The flier seems innocuous enough: a blue-and-black sheet announcing a June 25, 2003, fund-raiser for Santa Ana City Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez in support of her campaign for the 69th state Assembly District seat. But more than a year after the event, this simple invite might prove to be the final stake through Alvarez's once-promising political career.
The state attorney general's office is currently investigating the 35-year-old deputy district attorney for flouting conflict-of-interest regulations this past spring and vowing to do it again. As reported three months ago by the Weekly, Alvarez violated Santa Ana's city charter on March 15 by voting on a project less than a year after accepting a $3,200 donation from its developer (see “Notes From the Banana Republic: The War on One Bank Plaza,” April 16). The project in question: One Broadway Plaza, a proposed 37-story building in downtown Santa Ana that, if constructed, would become the tallest structure in Orange County's history. Handing Alvarez those 3,200 smackers was One Broadway Plaza's daddy: mega-developer Mike Harrah, the colorful multimillionaire and Don Bren neighbor who grooms a beard that would make an Orthodox rabbi jealous, flies around in a helicopter and buys downtown Santa Ana properties the way skateboarders collect scabs.
In those months following her charter-thumbing vote, Alvarez insisted she would vote on all One Broadway Plaza-related matters despite Harrah's generosity toward her failed Assembly campaign—in addition to the $3,200 monetary gift, many Harrah-owned buildings in Santa Ana posted “Alvarez for Assembly” signs in the weeks preceding the March 4 primary. (Full disclosure: an Alvarez banner hung from the Weekly's world headquarters at 1666 N. Main St.; Harrah owns the building.) But the first-term council member—finally finding an ethical bone in her body—requested on July 6 the council delay a final judgment on One Broadway Plaza for two weeks while state AG investigators snoop around Santa Ana City Hall.
It's still not certain what Bill Lockyer's office will determine or whether Alvarez will suffer any penalties if investigators conclude she indeed broke the law. But a recent investigation by the Weekly reveals that the Alvarez-Harrah connection, whether illegal or not, is deeper than she's ever admitted.
The key to the Alvarez-Harrah connection is that June 25, 2003, flier. Campaign-finance statements reviewed by the Weekly show that on that date, Alvarez received $8,192 in contributions from 17 individuals and companies, including such prominent One Broadway Plaza supporters as attorney Federico Sayre (a Harrah tenant who forked over $1,000 that night and once told The Orange County Register that One Broadway Plaza “will be the place to be in the resurgence of Santa Ana”) and former Downtown Santa Ana Business Association president Arturo Lomeli (who loosened his purse strings for a miserly $99). The invitation lists Harrah as a member of the fund-raiser's host committee alongside such other Santa Ana luminaries and Harrah chums as City Councilwoman Lisa Bist, planning commissioner Don Cribb, and parks and recreations commissioner Max Madrid. Other than Dec. 22, 2003—when Alvarez received $25,400 from various corporations and PACs not based in Orange County—June 25, 2003, was her most profitable fund-raising day under file with the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Most damning for Alvarez's objectivity pleas regarding Harrah, however, was the reception's location: the United Auto Building, a Harrah-owned property he's trying to convert into a restaurant. Alvarez's campaign-finance statements, while listing $525.93 in fund-raising expenses for party rentals and catering, do not reveal, as required by state law, whether she paid Harrah for use of the space or accepted it as another gift from the developer. Compare this unreported expense with another donation listed in Alvarez's campaign-finance statement: $300 from Garcia Dental at 1315 Main St. in downtown Santa Ana for use of “office space and kick-off [party] space.”
Perhaps Alvarez didn't disclose Harrah's United Automotive Building contribution because she was merely following her previously established protocol regarding the edifice. On the Jan. 20 Santa Ana City Council agenda was item 75-A, which sought conditional use permits for the United Automotive Building. The council eventually approved Harrah's request by a 6-0 vote; absent was Alvarez, who left the meeting before item 75-A came up for discussion. Although council members customarily let their peers know why they recuse themselves from voting on certain matters—that same Jan. 20 meeting, for example, Mayor Miguel Pulido abstained from voting on a proposed expansion of Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church because he maintains a business relationship with a church board member—Alvarez didn't bother disclosing her relationship with Harrah before leaving. Now, with the state AG breathing down her neck and Santa Ana activists looking to wring it, Alvarez has a lot of disclosing to do if she wants to save it.
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