Nathanson’s Role in Hotel Part of Probe : Ethics: Coastal commissioner’s lobbying for project was unusual and inappropriate, some current and former members say.

When plans for a Marina del Rey luxury hotel came before the California Coastal Commission about four years ago, Commissioner Mark L. Nathanson took an avid interest, even attending the major staff meeting regarding the project.

Nathanson’s presence at the meeting and his aggressive lobbying efforts on behalf of the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey were highly unusual and inappropriate actions for a commissioner, according to some current and former members of the agency.

Even more unusual, they said, was that Nathanson received at least $30,000 over the next three years as a consultant and real estate broker for developer Jerome Snyder, who leases the land to the hotel chain.

And in 1990, after brokering Snyder’s purchase of land for his $400-million Channel Gateway high-rise development near Marina del Rey, Nathanson helped lead the Coastal Commission’s effort to block what some officials considered a competing project.

Now, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is trying to determine whether Nathanson violated conflict-of-interest laws.

Authorities want to find out whether Nathanson was motivated only by a desire to see the projects built, or by financial or political gain, according to sources close to the investigation. Another question, they say, is whether Nathanson was paid or promised any money before his official actions regarding the projects.

District attorney’s office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons confirmed that the investigation is focusing on Nathanson’s activities in connection with the projects, but said no formal interviews have been conducted.

Gibbons said the office’s special investigations division has begun retrieving files on the two projects from the state Fair Political Practices Commission, a political watchdog agency that has referred several matters involving Nathanson to county prosecutors.

Nathanson also is the subject of a Sacramento-based federal political corruption investigation regarding his Coastal Commission activities. When pleading guilty to federal racketeering charges last month, former state Sen. Alan Robbins named Nathanson as a co-conspirator in an alleged scheme to extort more than $235,000 from a San Diego developer in exchange for commission votes relating to a La Jolla hotel project.

Speaking through his attorney, Nathanson, 52, denied any wrongdoing.

“He never voted on any project in which he had a financial interest,” said lawyer Robert L. Shapiro. He declined to discuss Nathanson’s actions in detail.

Nathanson had no ulterior motives when he supported or rejected projects while serving on the Coastal Commission since 1986 or on Los Angeles County’s Small Craft Harbor Commission for the last six years, Shapiro said.

Last month, Nathanson stepped down from the county commission, which advises the Board of Supervisors regarding county-owned Marina del Rey. But Nathanson remains on the powerful 12-member Coastal Commission as an appointee of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and intends to stay, his lawyer says.

Snyder did not return repeated phone calls regarding the district attorney’s investigation of Nathanson, but he has said in the past that he never paid Nathanson for consulting work in connection with the two projects.

State law prohibits public officials from using their influence or participating in matters affecting any individual or business that has paid them $250 or more--or promised to pay that amount--during the previous year.

The Ritz-Carlton approval came in December, 1987. Nathanson’s financial disclosure forms state that he did not receive any money from Snyder before 1988.

“It does not appear that Snyder was a source of income or promised income” in the 12 months before the hotel project was approved, the FPPC said in a Jan. 6 memo.

Public records show that Nathanson reported receiving a minimum of $10,000 a year from Snyder between 1988 and 1990. Nathanson’s 1991 statement of economic interests is not yet available.

Snyder has projects outside the coastal zone, and Nathanson’s reports do not specify the projects on which he worked as a consultant. Snyder has said he never paid Nathanson for assistance on any projects in the Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction.

Nathanson’s support for the 14-story Ritz-Carlton project began in 1986, when he voted with other members of the Small Craft Harbor Commission to transfer Marina del Rey leaseholds to Snyder’s company. Snyder then sublet the parcel to the Ritz-Carlton at an undisclosed rate. Approval of the hotel was important to Snyder: The county had required him to construct a hotel on the site as a condition of his lease. When the hotel project went to the Coastal Commission for approval, Nathanson strongly voiced his support.

Chuck Damm, the commission’s district director, said he chaired a 1987 meeting between Ritz-Carlton and Snyder representatives and Coastal Commission staff. He said Nathanson should not have been there.

“I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Damm said. “It’s difficult to negotiate with an applicant when you have a coastal commissioner present. I can’t think of any other instance where that’s happened.”

Commission staff later recommended that the commission reject the hotel plan because they were concerned that there was not enough parking. However, Nathanson and other commissioners unanimously approved the project.

Michael Wornum, the commission chairman at the time, said that he chastised Nathanson for his treatment of staff members during their review of the hotel.

“One never knew why he voted and lobbied for some things and against others,” Wornum said. “One suspected there was an ulterior motive, but there was no proof thereof. . . . But certain things, he was very interested in--either in getting them through or in getting them killed.”

Former Coastal Commission Chairman Melvin L. Nutter said he is especially troubled by what he described as inappropriate meetings that Nathanson attended with developers outside of the commission hearing room, including the commission staff meeting regarding the Ritz-Carlton.

Nathanson urged support of the project because the county wanted a hotel on the site and “there is no better hotel operator than Ritz-Carlton,” his attorney said.

According to records and interviews, Nathanson was the real estate broker on the sale of 16 acres of land to Snyder in 1989 for construction of Channel Gateway,

Snyder and Nathanson declined to say how much commission Nathanson received on the $45-million sale.

District attorney’s investigators are examining whether Nathanson had any hidden financial interests or motives when he urged the Coastal Commission in 1990 to block a project planned near Channel Gateway. The project, a $160-million shopping complex known as Marina Place, was located outside the commission’s jurisdiction.

With Nathanson’s urging, the commission took what officials said was an unprecedented vote to have the state join a suit by community activists to block Marina Place. Nathanson said the shopping center in nearby Culver City would overwhelm the existing traffic arteries in and around the marina.

Culver City officials had tried to prevent Nathanson from voting on the litigation.

Even though the state never intervened in the lawsuit to block Marina Place, the threat of intervention lent weight to the suit and helped delay the project, said then-Culver City Mayor Jozelle Smith, now a City Council member. The project is still being delayed.

Lisa Foster, executive director of California Common Cause, said Nathanson’s role in the Channel Gateway-Marina Place squabble was “unquestionably a conflict.”

But Nathanson’s lawyer said the two projects were not in competition for a permit because one was a shopping center and the other was a residential project.

City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district includes Channel Gateway, said Snyder was far enough along with his project that he did not need Nathanson’s help.

Nathanson in 1974 was arrested while on the Los Angeles city building and safety board for allegedly accepting a $2,500 cash payment from a zoning applicant. He pleaded no contest to attempted grand theft, a misdemeanor, and was fined $2,500. In 1986, he was fined more than $13,000 by the FPPC for failing to disclose his business interests while serving on a state watchdog commission on government effectiveness.

Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this article.