Kim Abandons Office Before Tenure Ends

Where is Jay C. Kim?

The lame-duck Republican lawmaker, who lost his House reelection bid in June after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, has closed his congressional offices in Southern California and Washington a month before his term ends, leaving constituents scrambling to get help.

Phone calls to Kim’s district offices in Yorba Linda and Ontario and his Washington office went unanswered this week, with no answering machine or forwarding number to assist callers.

But Republican officials said they expect to see Kim next week for a House floor vote that both sides see as too close to call on the impeachment of President Clinton, who has been accused of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal.

With Kim’s offices shuttered, incoming Republican Rep. Gary G. Miller and a group of volunteers have been handling requests from the public out of Miller’s small Diamond Bar campaign office, where he’s based until the Jan. 4 swearing-in.

“We’re trying to help people as much as we can,” said Miller, a former state assemblyman. “People are calling us because they don’t know what else to do. . . . There are [Kim] staff people being paid, and we don’t know where they’re at.”

Miller said his office has fielded more than a dozen calls from puzzled constituents during the last week, ranging from parents seeking military academy appointments for their children to people needing help navigating the Internal Revenue Service.

Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-Fullerton) has also received calls from people looking for Kim, his staffers said Friday. Among the callers was the Department of the Navy, wanting to notify Kim of which students in his district had qualified for Naval Academy scholarships.

Kim, 60, who continues to receive his congressional salary through Jan. 3, vacated his Capitol Hill office last week with all other outgoing members of Congress. The officials were moved to temporary quarters elsewhere on Capitol Hill.

But officials at the House clerk’s office said Friday that Kim is the only departing member they know of not to forward calls from his old office to his new one.

The Pico Rivera office number for retiring Rep. Esteban Edward Torres, for example, asks callers to leave a message, and his Washington office number continues to operate. A spokesman for the House Oversight Committee said outgoing members are not required to maintain a Capitol Hill office or even district offices.

The 41st District that Kim represents covers parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

Attempts to reach Kim were unsuccessful.

He has been under supervised probation since June. Before that, he spent two months under home confinement with an electronic monitoring device strapped to his ankle.

Kim pleaded guilty last year in Los Angeles federal court to misdemeanor charges stemming from his acceptance of $230,000 in illegal campaign contributions from foreign companies and corporations. He also pleaded guilty to felony violations on behalf of his congressional campaign committee.

In late October, the House Ethics Committee agreed that Kim violated congressional rules of conduct by taking the illegal contributions but decided against disciplinary action because Kim was leaving office in January. The committee also found that Kim had received an illegal $30,000 gift in 1994 from an official of Hanbo Steel and General Construction, a South Korean company.

Times staff writer Janet Hook in Washington contributed to this story.