2nd Probe Targets Coastal Commissioner : Investigation: D.A.’s office is examining Mark Nathanson’s conduct on state and Marina del Rey boards. He is already the subject of a federal corruption inquiry.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office confirmed Friday that it is conducting a political corruption investigation of California Coastal Commissioner Mark L. Nathanson, who has abruptly left the county commission that oversees Marina del Rey.

Nathanson, a Beverly Hills real estate broker, already was the focus of a federal investigation in Sacramento. Former state Sen. Alan Robbins, in pleading guilty to federal corruption charges, told a federal judge last month that Nathanson had participated in a scheme to extort more than $200,000 from a San Diego hotel developer who had business before the Coastal Commission.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office said it is conducting its own criminal investigation of Nathanson, according to spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

“The investigation involves Nathanson in his role as a public official,” said Gibbons. “What we are doing is separate from Sacramento . . . (and) involves Los Angeles County.”

The wide-ranging investigation by the district attorney’s Special Investigations Division is examining Nathanson’s actions in Marina del Rey and his activities as a member of both the state and county commissions, according to Gibbons and other sources.

Gibbons said the investigation stems from referrals by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, which has no criminal enforcement powers and had closed its own civil investigation of Nathanson last summer without finding any violation of the state’s conflict-of-interest laws.

Gibbons declined to state what specifically is being investigated or when the inquiry began.

Nathanson’s attorney, Robert L. Shapiro, said Friday that he was not aware of the district attorney’s investigation and that his client had not been contacted by local authorities. Nathanson, through his attorney, has denied any wrongdoing.

Environmental groups and others had been pressing for Nathanson to resign from the state and county commissions after reports were published about his ties to Robbins.

Within the last 10 days, Nathanson told Supervisor Mike Antonovich that he no longer wished to serve as his appointee on the county Small Craft Harbor Commission, said Antonovich spokesman Peter Whittingham.

Nathanson has served for seven years on the five-member commission which advises the supervisors on operations of county-owned Marina del Rey.

Antonovich spokesman Dawson Oppenheimer said the supervisor was concerned that recent publicity about Nathanson’s troubles had created a cloud over him and would “certainly tend to erode public confidence in the operation of the Small Craft Harbor Commission.”

Nathanson let Antonovich know “that it was not necessary to reappoint him” to the county body, Oppenheimer said. “He understood that questions were being raised.”

Nathanson’s term on the far more powerful Coastal Commission expires Wednesday, but Shapiro said his client intends to remain on that board, which controls development along the entire California coast.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, a close friend of Nathanson, intends to reappoint him to the Coastal Commission when his term expires, Brown spokeswoman Terri Parks said Friday.

“The Speaker stands by the fact that (Nathanson) is innocent until proven guilty. If he is charged by federal prosecutors, then he will deal with it.”

Nathanson has been a political fund-raiser for Brown and other prominent politicians for years. He is considered one of the most influential non-elected officials in the state because of his role in deciding the fate of coastal development projects.

His dual role on the county and state commissions and his private business activities as a real estate broker and consultant have drawn interest from state and federal authorities for several years.

As a member of the Coastal Commission, Nathanson cast votes in 1987 for two projects in Marina del Rey--conversion of the high-rise Marina City Club apartments to condominiums and construction of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Both projects involved Los Angeles developer Jerome Snyder. After the projects were approved, Snyder hired Nathanson as a consultant and lobbyist. Snyder was not available for comment Friday.

Financial disclosure statements filed by Nathanson show he was paid more than $10,000 annually by Snyder between 1988 and 1990.

And in 1989, records show, Nathanson served as the real estate broker when a real estate partnership headed by then-Sen. Robbins sold 16 acres just outside the marina to Snyder.

The Coastal Commission in August, 1990, approved construction of the $400-million Channel Gateway residential and office project on Lincoln Boulevard without Nathanson’s vote.

Culver City developer Jona Goldrich, a major campaign contributor and political fund-raiser, later became a partner of Snyder in the Channel Gateway project.

In his last act as a member of the Small Craft Harbor Commission, Nathanson championed a controversial deal Dec. 16 to extend Goldrich’s lease for the Dolphin Marina complex on county land in Marina del Rey until the year 2062. Later this month, the Board of Supervisors is expected to consider the extension, which two real estate experts told The Times amounted to a sale of public land at a price far below what it is worth.

The two investigations of Nathanson are not the first time that he has run into legal problems as a public official.

While a member of Los Angeles County’s Crime and Delinquency Commission in 1973, Nathanson was arrested on suspicion of soliciting a bribe. He was taken into custody moments after receiving an envelope with $2,500 in cash from a Hollywood businessman.

Los Angeles police alleged that the money was a one-third payment to Nathanson, former president of the Los Angeles city Building and Safety Commission, to use his influence to expedite a zoning change.

Nathanson pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of attempted grand theft and was fined $2,500 and placed on three years’ probation in 1974.

The FPPC fined him $13,400 in November, 1986, on 20 counts of violating the Political Reform Act, which requires that officials disclose sources of income and detail their investments.

When FPPC investigators questioned Nathanson about his failure to properly disclose his financial interests while a member of the state’s watchdog Little Hoover Commission, Nathanson said he found the annual statements of economic interest “terribly boring and useless.”