COOLEY BACKS FUND-RAISING BAN.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

District Attorney Steve Cooley told a public forum Thursday night that Los Angeles city commissioners should be barred from fund raising, in order to eliminate undue influence in contracting and the appearance of impropriety.

Cooley, speaking for the first time on the controversial commissioner issue, said he was particularly concerned about the commissions that oversee the airport, harbor and water and power departments.

A county grand jury recently began to hear testimony on possible links between commissioners' campaign fund raising and the award of millions of dollars in contracts.

``Commissioners should be prohibited from soliciting campaign contributions - that should be done,'' Cooley told several hundred people at a Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Association's annual meeting.

Cooley called commissioners' fund raising ``the core of the problem'' in creating undue, or the appearance of improper, influence and said elected officials should halt it.

He said the City Council should step in and demand it be stopped if necessary.

Mayor James Hahn repeatedly has said commissioners should be allowed to continue to raise funds, though he recently banned commissioners from sitting on selection panels prior to voting on contracts.

Cooley said he has become increasingly concerned about the impact of campaign money on the local political process. He said when limits are skirted an uneven playing field is created, with the advantage going to those who raised or gave the most money.

``Proponents of reform call it 'pay for play.' Critics call it 'gotcha politics.' I believe the reformers are on the right side,'' Cooley said.

He said commissioners should be selected for their benefit to the public, not based on their success as political fund-raisers.

Without discussing specifics of ongoing investigations, Cooley said he would continue to use the grand jury aggressively to fight public corruption.

``It has been used in past decades by this office to detect and deter corruption, and it is fair to say since I took office prosecutorial use of the grand jury has been maximized,'' Cooley said.

``When we get evidence, we're going to pursue it fearlessly,'' he added.

The Daily News has reported the county grand jury this week called Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, Hahn's liaison to the port and airport, as well as a former top airport executive and others to testify.

Sources have said the investigation centers on potential links between commissioners using their influence on contracts to get campaign contributions or other favors.

The Westwood community, where the meeting was held, has been fighting a proposed $100-million development by Casden Properties LLC.

In November, a top executive with the firm and 13 of the firm's subcontractors were indicted on charges they conspired to violate city political campaign finance limits during the 2001 elections.

They all have denied wrongdoing.

Cooley said prosecutors are ``pursuing the investigation,'' and will do so to ``an appropriate end.''

He said the division created in 2001 to target public corruption has filed 70 cases, obtaining 56 convictions; the rest are pending in court.

Cooley said there are 108 ongoing corruption investigations.

``I was concerned that for too many years the D.A.'s Office had shied away from taking a hard look at public corruption in every corner of this county,'' he said.

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com