RIORDAN TO RELEASE CHARTER PANEL FUNDS, IDENTIFY DONORS.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Seeking to break a logjam over funding that has paralyzed Los Angeles' elected Charter Reform Commission, Mayor Richard Riordan promised Thursday to release the first $100,000 he has raised from private donors and disclosed the names of those who donated the money.

City Council members, who had refused to accept any private funds for the commission unless donors were disclosed, welcomed Riordan's decision to identify who is financing the reform panel.

``We just didn't want to accept anonymous donations,'' said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who described the donors as ``civic-minded people'' and said there shouldn't be any problem in winning council acceptance of the donations on the commission's behalf.

Donors include:

City contractor BKK Corp., which operates Sunshine Canyon Landfill and contributed $25,000.

The investment banking firm Tennenbaum and Co., whose president served on a Riordan-appointed productivity task force and which contributed $5,000.

Saban Entertainment, which Riordan worked hard to keep in Los Angeles and which gave $25,000.

Robert J. Abernathy, a Riordan appointee to the Metropolitan Water District Commission, who gave $5,000.

Peter Gold, a longtime Riordan friend and Beverly Hills ``private investor,'' who contributed $15,000.

The Selim K. Zilkha Trust, which has connections to the energy business, which gave $25,000.

In addition, the Wells Fargo Co. has donated office space to the elected commission that is worth $150,000.

A week after some elected commissioners criticized the City Council's refusal to accept donations and release public funds without strings attached, Riordan also called on the council Thursday to refrain from putting conditions on money it provides the elected commission.

The mayor said he would prefer that public funds be provided to the panel but is prepared to privately raise the commission's entire $1.6 million budget if necessary.

The 15-member Charter Reform Commission, elected in April and June, has gone three months without any money to hire a staff, install telephones or pay for expenses required while revising the city's 72-year-old charter.

Funding had been held up by the City Council, which refused to accept the first $30,000 raised by Riordan through a nonprofit group called Fund for a Better Los Angeles unless the identities of donors were disclosed.

The council also has delayed a request by the commission for $1.3 million in public funding, saying some of the expenses could be shared with a separate Charter Reform Commission appointed last year by the council.

The mayor's decision to ask the nonprofit fund's trustees to release $100,000 and disclose the names of donors was greeted with relief by Erwin Chemerinsky, chairman of the elected commission.

``It's great news that allows us to get started,'' Chemerinsky said after meeting with the mayor Thursday.