Koreatown Firms Aid Chris Holden

Business owners involved in a handful of controversial multimillion-dollar development projects in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden’s district have donated large amounts of money to the Pasadena mayoral campaign of the councilman’s son, Christopher R. Holden.

Some of the contributors say that they were directly asked to give to the younger Holden’s campaign by current and former aides to the councilman.

Chris Holden has received more than $45,000 from Koreatown businesses, more than a quarter of the $176,000 in cash contributions the mayoral candidate raised between July 1998 and March 6. Many of Chris Holden’s Koreatown contributors also made $500 donations--the legal maximum for Los Angeles candidates--to the senior Holden as well.

The councilman is running for reelection in the April 13 Los Angeles City Council primary election. The projects whose participants made the contributions in question stand little--if any--chance of going forward without the elder Holden’s support. Under law, the City Council acts as Los Angeles’ final court of appeal on all zoning and land use decisions. By tradition, other council members defer to the wishes of the colleague in whose district the project is situated.

Chris Holden, a longtime Pasadena city councilman who was selected as mayor by the council, is running in that city’s first direct mayoral election April 20. Many of the Koreatown contributors to his campaign are linked to a handful of controversial projects in Los Angeles’ 10th Council District, including a Western Avenue nightclub that is still awaiting a conditional use permit from the city, a proposed Wilshire Boulevard health club and restaurant complex, and an 8th Street supermarket.

Opposition from neighbors and competing businesses has frustrated the projects’ developers, who have sunk millions into the ventures.

Donors denied in interviews that Nate Holden had asked them to give money to his son’s campaign, and said they did not expect their contributions to influence the success of projects in the 10th District. Some, however, acknowledged that they do not know Chris Holden, and donated money at the request of Steve Kim, a Nate Holden deputy, and Bill J. Robinson, a former Holden aide who works as a zoning and permitting consultant in Koreatown.

Chris Holden acknowledged that Robinson and Kim have been raising money for him. “They’re raising money because they know me. A lot of people are raising money on my behalf,” the younger Holden said.

Holden said he has to raise money outside Pasadena because his support in the city comes mainly from working-class residents who cannot afford to make $100 individual contributions. He said that those outside Pasadena who donate money to his campaign do so because they “support good government and what I stand for.”

Chris Holden said he doubted that the contributions could be viewed as a favor to his father. “I don’t look at it that way. He’s very independent. People have given him money and he’s voted against their project. Contributions do not make much difference to him.”

Nate Holden would not comment on whether he asked businesses in his district to donate to his son’s campaign, or whether his current or former deputies solicited contributions. “All I will say is we’re playing by the rules. When you’re running for office, a big element is raising money. It’s the American way--as long as you follow the rules,” Holden said.

An expert on campaign regulations said that even if Nate Holden solicited contributions for his son, it would not be against the law. Robert C. Fellmeth, director of the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego, said the Holdens appear to be “loopholing the basic concept behind campaign contribution limits.” Unlike Los Angeles, Pasadena has no limits on individual campaign contributions.

$2,000 Donation From Health Club Developer

The $500 limit on individual donations in Los Angeles is intended to ensure that a candidate “is not beholden to any one person. If someone can give four, five or 10 times that amount to a family member or closely allied campaign, then that purpose is compromised,” Fellmeth said.

Edward Ahn, a physician who is the developer of a proposed five-story, $24-million health club, restaurant and shopping complex at Wilshire and Serrano Avenue, said he donated $2,000 to Chris Holden’s campaign at the request of Nate Holden aide Kim. “I don’t know Chris Holden. I’ve never met him,” Ahn said.

Ahn said Kim made the request during a daytime visit to his Beverly Boulevard medical practice. Kim told Ahn that donating to Chris Holden would build “a relationship for the future,” according to Ahn.

“I asked [Kim] what the [contribution] limit was, and he said in Pasadena there is no limit, so I asked him what was the maximum amount others were giving. He said some people gave $10,000,” Ahn said.

Ahn said he told Kim he could not afford to give $10,000, so he donated $2,000 on Dec. 26, 1998. Ahn’s partner in the project, Hanil Development, a Seoul-based company, gave $2,000 to Chris Holden the same day, as did JITIC Inc., a subcontractor on the project. Hanil also donated $500 to the Pasadena candidate on another date.

Kim acknowledged that he asked Ahn to donate money to Chris Holden’s campaign, but said he did so on his own time, not in his capacity as a deputy to the councilman.

Howard Kea, owner of Le Prive, a nightclub that has yet to open, said that although he has given $2,000 to Chris Holden’s campaign, he met the younger Holden only once, when he shook his hand at a fund-raiser.

Kea, who said he cannot open his nightclub because he is awaiting approval of a permit amendment that would allow dancing at the former restaurant, said former Nate Holden aide Robinson asked him to donate to Chris Holden.

Kea’s Western Avenue nightclub project has been opposed by competing nightclub owners. The owner of one club in the area, Linda Kim, donated $5,000 to Chris Holden.

According to Kea, who also owns a construction company, Robinson told him that contributing to Chris Holden’s campaign might help his firm win public housing renovation contracts in Pasadena. Kea said that after speaking to Robinson, he told his brother and construction company partner Moo H. Kea to donate $1,500 to the campaign.

Robinson said he cannot recall asking Kea for a donation to Chris Holden, and said he would not suggest that a donation might help win a contract. “What do I know about housing in Pasadena?” Robinson said.

Robinson said he solicited contributions for the Pasadena race from Koreatown donors, but only because Chris Holden “is almost like my brother.”

Chris Holden said he did not know what Robinson might have told contributors, but denied that campaign gifts could influence him to support donors’ business ventures in Pasadena. “That’s not me. That’s not the way I do business,” he said.

Several contributions to Chris Holden were gathered at a December fund-raiser at a Koreatown hotel organized by Kee W. Ha, who is a partner in Wilshire Galleria, a shopping complex in the former I. Magnin store on Wilshire.

Father Defends Helping His Son

A Pasadena resident who said he has long supported Chris Holden, Ha said he recruited only four or five of the more than 25 donors who attended the fund-raiser. Those who participated in the event, Ha said “were mainly brought by Bill Robinson.”

Robinson is tied to several large Koreatown projects. Robinson is a consultant to the developers of Assi Super, a supermarket at 8th Street and Oxford Avenue that is awaiting zoning approvals. Assi Super donated $2,500 to Chris Holden.

The project is opposed by other Koreatown supermarket owners who have also contributed to the Holdens. HK Partners, the parent company of a rival market, and its president, Young Jun Kim, have donated $1,500 to Chris Holden. Gene Kim, president of Han Nam Chain, another supermarket, gave Chris Holden $1,500. Eight HK Partners employees also gave $500 contributions to Nate Holden.

Edward Ahn said Robinson had informally advised him on the Wilshire health club project, called Aroma Sporex. Robinson said his involvement in the project is limited to advising the developer on regulations governing the building’s sign.

Robinson works out of an office in the architectural firm of Christopher Pak. Pak is the architect on the Aroma Sporex project and--on Nate Holden’s recommendation--was appointed by Mayor Richard Riordan to the city Board of Zoning Appeals, which he now heads.

In addition to Koreatown businesses, Chris Holden also received $250 donations from 10 lawyers with Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Wile & Shapiro, the firm that represented Nate Holden in a 1995 sexual harassment lawsuit filed by an employee. The city paid the firm $859,000 for Holden’s defense in the case, which he won.

Chris Holden said the lawyers donated to his campaign because Skip Miller, a partner in the firm, is an “old friend.”

Although he declined to comment on specific donations made to his son, Nate Holden said he is helping his son’s campaign. “What kind of father would I be if I did not help my son?” he said.

The day after being interviewed for this story, the councilman called a reporter and announced: “Because of this controversy I am going to write Chris a check for $10,000 today. It’s a loan, but I may give it to him.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Key Contributors

Business owners with ties to projects in Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden’s district have contributed heavily to the Pasadena mayoral campaign of Holden’s son, Chris, as well as giving individual donations to Nate Holden.

HEALTH CLUB PROJECT

Aroma Sporex development in Koreatown; to include health club, restaurant and retail complex on Wilshire Boulevard.

Donors to Chris Holden

Hanil Development, partner in complex: $2,500

Beverly Health and Birthing Center medical practice of Dr. Edward Ahn, project’s chief developer: $2,000

Christopher Pak, project architect: $500

JITIC Inc., project subcontractor: $2,000

Jung Sik Kim, JITIC’s president: $2,000

$500 Donors to Nate Holden

Dr. Edward Ahn, Helen Ahn, Christopher Pak

NIGHTCLUB PROJECT

Le Prive, a yet-to-be-opened nightclub on Western Avenue.

Donors to Chris Holden

Howard Kea, owner: $2,000

Moo H. Kea, brother of Howard: $1,500

$500 Donors to Nate Holden

Howard Kea; Moo H. Kea; Jong Hee Kea, Howard’s sister; Jae Ik Song, employee of Kea’s Western Construction company; Linda Hong, Western Construction; Jae Duk Kim, Western Construction.

Source: candidates’ public campaign statements

*

Times special correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.