Donations by Family Prompt Questions

Richard Meruelo, a developer with major real estate holdings in downtown Los Angeles, and members of his extended family have spent more than $103,000 trying to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor.

Meruelo, a Republican and Cuban American who supported Mayor James K. Hahn four years ago, says he has made his contributions because he would like to see a Latino elected mayor of Los Angeles.

But his spending -- by far the largest amount from any individual in the current campaign -- has drawn fire from Hahn and his allies. Meruelo has also stirred anger from some residents of neighborhoods affected by his real estate dealings, particularly in Glassell Park, where he recently bought property on which the Los Angeles Unified School District wanted to build a high school for 2,300 students.

Councilman Ed Reyes, whose district includes the site, said he was stunned by the purchase. “Our expectations were very high” for the new school, said Reyes, who has endorsed Hahn. “For him to just come in out of the dark and swoop down and take it is disturbing.”

Villaraigosa, who has made education one of his top issues, told reporters Tuesday that he was not aware of Meruelo’s purchase of the property along San Fernando Road. If Meruelo moves forward with plans to develop that land and prevents a school from being built, Villaraigosa said, “that’s an issue on which we disagree.”

A Republican who supported Hahn four years ago, Meruelo has spent $82,711 in the last month to persuade fellow Republicans to vote for Villaraigosa. Meruelo’s expenditures -- which by law cannot be coordinated with Villaraigosa’s campaign -- have paid for mailers from former Mayor Richard Riordan and a series of pre-recorded telephone messages urging GOP voters to choose Villaraigosa.

Meruelo is the only individual to run an independent campaign in the runoff election. Except for him, almost all of the nearly $1.7 million spent so far has come from unions. About $1 million of the union money has gone to support Hahn.

At a town hall meeting in Tarzana, Hahn told reporters Meruelo’s donations raise questions about what Meruelo wants from Villaraigosa if he is elected mayor.

“We want to know what these massive expenditures by one individual are,” he said.

Meruelo, who lives in Los Angeles and Coral Gables, Fla., said Tuesday that “there would be a great deal of pride for me to see a Latino become our mayor.” He also said he thought Villaraigosa would be “a great mayor.”

In addition to the independent spending, Meruelo and his wife, father, mother, brother and sister-in-law have given a total of $21,000 to the Villaraigosa campaign, bringing their direct and indirect support of the councilman to $103,711.

Meruelo and his family own property throughout downtown, including sites near Staples Center and the Transamerica Center Tower.

They own the huge produce market on Alameda Street and the building that houses American Apparel, a Los Angeles-based garment maker.

Because development plans require the approval of the Planning Commission, which the mayor appoints, and the City Council, connections at City Hall can be important.

Meruelo said he has not asked Villaraigosa for anything other than to be “a good leader for the city,” to be bold and engaged. “If the city prospers, I prosper,” he said.

At a campaign stop in Westwood, Villaraigosa acknowledged that Meruelo was “a friend of mine without question.”

The former Assembly speaker, who has a reputation as a successful fundraiser, pledged that contributions to his candidacy for mayor would not buy access or favoritism in his administration if he was elected.

Villaraigosa said he is from the Jesse Unruh school of politics. “If you can’t tell your friends ‘No,’ then you shouldn’t be in public service,” he said. “I’ve got to be able to tell my friends ‘No.’ I’ve got to be able to look you in the eye and tell you ‘No.’ ”

Unruh, who ruled the Assembly as speaker during the 1960s, also coined the phrase: “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

Last week, the district attorney’s office opened a preliminary inquiry into whether $47,000 in donations to Villaraigosa’s campaign from executives and employees of two Florida-based companies and their relatives might have been laundered. Villaraigosa said he would return that money.

On the defensive about his fundraising, Villaraigosa sought Tuesday to allay concerns that campaign money might affect his decisions if he’s elected. “In every campaign, when you’re raising

Meruelo is a 40-year-old developer whose family has been buying and selling land in Los Angeles for three decades.

In the interview Tuesday, Meruelo said he bought the 23-acre property in Glassell Park because the school district had dropped the ball in negotiations. He said if L.A. Unified wants the property for a high school, the district can use its power of eminent domain to acquire the land.

Meruelo described the land as a great site because of its proximity to a 40-acre piece of parkland near the river.

That land was purchased with proceeds from a state park bond issue that Villaraigosa wrote when he was speaker and California voters approved in June 2000.

The state has also bought an 18-acre piece of riverfront property near Meruelo’s parcel.

Meruelo said he has never had a conversation with Villaraigosa about the site or the candidate’s plans for opening parts of the riverfront to the public as parkland.

At a community forum Thursday night, Meruelo said he had purchased the property for $30 million, according to several people who attended. District officials would not disclose the price they planned to pay for the site, but said it was not far from that amount.

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), who organized the meeting, said that attendees asked whether Meruelo bought the property simply to raise the amount that the district would have to pay for it.

“He never really answered the question,” she said.

The assemblywoman, who supports Villaraigosa, said Meruelo told community residents that the school district’s plans for the property were too narrow.

She said he discussed plans to develop the site to include not only a school, but also retail stores, restaurants and commercial uses.

Reyes, the city councilman, said that residents were upset because the property was the best place to put a new high school. “There is a sense of desperation and frustration,” he said. The councilman expressed hope that Meruelo would “understand the priorities of the area.” *

Times staff writers Richard Fausset, Jessica Garrison and Daniel Hernandez and Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this report.