Originally published 28 September 2000
in New Times LA
On the surface, the four-hour session held in a state
office building in downtown Los Angeles to deal with ultraconservative
Jewish zealot Dr. Irving Moskowitz's controversial Hawaiian Gardens Casino
didn't appear to be out of the ordinary. For the most part, it looked and
sounded like the subcommittee hearing of the state Joint Legislative Audit
Committee that it was intended to be. But thanks to a highly unusual last-minute
turn of events orchestrated by Assembly Speaker Robert M. Hertzberg (D-Van
Nuys), the session -- to the delight of the Moskowitz forces -- was no more
official than an episode of Oprah.
That's
because, on the Friday before the September 18 hearing, the powerful Hertzberg
took the unusual step of making sure that the subcommittee was disbanded.
He then unceremoniously removed Assemblyman Scott Wildman of Los Angeles,
a fellow Democrat and JLAC's former chairman (who is term-limited and will
leave office in November), from the committee.
But not only did the
defrocked Wildman show up before about 50 people, almost all of them Moskowitz
critics, at the Reagan State Building, he was flanked on each side by two
prominent L.A. Democrats -- Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco and Senator
Richard Alarcon, JLAC's vice chairman.
After the session, Polanco
left no doubt where his sentiments lay, describing Hertzberg's action to
strip the meeting of its legislative imprimatur "a rookie move," and vowing
to press the issue of Moskowitz's alleged violation of state redevelopment
law during the next session of the legislature.
"This isn't going
to go away," he said. "Some very serious questions have been raised here,
and in one venue or another I intend to see that they get a full public
airing."
As New Times reported in a cover story two weeks ago, Wildman
was the chief architect of a scathing JLAC report released in June that
accuses Moskowitz and tiny Hawaiian Gardens' redevelopment agency of conspiring
to violate a 1996 law that bars the use of redevelopment funds for gaming
purposes. The report (a full airing of which before the watchdog JLAC has
yet to occur) concludes that the so-called Gateway redevelopment project,
of which the casino is a part, was "rife with questionable practices" and
amounted to a "gross abuse of redevelopment" for Moskowitz's benefit.
Among
other things, it accuses Moskowitz's longtime associate, Los Angeles attorney
Beryl Weiner, of violating conflict-of-interest laws by simultaneously representing
the redevelopment agency while continuing to serve as Moskowitz's attorney.
Moskowitz,
72, of Miami Beach, Florida, has run a hugely successful bingo parlor in
the impoverished southeast L.A. County community since 1988, using its proceeds
to funnel millions of dollars to buy controversial real estate for Jewish
settlers on the West Bank. He has become a hero to ultraconservative Jews
everywhere, while widely viewed as an obstacle to the Middle East peace
process. Through Weiner, critics say, he has for years manipulated Hawaiian
Gardens politics while controlling the town as his personal fiefdom.
But
the bingo parlor is chump change compared to the potential for the casino,
L.A. County's newest and glitziest card club. Opened earlier this year,
the 50,000-square-foot facility, which boasts 140 tables with plans for
160 more, is projected to rake in up to $125 million a year. To realize
such riches, however, Moskowitz, who operates the casino with a temporary
permit, must win a permanent license from the state. Contending that it
was built illegally with funds from the redevelopment agency, opponents
have asked state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose office regulates gaming
in the state, to deny the license.
Wildman's report has thus become
a hot topic in Sacramento, since it largely validated the claims opponents
have long made. Not surprisingly, Moskowitz's supporters, led by Weiner
and augmented by a battery of lobbyists and H.G. politicians loyal to the
doctor, including Mayor Leonard Chaidez, have made a crusade of discrediting
the report -- and Wildman. Moskowitz has also spared no effort to influence
key state office holders who figure to play a role in determining whether
he gets the license. As New Times reported, the doctor gave at least $7,000
to then state Senator Bill Lockyer's campaign to become attorney general
in 1998. And he cosponsored a birthday party for Lockyer last year at the
home of L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan.
Now, Hertzberg's elevated interest in the matter has further roiled the political waters.
First,
the Speaker intervened in August to place the casino matter on the JLAC
agenda on short notice -- over the objections of then-chairman Wildman --
after the Moskowitz team lobbied the Speaker and members of the committee
intensely in an effort to quickly repudiate the report. Wildman had argued
that the public interest would be better served by holding a hearing in
September, after lawmakers, freed from legislative duties, could give the
issue full attention. Indeed, the Speaker's effort to force it onto JLAC's
August 22 meeting, during the hectic tail end of the legislative session,
was a flop. By the time it came up, there wasn't a quorum present.
By
then, however, Hertzberg had announced that Wildman would be replaced as
JLAC's committee chairman effective September 1, at the same time as would
other other committee chairs under Hertzberg's control.
Wildman promptly
announced that a hearing on the matter would be held September 18 in Los
Angeles, a move he says had the blessing of the incoming chairman, Assemblyman
Fred Keeley (D-Santa Cruz), even though Keeley, vacationing in Italy, wouldn't
be present. Wildman, while still chair, then appointed himself to a three-member
subcommittee, and on September 7 posted official notice of last week's planned
subcommittee meeting.
But sources say that on September 14 an angry
Hertzberg called Wildman and threatened to remove him from JLAC entirely
unless he canceled the hearing. Wildman refused, saying that the hearing
had been duly posted, and that "as a matter of conscience" he would not
call it off.
The next afternoon -- the last working day before the
hearing -- the Speaker yanked Wildman from the committee, then took extraordinary
steps to remove the committee's imprimatur from the Monday session. Unable
to reach the vacationing Keeley, whose authority was needed to lawfully
cancel the hearing, Hertzberg directed a member of his staff to contact
Keeley's chief of staff, Bonnie Hawley, who issued a letter under the signature
stamp of her boss to cancel the event.
In an interview, Hawley acknowledged
that Keeley had been unaware of the action taken in his name. She said that
a Hertzberg staffer, whom she declined to identify, asked her to issue the
cancellation notice, contending that Wildman had violated an agreement
with Hertzberg and Keeley in August that Wildman would take no further action
regarding the Moskowitz affair until a full committee hearing under the
direction of Keeley, as the new chairman, could be scheduled.
Hertzberg's press secretary, Paul Hefner, offered a similar account and defended the Speaker's intervention.
"The
Speaker's concern is that the process be handled fairly and in accordance
with proper procedure," he said, "and frankly he had lost confidence in
Mr. Wildman's ability to accomplish that."
Wildman offers a different
view. "I didn't violate any agreement of the sort they're referring to because
there was no such agreement." He added that Hertzberg expressed no details
about how to proceed when the three men briefly discussed the matter in
a hallway off the Assembly floor in late August. "His words were, "Hawaiian
Gardens is less than a square mile...Well, handle it,'" says Wildman.
Wildman,
a candidate for the L.A. City Council seat being vacated by the term-limited
Jackie Goldberg, urged those who attended the recent hearing to keep an
eye on the Moskowitz licensing effort , adding, "Keep a close watch on the
Speaker."
Copyright 2000 New Times, Inc. For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
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