Fundraising Pervasive Among City Appointees

When Los Angeles created powerful city commissions in the early 20th century, the good-government reformers hoped they could take politics -- and corruption -- out of the day-to-day operations of their young city.

But nearly a century after the Progressive era, these citizen panels include some of Los Angeles’ most politically active players, men and women who give tens of thousands of dollars to local elected officials and raise thousands more while awarding millions of dollars in city contracts.

Now, against the backdrop of two criminal probes into city contracting, the City Council is debating whether fundraising by these volunteers has opened the door to conflicts of interest and even corruption by creating an environment in which companies feel pressure to contribute in order to land contracts. The council is set to consider a ban on all fundraising by board and commission members.

The criminal investigations are still in their early stages. But Times interviews with nearly 40 members of Los Angeles boards and commissions suggest that fundraising by these mayoral appointees pervades local political campaigning.

More than two dozen said in interviews that they had raised money for the mayor or council members in recent years, either while serving on commissions and boards or shortly before their appointments.

That is in addition to more than $800,000 in direct contributions that current members of boards and commissions have donated to local political campaigns since 1998, according to campaign finance reports filed with the city.

And although commissioners said they did not feel pressure to contribute themselves or raise money from others, many said they would prefer an outright ban on fundraising by sitting commissioners to avoid any appearance of conflict.

“I think there is a perception in the public’s mind that the reason you are a commissioner is because you raised money for the candidate, and that raising money is a condition for being a commissioner,” said Paul Hudson, one of more than a dozen commissioners who support a ban on commissioner fundraising.

Hudson, a banker recently appointed to head the Community Redevelopment Agency’s board overseeing renewal of blighted areas of the city, said he had held a $4,000 fundraiser for Hahn’s mayoral campaign three years ago. He has also personally donated nearly $3,500 to local campaigns since 1998.

Bonny Herman, a Valley Industry & Commerce Assn. official and a board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said she simply did no fundraising.

“It’s got to impact your performance,” Herman said, speaking in favor of a ban. “You have to make a choice: Are you political or are you representing the public?”

Opponents of the proposed ban have said it is unnecessary because commissioners are already prohibited from raising money from people seeking contracts for the agencies they oversee. The opponents also downplay the extent of fundraising by the nearly 350 citizen volunteers who sit on the city’s boards and commissions.

“I don’t think it’s unusual that you would find people who are involved in both politics and government,” said Mayor James K. Hahn, adding that fundraising and giving should not disqualify someone from serving the city. Hahn has until recently resisted the call for a ban, pushing instead for a new requirement that members of boards and commissions simply disclose their fundraising activity.

But advocates of the ban, now including the Ethics Commission, say that because so many companies do business with L.A., it would be impossible to police fundraising with a disclosure requirement. Nor does the current law keep a commissioner from soliciting contributions from contractors seeking business at another department.

Born of a time when white middle-class reformers feared the kind of political patronage that infested New York and Chicago, L.A.’s commission system was premised on the idea that citizen volunteers overseeing city functions would provide a bulwark against corruption.

Today, there are boards and commissions that oversee everything from the airport to the zoo and advise the city on development, services to Native Americans, even the status of women.

Like their counterparts in other big cities, many boards and commissions meet once or twice a month and involve themselves only minimally in the minutia of city operations. But L.A. is distinct in the authority granted to commissions that oversee so-called proprietary departments, including the airport, harbor and Department of Water and Power.

Members of these commissions and the full-time Public Works Commission, all of whose members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council, award hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts with very little oversight from the elected members of the council.

Several of the most active donors and fundraisers sit on those commissions, including harbor Commissioner James Acevedo, airport Commissioner Ted Stein and Department of Water and Power Commissioner Dominick Rubalcava. They were among 286 board and commission appointments Hahn has made since he took office in 2001.

“There is a certain sense that commission members have become a part of the mayor’s administration,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a political scientist at Cal State Fullerton who is writing a book about Los Angeles city governance.

The Times attempted via telephone and through board and commission clerks to contact more than 100 members of the city’s 54 boards and commissions, including all members of the commissions overseeing the airport, harbor and Department of Water and Power.

Many did not respond. And some, including information technology commissioners Dean Hansell and Matthew Geragos, said they could not recall details of their fundraising.

But among the nearly 40 members who would talk, at least 25 confirmed that they had held fundraisers for the mayor and other elected officials, though many said they could not recall how much they had raised.

Eleven members of boards and commissions disclosed that they had raised a total of $142,000 since 2000.

Many more board and commission members donate.

An analysis of six years of campaign finance data available through the city Ethics Commission indicates that 214 of 348 have given to some city campaign or politician.

Some donated only a few thousand dollars, but a handful have personally given as much as $25,000. Planning Commission President Joseph Klein gave $10,000 to the anti-secession campaign. All donations by current board and commission members total more than $817,000.

The mayor, who has received more than $200,000 in donations from members of boards and commissions in recent years, noted that such donations make up a small fraction of the nearly $60 million given to local campaigns since 1998.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and Controller Laura Chick, both of whom are campaigning for the fundraising ban, are also among the biggest beneficiaries of political giving by board and commission members.

And nearly all council members have benefited from political giving and fundraising.

Councilman Greig Smith had to wait only months after taking office before commissioners were helping raise money for him. On Oct. 7 -- five months after the former legislative aide had won election to the city’s 12th District council seat -- the mayor and other council members were hosts of a $500-a-head fundraiser at the City Club.

Also on the invitation were members of the city’s airport, harbor and Public Works Commissions and a union and consulting firm whose leaders serve on two more city commissions.

Two of the hosts were Stein, who also served on commissions for former Mayor Richard Riordan, and his wife, Ellen, a Public Works commissioner.

In 2002 and 2003, Ted Stein also held $1,000-a-head fundraisers for Hahn and the anti-secession campaign, according to invitations obtained by The Times. Hahn political advisor and Stein business partner Bill Wardlaw said each raised more than $10,000. Stein, who also has given nearly $25,000 to local campaigns in the last six years, declined to comment for this article.

Other commissioners helped raise money for Hahn’s 2001 mayoral campaign and were later appointed to their posts by the new mayor.

Fire Commissioner and attorney Jay Grodin said he had raised $25,000 for Hahn’s 2001 mayoral campaign election. Information technology Commissioner and attorney Melanie Lomax said she had raised $20,000 for the same campaign. And fire Commissioner Louise Frankel said she had raised $10,000 for Hahn’s mayoral campaign.

Lomax said she would step down from the commission if she were banned from fundraising.

So would Julie Butcher, named to the city’s Quality and Productivity Commission in 2000 and head of the Service Employees International Union local that represents city employees. She said she feared that the proposed ban would force labor leaders to resign from boards and commissions.

Others also make a populist argument to defend their advocacy.

“I’m pretty impassioned about trying to elect people who would be the best representatives of certain communities,” said Acevedo, a successful developer and harbor commissioner who has helped raise money for council President Alex Padilla and other council members while a commissioner. “A lot of these folks that I support don’t come from rich households.”

But those who oppose a fundraising ban appear to be swimming against the tide. On Wednesday, a City Council panel endorsed the fundraising ban.

“The old notion that these people should be totally divorced from elected officials is out of date,” said Cal State Fullerton’s Sonenshein. “But regulating them is a very legitimate issue that seems ripe for debate.”

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Giving while serving the city

From 1998 to 2003, current members of Los Angeles city boards and commissions gave more than $800,000 to local political campaigns. The top donors, recipients and commissions whose members have given the most money:

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Current commissioners who have given the most

Redevelopment Commissioner Doug Ring: $72,750

Fire and Police Pension Commissioner Elliot Broidy: $45,710

Water and Power Commissioner Dominick Rubalcava: $39,250

Metropolitan Water District Board member David Farrar: $25,600

Planning Commissioner Joseph Klein: $25,000

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City officials and campaigns who have received the most money from current commissioners

Mayor James K. Hahn: $204,525

L.A. United anti-secession campaign: $126,676

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo: $37,251

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa: $31,050

Councilman Tony Cardenas: $29,800

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Commissions whose current members have given the most

Community Redevelopment Agency: $79,100

Planning Commission: $73,897

Fire and Police Pension Commission: $58,510

Airport Commission: $46,166

Police Commission: $40,550

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Notes: Some donations may have been made by commission members before they were appointed. Some donations to Villaraigosa were received when he was a mayoral candidate. Broidy’s donations include donations from his company.

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Source: L.A. City Ethics Commission - Researched by Times reporter Noam Levey