James K Hahn

James K. Hahn was having lunch in a Beverly Hills restaurant four years ago when a developer walked up and introduced himself. Mark Alan Abrams said he wanted to help Hahn, then Los Angeles city attorney, become the next mayor. Soon, the developer was among Hahn's biggest fundraisers. He helped funnel more than $300,000 to the mayor and his political campaigns through an array of associates and businesses.

Former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, testifying at the only trial stemming from "pay to play" allegations that dogged his administration, said Wednesday that he didn't know whether one of his top commissioners was taking bribes.

Former Mayor James K. Hahn has agreed to pay $5,450 in fines to settle allegations by the executive director of the city Ethics Commission that he violated campaign finance rules in his unsuccessful reelection campaign. Hahn, who lost the 2005 election to Antonio Villaraigosa, conceded that he exceeded the $1,000 limit on individual contributions in seven cases between June 12, 2003, and Nov. 30, 2004, including $2,000 in checks from Crown Realty and Development Inc. and owner Robert A. Flaxman.

At least it wasn't done in charcoaled shades of gray. A solemn official portrait of a former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn was unveiled Thursday at City Hall in a ceremony tinged with laughter, if not with color. Hahn is depicted with folded arms and a somewhat aloof expression. He is pictured wearing a black suit, white shirt and pale blue tie, against a green backdrop.

James K. Hahn has found a new calling: real estate entrepreneur. The former Los Angeles mayor plans to use his political experience and connections in a new post as chief executive of a planned $800-million fund intended to help create affordable housing and other developments around transportation hubs such as rail stations. The fund is being launched by Chadwick Saylor & Co.

The secretary to prominent Los Angeles attorney Pierce O'Donnell has been fined $41,000 by the city Ethics Commission for her role in "aiding and abetting" his laundering of contributions to James K. Hahn's 2001 campaign for mayor. The fine imposed Tuesday brings to $445,700 the amount of civil and criminal penalties levied in connection with O'Donnell's laundering of 26 contributions to Hahn's campaign.

Leland Wong, a power broker in former Mayor James K. Hahn's administration, surrendered Wednesday to face a bribery and conflict-of-interest indictment that makes him the only public official accused of crimes in a three-year probe of alleged "pay to play" contracting practices in Los Angeles. Wong was accused by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on Tuesday of accepting $100,000 in bribes from Ren-Gung Shyu, executive vice president of Taipei-based Evergreen Marine Corp.

City Councilman Tony Cardenas and Mayor James K. Hahn plan to hold a news conference today to discuss their hope that the Navy will lease to the city the closed Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro for use as an airport. The city has long sought the former base to take pressure off crowded Los Angeles International Airport. But a majority of Orange County voters oppose an airport there. On Wednesday, the Navy is scheduled to begin auctioning the property.

On the day before a federal auction of the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn issued a last-minute appeal to the Navy to let the city use the base as a commercial airport.

Los Angeles ethics officials announced $96,000 in fines Thursday against 17 participants in two political money-laundering schemes, including some who contributed to James K. Hahn's last mayoral campaign. In one case, 15 contributors to Hahn and other candidates agreed to pay $54,000 in fines for donations they admitted were reimbursed, including four who said they were repaid by Mark Alan Abrams, a developer who is under investigation for fraud.