Carson’s Mayor Failed to Disclose Loans of $97,000 : Politics: State law requires politicians to list loans on statements of economic interest. One lender was a planning commissioner.

Carson Mayor Michael I. Mitoma borrowed at least $97,000 from three banking associates--one of whom he later nominated to the Planning Commission--but failed to disclose the loans on state-required statements of economic interest, according to court documents and interviews.

Mitoma formerly headed Pacific Business Bank, and the loans came from three members of its board of directors while Mitoma was the bank’s president and chairman from 1982 to 1989. But the board ousted Mitoma in 1989, and the borrowing came to light when Mitoma was sued for allegedly failing to repay one of the loans.

Mitoma owed James Bradley, now the chairman of Pacific Business Bank, $60,000 in personal loans when the mayor renominated and voted to approve Bradley for a second term on the Planning Commission in 1987. Bradley resigned from the commission in 1988, saying he no longer enjoyed the job.

After Mitoma was elected to the council in 1987, he also borrowed at least $30,000 from Craig Ota and $7,000 from Ted Asato, both members of the bank’s board of directors, according to bank officials and court documents.

The mayor said that because the money was loaned to him personally and there were no written agreements concerning the funds, he did not believe he had to list the loans on the financial disclosure forms all elected officials must file annually.

Mitoma also borrowed from several other bank directors, but said he repaid them before his election to the council. In addition to these personal loans, bank officials said Mitoma obtained Pacific Business Bank real estate loans of $108,000 in July, 1987, and $152,000 in October, 1988.

The home loans were listed in Mitoma’s statements of economic interest, although elected officials are not required to report loans used to purchase a principal place of residence.

Under the state’s Political Reform Act, failure to disclose the personal loans could result in fines of up to $2,000 for each violation. An elected official who violates the act may also be subject to a civil lawsuit, according to state law, and a willful violation is also punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment.

However, Carol Thorp, a spokeswoman for the Fair Political Practices Commission, said the commission generally allows an elected official the opportunity to amend the disclosure statements before seeking administrative action. Mitoma said he plans to amend his statements, and said he has repaid all his debts except for $2,000 owed to Ota.

Mitoma was the founder of Pacific Business Bank in Carson, and Bradley has been on the bank’s board of directors since the bank opened. The two men were once close friends, vacationing together in places such as Mexico. But after bank officials became dissatisfied with the way Mitoma was managing the bank, he was ousted and Bradley was named chairman, resulting in a bitter falling out between the two men.

Mitoma, whose City Council salary is $816 a month, said he now earns a living working out of his home as a private consultant advising businesses in other cities on municipal issues.

Bradley sued Mitoma in 1989 for allegedly failing to repay $20,000 of the $60,000 personal loan. Mitoma filed a $1.5-million countersuit in December, 1989, for punitive and emotional distress damages alleging that Bradley had improperly sold Mitoma’s bank stock, which had been secured as collateral on the loan. The case was settled out of court in April, 1991, and the terms were not disclosed, but it was through depositions in the lawsuits that the mayor’s borrowing came to light.

Now, Mitoma claims that Bradley, a co-owner of Vera Carson Mobilehome Estates, loaned him money in a failed effort to gain an ally on the council.

Mitoma asserts that Bradley pressured him to run for office and asked the mayor to renominate him to the Planning Commission. Mitoma said that Bradley’s renomination to the commission--which was approved by a 3-1 vote--would have been in jeopardy without Mitoma’s support.

In an interview, Mitoma said the only reason he ran for the council was “because Bradley wanted me to.” There was a huge disagreement “because I would not support park owners,” Mitoma said.

In fact, Mitoma has consistently cast council votes in favor of mobile home park tenants.

Bradley denies that he asked Mitoma to name him to the commission or tried to affect how the council dealt with mobile home rent control and the benefits paid to mobile home tenants when parks closed. Mitoma’s allegations, Bradley said, are an attempt to shift attention away from the councilman’s conduct in not disclosing the loans.

Although acknowledging he encouraged Mitoma to run for the council, Bradley said the decision was entirely up to Mitoma.

“You can’t make anybody run (for office) if they don’t want (to),” Bradley said. “Once he got a taste of it, politics and ring kissing, boy he sure loved it.”

Mitoma has also accused Bradley of trying to influence Councilwomen Kay Calas and Vera Robles DeWitt through Pacific Business Bank loans. Calas financed her house and business remodeling through the bank, and DeWitt borrowed money to buy a car and a mobile home and to remodel her bail bond business, the councilwomen said. Bradley said he was a co-signer on DeWitt’s car loan.

Calas consistently reported the loans on her financial disclosure statements in the 1980s.

DeWitt was not required to report the loans on her statements and did not do so. Elected officials do not have to report bank loans of less than $10,000, such as DeWitt’s car loan, or report loans to purchase a principal place of residence, such as DeWitt’s mobile home loan.

Both council members deny that they were influenced by the loans or that Bradley even attempted to sway their votes.

“My business is through Pacific Business Bank,” DeWitt said. “My money is there, in CDs and general business account. There is no attempt to hide anything.”

Calas, DeWitt and Mitoma were once allies on the council, but that relationship deteriorated a few years ago over disagreements on a number of issues. Calas denounced Mitoma’s current accusations as “dirty politics,” noting that she, DeWitt and Mitoma are all up for reelection in April.

“I use that bank for all my business accounts but not because of Jim Bradley,” Calas said. “It’s a local bank with local people. . . . I like to keep my money in the community.”

The council votes cast by Calas and DeWitt on mobile home park issues have generally been favorable to mobile home tenants.

Apart from co-signing for DeWitt’s car loan, Bradley said he was not involved in the bank’s decisions to loan money to DeWitt and Calas.

“He can sure tell a story,” Bradley said of Mitoma.

Mitoma said in an interview and in court documents that he borrowed from several directors of the bank without the knowledge of others on the board, and said he may have used some of the money loaned from one director to repay another.

“This man is a very smooth man,” Asato said. “He had our complete confidence. He was able to talk us into investing large amounts of money in the bank. But when we looked into what he was doing (as bank chairman) . . . he almost ruined us.”

The loans to Mitoma in the mid- to late-1980s came when the city was in a contentious debate over mobile home park closures and rent control. Carson’s rent control ordinance, approved in 1979, pegs rent hikes to increases in the expenses of operating a park, and to any capital expenditures made by a park owner.

In 1988, park owners led a drive for a ballot measure that would have overthrown key portions of the law, but the effort failed when the city clerk found that 39 of the petition signatures were invalid. The city is still fighting six lawsuits filed by park owners, challenging city laws concerning the operation of mobile home parks.

Bradley said he was in favor of the ballot measure but was not a leader in the effort to get it approved. He was one of the park owners who sued the city, but he has since dropped the lawsuit.

Mitoma, in his failed 1986 run for the council and his successful 1987 campaign, was opposed by mobile home tenants who considered him to be allied with park owners because he accepted their campaign contributions. But mobile home tenants now consider him a supporter.

During his 1988 reelection campaign, he challenged political rivals to a $1,000 bet if they could prove allegations of hidden campaign contributions from mobile home park owners besides $7,500 in donations from park owners and a $5,000 loan from an employee of Bradley’s during the 1986 election.

None of his campaign rivals took the bet. But according to the court transcripts and interviews with Bradley, Mitoma had borrowed $60,000 from Bradley in 1985 that was still unpaid when Mitoma won the election, Bradley said.

Mitoma says he would still win the bet because the Bradley loan was not a campaign contribution. “None of that money was used for political reasons,” Mitoma said, adding that he used the funds to repay a bank loan.

Asked why he did not report the loans on his financial disclosure statements, the mayor said: “I don’t know. We hadn’t signed a (promissory) note or anything.”

Bradley said his experiences in Carson have soured him on the city. Last year, he notified the city of plans to close his mobile home park. The park closure has been referred to the Planning Commission for further review.

“I just want to get the hell out of there,” Bradley said.

Michael I. Mitoma

Occupation: Mayor of Carson and self-employed consultant; founder and former president of Pacific Business Bank in Carson

Age: 48

Elected: March, 1987; now serving second council term

Education: Graduate of Cal State Long Beach and Narbonne High School in Lomita