Hahn Appointee Broke Ethics Law, Lawyer Says

A lawyer who once headed a prominent business association said he saw a city commissioner Thursday playing host at a fundraising breakfast for Mayor James K. Hahn, despite a new law that bars commissioners from raising money for city candidates.

The accusation by Fred Gaines, who is backing Hahn challenger Bob Hertzberg, comes as Hahn prepared to unveil a plan today to strengthen the ethical standards for city commissioners.

The mayoral appointees oversee some of the city’s biggest departments, and some award millions of dollars annually.

Gaines, a San Fernando Valley lawyer, said he was eating breakfast at the downtown Pacific Dining Car on Thursday when he saw the mayor and Dominick Rubalcava, the president of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, at a table with others a few feet away.

“Dominick Rubalcava was greeting people as they came in.... He thanked them all for contributing to the mayor. And he introduced the mayor,” Gaines said. “There was no doubt he was the host of the breakfast.”

Hahn campaign advisor Kam Kuwata, who returned a reporter’s message that was left on Rubalcava’s cellphone, angrily disputed that account of Rubalcava’s activities.

“He was not playing host. He was not a host. He did not solicit anyone,” Kuwata said, lacing his remarks with profanities directed at Gaines.

Gaines is a former chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., one of the city’s leading business groups.

Gaines, who was eating alone, said the mayor thanked Rubalcava for putting the event together and began his pitch for contributions.

New city laws that were enacted last spring with Hahn’s belated support ban members of city boards and commissions from soliciting contributions for local political campaigns or inviting potential donors to fundraising events.

The laws do not prohibit commissioners from attending fundraisers or publicly proclaiming their support for candidates.

Kuwata, who was not at the breakfast, insisted that Rubalcava did nothing wrong.

He said the city commissioner was having a private breakfast at the upscale diner that is popular with the city’s political elite, and that he came over to say hello.

Kuwata said the mayor told him that Rubalcava did not make any remarks at the breakfast. Kuwata also said Hahn told him that Gaines was not seated near the mayor’s table.

Neither Rubalcava, who has raised money for Hahn in the past, nor Hahn returned calls for comment. Kuwata declined to say who attended the mayor’s fundraiser or with whom Rubalcava was dining.

Last year, a Times investigation revealed that the Hahn-appointed presidents of the airport and harbor commissions helped the mayor raise money from contributors who had recently had business before their commissions. City laws ban such fundraising.

Hahn has denied that either commissioner broke the law.