CA: Campaign gift follows Perata aid (PeRATaGate)

Oakland Tribune ^ | 4/11/05 | Josh Richman

[NormsRevenge]

State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata went to bat for a West Hollywood billboard company being sued by Caltrans in 2001, and three months later received a $10,000 campaign donation from that company, documents show.

The events are detailed in campaign finance records, as well as in documents Caltrans has provided under subpoena to a federal grand jury investigating possible public corruption on the part of Perata, D-Oakland, now California's most powerful elected Democrat.

"There is no, nor will there ever be, any inappropriate connection between Senator Perata's legislative activity and any political contributions he happens to receive on behalf of himself or other Democrats or Democratic causes," said Jason Kinney, a private consultant Perata has retained since the federal probe surfaced.

Caltrans last week gave the Oakland Tribune about 500 pages of documents it sent to the grand jury in response to a Feb. 1 subpoena. The agency at first had refused to release the documents to the newspaper and still is withholding more subpoenaed material, claiming it's confidential under attorney/client privilege.

Among the documents is a summary — prepared by a Caltrans legislative liaison — of a July 12, 2001, meeting Perata requested with Caltrans officials regarding Regency Outdoor Advertising. The summary indicates Jeff Morales, then Caltrans's director, took part. Caltranshad sued Regency because 11 billboards it had built were visible from landscaped freeways, yet lacked permits required by state law.

The meeting summary doesn't describe Perata's stance, but a July 19, 2001, letter to Perata from Janet Dawson, Caltrans' acting chief of legislative and local government affairs, responds to the meeting and notes Perata's "concern about the possible unequal treatment of Regency." Dawson assured Perata that Caltrans "has not singled out Regency in our regulation of billboards."

Kinney said Friday that "like many lawmakers, Senator Perata has been concerned in the past that independent family-owned advertisers have been treated unfairly by regulators compared to their large multinational competitors."

The lawsuit is now closed, Caltrans spokesman Bob Connors said Friday. Of the 11 signs, Regency agreed to realign five and remove two, Caltrans decided two others weren't in violation and the last two remain in arbitration.

State campaign finance records show Regency gave $10,000 to the Perata Committee on Oct. 23, 2001; the company also gave $3,200 to the Perata 2004 campaign on June 3, 2003.

Also among the subpoenaed documents is Perata's Oct. 24, 2000, letter to Morales requesting that Interstate 880 near the Oakland Coliseum be declassified to nonlandscaped status under state regulations. Billboards can't be placed on landscaped freeways. Gov. Gray Davis a month earlier had vetoed Perata's SB 1952, which would've made an exception to this rule for signs at the Oakland Coliseum.

Caltrans Chief Deputy Director Tony Harris sent a Jan. 14, 2001, reply to Perata saying the agency had decided to declassify only about 1,900 feet of freeway south of the Coliseum. In February 2001, Perata introduced SB 190 to exempt from this regulation up to five advertising displays on Coliseum Authority property. The bill was signed into law that July.

Later in 2001, the Coliseum Authority finalized a contract for new advertising towers along the freeway with Foster Interstate Media, which stood to gross more than $100 million from the deal. Foster Interstate Media is co-owned by John Foster, a former student and longtime friend of Perata. The company contributed at least $46,000 to Perata's campaigns and committees from 2000 through 2003.

Kinney said Perata "worked hard on this measure because it was good common-sense public policy" that still makes millions for the city and county, at whose behest he carried the bill.

Caltrans was subpoenaed for documents related to Perata, his Perata Engineering consulting firm, his former aide Ezra Rapport and Sacramento political consultant Sandy Polka.

Most lawmakers have contact with Caltrans, and many of the subpoenaed documents seem entirely innocuous. For example, there's correspondence between Caltrans and Perata regarding complaints brought by Perata's constituents about noise, overgrown grass or potholes on Caltrans property.

Some documents deal with Perata's Senate Bill 916, passed and signed into law in 2003, which called a special election in seven Bay Area counties on whether the region's bridge tolls should be increased to $3, with the new money going to Bay Area transportation projects. Voters approved the toll increase as Regional Measure 2 on the March 2004 ballot.

Rapport, whom Perata employed as a consultant to the Senate Select Committee on Bay Area Transportation he chaired, helped Perata get the bill and the ballot measure passed. Rapport, 50, is a former Oakland deputy city manager and former Oakland Football Marketing Association director who helped broker the Raiders' return to the city.

This federal probe became public knowledge in November, as Perata was ascending to the Legislature's top post. Businesses and public agencies received subpoenas seeking documents related to Perata; his son, Nick, of Oakland; his daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca Perata Rosati and Michael Rosati of Alameda; Oakland lobbyist Lily Hu; Polka; Perata's friend and sometime business partner Timothy Staples of Sacramento; and several of these people's businesses.

It seems the grand jury is probing whether any of these people or entities funneled money to Perata illegally. Federal agents searched Hu's home office in November, and then searched Don Perata's and Nick Perata's Oakland homes on Dec. 15, carting away boxes, computers and other items.

Staff writer Sean Holstege contributed to this report.

[elbucko]

I hope Don Perata goes the way of Dan Rostenkowski.