Plating Firms Donate to D.A. Hopeful

Barry Groveman, head of the Los Angeles Unified School District task force investigating environmental hazards at school sites, including the beleaguered Belmont Learning Complex, has accepted at least $20,000 in contributions from more than 30 metal plating companies to fund his expected bid for Los Angeles County district attorney next year.

Metal platers have a long history in the county--both as a cornerstone of the defense and auto industries and as sources of toxic waste and air and water pollution. Some contamination at school sites reviewed by Groveman’s school safety team--including a proposed school site in South Gate and the year-old Jefferson New Middle School--has been linked to past plating operations.

Groveman, who said he has represented metal plating companies for 10 years, described those who have donated to his campaign as among that industry’s leaders in abiding by environmental laws. “I’m very proud to have them as contributors,” he said.

But Groveman’s opponents in the March 7 primary said they will make the donations a campaign issue, because the district attorney regularly prosecutes plating companies for environmental crimes.

Groveman has advised the school district as an environmental lawyer for 10 years, and was appointed to the school safety team in 1998. As head of the team, he has been an outspoken critic of the district’s efforts to build schools on contaminated sites.

Groveman pushed the school board to bring in former board member Howard Miller as chief executive, beginning a chain of events that led to the replacement of Supt. Ruben Zacarias.

State Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), a Zacarias supporter who has endorsed incumbent Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, was quick to criticize Groveman’s fund-raising from metal platers. “He’s playing the role of environmental cleanup guy for the district and then he accepts money from metal platers. There’s an inherent conflict,” he said.

Polanco also attacked Groveman for representing a Sun Valley metal finisher convicted in 1996 of illegally dumping hazardous chemicals, including cyanide, into the sewer system.

Garcetti’s campaign spokesman, Bill Carrick, also said the donations from plating companies conflict with the public image Groveman projects. “Barry has portrayed himself as an environmental crusader, and there’s an inconsistency in that portrayal. It’s definitely an issue. People don’t want a D.A. financed by special interests with serious environmental problems,” he said.

Garcetti has had his own campaign finance controversy. Earlier this year, his reelection campaign received $15,000 from Lockheed Martin IMS employees a month before the prosecutor’s office recommended that the company get an extra $2.5 million for running the county’s child support computer system.

Candidate Steve Cooley, a career prosecutor, said Groveman’s contributions from metal platers set “a pattern that raises questions. With the sheer number of contributions the question to ask is, ‘what is their interest ?’ ” Cooley asked.

The amount of money from metal platers represents a relatively small percentage of Groveman’s donations, which already total more than $200,000, according to his latest campaign statement. But metal platers make up the second-largest group of contributors to Groveman’s campaign, after lawyers at his own law firm, Proskauer and Rose.

Daniel Cunningham, executive director of the Metal Finishing Assn. of Southern California, which donated the legal maximum of $1,000 to Groveman, said that the group supported Groveman because he has served as their lawyer. In that capacity, Groveman helped the group devise a self-certification program to encourage members to meet environmental standards and spoke regularly at group meetings about environmental regulations.

Cunningham acknowledged that metal plating companies have a bad public image, but said the companies that belong to the association operate cleanly. “Our members use the association to keep informed of [environmental] requirements, to make sure they’re in compliance,” Cunningham said. Of about 300 metal plating companies in Southern California, 160 are members of the association. “We consider ourselves environmentalists,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said he believes the metal finishers association, which has a political action committee, has not endorsed district attorney candidates in the past, but will endorse Groveman because its members believe “he can be fair” because he has represented industry clients.

Bill Wiggins, chairman of Glendale-based Automation Plating Corp., said he donated $1,000 to Groveman because, by advising and representing metal plating companies, Groveman “has done a tremendous amount to raise the bar in our industry.”

“We are always perceived as people who don’t care, but we’re very down on those in our industry who are polluters,” Wiggins said. Wiggins praised Groveman for working with prosecutors to devise creative settlements or sentences for companies that violate laws, such as requiring them to donate money to environmental groups.

By representing companies charged with environmental crimes, Groveman said he can encourage them to comply with laws in the future. “I am able to force change through the way I approach their defense. It’s something I should get credit for,” he said.