Officials Returning Film Agency Contributions

Two elected officials and Mayor James K. Hahn’s anti-secession group said Friday that they are returning campaign contributions from the quasi-public agency that promotes filming in Los Angeles County.

An official of the L.A. United Campaign said it has returned $25,000 in contributions from the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which is under investigation by the district attorney’s office for possible misuse of public funds.

County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said she has returned $2,000 to EIDC. And Los Angeles City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski said she is refunding $500. Miscikowski said she will repay the money with a personal check.

Three other elected officials said they will return campaign funds if it is determined that they can do so legally. One of those three, Councilman Dennis Zine, said he is also seeking to resign as a member of the EIDC’s board of directors “as a matter of conscience.”

. Prosecutors are investigating funds spent by the Hollywood-based organization for political contributions and for personal expenses. Hahn and all members of the City Council and the county Board of Supervisors automatically are board members of the EIDC

Hahn, whose mayoral campaign received $2,000 from EIDC, is not returning the donation because the campaign account is long closed, according to Kam Kuwata, who is now running the anti-secession campaign.

Kuwata said the money given to the campaign against San Fernando Valley secession was returned because it “became too much of a distraction.”

Secession leaders have sharply criticized the EIDC contributions and said the decision to return the money is too little, too late.

“He is doing this because he got caught,” said Richard Katz, co-chair of the Valley Independence Committee, referring to Hahn. “He is giving it back because it is a distraction ... He has a problem understanding the difference between public funds and political slush funds.”

Zine, City Councilman Hal Bernson and City Controller Laura Chick, who is not on the EIDC board, said they will also return their EIDC contributions if it is determined that it is legal to do so.

Several council members said the legal question arises from the fact that the campaigns for which they received the contributions are long over. As a result, they have asked the Ethics Commission whether they can repay the money from other funds, such as their officeholder accounts.

The EIDC gave $500 each to Zine and Bernson, and $1,000 to Chick, they said.

Zine said he had not been aware he was a member of the board, adding “that this controversy really troubles me.”

He said he wants to give the contribution back “in good faith to show that there is integrity in the fact that there is this investigation by the [Los Angeles County] district attorney’s office.”

Miscikowski said she is returning the money “in light of the recent information that has come to my attention” that the EIDC may be a public agency, rather than a private entity.

Miscikowski cited a 1995 letter from a Fair Political Practices Commission lawyer to the Los Angeles city attorney’s office in which the FPPC lawyer analyzed the EIDC’s status and concluded it was a “local government agency.”

Glenda Wina, spokeswoman for Burke, said the supervisor “thought it was not a proper thing to do for EIDC to make contributions.” Wina said Burke also returned the money because “she didn’t want the appearance of impropriety.”

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Times Staff Writer Anita M. Busch contributed to this report.