Los Angeles County D.A. scrutinizes lobbying activity by two former L.A. officials
Investigators are looking into whether former Councilman Richard Alatorre violated city laws by failing to disclose lobbying activities. The office is also gathering information about lobbying work by former commissioner Leland Wong.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has opened an inquiry into the lobbying work of former Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre and whether he violated city laws by failing to disclose those activities, several sources said.
Cooley's Public Integrity Division, joined by investigators with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, also have been seeking information about any lobbying work by former city commissioner Leland Wong, who was sentenced last month to five years in prison.
Both Alatorre and Wong have been influential figures in city politics and, in separate cases, have faced lengthy corruption probes. Alatorre pleaded guilty to tax charges in 2001 after a four-year federal investigation; Wong was convicted last summer on charges that dealt, in part, on contracting at the airport and harbor.
The inquiry comes one year after The Times reported that Alatorre had contacted at least seven city departments and five council members on behalf of various businesses without registering as a lobbyist. Two weeks after the article appeared, Alatorre filed his registration forms.
District attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison confirmed that an inquiry of Alatorre's lobbying activity is underway but had no comment on Wong. However, three high-level officials at Los Angeles World Airports said last week that they had been informed of an ethics investigation focusing on both Alatorre and Wong.
LAWA general manager Gina Marie Lindsey said she received an e-mail from her agency's lawyers asking if she had been contacted by either man regarding airport business. "I haven't spoken to either one of those folks, so I didn't spend any time thinking about it," she said.
Two other airport officials said they were informed that Ethics Commission investigators want to interview anyone who has been lobbied by Alatorre and Wong. An e-mail sent earlier this month by Deputy City Atty. Kelly Martin said the Ethics Commission and the district attorney's office are conducting a comprehensive investigation -- one that is not limited to any particular time frame.
"Please note that although the Ethics Commission's staff member stated that they are not investigating LAWA, only whether Mr. Wong or Mr. Alatorre should have been registered as lobbyists, if the Ethics Commission or the district attorney finds evidence of other wrongdoing, they may be compelled to investigate it," Martin wrote to airport officials.
