Council Votes to Close Campaign Fund Loophole

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday voted 10 to 1 to adopt an emergency ordinance requiring political parties and other groups to disclose how much money they are pouring into political campaigns in the city.

The measure is aimed at closing a loophole in state campaign laws that essentially allowed organizations to spend millions in the city’s April 10 election without disclosing where the money came from or how much was spent.

If signed by Mayor Richard Riordan next week, the ordinance would go into effect within days. A spokesman for Riordan said Friday that the mayor generally supports such campaign disclosure efforts, but had yet to review the council action.

Under the measure, political parties, unions and other organizations that spend more than $10,000 to either support or oppose city candidates in the June 5 election will be expected to disclose their efforts to the city Ethics Commission by May 29.

Councilman Mike Hernandez cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he believed it was wrong to change reporting requirements mid-campaign.

The city Ethics Commission asked the council to take the action after it became apparent that the state Democratic and Republican parties were raising and spending undetermined amounts to support mayoral candidates in the April election.

City Atty. James K. Hahn has repeatedly claimed that the Democratic Party contributed to and spent money on behalf of his rival, former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, without disclosing to voters the amount or source of the money until weeks after the election.

In papers filed this week, it was disclosed that billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle had each given $100,000 to the Democratic Party in the weeks before the election. Those funds helped support party activities, including mailers, phone banks and other activities to promote Villaraigosa.

Hahn and other critics said the contributions circumvented the city’s limits on campaign contributions.

Villaraigosa praised the council action.

“It’s good public policy,” Villaraigosa said before he began playing bingo with senior citizens in Van Nuys. “I think disclosure is the appropriate thing to do.”

Meanwhile, the two mayoral candidates continued their public sparring over public safety issues, with each accusing the other of distorting his record.

Hahn unveiled his first television commercial of the runoff Friday, hammering Villaraigosa’s voting record on gang crime and touting his own experience as a “20-year prosecutor.”

The ad, which shows Hahn standing in front of a graffiti-covered wall and black and white images of Villaraigosa, cites the city attorney’s work to toughen gang penalties and his use of injunctions to combat gang activity.

The commercial says that Villaraigosa repeatedly voted against a law Hahn helped craft that toughened penalties for gang-related crimes and that he wants to limit the use of gang injunctions.

“Hahn or Villaraigosa?” the ad says. “The facts show you can trust Jim Hahn.”

The ad accuses Villaraigosa of “attacking” Hahn--the same charge Villaraigosa made against the city attorney in his own ad that began airing a day earlier.

In that ad, Villaraigosa responds to Hahn’s ongoing criticism of his voting record on crime.

“In the state Assembly, Antonio Villaraigosa voted over 100 times to get tough on criminals,” the ad says.

Villaraigosa said his new television ads are aimed at clarifying his record.

Also on Friday, Hahn charged that Villaraigosa “falsely accused” him of not disclosing campaign finance information in a complaint filed with the city Ethics Commission on Wednesday.

In the complaint, Villaraigosa’s campaign claims that Hahn’s reports failed to detail how almost $2.6 million in media advertising was spent.

The Hahn campaign cited documents in the campaign’s public filing to the Ethics Commission that detailed the spending.

Back at the Van Nuys center, Villaraigosa picked up the endorsement of former Councilman Ernani Bernardi and bantered good-naturedly with about 75 seniors. Villaraigosa told them that, if elected, he would create more senior centers across the city.

He then sat with six seniors, paid $1 for three bingo cards and promptly lost both games.

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen on election day,” he quipped.

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Times staff writers Jeffrey L. Rabin and Matea Gold contributed to this story.