Bradley Link to Developer Won’t Be Investigated : Ethics: Panel declares that the $30,000 received by the mayor was properly reported and that there was no indication of influence-peddling on golf course project.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission has declined to investigate Mayor Tom Bradley’s ties to a Japanese developer with plans for a private golf club in Big Tujunga Wash, the panel’s executive director said Thursday.

The Times reported last month that Bradley--who has accepted $30,000 in campaign contributions from developer Cosmo World Corp.--called city Planning Department officials at least four times about the status of the controversial project since 1989.

Benjamin Bycel, head of the watchdog agency, said Thursday that no ethics investigation was warranted because the campaign contributions “were properly disclosed and were within the legal limits” of a city law regulating amounts that contributors may give. Bycel said he had found no sign of illegal influence-peddling in the matter.

Bycel’s decision--based on a review of The Times’ article--was quickly decried as unsatisfactory by several homeowner and environmental leaders concerned about the fate of Big Tujunga Wash. “If what the mayor did isn’t against the law, then they should change the law,” said Bill Eick, attorney for the Shadow Hills Property Owners Assn.

“It looks like all we got was a desktop review of the matter,” complained Jill Swift, a former Bradley appointee to the city’s parks commission, who had urged Bycel to investigate Bradley’s ties to Cosmo World on behalf of the Sierra Club.

The project is the focus of environmentalists’ concerns because the 355-acre Cosmo World property is home to at least one endangered plant species and is one of half a dozen areas in Los Angeles that the city’s general plan identifies as ecologically important.

Meanwhile, a letter from the mayor’s in-house legal adviser, obtained Tuesday by The Times, indicates that Bradley took a far tougher stance in his dealings with the planning bureaucrats than his office has previously acknowledged.

The letter said it was “most assuredly the mayor’s business to force bureaucrats to do their jobs. . . . He has taken the Planning Department to task over this (the Cosmo World project) and innumerable other projects.”

The letter from Bradley attorney Jane Ellison Usher was written to Judy Howard, the project director of the Tujunga Ponds Wildlife Sanctuary, in response to Howard’s demand that the mayor be investigated.

The Times in February reported Bradley’s calls to Planning Department executives to inquire about the department’s protracted review of an environmental impact report of Cosmo World’s $40-million golf club plan. One internal Planning Department memo identifed the Cosmo World project as a priority of the mayor’s office.

Bradley’s inquiries about the status of the project were made as Cosmo World complained to him about delays in the review of its environmental impact report.

The mayor’s office and the Planning Department have denied that the mayor’s interest has had an effect on the city’s review of the golf course project’s environmental report. But The Times found that the review took some shortcuts. For instance, the department expedited the project by prematurely releasing an environmental assessment that its own staff later criticized as misleading and “postured to essentially promote the project.”

Bycel signaled his decision to reject an investigation of Bradley in a letter dated March 23 to Sylvia Gross, a leader of the Sunland Tujunga Assn. of Residents. Gross’ organization represents homeowners in the area next to Big Tujunga Wash.

Bycel, whose policy is not to comment on requests for investigations, said Thursday he agreed to discuss the Bradley matter only because The Times had obtained a copy of his reply to Gross.

Gross, more than half a dozen other homeowner groups and the Sierra Club have urged Bycel to investigate whether it was proper for Bradley to accept sizable political contributions from Cosmo World while he and his staff intervened with city officials on a planning matter involving the company.

Gross said she was disappointed by Bycel’s response. “The Ethics Commission should be looking into matters like this,” she said.

But Bycel said it would be irresponsible for his agency to investigate Bradley without some indication of lawbreaking. “We’re the department of ethics, not the department of morality,” he said.