LOCAL ELECTIONS / L.A. MAYOR : Wachs May Be Missing $40,000 in Dinner Fund

Tens of thousands of dollars in a political account controlled by Los Angeles councilman and mayoral candidate Joel Wachs appear to be unaccounted for, according to records and interviews.

Wachs blamed sloppy bookkeeping for discrepancies totaling as much as $40,000 in the Joel Wachs Dinner Committee account. Authorities said failure to accurately account for such funds can be a violation of state and local election codes.

“The law mandates accurate disclosure” of political committee finances, and fines have been levied for significant or repeated errors, even when unintentional, said Carol Thorp, spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Thorp and city Ethics Commission officials declined to comment on Wachs’ situation. His Dinner Committee account is scheduled to be audited soon by the ethics agency.

Wachs said Wednesday that he and aides have been unable to unravel the problems in the Dinner Committee account, which date back to 1991.

It was either “an accounting error or someone took some money,” Wachs said. “I don’t believe anyone took any money.” Hugh Stevenson, a Wachs aide at City Hall, said he kept the committee’s books in his spare time as a favor to Wachs and apparently committed the errors. “I’m not an accountant. I’m a former newsman. I’m very bad with numbers,” he said.

In a typical discrepancy, Wachs filed public reports last June showing that the committee had about $160,000 in cash on hand. However, an attached note said the committee’s bank records inexplicably showed less than $120,000 actually on hand.

The errors have been carried over and compounded, records show, through a series of public reports, making it virtually impossible to track what has occurred in the account.

The Dinner Committee is not the source of funds for Wachs’ current drive for mayor. However, it did transfer $116,000 late last year to a special Wachs officeholder account, which can be used for political purposes not related to the election. Wachs has been a leading critic of mayoral rival Michael Woo’s use of a similar officeholder account.

Stevenson said he and Wachs discussed the possibility years ago of hiring an auditor to sort out the problem, but no action was taken. Wachs said he decided to wait for the Ethics Commission to audit the account.

However, Mimi Strauss, chief of the commission’s enforcement division, said City Hall budget cuts have been delaying routine reviews of such political funds.

In another development, Ethics Commission officials said they will notify all city candidates that legal questions are pending about campaign fund-raisers involving donations of artists’ work. The candidates will be advised to contact the commission regarding such activities.