Gerred Won’t Resign or Return Donation : Politics: Planner says he didn’t know Warner Bros. had submitted development plan when he accepted $1,500.

City planning board member David Gerred said he regrets having accepted $1,500 from Warner Bros. as the studio sought his agency’s approval of a master development plan, but he has no plans to resign as a result.

The contributions have sparked a political firestorm in Burbank, with critics calling for Gerred’s ouster from the influential planning post.

“I did not know that [Warner Bros.] had a matter that would be pending before the planning board,” Gerred told The Times. “I knew they would be applying for a master plan, but I didn’t know it was already in the process.

“Had I known that, I wouldn’t have accepted the money,” said Gerred. “I’m not out there trying to break the law.”

Gerred also said that he will not give the money back.

Gerred reported receiving the three contributions on Feb. 15: $1,000 from the Warner Bros. Political Action Committee and two more of $250 each from studio executives. The gifts were to support Gerred’s unsuccessful campaign for City Council.

Warner Bros. first submitted its proposal to the city’s planning department in October, 1994. According to Ravi Mehta, chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, California law prohibits any member of an appointed body from taking contributions of more than $250 from a party requesting an “entitlement,” such as a development approval, from that government body.

Mehta, who declined to comment on Gerred’s case, said that when a developer’s project comes before a board, the official who received the contribution must abstain if he or she has received more than $250 from the developer within the last 12 months. Mehta said the $250 limit on contributions applies as soon as the developer’s project has been submitted to the government agency, and does not require the project to be on the board’s agenda for a vote.

The FPPC has been asked to rule on Gerred’s case by both Gerred and Rene Michaud, a local political activist who called for Gerred’s resignation this week.

The issue arose when Gerred left a board hearing last week on the Warner plan saying he felt he had done nothing wrong but wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict. Gerred said he acted on the advice of the Burbank city attorney’s office.

Gerred said he bowed out of Monday’s hearing on the studio plan “in order not to cause problems for the city, not to embarrass the planning board and not to deny [Warner Bros.] their due process.”

In June, Gerred attended a study session of the board on the studio proposal after city lawyers said there was no conflict, Gerred said. “We were solely taking public testimony, we were not making a decision or a recommendation at that meeting,” he said.

Juli Scott, chief assistant Burbank city attorney, said she looked into the question and concluded that it was not a conflict for Gerred to attend.

Michaud has also asked the FPPC to look into Gerred’s participation in the June hearing.

Mehta said rules governing attendance at such meetings are “open to interpretation.”

“It’s a very confusing section and we don’t deal with it very often,” Mehta said.

Without Gerred, the planning board would have just three members to decide whether to recommend that an environmental report for the studio development plan be approved. Board member Ed Hill, an attorney, earlier recused himself because his law firm had done business with Warner Bros.