NEWS ANALYSIS : Port Official Had to Weather Many Storms : Ethics: Critics say the accomplishments of Jun Mori, who resigned from the Harbor Commission last week, were tarnished by conflict-of-interest charges.

For 15 years, Los Angeles Harbor Commissioner Jun Mori helped bring prosperity to the port--and controversy to himself.

As the longest-serving commissioner in the port’s 85-year history, he forged trade with the booming Pacific Rim, championed affirmative action and was a pivotal player in the harbor’s emergence as the nation’s busiest commercial port.

But when the 62-year-old attorney abruptly resigned last week from the five-member commission, he was also well remembered for mixing his public duties with his private business.

His critics contend that whatever Mori’s accomplishments, they were tarnished by his apparent disregard for the city’s ethics rules. Despite repeated complaints from city officials, Mori’s law firms represented some of the port’s biggest tenants while he served on the mayorally appointed board that oversees the harbor’s affairs.

Over the years, Mori weathered the conflict-of-interest allegations, survived the periodic shake-ups of city commissions and retained the confidence of the man who appointed him--Mayor Tom Bradley, who once called Mori “one of the most ethical and honest people I have ever met.”

Why Mori chose to leave his powerful post now--with three years left in his term--is not clear. Publicly, he has said little about his reasons for stepping down. And those who have talked to him insist that he never explained his resignation.

He announced his decision with only a brief statement at the beginning of last Wednesday’s commission session. “I wanted to tell you all,” he said, “that I’ve asked the mayor to relieve me of my duties here as a member of the board. Today will be my last meeting. I leave with mixed feelings but a great deal of pride.”

In a later interview, Mori said: “It’s been 15 years. Will you please understand that?”

Some in the tightknit harbor community suspect that he may finally have grown weary of the public scrutiny of his business dealings, especially at a time when one of his law firm’s clients is angling for a controversial port lease and a share of a $100-million project he has pushed for years.

“That’s probably as good a guess as any,” said one of many port officials stunned by Mori’s resignation and who requested anonymity. “This project was his baby and . . . maybe he figured: ‘If I can’t be part of it, why go through the rest of the hassle” as a commissioner.

Dismissing the speculation, Mori said the timing was a “coincidence.”

Throughout his years at the port, such shorthand explanations were routine for Mori. Whether questioned by reporters, the city attorney’s office or citizens, the quizzing always seemed to grate on a man so intensely private that some longtime friends say they never knew how many children he had.

“I’ve always had a genuine respect for Jun Mori. . . . He brought a very professional, extremely well-informed background to the commission, especially about Japan,” said former port executive Robert Kleist, who is corporate adviser to Evergreen America Corp., a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine, the world’s largest container steamship company.

But Kleist said Mori never seemed comfortable in the public arena. “I don’t think he could ever survive in open politics because there everything you do is questioned,” Kleist said, “and Jun Mori is the kind of person who feels everything he is doing is right.”

Despite the controversies that marred a tenure spanning the terms of 17 harbor commissioners and four general managers, Mori never lost the backing of his patron, Bradley, who depended heavily on him for the port’s success.

During Mori’s tenure, the port’s operating revenues soared from $35 million to more than $160 million last year. That increase, in large part, was because of a boom in its Pacific Rim trade, where Mori’s skill as a negotiator and his Japanese-American background proved invaluable, according to many at the port.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Mori graduated in 1951 with a law degree from Waseda University in Japan. His firsthand knowledge of its culture and his command of its language transcended many barriers that other Japanese-American port officials could not.

Fred Heim, who served on the port commission for 13 years, said that Mori’s education in Japan--coupled with his degrees at UCLA and USC and law practice here--made him “an interesting mixture of East and West.”

Mori’s critics contend that although the mayor admired the commissioner’s negotiating skills, he also deeply appreciated Mori’s loyalty and political support.

Since 1984, campaign records show, Bradley received a $20,000 loan from Mori, $2,350 in political contributions from him and $28,150 in contributions from his law firms.

One local maritime industry official, who has known Mori for years, said it is a widely held belief in City Hall and among harbor insiders that Bradley forgave Mori’s controversial conduct because he delivered both for the port and the mayor.

“It was just arrogance,” the official said of Mori’s seeming disregard for the city’s ethics rules. “But he was very close to the mayor, so who was going to go after him?”

In late 1982 and early 1983, the city attorney’s office, among others, tried.

Back then, Mori waited until the 11th hour to disclose that his law practice at the time, Mori & Ota, was attempting to merge with a firm he was backing for a lucrative city bond contract. In revealing the apparent conflict only eight days before the contract was to be awarded, Mori insisted that there was no problem. The city attorney’s office disagreed and a new firm was chosen.

“Commissioner Mori,” the port’s chief lawyer, Winston Tyler, wrote at the time in a confidential memo, “has continually displayed an attitude that the (city’s) conflict-of-interest provisions were a nuisance and the position taken by our office was an irritant.”

In 1983, Mori was also investigated by the district attorney’s office for allegedly pressuring the port’s then-general manager into giving special treatment to one of his law firm’s clients, Distribution & Auto Service, an importing arm of Nissan Motor Co. The district attorney concluded that Mori did intercede on behalf of his client but that there was insufficient evidence to show criminal intent.

On numerous occasions, Mori’s potential conflicts of interest prevented the commission from voting on port matters, leaving leases and other business to a City Council committee whose former chairman remains miffed at Mori’s actions.

“I think he should have been removed a long time ago,” said Los Angeles Councilman Ernani Bernardi. “I don’t know him that well . . . (but) what I know is that he was regularly involved in conflicts of interest.”

Only days before his resignation, The Times was preparing a story about Mori’s latest brush with trouble: a city attorney’s opinion stating that he could no longer act on a $100-million coal-handling facility he has championed because his law firm represents Hiuka America Corp., which could have a stake in that project through a company it partly owns.

In a March 19 letter to Mori, Assistant City Atty. Anthony Alperin told the commissioner that he would be prevented from any participation on the project. Kaiser International Corp., a longtime port tenant, is one-third owned by Hiuka, a huge scrap company that for the past four years has been represented on various occasions by the New York-based law firm of Kelley Drye & Warren, in which Mori is a senior partner.

City officials and harbor area residents said they were stunned to learn of the four-year relationship between Mori’s law firm and the two companies--Hiuka and Kaiser--whose operations have sparked controversy in the harbor over the years.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Gertrude Schwab, who with her husband, Bill, is leading the fight among Wilmington residents opposed to Hiuka’s bid for a new scrap yard site in the port. “If they have a man in the catbird seat, it’s obvious what they can accomplish,” she said.

For his part, Mori said in an interview that the latest conflict-of-interest opinion was “insignificant” to his resignation. Its timing and his announcement, he said, were “a coincidence.”

Mori said: “Things like this happened seven years ago . . . and the mayor’s office basically said (in a Times article): ‘Mori, you don’t pay enough attention to how you are perceived.’ ”

Mori said that if he was bothered by matters of perception--such as those being raised about his connections to Kaiser and Hiuka--”I wouldn’t have been around, guy.”

Many of Mori’s colleagues and other port officials agree.

“I don’t think one deal would bother him that much even if he couldn’t vote on it. There is just too much activity (in the port) for one deal to bother him that much,” said Commissioner Floyd Clay.

Although some port officials, such as Clay, publicly lamented Mori’s departure, others said they will not miss his enigmatic manner or the controversy it generated.

One port official said: “I haven’t heard anyone say they are sorry to see him go.”

Times researcher Cecilia Rasmussen contributed to this report.