Mayor Still Raising Funds to Erase Campaign Debt : Politics: Riordan is continuing to gather money from special interests, reports show.

Facing thousands of dollars in residual red ink from his record-shattering $10-million campaign, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has continued a steady pace of political fund raising among donors who include representatives of special interests likely to have matters coming before him, new records show.

As of the end of June, Riordan’s campaign had $176,000 in unpaid bills, despite the mayor’s earlier action to write off $2 million in personal loans he made to himself.

And the outstanding debt--which Riordan by law may not personally pay--could reach $300,000, said David Gould, the mayor’s campaign treasurer.

To clear away the bills--including tens of thousands of dollars owed to consultants, campaign mailing houses and legal advisers--Riordan is expected to hold a fund-raiser next month, Gould said.

Gould said more businesses with interests at City Hall have been donating to Riordan since the final days of the campaign, when it became likely that he would be sitting in the mayor’s office. Collecting funds from special interests to pay off campaign creditors could prove politically awkward for the new mayor, who has held himself out as a fresh breed of politician beholden to no one.

But Bill Wardlaw, who chaired Riordan’s campaign, said the multimillionaire mayor will not be influenced by political donations because he was his own largest contributor. “We are going to be vigilant” about potentially embarrassing donations, he said. “But let’s get to the fundamental basic point: to think you are going to influence Dick Riordan with money is dumb.”

In addition to retiring his debt, records and interviews show, Riordan has quickly joined other City Hall politicians in forming a special political account for miscellaneous non-campaign expenses. The $25,000 annual maximum in the so-called officeholder account was collected just before the June 30 deadline, allowing Riordan to gather another $25,000 in the coming months if he desires, Gould said.

Gould said it is unclear how the funds will be used. But as an example, he said they could be used to pay for Riordan or his aides to travel to Washington to meet with President Clinton or other federal officials.

Riordan, who has promised to serve for $1 a year, has also pledged not to bill taxpayers for any of his travels as mayor.

Gould said he is reviewing one large contribution to the fund that may raise legal questions for Riordan. Tutor-Saliba, one of the largest contractors on the Metro Rail subway, gave $5,000. Riordan is a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees subway construction.

In some cases, MTA members must disqualify themselves from voting on contracts involving political donors who have given them more than $250, said Jeanette Turvill, a spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

It is unclear whether the regulations would apply to Riordan in this case, however.

“Nobody thought about it,” said Gould, adding that Riordan will either return the money or abstain from voting on Tutor-Saliba matters if the donation creates a legal problem.

Ron Tutor, president of Tutor-Saliba, said the contribution was not intended to curry favor with the new mayor. “I resent all the criticism when all we’re trying to do is be good guys to the people we support,” he said.

Riordan’s treasurer said the mayor has not personally been involved in soliciting donations and generally “has no knowledge of who the people are that have given him money.”

Other large contributors to the special officeholder fund include the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, whose lawyers represent clients at City Hall.

Likewise, in the closing days of the campaign and since the election, some City Hall business interests have kicked in sizable sums to Riordan’s campaign fund-raising efforts, new reports show.

For example, about $9,000 was received in June from a port scrap-metal firm, Hiuka America Corp., and its executives.

The controversial plant, which had become a focus of neighborhood complaints about its industrial operations and has plans to move to Long Beach, received council approval July 22 to continue operations in San Pedro for two years.

David Creigh, a spokesman for the firm, said the contributions were made at a reception for Riordan in the final days before the June 8 election. But the donation was not tied to the firm’s matter pending at City Hall, Creigh said. “We thought (Riordan) was the best candidate for Los Angeles.”

Among the other special interests giving $1,000 contributions were Laidlaw Transit, a city bus contractor; Los Angeles Checker Cab Co., which receives its franchise from the city; the Los Angeles Flower Mart, which operates in a special city redevelopment project; lawyer-lobbyist George Mihlsten, and United Airlines, which operates terminals at city airports.

“We picked up money from everybody because they presumed he would be the winner. Some of those had City Hall interests, but some were his own base of supporters,” said Gould, to whom Riordan’s office referred questions.

Riordan’s advisers and fund-raisers were caught off guard by potentially controversial campaign contributions and will devise a better system to flag them in the future, Gould said.

The new reports showed that defeated mayoral candidate Michael Woo ended up with about $5,000 in his campaign account.

Overall, the reports show Riordan, who donated $6 million of his own money, outspent Woo by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1. By the time the current fund-raising effort ends, Riordan’s total is expected to exceed $10 million. Woo spent about $5.5 million.

To help curb fund raising among special interests by elected officials, the city’s new ethics law calls for campaign bills to be paid and fund raising to stop 90 days after an election. Riordan is expected to seek and be granted a temporary extension.