Vote for Billboards Spurs Claims of a Payoff

As troops are put on alert and military reserves are activated, what possibly could be controversial about building a memorial to honor military veterans?

Plans for one in West Hollywood, however, are at the center of a dispute that is triggering claims of a political payoff and calls for a tough new city ethics policy.

Construction of such a monument is the dream of City Councilman Sal Guarriello, the lone veteran on West Hollywood’s City Council.

Since Guarriello persuaded his colleagues to approve the memorial’s concept 2 1/2 years ago, the 81-year-old former Army combat medic has tried to raise money for it.

Guarriello’s fund-raising campaign got a big boost Aug. 20, when a Sunset Strip developer contributed $21,000 to the memorial.

A few hours later, builder Mark Siffin got a boost when Guarriello cast the deciding vote permitting him to install lucrative high-rise billboards atop his proposed “Sunset Millennium” project.

Guarriello denies that Siffin’s donation had anything to do with the council action--which was affirmed in a 3-2 follow-up vote this week in which Guarriello again supported the billboards.

But the timing of Siffin’s contribution and Guarriello’s vote has provoked outrage from opponents of the $250-million Sunset Millennium retail and office development and others who are pressing for wide controls over developer donations.

The outcry has caused the city to consider beefing up a proposed code of conduct for city employees and elected officials by encouraging them to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

That’s not enough, complain those who argue that an independent ethics commission is needed to oversee city business dealings. They say they will demand an investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office if city officials don’t take the issue seriously.

Although about $80,000 has been collected toward a $180,000 fund-raising goal, officials said Thursday that the eventual cost of the memorial--estimated in the past at $1.2 million--is unknown.

Its designers are looking at a display of artwork and poetry along with reflecting ponds and plumes of mist on a triangular lot at Santa Monica Boulevard and Holloway Drive.

Being more artistic than militaristic is important, many say. West Hollywood is heavily populated by gays--many of whom say they have been unfairly treated by the military establishment.

“I believe there is a difference between honoring the military and honoring veterans,” explained openly gay Councilman Jeffrey Prang last year. “We aren’t looking to be cheerleaders for the Department of Defense.”

Guarriello got the idea for the memorial after a friend took a group of high school students to France in the mid-1990s and discovered that the teenagers knew little about World War II. Guarriello received a Purple Heart during his service from 1943 to 1946.

Just a few blocks north, Siffin’s Sunset Millennium project has been controversial because of its potential impact on neighbors’ views and traffic flow on the busy Sunset Strip.

Construction has begun along a two-block section of the strip, where a hotel, shops and offices are planned. The city says the project, if it is finished, will be West Hollywood’s single largest source of tax revenue.

Permission to erect large V-shaped billboards atop the buildings and lease them to off-site advertisers is necessary for the project to move ahead, Siffin told the city. Billboard space would rent for as much as $60,000 a month.

Siffin is vacationing and was unavailable for comment this week. But his spokesman, Rick Taylor, said Thursday that the developer did nothing wrong in contributing to the memorial, aside from coincidentally choosing Aug. 20 as the day to write his check. Taylor stressed that Guarriello has consistently supported the Sunset Millennium.

But critics say Guarriello had consistently been an opponent of overall billboard blight along the Sunset Strip prior to Aug. 20.

Guarriello refused this week to talk about the donation or his support for Siffin’s billboards. But aide Donna Saur said he has done nothing wrong.

“There’s nothing inappropriate here. The checks are made out to the City of West Hollywood Veterans Memorial Fund, not to Sal Guarriello,” she said.

City Atty. Mike Jenkins agreed. He said the memorial is a city-approved project, and donations to it should not be looked at as gifts or campaign contributions to Guarriello.

“He feels clearly he made up his mind on this issue independently and dispassionately, without regard to this donation,” Jenkins said of Guarriello’s billboard vote.

But because of the dispute, Jenkins said, the code of conduct he has been working on for months will include wording that will “discourage actions that give the appearance of impropriety, even if they aren’t [improper],” when it is presented to council members for review this month.

Loose guidelines, however, are not enough to keep West Hollywood’s leaders in line, critics say.

An ethics committee with enforcement powers is needed, said James Fuhrman, a legal researcher who routinely reviews West Hollywood City Council members’ expense forms.

Fuhrman rankles officials by ridiculing restaurant bills and other expenditures through a widely circulated e-mail newsletter and on a television program called “The Complainers Variety Show” that he stages on West Hollywood’s public access channel.

Fuhrman doubts that officials will police themselves: “Why should the West Hollywood City Council appoint an ethics committee to interrupt all the fun they’re having with the public’s money?”

Jean Mathison, who has lived in West Hollywood 55 years, promises to ask the district attorney to intervene. “Either the city straightens things out or we’ll move forward to do whatever we have to to get it straightened out,” she said.

Ben Davidian, a Sacramento lawyer who for five years was chairman of the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, earlier this month urged Guarriello to recuse himself from the final vote on Siffin’s billboards. Guarriello refused.

Davidian, who declined to say who asked him to become involved, said that West Hollywood leaders may be flouting a state law that requires them to a report charitable contributions made “at the behest” of officeholders.

City Councilman Steve Martin, who voted in support of Siffin’s billboards and defends Guarriello, suggested that now is the time to reassess the way contributions are solicited. He said all five West Hollywood councilmen seek donations for things ranging from gay issues to the local symphony orchestra.

“If everybody is concerned about appearances, we should stop using our offices as leverage for raising money for nonprofits,” Martin said. “I think there are ways of putting restrictions on fund-raising that would enhance our credibility.”