Creative accounting in the race for City Hall

In case you forgot to mark your calendars, today's the deadline for anyone running for L.A. mayor, city attorney, city controller and City Council seat (5 of the 17 seats are in play) to turn in campaign fund-raising reports for the first six months of 2008.

Though any single donor can give only $1,000 per election cycle, special interest money has managed to find a way around that pesky little law. Think cluster bucks. Our man in City Hall, David Zahniser, explains:

Just $1,000 per donor. How is that possible? It works like this: donors seeking favorable decisions from City Hall tend to cluster their campaign donations, by having family members and co-workers give to the same candidate.

That helps explain how two of the three candidates for city attorney have already collected a combined $1.5 million so far -- $1.1 million for Councilman Jack Weiss and nearly $440,000 for San Pedro lawyer Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich. Weiss has a big advantage, with three times as much money on hand as his opponent.

For those who don't follow these things, the city attorney's office is charged with offering city leaders legal advice -- and defending them against lawsuits -- on such hot-button issues as improper evictions, illegal billboards and environmental review of real estate projects, from Playa Vista to the Universal City expansion plan.

So let's look at a few donors who gave to two of the three city attorney candidates, starting with Weiss and Trutanich.

(Keep reading -- more from David after the jump.)

--Veronique de Turenne

Illustration: Tribune Media

JACK WEISS

The two-term councilman got much of his money from real estate interests and law firms seeking contracts for outside legal work at the city of Los Angeles. These donors include:

* $8,500 from executives and employees of Westfield, the mall giant that plans to build condominiums next to its shopping center in Century City -- in Weiss' district.

* $7,500 from executives and employees of Caruso Affiliated, which built The Grove shopping center at Fairfax and 3rd streets.

* $5,000 from Bond Companies, a real estate developer that recently bragged to a city board of its ability to "mine subsidies" -- and is receiving $41 million in taxpayer funds to build a seven-story apartment project in Chinatown.

* $5,000 from JMB Realty, which is building two 47-story condominium towers in Weiss' council district.

* $4,000 from the family of H.S. "Sonny" Astani, the real estate developer who has sought permission at City Hall to place a 14-story animated billboard made up of LED lights on the side of his building in downtown Los Angeles.

Weiss campaign spokesman Ace Smith said his client's enormous war chest shows that Weiss is the "clear choice in every community in the city." In a prepared statement, Smith said, "The early measures of support are in and Jack Weiss is winning in a landslide."

CARMEN "NUCH" TRUTANICH

Trutanich got much of his money from law enforcement, thanks to an endorsement from Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley. The San Pedro resident also took a large number of contributions from donors who live in nearby communities in the Harbor Area and South Bay. According to the Ethics Commission web site, his donors include:

* $5,200 from employees of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

* $3,350 from judges and referees of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

* $3,000 from the law firm Girardi & Keese and its lawyers.

* $1,350 from employees of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.

Trutanich said he is not intimidated by Weiss' big haul, saying he now plans to seek money from contributors who live north of the 105 Freeway.

"First and foremost, I had to prove my viability," he said. "And I pulled damn near $500,000 out of the South Bay."

Reports are still due from a third candidate, Michael American, who works in the office of City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.

Comments

[MortAllen]

How long will the people of LA let "Frick & Frack" make our city a laughing stock. Jack Weiss was elected to CIty Council seven years ago. Do you know how much in campaign funds he has raised at of 12/31/07? How about $2,484,000, which breaks down to $355,000 a year, or $1,000 a day, if he worked 24/7. He loves big bucks developers and hates the people of his Council DIstrict and his fellow Council Members. He "wants" to be City Attorney and thinks he can buy the office. Problem is that he has never had a trial in State Court, has never run a law office...but does have one thing going for him....he is owned by Antonio Villeraigosa. By the way, Mayor Antonio has raised a "cool" $15,128,678.28 in his short City Hall career. Want to have a few laughs - scroll through the Jack Weiss campaign statements. How is it that in 2008, GE Univerals gave him $500 made out to the Committee to Re-elect Jack Weiss to City Council - yes folks, that account, as well as his office holder account is also actively fund raising, listing the $1,000 limit to $2,000.

Remember the movie "Chinatown" where the water rights were put in the names of dead people? check the names of donors to the Jack Weiss for City Attorney campaign - page 7 , 4th from ther bottom. 06/05/08 GENE AUTRY
-RETIRED, PALM SPRINGS. Gosh, I went to Gene Autrys funeral quite a while ago. Kind of spooky isn't it. I would never say his funds have gone through a washing machine or anything like that.......but, in this horrible economy, it is interesting to see that Roland Arnell and his wife, of the bankrupt ANERIQUEST FINANCIAL have gives multiple thousands of dollars.

Don't believe the Times or Daily News when they say the economy is bad and the development & real estate community is down the and out. A good portion of the developers and Realtors who are losing properties in foreclosure have made $1,000 donations to Jack, along with their wives, children, and the kids school teachers. Here are some fun facts. 115 Homemakers gave $1,000; 67 retired people gave $1,000, 13 unemployed people gave $1,000, 6 school teachers gave $1,000, 4 students, including 2 at New York University, gave $1,000.

Didn't Jack Weiss storm into office with his promise of banning billboards, aren't the major companies, Clear Channel & CBS Outdoor suing the City, forcing 840 digital screns to be put up? The 2 billboard giants are being represented by Irell & Manella Lawyerrs - who, incidently, donated over $10,000 to Jacks run for City Attorney. Everyone has read that World Wide Rush super Graphics company sued the City and won the right to keep all their super graphics up on buildings, and about the same time, 12/22/07, Barry & Leslye Rush, owners of World Wide Rush, headquartered in Pennsylvania, thanked Jack by donating $2,000 to his campaign. The other billboard companies also chipped in with their contributions.

TV ads will be a waste of money because of the digital conversion on February 17th, this race will be run by billboards. Carmen will be paying for well loocated billboards throughout the City. Should Jack Weiss put up billboards, he will be laughed out of the City by the validation that he used the billboard issue to fool voters.

A selection committee of our finest peers interviewed many fine candidates and selected Carmen Trutanich to be our next City Attorney. If the Mayor is stupid enough to risk his entire political career on Jack Weiss - he deserves to be beaten by either Rik Caruso or Laura Chick. ONe thing is for sure, the major news shows will be following the race, especially the 12 planned televised debates - that Jack Weiss cannot hide from.

[Len]

... and it looks like Trutanich is the choice of Judges, Law Enforcement, and rank-and-file City Attorneys. A "cluster" of support from independent members of law enforcement, the bench, and the CAs office is a good thing for Los Angeles. On the other hand, a "cluster" of donations from employees at a development company is not. Eventually, the developers will want a return on their political investment, and will expand Weiss' district's traffic congestion problem citywide.

[Dennis]

Looks like Weiss is definitely the Developers' choice in this race.