Community Organization Denies Ties to Pacheco Election Bid

An Eastside nonprofit organization and a political committee supporting the reelection of City Councilman Nick Pacheco denied allegations Friday that they funneled public money into a campaign supporting the councilman’s reelection.

About 100 people joined in a defiant rally in a Boyle Heights hall to denounce a charge by the campaign of former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa that the Madres del Este de Los Angeles-Santa Isabel, a nonprofit group that has received $66,000 in public funds from Pacheco, is linked to Mothers for Nick, which is promoting his reelection.

In December and January, Pacheco gave $36,500 from his council office’s neighborhood services account to the Madres for community projects, according to city documents. At the end of January, Mothers for Nick reported $36,085 in independent expenditures on his behalf. The political committee is based at the home of Juana Gutierrez, the president and founder of the Madres.

But Elsa Lopez, project coordinator for the Madres, said that for the last five years the nonprofit organization has operated exclusively out of an office on 1st Street that also houses Pacheco’s field office and other nonprofit groups. She said there is no connection between the two groups, and accused Villaraigosa of “spitting” on the community.

“They attack us because ... we’re supporting Pacheco,” Gutierrez said.

Esperanza Vielma, treasurer of Mothers for Nick, denied that the Madres gave her organization any money, and accused The Times of “slanderous reporting” about the matter. She said her campaign has only a fraction of the money it reported in independent expenditures, which she called estimates of what they hope to raise.

Meanwhile, the district attorney’s office opened an inquiry into the matter, the precursor to a possible criminal investigation, said spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons. The city Ethics Commission has also launched an investigation, according to a City Hall source. Bruce Aoki, deputy executive director of the commission, did not respond to questions, citing the agency’s policy of not commenting on potential investigations.

On Friday, supporters of the Madres, a well-known community organization, rushed to defend its work. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Pacheco supporter, expressed disappointment that Villaraigosa’s campaign had implicated the group in questionable politicking.

“I just think that it’s a shame that anyone who is responsible for this would smear the reputation of the mothers of the community who have worked so hard to improve the quality of life,” Roybal-Allard said in an interview.

Steve Barkan, Villaraigosa’s campaign consultant, said the campaign is criticizing Pacheco, not the Madres.

“Nick Pacheco has taken advantage of them and used them for his political gain,” Barkan said. “It is not appropriate for Nick to be giving public funds to an operation that is spending money to help him get elected.”

Pacheco has denied using the Madres to get money to the political committee.

“In the last 3 1/2 years, we’ve worked with many community-based organizations, following all the guidelines of the city,” he said in an interview Friday. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Villaraigosa has waged this unfounded attack on these mothers.”

At the rally, attended by many senior citizens and by mothers pushing strollers, Vielma said Mothers for Nick used Gutierrez’s address in city documents because the Madres founder offered the group a place to meet and send political donations. “Antonio has to go so low as to go against the mothers of East Los Angeles,” Vielma said. “It’s an indicator of how bad he’s doing.”

She said her organization has raised only about $3,200 in donations, and spent almost $2,000 so far on fliers and T-shirts. The $36,000 in independent expenditures the group reported to the Ethics Commission at the end of January was merely an estimate of what Mothers for Nick hoped to raise, she said.

State law does not require the filing of reports about the estimates of future independent expenditures. Rather, the Political Reform Act mandates that individuals or groups making an independent expenditure of $1,000 or more file a report within 24 hours of the expenditure.

Vielma also denied that Mothers for Nick was connected to La Colectiva, a now-defunct political organization that was run by Martin GutieRuiz, son of the Madres founder.

At the rally, more than a dozen people testified in Spanish and English about the community programs the Madres has paid for with money it received from Pacheco’s office. Air-conditioning was installed in a local music school, computers were put in the group’s 1st Street office for community classes and an art festival was held for deaf children, Lopez said. The bulk of the money the group received in December and January paid for toys and turkeys for families in housing projects, she added.

“The services are going out in the community,” Lopez said.

On Thursday, Pacheco said the controller’s office authorized all of his office’s financial contributions to the Madres.

But Controller Laura Chick said her office has nothing to do with authorizing the payments. The money is processed through the city clerk’s office, which signs off on the expenditures after receiving invoices from the council offices. Invoices for less than $5,000 often do not include receipts, said Karen Kalfayan, chief of the administrative services division in the city clerk’s office.