Playa capital leads resurgence in City Hall lobbying. (Up Front).

Corporate cost-cutting aside, companies with matters pending before L.A. City Hall still managed to spend a near-record $4 million during the second quarter on lobbying activities, according to the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.

The $3.95 million paid by nearly 600 companies to 69 lobbying firms in the April-June period marked a rebound from a year-long slowdown after reaching a high of $4.2 million in the like period last year, according to the commission's summary report. Companies spent $3.4 million in the first quarter of this year.

City Ethics Commission Executive Director LeeAnn Pelham said the decline had been due to a slowing of the economy and the mix of projects and ordinances being considered by either city staff or the City Council. In the second quarter of this year, higher spending on airport-related matters helped fuel the rebound, she said.

"These lobbying figures typically go up from year to year, so it doesn't surprise me that the numbers are still high," said Joel Fox, former president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and now a political consultant doing work for the San Fernando Valley secession campaign. "All these projects and ordinances that the city is considering are going to produce financial winners and losers, and that's why these firms are spending the dollars."

The largest single lobbying fee, $171,000, was paid by Playa Capital Company LLC, even though there were no major approvals for the project pending with the city. Over the years, Playa Vista has racked up millions of dollars in lobbying costs as it has gone through the approval process. During the second quarter last year, for example, it spent $200,000 in lobbying fees.

"There were a couple of minor matters, such as traffic mitigation issues, that generated some debate, but mostly, the dollars we spent were for procedural things like occupancy certificates for the first buildings that opened during that quarter," said Playa Capital spokesman Steve Sugerman. "We have taken an extremely conservative approach to reporting lobbying expenses: anything that could remotely be considered lobbying."

Influencing city decisions

Typically, lobbying expenditures are made to influence city decisions on land use projects, city contracts and proposed city ordinances. They include research to justify an application for a permit or zoning change or in support of a certain course of action on a city ordinance.

They also include time set aside to meet with city officials and any gifts or campaign contributions made to those city officials (within specified dollar limits). While submitting a justification for an occupancy permit may technically be considered lobbying, these types of permits are often routine and typically don't generate extensive lobbying fees.

The Playa expenditures were followed closely by the $143,000 spent by Bechtel Communications and Sprint PCS, which are seeking to upgrade and add cellular antennae within L.A. city limits. These companies have been struggling to keep up with consumer demand for cellular phone service. Residents have frequently opposed the building of more cellular antennae, saying they are unsightly.

Robert Searcy, a principal at the land use and lobbying firm Terra Firma Services/MoreySeymour & Associates, said the telecom firms are in the midst of a new round of upgrades for these antennae.

The City Council in May approved guidelines specifying the criteria that must be met to place telecommunications equipment on city-owned rights of way.

Next came the first of a trio of expenditures related to Los Angeles and Ontario International airports, both of which are run by Los Angeles World Airports, a semi-autonomous city agency. Airport concessionaire W. H. Smith Inc. paid $124,000 in its effort to extend its contract with the city for an additional three years. In return for the extension, W.H. Smith agreed to $8 million in capital improvements to its stores at LAX.

The other airport-related lobbying expenses were $72,000 spent on a master advertising contract for both airports being pushed by Clear Channel Communications Inc. and preliminary work done on Mayor James Hahn's proposal to modernize Los Angeles International Airport.

Rounding out the major lobbying fees was the $115,000 spent on the issue of cable television franchise renewals. For the last three years, this issue has been a major lobbying generator; this time around, the franchise agreements were set to expire this past August. The City Council in July extended all the franchise agreements another year to grapple with the impact of the recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Adelphia Communications Corp.

Ironically, the single biggest issue confronting the city of Los Angeles during the second quarter--the placing of San Fernando Valley and Hollywood secession measures on the November 5 ballot--is not reflected in the lobbying figures. That's because the entity given the responsibility for placing those measures on the ballot, the Los Angeles Local Agency Formation Commission, is not a city agency; rather it's a state-created agency under the supervision of county government.

"LAFCO does not have a lobbying disclosure requirement, so we will never know just who lobbied that agency and how much they spent to do so," Pelham said.

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