Firm Employed by County Also Was Paid to Lobby It : Politics: Company pushed projects at City Hall while lobbying supervisors on behalf of private clients.

For nearly five years, lobbyists Alma Fitch and Clark Davis possessed the ultimate inside connection at the Hall of Administration, seat of Los Angeles County government.

Developers, waste management firms and other powerful companies paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby county supervisors. At the same time they were working on behalf of private clients, the supervisors paid Fitch and Davis $273,817 in public funds to lobby for county projects at nearby Los Angeles City Hall.

In effect, Fitch and Davis were employed by the same government they were paid to lobby. They even billed county taxpayers at about the same rate as their corporate clients--$200 per hour.

The arrangement, which ended in February, is perhaps the most dramatic example of the close links between lobbyists and Los Angeles County government officials. The power and influence of these lobbyists is only now coming into focus, with the recent adoption of the county’s first lobbyist-registration law.

“Such a cozy relationship really does call into question the independence of the supervisors’ decisions when it comes to matters these lobbyists have before the board,” said Cecilia Gallardo of California Common Cause, a government watchdog group.

Although there is no state or local law against such activities, Gallardo added, “we can’t say it’s a common practice.”

A look at Fitch/Davis Associates--one of a dozen or so influential county lobbying firms--offers a case study in how lobbying, political consulting and campaign fund raising have become intertwined at the highest levels of county government.

“We try to make sure we have no enemies,” Davis said. “We try the best we can to make sure we are friends with everyone.”

Indeed, records show the lobbyists’ firm, Fitch/Davis Associates, has links to a wide variety of players in local government, including four county supervisors--from both liberal and conservative camps--plus Sheriff Sherman Block and officials in the county Department of Beaches and Harbors.

The lobbyists’ contacts with Beaches and Harbors were especially useful because their largest corporate client doing business with the county is Newfield Enterprises International, the Los Angeles representative of a billionaire Saudi Arabian businessman who recently became the largest leaseholder at county-owned Marina del Rey.

According to public records, other Fitch/Davis clients include Philip Morris U.S.A., the Southland Corporation, the Baldwin Co., Waste Management of North America, and Newhall Land & Farming, one of the county’s largest developers. In all, corporate clients paid Fitch/Davis $54,375 for lobbying services during the last quarter of 1992, the first time county lobbyists had to report their earnings.

All the companies have a major stake in decisions made by the Board of Supervisors and high-ranking county officials. In September, for example, the board approved a Newhall Land & Farming project to build 1,890 housing units, retail shops and a golf course near Santa Clarita.

“I feel a little proprietary about the county,” Fitch said. “I worked there. Even as a lobbyist I try to tell the officeholders what I see are the upsides and the downsides. I think that’s the staff person in me coming out.”

A former chief deputy to Board of Supervisors’ Chairman Ed Edelman, Fitch was also an aide to late Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh. She is also a political consultant to Sheriff Block. Her partner, Davis, is a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy whose career was cut short by an injury. Both are known as gracious, even-tempered people with an excellent command of the intricacies of local government.

Still, much of Fitch and Davis’ clout comes down to money--they have helped raise thousands of dollars for officeholders. They have contributed to county Supervisors Edelman, Mike Antonovich, Deane Dana and Gloria Molina.

“We can’t guarantee the votes of someone,” Davis said. “But we do recommend that all of our clients donate money to a variety of different people in politics.”

In July, 1991, for example, Fitch/Davis hosted a reception that raised more than $39,000 to help Molina pay off the campaign debt from her race for supervisor.

In addition to their own $2,500 contribution, Fitch/Davis collected checks for Molina from a variety of special interests, including Maguire Thomas Partners, which wants to build the massive Playa Vista project next to Marina del Rey; P & M Realty, which operates a high-rise marina apartment complex on a long-term county lease, and Unocal Corp., which has exclusive leases to operate boat fuel docks in the marina.

“We wanted to help her,” Fitch said of Molina. “We worked with her at City Hall. She has a lot of work to do . . . and this was one less thing for her to worry about as a supervisor.”

At the time, questions about the Saudi investor had arisen and the newly elected supervisor was challenging the county’s management of the marina and the revenue generated by leases with private developers.

Fitch was later able to gain rare access to Molina. Although Molina’s staff members say the supervisor “almost never” grants an audience to a lobbyist, Molina met April 16, 1992, with Fitch to discuss marina leases.

Molina has “taken money from a variety of groups and it’s never factored into her decisions,” said Alma Martinez, Molina’s chief deputy. “Fund raising is a part of the ugly side of being an elected official.”

Most county and City Hall lobbyists are also big campaign fund-raisers and such interlinked relationships as those between Molina, Fitch/Davis and the lobbyists’ corporate clients are not rare.

Few lobbyists, however, work for the government they lobby. Government watchdogs say such a relationship creates the potential for conflicts of interest. Records and interviews with county officials and the lobbyists show that while working for the county, Fitch and Davis were able to cultivate official contacts that later proved useful to their private clients.

Under the auspices of Chief Administrative Officer Richard Dixon, who retired in January, Fitch and Davis worked for the county’s “asset development” program, helping officials with development projects designed to raise revenue for the county. They worked extensively in the development of the Disney Concert Hall, which is under construction in the downtown Civic Center.

Although the county employs its own lobbyists in Sacramento--full-time county employees who represent no other clients--the county chose instead to hire the $175- to $200-per-hour outsiders because of their expertise in City Hall affairs.

Mary Jung, Dixon’s top assistant when he was CAO, said Fitch and Davis were hired because “they are familiar with the processes in the city of Los Angeles, so you don’t have to spend time and money learning the bureaucratic maze.”

In October, 1991, for example, Fitch and Davis billed county taxpayers $1,000 for meetings with Councilwoman Rita Walters, including $800 for an Oct. 29 dinner meeting. Walters represents the district where the concert hall is being built. Fitch already knew Walters well. Just a few months earlier, Fitch had been finance chairwoman in Walters’ hard-fought campaign against Bob Gay.

In a similar fashion, Fitch and Davis worked as lobbyists for the county Department of Beaches and Harbors and then later lobbied the same department on behalf of a private businessman.

Beaches and Harbors officials said Fitch/Davis was hired to assist in negotiations with the city of Los Angeles over plans for locating two new restaurants on public beaches in Pacific Palisades. The county would earn revenue by leasing the property to a private developer.

But the plan ran into opposition from Councilman Marvin Braude and Pacific Palisades homeowners. “Braude was very vociferously opposed. He didn’t believe we should commercialize the beach,” said Eric Bourdon, now Beaches and Harbors director. “We needed help with city politics. That’s what we needed Alma Fitch for.”

Bourdon said the effort was not successful in either winning approval for the restaurants or increased financial support from the city for beach services. According to public records, Fitch/Davis billed taxpayers $4,550 for lobbying on behalf of the Department of Beaches and Harbors between August, 1990, and January, 1991.

Fitch and Davis said that as county-paid lobbyists, they worked with Ted Reed, then-director of Beaches and Harbors, who has since retired. The contact with Reed would prove useful later that year, when they were hired to lobby for Newfield Enterprises International.

The Century City company manages Saudi businessman Abdul Aziz al Ibrahim’s extensive U.S. real estate holdings, which include a major stake in county-owned Marina del Rey.

When Fitch/Davis was hired, Ibrahim was locked in a bitter battle in federal bankruptcy court with Los Angeles developer Abraham M. Lurie for control of three hotels, two apartment complexes, shopping centers, offices and more than 1,100 boat slips in the marina. The businesses operate on public land through long-term leases with the county.

Fitch said Ibrahim was concerned about prejudice against foreign investors.

County officials were concerned about who would end up controlling nearly 20% of the marina. Fitch/Davis was hired by the Saudi investor to lobby county officials from the supervisors to Beaches and Harbors, which oversees the marina.

At the time they accepted the contract with the Saudi investor, they continued to work as paid lobbyists for other county departments--although they dropped their Beaches and Harbors association in January, 1991.

When first asked about the gap between their lobbying for Beaches and Harbors and their lobbying of the same department on behalf of the Saudi investor, Fitch said, “It was years apart. . . .”

Later, Davis said they were hired within two months of the July, 1991, filing of the bankruptcy case involving Ibrahim and Lurie.

Still later, Davis said his firm did not begin working with Newfield until January, 1992.

Fitch and Davis insist there was nothing wrong with their lobbying contract with the county, which ended this year, shortly after Chief Administrative Officer Dixon left office. Davis said he is aware that some people might have the perception that his firms’ lobbying work for the county was improper.

“It makes it look bad, but in reality it’s not,” Davis said. “I believe we did a very good job for the county.”

Officials at the CAO’s office said that Dixon awarded the Fitch/Davis lobbying contract and that the action did not require board approval. Dixon and other CAO employees associated with the project have since retired. Jung said Dixon may have discussed the Fitch/Davis contract with the board in closed session. Dixon was out of town last week and did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.

The contract was terminated shortly after Dixon retired and Harry Hufford became the county’s interim Chief Administrative Officer. Hufford said he terminated the contract because it was an unnecessary expense. Supervisors and appointed officials could lobby on behalf of the county, he said.

At any rate, Fitch/Davis’ activities demonstrate the political risks of linking lobbying, fund raising and consulting. Last year, Fitch ran state Sen. Diane Watson’s (D-Los Angeles) runoff campaign for county supervisor.

Watson seemed like a good bet to beat Yvonne Brathwaite Burke. When Burke pulled off the come-from-behind victory, Fitch and Davis spent months trying to mend fences with the new supervisor.

But the lobbying duo is confident of its ability to get out of such jams.

Davis said he believes that his reputation for honesty helps.

“We’re pretty straightforward,” Davis said. “We’re aboveboard. As long as you tell you the truth, you go forward.”