Violations by Svorinich’s Office Alleged : Politics: Ex-aides say campaign contributions were illegally accepted at a city facility. Councilman denies the charge but admits that some funds had gone unreported.

On at least three occasions last year, campaign contributions to Los Angeles Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. were brought to his San Pedro district office despite a ban on such political activity in city offices, five former Svorinich aides have told The Times.

Further, one of the aides says that last year he saw Svorinich with an envelope of campaign checks--from Ft. Worth, Tex., contributors--totaling thousands of dollars. Until recently, Svorinich’s office denied that his campaign received the funds. But after inquiries by The Times, the contributions were reported Tuesday.

Svorinich declined to be interviewed on the allegations of contributions being accepted at his office. But through a spokesman he denied the charges. As for the contributions from Ft. Worth, Svorinich’s office said the checks were overlooked earlier because some campaign finance records were briefly lost after the Northridge quake.

The claims by the former Svorinich aides are the latest controversy to dog the freshman councilman, whose district stretches from San Pedro to Watts. His office has been in upheaval with the resignations, voluntarily or otherwise, of seven of 15 staff members since Jan. 20.

Since then, interviews with former staffers have underscored a deep rift within Svorinich’s office. That rift, the ex-aides claim, was fueled by their concern that campaign contribution laws were ignored repeatedly in Svorinich’s office, even after he and his staff were briefed on the laws.

Two former staffers, Brian Hannon and Lillia Fernandez, say they saw an envelope of political contributions accepted at Svorinich’s San Pedro office in December--months after he has claimed that such illegal practices were halted. The person delivering the checks, which came from a San Pedro fund-raising dinner, has confirmed that she dropped them off at Svorinich’s office in December.

Former staffer Kate Acuna says she saw another aide accept an envelope of contributions for Svorinich at the San Pedro office, also around the holidays.

And former Chief Deputy John Vidivich said he saw a San Pedro supporter and fund-raiser for Svorinich drop off an envelope to the district office in October when Svorinich was present. It is unclear if the envelope was accepted at the office, Vidivich said, because he told Svorinich and the supporter to take their activity elsewhere.

Meantime, former senior consultant John Barbieri said he saw Svorinich at his San Pedro office with an envelope containing about a dozen checks, ranging from $50 to $500. Barbieri said the incident occurred after Svorinich dined with a San Pedro supporter and an official for Union Pacific Resources Co., which recently sold the Port of Long Beach 725 waterfront acres that figured in a lawsuit with the Port of Los Angeles.

Barbieri said all but one of the checks were from people living in Ft. Worth, which is headquarters for Union Pacific Resources.

In a statement, Svorinich denied any improper political activity.

“These allegations are not true,” he said. “If these former employees have any proof in regard to these ridiculous allegations, then they should take it to the proper and legal channels to air them rather than the news media.”

To date, only Vidivich has spoken to city ethics officials. But Barbieri and several others have said they intend to do so. Meanwhile, ethics officials--as is their practice--have refused to confirm or deny any investigation of Svorinich or his office.

*

Three weeks ago, Svorinich acknowledged that an aide, Rene DuKet, improperly accepted an envelope of contributions at the San Pedro office. But he said the incident took place just after he took office in July--before DuKet and other staff knew the act was illegal.

“I cannot tell you strongly enough that that sort of action is not condoned in this office,” Svorinich said three weeks ago. He added that the incident with DuKet prompted him to ask city ethics officials to hold a special Aug. 3 briefing on the law for his staff.

Former staffers Hannon and Fernandez, however, say that months after that briefing, DuKet accepted an envelope with campaign contributions at the San Pedro office. The two said the checks were brought in shortly after a Dec. 6 fund-raiser for Svorinich that drew several dozen business owners--each paying $125--to a San Pedro restaurant.

The account was confirmed by Lois Denzin, who delivered the checks from the event.

“I delivered those checks to the office not knowing as an ordinary citizen that there was anything wrong,” said Denzin, who works for a consulting firm that helped plan the event.

*

When told the contributions were delivered in December, Svorinich’s spokesman, Tom Kruesopon, said the council office had erred in earlier claiming that the checks arrived before the August ethics briefing. Kruesopon could not explain, however, why such a briefing would have been requested months before any questionable incident occurred.

Two weeks ago, DuKet said she accepted an envelope of contributions just after Svorinich took office because she did not know the practice was illegal.

Last week, DuKet said she accepted an envelope from Denzin in December because she did not know its contents. “When I looked at the envelope, I found out it was checks,” DuKet said.

On another occasion around the holidays, according to former aide Acuna, Denzin delivered another envelope containing contributions to the San Pedro office.

Denzin said she handed the checks to a Svorinich staffer outside the office.

Former top deputy Vidivich, meanwhile, said that in October Svorinich was present when contributions were brought to the office by San Pedro attorney Carmen Trutanich, a prominent supporter and fund-raiser of the councilman’s. “(Trutanich) brought in an envelope with campaign contributions. . . . Rudy was there to meet him,” Vidivich said. “And I said, this belongs elsewhere, or something to that effect. Take it outside. And that was it. I went back to my office.”

Trutanich denied bringing political contributions to Svorinich’s office. “Anybody who tells you that is a flat-out liar,” he said.

The ban on accepting campaign contributions at a council office is designed to avoid the appearance of a link “between the office itself . . . and the campaign process,” said Larry Berg of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

Former aide Barbieri said he saw Svorinich in the San Pedro office last summer or early fall with the envelope of campaign checks from Ft. Worth. He said he saw the checks after Svorinich held a dinner meeting with Ed Gladish, director of government relations for Union Pacific Resources, and Trutanich, whose law firm had done work for the company.

Trutanich said he remembered a lunch with Svorinich, Gladish and Joe Burton, a partner in Trutanich’s law firm. But he could not recall the date and insisted it had nothing to do with contributions from Union Pacific Resources.

*

Gladish recalled a lunch meeting and making contributions--with others from Union Pacific Resources--to Svorinich.

When first asked about the checks from Ft. Worth residents, officials in Svorinich’s office said they did not know about the contributions. But when asked last week--after Gladish confirmed the checks--Svorinich’s spokesman said the money had been received and would be reported Tuesday. The report shows $1,400 from Union Pacific Resources and a half-dozen of its employees.