Indicted Donors Gave to Council

Contractors accused of conspiring to evade limits also contributed to L.A. lawmakers.

By Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer

Contractors accused of conspiring with an executive of a major development company to make illegal campaign contributions to four politicians also donated to a majority of the Los Angeles City Council, as well as to a powerful Los Angeles County supervisor, campaign records show.

Principals in the roofing, plumbing and drywall companies were indicted last month, along with a vice president of Casden Properties, accused of conspiring to evade legal limits on contributions to political campaigns and to buy influence at City Hall. All of the defendants have denied wrongdoing.

The indictment identified money allegedly funneled to the failed mayoral campaign of former state Controller Kathleen Connell and the campaigns of City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and council members Jack Weiss and Wendy Greuel.

Records show that the same contractors and their employees gave at least $28,000 to the campaigns of nine other council members and $16,000 to the reelection campaign of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a longtime friend of Alan Casden, the owner of Casden Properties.

Casden, who is on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, has not been indicted and has denied wrongdoing. He was named as a target of the investigation last month by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.

The additional contributions show a much wider reach for the core group of 13 indicted companies, touching virtually every elected official in the city of Los Angeles.

Individuals are limited to giving only $500 to council candidates or $1,000 to candidates for citywide or county office. But when donors solicit contributions from business associates, they can legally generate far more campaign cash than those limits.

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Demerjian said that prosecutors had not named the whole range of politicians who had received money from the Casden contractors because that is not the focus of their case.

"The focus of the investigation is not on the candidates, it's on the contributors," said Demerjian, the head of the D.A.'s anti-corruption unit.

The grand jury alleged that some of the Casden contractors reimbursed their employees for political donations, a violation of law.

Casden attorney Tom Nolan said there is nothing wrong with the developer asking friends and contractors to give money to certain candidates.

"He asks those people he is in business with to support those institutions and political figures he believes in," Nolan said. "He's not alone in making contributions, and that's how city politicians run for election. Until we go to a public-funded political contribution system, worthwhile politicians have to depend on the hard work and support of citizens like Mr. Casden."

Nolan and others noted that developers such as Casden â€" whose projects depend on City Council approval â€" are often asked to help political campaigns. Casden has said that even Cooley's campaign once solicited him for a donation. Cooley's office said Friday that the developer had merely been asked to attend a campaign kickoff event in 2000, not a fundraiser.

Until recently, Casden hoped to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers and move the stadium from Chavez Ravine to downtown Los Angeles â€" a major undertaking that would have required City Council support. Casden also needs approval for a controversial $100-million residential-retail project in Westwood that council members say has little chance of succeeding in light of the current investigation.

It is legal to ask business associates or friends to give to political campaigns, but it is illegal to reimburse those who contribute. The core of the criminal case filed last month is the allegation that the Casden contractors reimbursed their employees for campaign contributions, and that John Archibald, the Casden vice president, conspired with the contractors. Archibald has denied the charges; some contractors admitted paying back employees for campaign contributions but said they had not known it was illegal, according to transcripts of the grand jury sessions.

Some of the contractors' employees testified that they had been directed to make contributions to a wide range of politicians. Deborah Dix, a bookkeeper for the concrete company TCBI Inc., which received $7 million in work from the Casden company, said her boss, Anthony Boozel, had directed her to make contributions to both Connell's mayoral campaign and the reelection campaign of Yaroslavsky. Dix told the grand jury that she had been reimbursed for the Connell donation, according to transcripts; it is unclear whether she was reimbursed for the contribution to the supervisor. Boozel has been charged as part of the conspiracy.

Dix's $1,000 contribution to Yaroslavsky â€" the maximum allowed under county law â€" was received June 12, 2001, according to campaign records, along with $1,000 from TCBI and donations from several other Casden contractors now charged with making illegal contributions to other politicians. Donations included $2,000 from Glendora-based Capital Drywall and one of its foremen, $1,000 from an employee at Desert Roofing, and $2,000 from Zaharoni Industries and one of its employees.

In an interview, Yaroslavsky said that he had been friends with Casden for more than 20 years and that he had turned to the developer for help during several campaigns. He said he had known nothing about the donations from Casden's contractors in his most recent campaign.

"I have no evidence there was anything untoward about the contributions we received," Yaroslavsky said.

Harland Braun, who represents Desert Roofing's owner, who is one of the 14 people indicted, said his client did not believe he had broken any laws when he reimbursed his employees for political contributions. He said the Casden vice president, Archibald, had solicited the donations.

"Casden asks the subs to give money, they give money because they look forward to good relationships with Casden…. These guys are so naive they don't realize they can't reimburse," Braun said.

Braun drew a comparison with Cooley's own fundraising practices. Himself a contributor to the district attorney's campaigns, Braun said that Cooley's operation had asked some lawyers â€" who are limited to $1,000 donations under law â€" to raise set amounts of money by tapping friends and colleagues. The attorneys, Braun said, are smart enough to know it would be illegal to reimburse anyone for the donations.

"The problem is, the whole thing stinks," Braun said of the campaign finance system. "The whole notion that there is a limit on the amount of money you can give is phony."

City Council members said that the contributions they had received from Casden contractors had barely registered in their fundraising pushes.

"The councilman raises money from a wide number of sources â€" residents of the northeast San Fernando Valley, Latinos, community groups," said David Gershwin, a spokesman for council President Alex Padilla, whose campaign and officeholder accounts have received $6,500 from Casden subcontractors in the last three years. Those donations, Gershwin said, "were just part and parcel."

Councilman Bernard C. Parks received $2,000 from companies whose owners were named in the indictment and $2,000 more from other Casden contractors who testified before the grand jury. "We were under the impression that everything was on the up and up," said the councilman's son and spokesman, Bernard Parks Jr. "In fundraising, someone gives, and if they feel strongly about a candidate, they may ask their friends to give."

Larry Delbo sees nothing wrong with that. The 83-year-old salesman at Progressive Insulation was first solicited for a campaign contribution in the early 1970s. A developer and client had a project in San Diego and asked him to donate to the campaign of then-mayoral candidate Pete Wilson. Delbo did.

Delbo said that Archibald had asked him in about 2000 to donate to Connell, who was then running for mayor. He gave $1,000. He also asked his colleague Steve Anderson, who owns the Chatsworth-based company, to give to Connell, and Anderson did.

Both men said they saw nothing unusual about the incident and had felt no pressure from Archibald to donate. Both men said they had not been reimbursed. "It's something that goes on all the time," Anderson said, referring to solicitations from customers for political contributions.

Neither man has been contacted by the district attorney's office.

Times staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report.

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