Challenge to Mayor’s Reform Bid Launched

Signaling an expensive campaign against Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, seven City Council members and former Mayor Tom Bradley launched a fund-raising effort Thursday to support a slate of candidates to overhaul the 72-year-old city charter.

Riordan and his supporters have already raised $556,000 to support the mayor’s slate of candidates.

The breakfast meeting at the City Club in downtown Los Angeles was the first indication that the council, planning a rival slate of candidates, will challenge Riordan’s fund-raising prowess. A council majority has harshly criticized the Riordan-backed charter-reform effort, calling it a thinly veiled power grab.

The breakfast meeting attracted about 130 people, including labor union organizers, lobbyists, business leaders and community activists.

Harvey Englander, a prominent Democratic consultant who helped organize the event, said he is not sure how much money was raised. Several who attended the event said the goal was to raise $750,000 from the breakfast.

Neither side has released the names of candidates they will support, saying they will wait until the nominating period ends Tuesday.

Council members John Ferraro, Richard Alatorre, Rita Walters, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Laura Chick, Mike Hernandez and Richard Alarcon attended the event. Several of the members spoke at the gathering, urging guests to help support a slate of candidates for the panel.

“I believe in the competition of ideas,” Ferraro said. “We need to let the people of Los Angeles hear all the information.”

The rival charter campaigns were in response to threats of a political secession by the San Fernando Valley. Riordan and his supporters raised $790,000 to get a measure on the April ballot that asks voters to create an elected citizens’ panel to rewrite the 680-page charter.

Riordan has also helped raise $556,000, largely from corporate executives to support his slate of candidates.

But several council members say the entire campaign is an effort by Riordan to create a panel that will tip the balance of power toward the mayor’s office at the expense of the council.

The breakfast meeting also sparked charges and counter-charges on the fund-raising tactics used by both sides.

During the gathering, guests were asked to pledge $1,000 to $25,000.

Englander said he will select the slate of candidates after consulting with “lots of people,” including members of the council.

Potential donors were asked to contribute to any of four groups organized by Englander: California Senior Citizens Council, Taxpayers for Reform, Ad Hoc Committee for Charter Reform and California Committee for Choice. The names of the four groups will appear on mailers as supporting the slate.

The groups are actually committee names registered to Englander’s consulting company, the Kamber Group. Under state law, there is no limit on the amount of funds that such slate committees may raise, but gifts to individual candidates are limited to $250 per donor.

Rick Taylor, a campaign consultant working on Riordan’s reform committee, called the fund-raising effort “underhanded” and “slimy.”

“They have found a loophole in the law to skirt the voters’ intent,” he said.

But Englander fired back, saying Riordan’s committee took advantage of other fund-raising loopholes.