Hahn Backers Fined
A political committee that supported Mayor James K. Hahn in the 2001 election has agreed to pay $7,400 in fines to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission for campaign finance and mailer violations, according to a settlement released Wednesday.
The Friends of Jim Hahn Committee will pay fines for, among other things, accepting contributions over the $500 limit, including $2,000 in contributions from broadcast executive Walter Ulloa and $1,000 from Southcoast Metal Finishing.
The committee also was fined for failing to properly report and provide ethics officials with copies of a campaign mailer that went to 100,000 readers of the La Opinion newspaper.
The committee, headed by attorney and City Hall lobbyist Peter D. Kelly III, launched a $39,550 campaign independent of Hahn’s own campaign.
The settlement must be approved by the Ethics Commission to become final.
When the commission meets Tuesday to consider the matter, it will also take up proposed fines of $7,300 against Albert H. Gersten II and his company, GC Enterprises, for making combined contributions to Hahn’s campaign that exceeded city-imposed limits.
The latest fines bring to $97,000 the penalties levied against Hahn supporters, contributors and the mayor himself for campaign irregularities during the 2001 election.
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