Controversial Donors Spread Wealth Among Key Californians

As congressional Republicans gear up for hearings on the influence of foreign money in U.S. election campaigns, lawmakers in both parties are discovering that they too pocketed money from some of the key figures in the controversy.

Those receiving contributions include high-profile Republicans and Democrats such as House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.)--and a host of Californians, including both of the state’s senators and Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City).

John Huang, a onetime Democratic National Committee aide and assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, with ties to the controversial Indonesian-based Lippo Group conglomerate, is at the center of the scandal.

Huang, a banker who once lived in Glendale, can legally donate to candidates. However, he has been accused of rounding up huge contributions from foreigners who donated improperly. Others enmeshed in the matter include James and Aileen Riady, whose wealthy family controls Lippo, and various other officials tied to the huge Indonesian company.

Just how recipients of this largess are handling the money differs from case to case.

D’Amato has returned a $500 check Huang donated to him in 1992, aides say, freeing him up to hurl partisan thunder during the hearings. Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.) intends to return $4,100 in contributions from Huang and others that he received before 1993. However, he will keep the $4,000 that Huang raised this year.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, has said through a spokeswoman that she is reviewing the $7,000 in Lippo-related contributions she has received over the years. The state’s other Democratic senator, Barbara Boxer, who in 1994 received $1,000 from Huang’s wife, Jane, says she will keep the contribution as long as she feels comfortable with it and that it was donated legally.

Berman, who has received $2,400 from Huang since 1987, says he does not feel compelled to return the money now.

“This guy bought two tickets to a dinner in 1987, two tickets in 1989 and two tickets in 1991,” Berman said. “In all my conversations with him, he never asked me to do anything. Now, there are a lot of allegations about him for things he may have done after he gave me money. If, in the end, it is clear he did something improper, I’ll rethink it.”

Berman said he has returned money before when he felt the donor was attempting to attach strings to the contribution. He said Huang never pushed him to pursue any policies, even after he became the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee overseeing Asia two years ago.

Berman said he will be following the congressional hearings with interest. But until he hears damning testimony about the people involved, “I don’t think I want to jump to conclusions before the full story is told.”

Plum Position

San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) scored a coup this week when he was picked by Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno) to head the Public Safety Committee.

The assignment is a plum for any Assembly member, particularly for a brand-new legislator.

The workhorse committee, which heard 700 pieces of legislation in the 1995-96 session, is a forum for debating the hot-button issues of crime and punishment.

Its last chair was also a Valley legislator--former Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland.

Hertzberg said he will form a San Fernando Valley Public Safety Advisory Commission to get local advice on legislation.

Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) is the only other Assembly member representing the Valley who won a coveted policy committee chairmanship. He will lead the Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee.

Two other local Assembly members, Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) and Jack Scott (D-Altadena), were assigned to lead budget subcommittees. Scott, a former community college president, will oversee the education finance subcommittee, while Cardenas is in charge of information technology and transportation.

New Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles) was assigned to head the Joint Legislative Audit.

No Appointment Necessary

It wasn’t as dramatic as Napoleon’s self-coronation, but one of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s first official acts as chairman of the board this month was to make himself a member of the Local Agency Formation Commission, better known as LAFCO.

Yaroslavsky’s self-appointment filled a vacancy on the commission left by the retirement of Supervisor Deane Dana. Two county supervisors sit on the 11-member board, which is responsible primarily for boundary changes related to land-use issues.

In his motion to the board, Yaroslavsky (or more likely, a member of his staff) apparently had a tough time deciding whether to refer to himself in the first- or third-person.

The result was a bit confusing: “Since it is the chairman’s responsibility to submit a recommendation to the board for appointment to LAFCO, I am proposing that I be appointed to fill the remainder of Supervisor Dana’s unexpired term of office. Therefore, I move that the Board of Supervisors appoint Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to LAFCO. . . . “

The board unanimously agreed with Yaroslavsky’s logic, and the chairman joins fellow Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke on the commission, where members earn $150 for attending monthly meetings.

That remuneration should fit in nicely with the $100 stipend the new chairman will receive for attending monthly sanitation district meetings and the $150 per meeting (including committee meetings) that Yaroslavsky and the other supes get for showing up at Metropolitan Transportation Authority meetings. The MTA arrangement alone often totals $450 per month in stipends for the supervisors.

All of this, of course, is in addition to the $107,390 each supervisor earns in salary. Not bad for government work.

Between Gigs

Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale) is known for changing careers every few years, but at least he’s always had a job.

Not this month.

Despite the trip to Washington, the orientation, committee assignments and new office, the newly elected Rogan said he is unemployed.

Rogan’s Assembly salary ended in November and his congressional salary won’t start until January, which means two months between paychecks.

“I was giving some thought to going down and collecting my unemployment, which I have been paying into for 20 years,” Rogan said, “but I was afraid you would write about it.”

He’s right, of course.

Rogan reports that, despite getting a good number in the office lottery, he picked Lyndon Johnson’s old office on the undesirable fifth floor of the Cannon Office Building. It’s just down the hall from offices once occupied by Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

“There’s a lot of upward mobility there,” Rogan quipped.

And if you seek star quality, Rogan said, Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Palm Springs) has an office there too.

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QUOTABLE: “It’s kind of distressing. I feel [like] a victim of people’s goodwill.

--Mark Kroeker, on a letter-writing campaign

to have him selected new chief of the LAPD