both men say that campaign contributions have done nothing to influence the successful outcome of their projects.

“We don’t set any schedule (of contributions),” Elfend said. “Anaheim is the biggest city in the county and the cost of campaigning is increasing. . . . We always try to stay far away from those (vote) dates.”

However, The Times’ computer analysis shows contributions were made in close proximity to votes on their projects and near dates for the city’s general election.

For example:

* In February and March of this year, Elfend and Morinello contributed $6,000 to council members 20 months before the next scheduled election. In March, the council voted to purchase the Melodyland property for $4.7 million.

* Another $8,220 was contributed in June, 1990, the same month the council voted favorably on two projects within the Hotel Circle development represented by Elfend and Morinello.

* And in October, 1990--the month before the last city election--Elfend, Morinello and clients contributed $14,620 to the campaigns of the present City Council members.

There have been very few instances when Elfend and Morinello have encountered formidable opposition to their projects, except for the initial city staff recommendation against the Melodyland purchase and a split council vote and design limitations placed on the King Henry project.

Yet, Councilman Daly, one of the four who voted to purchase the Melodyland property and options, now believes his vote was a bad decision. Recalling the pressure Elfend exerted for an immediate resolution on the sale, Daly said he could no longer support the city’s purchase.

At the time of the purchase, Daly said the deal appeared to be a good investment given Disney’s expansion plans and the fact that the city’s looming budget problems had not taken full shape. Disney had designated the area as the future site of one mammoth parking garage and wanted the city to acquire the necessary land and build the structure.

But during that time, Daly said, city staff and council members received letters from Elfend’s firm in which the consultant spoke of the impending foreclosure proceedings on the church property and of the need to resolve the matter quickly.

“Our client (Melodyland) is moving perilously close to the loss of their entire property,” Elfend stated in one letter. “In light of the pending foreclosure proceeding, it is imperative that the (city) purchase proceed immediately.”

Daly said Elfend’s letters caught his attention.

“I’ve never seen a lobbyist do that before,” the councilman said. “That (tactic) left a bad taste in my mouth. I was startled to see that kind of stuff.”

“There was no question that there were a couple of council members who wanted to move on the property as fast as Frank Elfend,” he said, declining to identify the council colleagues. “I was in a position to slow down a very fast train.” Daly nonetheless voted for the purchase.

Councilman Pickler, who cast the lone vote against the purchase, still describes the council decision as “crazy.”

“We were bailing (Pastor Wilkerson) out of a predicament that he and the church got themselves into. Frank (Elfend) knew how I felt and he didn’t bother with me.”

“That was one (project) that bothered me,” the councilman said. “We knew that there was a budget problem.”

Mayor Hunter says the deal was made in the best interests of the city, and given Disney’s recent announcement that it will focus its expansion interests in Anaheim, it could pay dividends for Anaheim.

“I’d do it again,” Hunter said.

Elfend and Morinello’s history of success is apparently not lost on municipal staffers who have gone to unprecedented limits to protect themselves against what some describe as Elfend’s aggressive and overbearing style.

Before entering discussions with Elfend and Morinello, city department heads have been advised to bring a city attorney or at least two witnesses to meetings. Although not part of any written city policy, city management officials and department heads have confirmed that the practice applies only to meetings with Elfend and Morinello.

Hunter says he is aware of the pair’s manner.

“You may not like what they do, but if you are going to go to somebody, you go to them,” the mayor said.

Daly, who describes the pair’s work as “very analytical, precise and efficient,” said he has also been advised by county and city officials to distance himself from their political work.

“A few people have cautioned me to be careful because of the fund raising that he (Elfend) does,” Daly said, adding that there has been a “perception that he had extra sway over one council member.”

Daly declined to identify the council member to whom his advisers referred.

Elfend and Morinello acknowledge that they work aggressively for their clients and that that sometimes generates conflict.

“There is a difference between style and results,” Elfend said. “I’m probably a Type A person. When I believe something is right, I’m very strong in my commitment. I’ll betcha every person in the city knows exactly where I’m coming from.

“In Anaheim, if we do our job properly and get the support of the community and the staff, political contributions are irrelevant.”

How This Study Was Conducted

Figures for this Dollar Politics report were developed during a Times Orange County Edition investigation that used a computer to categorize seven years of contributions to current members of the Anaheim City Council.

Examining disclosure statements that candidates are required to file with the Anaheim city clerk, the study identified about 8,500 campaign expenditures and contributions made to the current council.

The information was edited to correct typographical errors, remove duplicate entries and confirm links between related organizations and contributors that had gone by different names during the study period. Where any links were unclear, those contributions were not categorized, so in some cases the findings are deliberately understated.

The computer research was performed by staff writer Mark Landsbaum, while staff writer Kevin Johnson reported and wrote the story.

A Timeline of Giving as City Considered Woodcrest

With Frank Elfend and Carmen Morinello as its Anaheim consultants, Woodcrest Development Inc. presented its 325-acre, 1,119-home Sycamore Canyon project for Planning Commission and City Council approval. Elfend says that when making campaign contributions to city officials, the consultants “always try to stay far away from” dates when the officials are voting on a project. In the case of Woodcrest, however, a Times investigation shows that sizable contributions were made a few months before and immediately after the Planning Commission and City Council approved aspects of the development in early 1989. Woodcrest contributions shown here include $3,000 from Vice President James Highland. Elfend’s contribution included those from his consulting firm, Elfend & Associates, and Morinello’s include those from his law firm, Morinello, Barone, Holden & Nardulli.

Contributions to Anaheim City Council

E - Elfend

M - Morinello

W - Woodcrest

1986

September: $500 (W) First Woodcrest contribution made to member of current council.

October: $4,200 ($250 E, $3,700 M, $250 W)

December: $1,250 ($750 E, $100 M, $400 W)

1987

February: $921 (M)

March: $1,500 (W)

April: $4,500 ($3,000 E, $1,500 W)

May: $3,000 ($1,500 E, $1,500 W)

December: $950 (M)

1988

January: $500 (W) Planning Commission approves Woodcrest’s specific plans.

February: $1,500 (M) City Council approves Woodcrest development’s zoning and development standards.

March: $3,000 ($1,500 E, $1,500 M)

April: $3,080 ($1,500 E, $1,580 M)

May: $3,000 ($1,500 E, $1,500 W)

August: $1,600 ($1,100 M, $500 W)

September: $8,000 ($2,000 E, $2,000 M, $4,000 W)

October: $3,500 ($500 M, $3,000 W)

November: $1,400 ($250 E, $1,150 M)

December: $13,000 ($5,000 E, $5,000 M, $3,000 W)

1989

February: Planning Commission approves amendments to zoning and development standards.

April: $1,000 ($1,000 W) City Council approves amendments to zoning and development standards.

May: $5,000 ($1,000 E, $2,000 M, $2,000 W)

June: $12,200 ($5,500 E, $4,700 M, $2,000 W)

October: $1,500 ($750 E, $750 M)

November: $3,500 ($1,500 E, $1,500 M, $500 W)

1990

March: $3,000 ($2,000 E, $1,000 M)

June: $10,750 ($3,500 E, $4,750 M, $2,500 W)

September: $4,500 ($1,500 E, $2,000 M, $1,000 W)

October: $9,500 ($5,100 E, $3,400 M, $1,000 W)

November: $1,400 ($900 M, $500 W)

1991

February: $4,500 ($1,500 E, $1,500 M, $1,500 W)

March: $6,000 ($1,500 E, $1,500 M, $3,000 W)

June: $5,000 ($2,500 E, $1,500 M, $1,000 W)

Woodcrest Vice President James Highland said some company contributions were made after project approval to maintain relationships with council members. “We may or may not ever do (another) project in Anaheim,” Highland said. “It’s important to have good people running (for public office) in Orange County.”

Source: Anaheim Planning Department and city campaign contribution reports

Contributions to Anaheim City Council

Since 1986, lobbyists and business partners Frank Elfend and Carmen Morinello, their firms, business associates and clients have contributed $156,795 to the current five members of the Anaheim City Council.

Who gave:

* Morinello, Barone, Holden & Nardulli (Morinello’s law firm): $44,501

* Elfend & Associates (Elfend’s consulting business): $43,900

* Woodcrest Development Inc. (Developer of Sycamore Canyon residential project and Elfend-Morinello client): $31,150

* The Presley Cos. (Developer of the Highlands at Anaheim Hills and an Elfend-Morinello client): $19,845

* Tarsadia Inc. (Developer of a seven-hotel project near Disneyland and an Elfend-Morinello client): $10,699

* MBH Investments (A Morinello investment group): $3,000

* James Highland (Woodcrest Development Inc. executive): $3,000

* L.A. Entertains (Developer of King Henry’s Feast dinner theater and an Elfend client): $700

Who got:

* Councilman William D. Ehrle

Contribution: $43,271

44 contributions since 1986

* Mayor Fred Hunter

Conribution: $42,450

45 contributions since 1986

* Councilman Irv Pickler

Conribution: $33,924

31 contributions since 1986

* Councilman Tom Daly

Conribution: $21,300

23 contributions since 1988

* Councilman Bob D. Simpson

Conribution: $15,850

20 contributions since 1990

Total contributions: $156,979

Source: Anaheim City Council campaign documents

Contribution Comparison

When it comes to financing Anaheim City Council elections since 1986, firms led or advised by Frank Elfend and Carmen Morinello have given more than Disneyland, its executives and affiliated companies combined.

Elfend/Morinello: $156,795. 163 contributions, $962 average

Disneyland: $56,080. 56 contributions, $1,001 average

Source: Anaheim City Council campaign documents.