Mayor Says Hayden Takes Too Many Gifts

The multimillionaire mayor of Los Angeles on Wednesday accused his millionaire challenger, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), of “lining his pockets” with gifts and honorariums from special interests.

“Every day must be like Christmas” for Hayden, the campaign to reelect Mayor Richard Riordan said in a news release, calling on Hayden to return $2,150 he was paid in the 1980s for speeches at California colleges and universities.

“This guy is constantly talking about everybody else’s contributions. He puts himself on a pulpit and he preaches about everybody else raising money and taking money,” said Riordan campaign manager Julio Ramirez. “He’s got to practice what he preaches. If you live in a glass house, you can’t throw rocks.”

But records show that Hayden has collected far less in gifts and honorariums than many of his Sacramento colleagues--$90,259 worth between 1982 and 1995. The bulk of that, $51,172, came in the form of use of movie studios’ corporate jets, which Hayden said were primarily gifts to his former wife, actress Jane Fonda.

“When I was married to Jane Fonda, there certainly were some movie studios that wanted to fly her around. In 17 years of marriage, I guess I took four trips. So what?” Hayden said.

“I have probably given 10,000 speeches, or 100,000 speeches, and been compensated for 10 in my public life,” Hayden added. “I would be the lowest on the list of anyone in the Legislature in terms of taking gifts or honorariums. I’m at the bottom. I’m below the bottom.”

Indeed, records show that Hayden was paid $12,650 for giving speeches between 1982 and 1990, when lawmakers were banned from collecting honorariums. That pales compared to former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, now mayor of San Francisco, who collected $89,000 in a single year and as much as $500,000 over a decade, being paid as much as $5,000 for a single speech.

As for gifts, Hayden received $1,285 in tickets to sporting events, including the Super Bowl; $561 in theater and concert tickets; $3,420 in memberships to a Sacramento athletic club, and $3,535 in free parking at Los Angeles International Airport during 14 years as a legislator, according to records.

In recent years, he has had a strict no-gift policy, sending a check for $5 to a lobbyist in exchange for a Christmas poinsettia that was dropped off at his Senate office.

“Over that long period of time, that really is not very much in the scheme of things, compared to other elected officials,” said Ruth Holton, executive director of California Common Cause, describing Hayden as a “big supporter” of the initiative that barred legislators from accepting honorariums. “He certainly was not anywhere near the top recipients in the Legislature. There were many other elected officials who milked the system for all it was worth.”

Riordan’s accusations came in response to Hayden’s repeated criticism of the mayor’s acceptance of campaign contributions from companies that do business with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as well as the mayor’s corporate fund-raising to support a ballot initiative this spring to rewrite the City Charter.

On Wednesday, Hayden reiterated and expanded his attack, saying Riordan has received $33,000 from MTA contractors, including $20,000 from Tutor-Saliba, the construction firm under investigation after the recent death of a worker in the Los Angeles subway.

“He is scrambling because he doesn’t want to be held responsible for the negligence that led to the death of the worker in the tunnel,” Hayden said of the mayor.

Records at the city’s Ethics Commission show that Riordan--who collects a salary of just $1 a year--has not accepted any honorariums since becoming mayor in 1993.

The mayor has received $1,930 worth of gifts since taking office.

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Times staff writes Paul Jacobs in Sacramento and Jeffrey L. Rabin in Los Angeles contributed to this story.