Dogfight over shelter leads to highest lobbying bill.

L.A.'s most intensively lobbied projects typically involve huge real estate projects or regulation of the cable industry, not animal shelters.

The one issue in the city of Los Angeles generating the heftiest lobbying fees during the second quarter--$181,550 to be exact--involved an animal shelter proposed for an industrial section of San Pedro.

That was more than the $177,000 spent on lobbying for control of the Los Angeles Export Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles, or the $110,000 spent on the Playa Vista project or the $108,000 spent for lobbying on Mayor James Hahn's proposed overhaul for Los Angeles International Airport.

The lobbying stems from the plan to spend $8 million to relocate and expand an animal shelter in the Harbor area and originated from the single owner of an auto body shop on the site at Gaffey Street and Miraflores Avenue that the city was seeking to buy out.

Ironically, while several city agencies were deciding on this site for the shelter, Yonan Safar, owner of the Y&S Auto Body Shop, obtained a building permit from the city to expand his shop--on the same site.

"The letters actually crossed in the mail," said Y&S lobbyist Clark Davis.

The city had made a previous offer on the site in 2002 that Safar rejected. Convinced he would not hear any more from the city, he went ahead with his expansion plans.

But Kiran Vohra, program manager for the animal facilities bond program with the city's Bureau of Engineering, said the city ran into neighborhood opposition for other possible sites and came back to Y&S last October with another offer for $2.7 million. According to Vohra, Y&S countered with several offers, the top one reaching $33 million.

Davis spent the next several weeks negotiating the final purchase price, which was $3.7 million. "Y&S had service contracts waiting in the wings with Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar dealers and we felt we needed an alternative site immediately," he said.

Davis said it was one of the most difficult lobbying efforts he has ever undertaken. "There were so many agencies we had to deal with, even more than when I represented the county as it got the permits from the city to build the Disney Concert Hall," he said.