As challengers and publications charge incumbents standing for re-election in the West Hollywood city council race as corrupt and in collusion with developers who are operating independent expenditure campaigns, those challengers have been given a free pass.

Little known and little remembered – especially by people without knowledge of the city’s history – stands an incidence of major campaign finance corruption and developer buddy-buddy ties never seen before or afterwards in the Creative City, fully admitted to by the primary challenger in this municipal race and the “mastermind” behind term limits, a movement which hopes to cut strong financial ties between developers and council members.

Steve Martin, a longtime fixture in WeHo politics, is making charges of corruption against the incumbents even though the FPPC condemned his campaign finance activites in 1999-2001.

In 1999, then-West Hollywood city council member Steve Martin embarked on a campaign for the State Assembly. He had just won re-election and, having made a good friend of a developer hoping to make a mega-project on the Sunset Strip a reality, felt he had a good chance at gaining the seat by prevailing in the primary. At the time, a win by a Democrat in the primary for the then-42^nd assembly district was tantamount to winning the general election in a district nearly 70 percent Democratic.

Mr. Martin had befriended Mark Siffin, head of Maefield Development and the public face of funder Apollo Real Estate Advisors, who was intent on building a $300-million mixed-use project called Sunset Millennium, a development along three blocks of Sunset Boulevard at La Cienega Boulevard.

He announced his intention to build that mega-project on August 13, 1998 in a press conference, saying that he would submit a formal development application to the city within 30 days afterward.

As told by the LA Times, “Supporters, including West Hollywood Mayor Steve Martin, see the project as a catalyst to bringing conventions to the city and boosting business along the strip.”

Demonstrating public support for such a large project is not only unusual for a city council member, but also ethically and even legally suspect, say observers. Still, Mr. Martin went on in that article to say that he was fully behind the project and that it would get at least his vote. He let on that he was, “guardedly optimistic that the project will see sail smoothly through the approvals process, which includes neighborhood meetings, Planning Commission scrutiny and a vote by the City Council.”

Mr. Siffin rewarded Mr. Martin’s booster-ism with cash, donating thousands and thousands of dollars to his assembly campaign later in the year. In addition, another major developer, J.H. Snyder, the company that built the Gateway project in which Target stands, gave Mr. Martin a huge daonation to start up his assembly campaign – WeHo Mayor Jeffrey Prang recalls it to have been $15,000. Mr. Martin said he was sure that Mark Siffin gave him a substantial amount, but could not recollect how much. He also said that he dropped out of that race because of the entry into it of a big name Democrat, telling WeHo News, “What happened was that Tom Hayden told me he wasn’t getting into the race, and then he did. What was the point of running against Tom Hayden?”

The develope of the Sunset Millennium project relied on Mr. Martin's boosterism to advance his project.

That Mr. Siffin’s money played a large role in Mr. Martin’s political career is undeniable; as campaign manager for Mr. Prang and John Duran, Steve Afriat, told WeHo News, “I recall attending a fundraising event at Mr. Siffin’s office, in addition to the thousands of dollars that Mark gave Steve himself,” for that assembly campaign, adding, “Steve did not drop out of the race because Tom Hayden entered, but because… he ran out of West Hollywood developers to give him money and he wasn’t able to attract supporters from anywhere else.”

Nonetheless, the controversy did not end there; it had only begun. When Mr. Martin dropped out of the race, he had $39,000 in his assembly race war chest. The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) conducted an investigation and found (see the letter at the bottom of the article) that Mr. Martin transferred $28,000 of that from his assembly campaign to his city campaign in violation of the local ordinance limiting such donations to $1,000. According to the FPPC, he “impermissibly used the surplus campaign funds to make donations to other candidates, totaling $2,600” in the period between January and July 2000.

Mr. Martin said he thought he had every right to use the money raised for one campaign in his next city race. “From my perspective, I thought I could transfer the money into my city account, and when I found out I couldn’t I transferred it all out,” he told WeHo News. “I gave most of it to charity. I transferred it because it was my understanding I could and when I found out I couldn’t and I gave it all away. Some of the money I gave back. My recollection is that some of that [$11,000] was given back [to donors].

His next statement sought to focus attention on the current race and what he called illegal activity by one incumbent. “I just want to ask you; are you doing anything on John Duran soliciting independent expenditures in the race? You read your rival very f---ing day, and you tell me you’re not aware of what John Duran is doing with independent expenditures? That’s bull---t. You’ve got $20,000 independent expenditures campaign, the billboard companies, Micky’s, Soleimani. How do you think [those donors] came together? It would be one thing; usually independent expenditure campaigns are only one person or a group of companies who have a common interest. These are disparate people who wouldn’t know anything about one another unless some one’s calling them. I want to know if you’ve asked John Duran if he’s made calls to people to do this.”

Roughly hald of the Sunset Millennium project is complete - the retail and office building on the west side of La Cienega. This photo is of the inner courtyard.

The answer to that, from Mr. Afriat’s perspective, was quick in coming. He said, “No he’s not [soliciting donations to independent expenditure campaigns]. He and I have had many conversations about the do-s and don’t-s of independent expenditures. He is very careful to follow the laws and follow the rules, unlike Steve Martin who had $39,000 worth of FPPC violations because he doesn’t… want to follow the rules. Steve Martin is a lawbreaker; he broke FPPC rules. Lawmakers should not be lawmakers.”

Still, Mr. Martin’s actions after the FPPC made him aware that he had broken the law failed to prevent him from making more donations to candidates from that fund. The FPPC found that, after West Hollywood City Attorney Mike Jenkins in 2002 told Mr. Martin to give the $27,000 remaining in his city campaign fund to charity, the council member gave an additional $1,000 to “a candidate” in January 2003.

That same month Mr. Martin gave away the remainder of the funds to charities that benefit West Hollywood residents. The FPPC filed no charges against Mr. Martin because the donations made to other candidates were “relatively insignificant,” he was no longer a public official by the time the agency made their determination and he did “remediate the violation by donating” the money. The agency did, however, issue a strong caution that the incident would be used “as aggravating information in any prosecutions brought by this agency against him in the future.”

The wrapping up of that incident, did not close off the deep and friendly relationship Mr. Martin had with Mr. Siffin. Just weeks later in 2003, as Mr. Martin sought his third term on the council, Mr. Siffin organized an independent expenditure campaign on his behalf.

Mr. Afriat noted that Mark Siffin wrote a $15,000 check for that independent expenditure lauding Mr. Martin’s character and accomplishments and attacking beloved city council incumbent and candidate Sal Guarriello for his age, saying he was “too old for office.” Mr. Martin lost that race to both returning council member Abbe Land and to Mr. Guarriello, who went on to serve “his seniors” for another 6 years before passing away.

For more on Mr. Martin's past, see "The candidate who changes his spots," an op-ed by Ruth Williams in today's issue.

A letter sent by the FPPC to a concerned citizen in 2005 outlining Mr. Martin's campaign finance violations.