Hayden Says Mayor Made Illegal Call to Liquor Board

Firing a new salvo in the mayoral campaign, state Sen. Tom Hayden on Thursday accused Mayor Richard Riordan of breaking the law by personally intervening in a Westside restaurateur’s effort to obtain a liquor license.

Hayden claimed that Riordan telephoned the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to urge that a license be granted for Barnabys, a Fairfax Avenue restaurant scheduled to open next month.

Such a call would be a violation of a state law that bars all such communications outside of a public hearing.

The inquiry allegedly was made last month as an administrative law judge in Los Angeles weighed the objections of neighborhood activists who oppose the 350-seat restaurant, about a mile south of Farmer’s Market. “Here we have a very clear case of the mayor breaking the law,” Hayden told a news conference at his Westside campaign headquarters. “The mayor operates most comfortably behind the scenes, pulling strings, rather than in the public where he’s accountable.”

The Riordan political camp adamantly denied that the mayor contacted the ABC. A spokesman said that a member of Riordan’s City Hall staff did call the agency last month during a routine check on the restaurant proposal, a redevelopment project that the mayor’s office has been monitoring.

“The mayor was absolutely, positively, 100% not involved in any way,” Riordan campaign spokesman Todd Harris said. “He never asked anyone to contact ABC. Tom Hayden is simply trying to confuse the voters.”

The issue surfaced last month when Administrative Law Judge Ronald M. Gruen became aware of an inquiry he believed was made by Riordan.

Gruen held a hearing on Jan. 10 to consider a protest lodged by neighborhood leaders over the proposed liquor license, and afterward he wrote a draft of a decision which he submitted to be typed.

Six days later, a clerk returned the document to Gruen, along with a note that read: “FYI--HQ just called and told me that the mayor has called inquiring about this decision. He wants the license to issue.”

As a result of the note, Gruen issued a Jan. 28 order notifying all parties involved in the case of the mayor’s office’s inquiry. The order stated that “this mayoral communication may constitute a violation of Government Code Section 11513.5”--a state law that prohibits anyone with an interest in a matter before an administrative law judge from contacting the jurist privately to discuss the matter, either directly or indirectly.

Gruen has scheduled a hearing in mid-April to evaluate whether the inquiry constituted any outside interference.

The Riordan campaign and members of the mayor’s City Hall staff blamed the controversy on the ABC.

Jeff Walden, a member of the L.A. Business Team in the mayor’s office, said he was the one who contacted the ABC in Sacramento last month, in what he characterized as a routine call to check on the status of the Barnabys project. He said he spoke to a clerk whom he later learned was hearing impaired. That clerk, Walden and others argue, incorrectly surmised that the mayor himself had called.

Walden said he learned that erroneous information had been transmitted to the judge when he saw Gruen’s order. He said he called ABC officials in Sacramento to straighten out the situation.

“When I talked to the chief at ABC to correct the statement, I was informed that the clerk was hearing impaired and may have misconstrued the information,” Walden said.

An ABC spokesman confirmed that the agency has a hearing-impaired clerk who handles public calls, but said she uses a special device that bolsters her hearing. The spokesman would not confirm that the clerk spoke to anyone in Riordan’s office.

Barnabys owner Elliot Gottfurcht, who appeared with Harris outside the Hayden news conference to counter the claims being made inside, said he never asked Riordan--or anyone else in the mayor’s office--to contact the ABC on his behalf.

“I don’t know the mayor,” Gottfurcht said. “I never contributed to his campaign.”

Riordan’s office said Gottfurcht had called last month asking if the office could check on the status of his ABC application. Gottfurcht denies making any request.

Gottfurcht wants to open his restaurant in a struggling section of the Westside, on a thoroughfare that has tried for years to spring back from economic stagnation. The area’s City Council representative, Mike Feuer, has endorsed the project, as have several neighborhood leaders.

But members of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Assn. have lobbied against the restaurant, arguing that it will bring too much traffic and noise to the neighborhood and that it is too close to a school.