Tucker Uses Campaign Fete as Occasion to Hire Family

COMPTON —  Supporters of Mayor Walter R. Tucker contributed $42,125 to his election campaign earlier this year, most of it at a February testimonial dinner where the program was entitled “Charity Begins at Home.”

But at least $19,220 of the political funds wound up in the pockets of a son, two daughters and five other Tucker relatives, according to a campaign report recently filed by the mayor.

And a man identified in the report as having received $1,500 to videotape the testimonial said last week that he actually received only $650, part of which he shared with one of the Tucker relatives.

Chance to Comment Refused

The state Political Reform Act of 1974 requires that campaign reports be accurate. And the Elections Code states that if a relative or anyone else is paid from contributions, that person must have performed a legitimate activity that bears “a reasonable relationship to political, legislative or governmental purposes.”

When contacted last week about his campaign report and payments to relatives, Tucker declined to comment in detail. “You’re asking me something you’d have to ask them,” said the mayor, who is two years away from facing reelection. “I don’t have to answer any questions.”

In separate interviews, two relatives said they were paid for legitimate campaign work. The other six could not be reached for comment.

According to the report, the family members were paid primarily for helping to produce the Feb. 27 testimonial, an evening of singing, dancing, speeches and proclamations that followed a prime-rib dinner at the new Long Beach Ramada Renaissance Hotel.

Son Walter R. Tucker III, for example, received $7,000 for coordinating the dinner and acting as master of ceremonies, the report states. The son’s wife, Robin Tucker, received $500 for singing at the testimonial, plus $1,700 for being “music coordinator and director.” And one of the mayor’s daughters, Keta Tucker Collins, collected $750 for handling “deliveries, phone calling and collections.”

The affair, by all accounts, was a gala tribute to the 62-year-old Tucker, described in the 10-page testimonial program as a public servant who has “instilled in (Compton) citizens a sense of pride and well being.” And it offered an upbeat note at a time when the mayor’s family fortunes were on the wane.

Wife’s Fraud Suit Settled

A month before the dinner, Tucker’s wife, Martha, and sister-in-law Barbara Hall were charged with defrauding a Long Beach man of $45,000 in a real-estate transaction at Mattco Financial Inc., a business the mayor owned and his wife operated. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Aug. 18.

Six days after the dinner, Tucker’s wife repaid the $45,000--as well as $11,865 in interest, fees and damages--to settle a civil suit, from which the criminal charges stem.

On May 27, their $350,000 Compton residence came within 20 minutes of being auctioned at a public foreclosure sale before the Tuckers satisfied a delinquent $16,354 debt, records show.

None of the campaign money went to the mayor’s wife, according to the report. The eight Tucker relatives named in the report include:

Barbara Hall, the mayor’s sister-in-law and a co-defendant in the real-estate fraud case. She received $750 for making “phone calls, deliveries and collections” and $110 as a “mailer worker.”

Harry Hall, a nephew of the mayor and son of Barbara Hall. He received $220, also as a “mailer worker.”

Keta Tucker Collins, one of the mayor’s daughters. In addition to the $750 for deliveries and phone calls, she received $2,000 for professional campaign management and consulting services through an entity identified as “A.H. Enterprises.”

Camille Tucker, the mayor’s other daughter. She received $120 as a “mailer worker” and $500 for providing dinner hostesses through something identified as “Camille Tucker & Hostesses.”

The family member who received the most was Tucker’s son, a lawyer now defending his mother in the criminal case. He did not return calls for comment.

Interest-Free Loans

After he repaid a $3,528 interest-free loan made from his father’s campaign late last year, the report says, the younger Tucker was given a $4,500 interest-free loan.

The son also received a $500 testimonial dinner payment for “original planning: selection of hotel, printers, prices, dates & theme.” He received $500 for “development of the testimonial dinner programs” and $500 for “attaining and creating ads for the program.” Another $750 was paid to him for “phone calling of principal contributors, collections and deliveries.” And he received $500 for acting as master of ceremonies.

The son received $1,500 for “dinner coordination with Russ Bryant, Renaissance Hotel: Menu, lighting, suite, occupancy guaranty, contract review, floorplan, ballroom selection.”

Bryant, director of catering services for the Ramada, said in an interview last week that he talked with the Tucker son twice: once briefly to give him a list of potential menu selections, and again about two weeks later when they “hacked out the rest of the details in about an hour.”

The Tucker son also received $2,000 for “ongoing coordination: meetings with Phyllis Lester (a Compton city employee and private political consultant) & Keta Collins (his sister) re: listings of patrons, research and new listings, confirming invitations, honorary committee confirmations, letters requesting proclamations from honorary officials, follow-up phone calling to officials, review of work by printers, graphic designer, and hotel seating.”

Finally, the Tucker son was paid $750 for “campaign statement preparation, accounting, and filing.”

Developers Contributed

The 79 campaign contributors listed in the report include more than 20 businesses or individuals who have done business with City Hall. For example, downtown shopping center developer and securities dealer Danny Bakewell gave $1,500. Commercial developer Watt Industries gave $3,000, and residential developer William Dawson, of AFCOM, $1,500.

From those funds, the campaign paid the hotel $9,876 for the 310 dinners served, plus $359.77 for one night’s use of a hotel suite. Another $75 was paid for piano music during the dinner.

Mayor Tucker was the guest of honor, and several people rose to pay tribute to the oral surgeon who began his 20-year Compton political career on the school board and--as the program notes--is the only black in the city to have been reelected mayor.

The program identifies an honorary dinner committee that included Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and County Supervisor Deane Dana.

The keynote address was delivered by the mayor’s brother-in-law, the Rev. David A. Scott Sr., a Methodist minister in Pasadena who 30 years ago was a pioneer in efforts to raise the political consciousness of blacks in Compton. Scott confirmed that he was paid $200 for his speech.

Speech Described

“I did not speak on behalf of the mayor,” Scott said. “What I did was try to give those in attendance a sense of how far we (as black political leaders) have come . . . the struggles that it took to get there.”

Tucker “was saying that he felt that there was a need for the newcomers in Compton to have some understanding of what it took for persons, for blacks, to really be in the positions they have in the city.” (Four of the five Compton City Council members are black.)

Preceding and following the ceremonies were musical performances by a six-piece band and a pair of singers that included the mayor’s daughter-in-law, Robin Tucker. The musicians were each paid from $100 to $200, and $500 went to singer Huey Jackson, according to the campaign report. Jackson is described in the dinner program as an accomplished performer who is pursuing a professional singing career.

An identical $500--plus a $1,700 musical director’s fee--was paid to Robin Tucker, although the dinner program describes her as a “business woman, wife and mother” who sings “as a hobby.”

In an interview, Robin Tucker said that contrary to the dinner program description, she is a professional singer. “I’ve done a lot of things--professional studio work as well as clubs.” She said the dinner program description is “not a good biography of me at all. It was just something thrown together.” She declined to say where she has sung professionally, however, and said she wished not to disclose the fee she typically receives for performances. She also said that she is not a member of a musicians union because that can sometimes be a hindrance to getting work.

Pay Amount Disputed

The testimonial lasted four to five hours, said Tony Dillard, who recorded the events on video tape.

In an interview, Dillard said he used a single camera and a few studio lights in what was “a very simple production.”

The mayor’s campaign report states that $1,500 was paid to “Tony Dillard, Bank of America, Arco Tower, L.A., Video Department.” Dillard is a media specialist in the Bank of America video department, but he said the testimonial dinner work was done on a free-lance basis. He said he did the work at the request of the mayor’s son, whom he knows from junior high school, and of Derek Tucker, an occasional video consultant to the bank who is a nephew of the mayor.

Dillard also said that he was paid $650--not $1,500 as listed in the campaign report--with a personal check from the mayor’s son.

Of that $650, Dillard said, $350 paid for rental of the video equipment and the remaining $300 was split evenly between him and Derek Tucker, who assisted in the taping.

Derek Tucker could not be reached for comment. The mayor’s campaign report states that he was paid $220 as a “mailer worker” and $650 for performing “post-production on dinner video.”

Dillard said he was unaware that the mayor’s nephew had received additional money related to the video-taping.

Bank of America spokesman Ronald Owens emphasized that the bank “was not connected to that event in any fashion or form” and that any work Dillard performed “was done on his own time and without B of A’s approval or knowledge.”