Energy Official Had $1 Million in Enron Stock

A Los Angeles business leader appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to help oversee key aspects of California’s electricity system has reported owning more than $1 million in the stock of Texas energy trader Enron Corp., a firm the administration has accused of price gouging.

Bruce G. Willison, dean of UCLA’s Anderson School of business, is one of five members of the obscure but important Electricity Oversight Board, which was created by the state’s deregulation law. Among other things, it monitors electricity market activities, represents California in legal disputes before federal regulators and oversees the state’s independent grid operator.

A former top banking executive, Willison reported in a financial disclosure statement in February that his vast portfolio included an estimated $1 million of Enron as of the end of December.

In an interview with The Times, Willison, 52, said he is unsure how much of that stock he owns today, and insisted that his personal finances have never influenced his actions on behalf of the state.

“There has not been anything that has even come close to a conflict,” he said. “We aren’t a regulator. . . . We have not had issues before us that address any one company.”

He noted that Enron stock has fallen sharply in value recently.

Willison said that some stances he has taken on the board--such as supporting demands for federal regulators to order refunds from power suppliers--are “positions that would be contrary or harmful for power companies, including Enron.”

Others involved in the state’s protracted crisis are not appeased by such assurances.

“If he owns that kind of stock, he should not be on that board,” said Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco). “You’re talking about serious money and serious profit. People that are on an energy board shouldn’t have that--that’s the bottom line.”

Willison has found himself, like increasing numbers of others in the Davis fold, drawn into a mushrooming controversy over possible conflicts of interest among consultants and state officials with roles in guiding the state through the electricity crisis.

Last week, the Davis administration fired five consultants who owned shares in companies with whom they were doing business on the state’s behalf. They have denied any wrongdoing. Davis has come under particularly harsh criticism for failing to ensure that the high-priced consultants complied with state political ethics laws by filing economic disclosure forms. Most of those forms were hurriedly filed in July, months after the law required. When the conflicts became apparent in the filings, the administration ordered the consultants to sell the stocks within hours or face termination.

The edict did not extend beyond the consultants to such officials as Davis’ chief spokesman, Steve Maviglio, who recently bought stock in a major California power generator. He also has owned shares in Enron since the mid-1990s.

Davis also has continued to resist requests by The Times for information on a cadre of advisors that the administration has deemed are not required to publicly disclose their private investments. They include two Wall Street firms that have been among the most influential in promoting the governor’s multibillion-dollar rescue plan for the state’s financially ravaged utilities.

Under state policy, Willison and his colleagues on the Electricity Oversight Board are required to disclose their personal holdings.

Serving with him are two legislators involved in energy policy--Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) and Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles). The other members are attorney Michael Kahn and Kari Lynn Dohn, a senior Davis advisor and former Clinton administration appointee in the Commerce Department.

The electricity board’s lawyer said he did not believe that any members other than Willison had energy industry holdings.

Willison was appointed to the Electricity Oversight Board by Davis in early 2000. He said he he currently is in the process of being reappointed to the unpaid post.

He was named dean of the Anderson School at UCLA in April 1999. Before joining the prestigious business school, he was president of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., parent of Home Savings of America.

Until 1996, he was chairman, president and chief executive officer of First Interstate Bank of California, and vice chairman of the bank’s holding company, First Interstate Bancorp. Those top executive positions capped a career with the bank that began in 1979.

Willison started his career at Bank of America in 1973, holding several corporate and lending positions in Los Angeles and Mexico City.

A Riverside native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA, and an MBA in finance from USC. He has taken a prominent role as a board member of groups including United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Sports Council and Operation Hope Inc.

Times staff writer Nancy Vogel contributed to this story.