David Cunningham

At least a dozen investigators searched the Baldwin Hills apartment of a real estate entrepreneur for six hours two weeks ago and questioned him repeatedly about possible financial dealings with Mayor Tom Bradley and other Los Angeles city officials, according to interviews and documents obtained Wednesday.

At least a dozen investigators searched the Baldwin Hills apartment of a real estate entrepreneur for six hours two weeks ago and questioned him repeatedly about possible financial dealings with Mayor Tom Bradley and other Los Angeles city officials, according to interviews and documents obtained Wednesday.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, connections had been frayed and confidence lost. Conceived in the ashes of Watts, this was supposed to be a municipal administration built to absorb ethnic shocks. In a city of so many colors, of so much wealth and poverty, it was expected to keep the peace. But on a single evening in late April, the flames that lighted the Los Angeles sky revealed that despite its multiracial hues, Mayor Tom Bradley's model City Hall was powerless to keep the lid on.

BUILDING LEADERS 1995 Company Sales in millions *--* Rank 1995 Company 1995 1996 City, Key Officer Volume Projection 1 Kaufman & Broad Corp.* 432 ** Los Angeles, Bruce Karatz 2 Greystone Homes Inc. 293.9 ** Los Angeles, Jack R. Harter 3 Standard Pacific Corp. 266 ** Costa Mesa, Ronald R. Foell 4 Pardee Construction Co. 231 297.5 Los Angeles, David E. Landon 5 Lewis Homes Group of Companies 210.5 210 Upland, Richard A. Lewis 6 Centex Real Estate Corp.* 191 212.9 Corona, Larry B.

Fifteen years ago, an impoverished potter named Juan Hamilton wangled three introductions to artist Georgia O'Keeffe, the only woman of independent means in this strangely verdant desert settlement beside a trickle called the Rio Chama. The first time, Hamilton tagged along with a friend visiting O'Keeffe's home. It so annoyed the 84-year-old doyenne of modern American art, he remembers, that she looked right through him during the entire visit.

School board President Rita Walters announced she will not--as had been widely expected--run for the open 10th District seat on the Los Angeles City Council. The 10th District seat became vacant when former City Councilman David Cunningham resigned.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley is expected today to endorse City Public Works Commissioner Homer F. Broome Jr. for election to the 10th District City Council seat. The Southwest Los Angeles district was represented by former Councilman David Cunningham, who resigned in September and took a job as an investment banking executive. Broome, like Bradley a retired Los Angeles Police officer, was appointed by the mayor in 1981 to the full-time, $52,000 public works position.

An organization calling itself the 10th District Citizens for Good Government filed suit Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court asking that the names of three City Council candidates for the Southwest Los Angeles seat be removed from the April 14 ballot. The suit contends that the three candidates to succeed David Cunningham--Homer Broome Jr.

Newly elected Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge has hired City Hall veteran Kathy Jones Irish as his chief of staff, officials said Wednesday. Irish, who worked years ago for then-Councilmen David Cunningham and Gilbert Lindsey, has spent the last year as a consultant on water projects for the city Department of Water and Power. The 48-year-old Irish also has served as western regional manager for Browning Ferris Industries, the operator of the controversial Sunshine Canyon Landfill.

BAHAMAS BOUND? A big pay-back may be in the works for Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who co-chaired Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in California last year. The White House has penciled in her husband, Sidney Williams, a Mercedes-Benz salesman in Hollywood, for ambassador to the Bahamas. How would the post affect the couple's routine of getting together when Waters flies home on weekends to her South-Central district? "It won't be a big problem," Williams said.

A crucial Los Angeles city decision on oil drilling along the Pacific Palisades coast was delayed Thursday for up to 30 days. The city's Board of Referred Powers heard five hours of testimony then chose to wait rather than rule on an appeal filed by Occidental Petroleum Co., which has been denied a permit to sink oil wells below the bluffs that face Will Rogers state beach.