Mayor Tries to Make Daly’s Job Conflict Issue : Politics: Hunter targets foe’s employment with builders trade association in bitter Anaheim battle. Councilman cites use of public funds in Arena and 2% utility tax hike.

In what is rapidly becoming the hottest mayoral race in recent history, Mayor Fred Hunter is trying to turn Councilman Tom Daly’s job as an executive for a builders trade association into a key issue in the campaign.

Hunter, as well as City Council candidate Bob Zemel, has been questioning whether Daly has violated a state law that says elected officials must abstain from voting on any project that would financially benefit them or their employers.

In addition, Hunter has tried in his campaign literature to portray Daly as the servant of the building industry who kowtows to its every wish.

The “conflict-of-interest” accusations, which the mayor and Zemel have made during campaign appearances, interviews and in press releases, have been angrily denied by Daly.

He said Hunter “is trying to take attention from the real issues of the campaign--the public money that has gone into the (Anaheim) Arena and the utility tax increase,” which was passed last year. Hunter was the chief proponent of the 2% increase, which Daly opposed.

“(Hunter) knows that if you accuse a politician of having a conflict, it’s like accusing someone of being a child molester,” Daly said. “Even when it’s a lie, it’s hard (for the accused) to get away from.”

State officials and the city attorney have agreed with Daly that his job does not fit the legal definition of a conflict of interest.

At the heart of Hunter’s accusations is Daly’s job as government affairs director for the Orange County region of the Building Industry Assn., a trade group of 950 builders and developers, big and small. Hunter has also brought up the $14,000 in campaign contributions leading BIA members have given Daly since 1988.

So bitter is the battle that debates are not only heated but nasty, with Hunter using the word lobbyist as if it were Daly’s first name, while Daly has called Hunter “a liar.”

The two even argue over Daly’s job description.

Hunter says Daly’s job calls for him to lobby other city governments on behalf of the developers. Daly said his job is to keep association members informed about what the state and local governments are doing concerning regulations and laws that govern construction.

Daly took the job in August, 1989, about a year after he was elected to the council. He previously worked as an aide to Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth. Because of a provision in the City Charter that requires mayors to also be sitting council members, Daly has to try to unseat Hunter for the two-year mayoral post, while also attempting to also hold onto his council seat against Zemel and nine other challengers, both in at-large elections. Hunter’s council seat does not expire until 1994.

In making the campaign charge, Hunter says Daly’s BIA job posed a conflict of interest on at least six occasions when Daly voted to approve large-scale projects proposed by the Presley Co., the Irvine Co. and the Baldwin Co., all of which have seats on the BIA’s 46-member board of directors.

Hunter says the BIA directors are in effect Daly’s employers.

“Those people determine his salary,” Hunter said of the directors.

Hunter says he thinks that Daly should not take part in council deliberations of a BIA member’s project because the member’s dues help pay Daly’s salary. Hunter says it is worse when Daly votes on a board member’s project.

But Daly and the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which investigates alleged conflicts, said his votes were legally cast.

And, Daly said, he checked with City Atty. Jack L. White before even accepting the BIA job.

“I asked Jack if this job would pose a legal problem, and he told me it would not and I got his opinion in writing,” Daly said. “If he had told me there would be a legal problem, I would not have accepted the job.”

White confirmed that he talked to Daly before the councilman accepted his BIA job. He said he told Daly that it is not illegal for him to be a BIA executive while serving on the council. But he also gave him the same warning he gives every council member: Examine each issue before you cast your vote to make sure there is no conflict of interest.

Carol Thorp, spokeswoman for the Fair Political Practices Commission, also said that under most circumstances it is legal for a council member who is a trade association executive to vote on projects that would financially benefit an association director or member. She said no one has ever filed a conflict-of-interest complaint against Daly with her agency.

She said she could not address specific cases but said “in general, what has been described is not a conflict of interest.”

Hunter, a personal injury lawyer, said he disagrees with White’s and the FPPC’s interpretation of the law.

“I guess what (White and the FPPC) are saying then is that it is OK for a developers’ lobbyist to be Anaheim’s mayor or sit on the council,” Hunter said. “Well, maybe it’s legal, but it’s morally and ethically wrong. . . . It’s wrong because of the perception of (wrongdoing). How close do you get to the edge before you go over it? These people sign his paychecks.”

Hunter joined Daly in voting to approve the board members’ projects, as did the other council members, but he said “that’s irrelevant. What’s relevant here is Daly’s votes . . . and how he is part of this lobbyist crowd and how he does favors for his cronies.”

Daly said he should be judged by his votes on the council and not anyone’s perceptions. He cited five BIA member projects that he opposed, but which were supported by Hunter. Daly added that every major project he has supported Hunter has also supported.

“Appearances are in the eye of the beholder, but what counts is my (council) voting record,” Daly said. “I have consistently been the toughest vote on the council against shoddy development. I’ll let my record stand on its own.”

In making the charge that Daly is beholden to development interests, Hunter has also questioned the donations BIA members have given Daly. A Times Orange County computer search of city campaign records shows that BIA’s 46 board members have given, since 1988, toward Daly’s current campaign $14,800 while giving Hunter $1,400. In four previous campaigns, those same members gave Hunter an average of $6,500. Through Oct. 17, Daly had spent $189,677 on his campaign, while Hunter has spent $101,891.

“Even as we speak the BIA is still trying to raise even more money for its lobbyist Tom Daly,” Hunter said. “Why? Because they are grooming him to become an Orange County supervisor.”

Daly replied that Hunter “is making paranoid accusations about a conspiracy that doesn’t exist.”

Times staff writer Mark Landsbaum contributed to this story.