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Redistricting Awakens Koreatown

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Category: Community News

Published on Wednesday, 04 April 2012 22:40

Written by Dianne Lawrence

“We Are Not Going To Be The Quiet Group That Just Hands Out Money”

One of the more shocking allegations to come out of the contentious Feb. 1 Redistricting Commission meeting were accusations by Koreatown activists that a staff member of Council District 10 was squeezing Koreatown businesses for financial contributions and the Korean businesses and new generation of Korean professionals did not appreciate it.

It began when Lloyd Lee, a Korean business attorney who serves on the Board of Governors of the Korean Bar Association, proclaimed to the commissioners “Welcome to the political awakening of Koreatown. We are not going to be the quiet group that just hands out money without political representation. Those days are gone.”

With the many restaurants and businesses moving in and out of the active Korean business corridor running through CD10 territory, there is a constant demand for liquor licenses, permits, variances and renewals.  Support by or opposition from the Council office can mean the success or failure of a business.

But Steve Yablok, who has owned the popular Fais Do Do, a nightclub on Adams, for over 20 years and has had to deal with three CD10 Councilmen said “It’s standard practice if you own a business like mine to make nice with the Council people. Support their causes, maybe hold a fundraiser, contribute to their campaigns. All in the hopes that they will be supportive or at least not get in your way. But there are no guarantees. My application for a full line of spirits was still denied.” and Steve is still standing strong. Fair enough. A token contribution to the Council Office, with no guarantees of assistance or opposition, is standard practice for doing business in Los Angeles.

But what if you are feeling pressured into giving them money? A land use consultant who helps Koreatown businesses navigate the permit, variance or liquor license process and who insists on remaining anonymous -“I still have to do business with the council office” - said he gets regular calls from CD10 asking him to generate donations from his Koreatown clients. He confirms that he and his clients do so out of fear of the consequences.  Does Councilman Wesson punish or reward as he has been accused of lately?  At the least there is the perception that he does and that could be enough. “You are asked for a donation, you give one with no assurances and you hope that if he doesn’t support he won’t oppose.” claimed our source.  While looking into the campaign contributions of 2011, an election year, TNN found that Councilman Wesson generated $229,235 and approximately $87,600 of it came from donors with Korean surnames.  That is little over 1/3 of the donations. Yet Koreans make up less than 10% of the community.  These numbers were supported by the LA Time’s own inquiry.  So either the Korean community is really, really happy with Councilman Wesson…or the activist’s accusations are worth looking into.

Koreatown Activist Alex Cha told TNN that Koreatown has been an ATM for Councilmen in CD10 for a long time. There may be something to this. TNN discovered an LA Times article written by reporter Peter Y. Hong, as far back as May 26, 2002 which accused then Councilman Nate Holden of clearing the way for dozens of bars and nightclubs to open in Koreatown. Hong considered this unusual since after the riots Holden had pegged himself a crusader against inner-city liquor businesses. Hong claims to have discovered many disturbing links between the Korean businesses and Holden:

(1)  that many of the liquor-related businesses he supported were represented by his top fund-raisers, lobbyists and zoning consultants, King Woods or Bill Robinson a former city hall aide to the councilman.

(2) One of his deputies accepted $15,000 from a Koreatown nightclub operator. Supposedly it was for two interest free loans, which he claims to have paid back.

(3) Another Koreatown nightclub owner, previously imprisoned in South Korea on unrelated bribery charges, had given Holden a Rolex watch in 1997, Holden had given him a jeweled broach and in 1999 after Holden solicited the contribution, the same nightclub owner donated $10,000 to Holden’s son’s unsuccessful Pasadena Mayoral campaign.

(4) Le Prive, one of Koreatown’s largest nightclubs, opened and found support in Holden who assured fellow council members and regulators that it would be a “family-style” restaurant he would visit with his granddaughter.  Le Prive owners and supporters contributed $8,000 to Holden’s 1999 election campaign. Once the restaurant launched in 2000, Le Prive was anything but a family style establishment, opening after 9 pm for exclusive customers who had to provide a waiter’s name to gain entry.  Food was served only with liquor and a minimum order was a $200 bottle of whiskey.  One has to wonder what Holden’s granddaughter ordered. But why are we talking about Holden?  Wesson began his political career in the 10th district as Chief of Staff to Nate Holden in 1987. Although he left Holden well before Holden’s alleged shenanigans in Koreatown were exposed, in an LA Times article Feb. 2002 Holden jokingly takes credit for getting Councilman Wesson started. “‘I knew he wanted something in the game,’ said Holden, who only half-jokingly assumes credit for Wesson’s entire political career. ‘You could see he was in it to get ahead, and he knew he would get ahead through me.’”

Now nearly 25 years later Councilman Wesson controls CD10, has maneuvered his way onto the City Council’s President’s throne and according to these recent accusations may be working from Holden’s playbook.

Politicians need money. Lots of it. During that Feb. 1 Redistricting meeting, Jimmy Chai, a member of the Korean American Democratic Committee got up after Lloyd Lee and accused CD 10 of “terrorizing” the Koreatown businesses and of “a Council deputy [Michael Bai] threatening business ownership for funding dollars for CUP’s [conditional use permits].” (This accusation can be viewed at www.cityview.org. Click on redistricting commission meetings and look for Redistricting Commission 02-01-12 and fast-forward 59 minutes in.)  When Commissioner Helen Kim asked him if he had proof, Mr. Chai produced and read from a letter that had been passed around the Korean community for a year. Ostensibly written by a local Korean restaurant owner, who has strenuously denied writing it, the letter attempts to file a complaint with Councilman Wesson. It declares:

“your Deputy runs around your district especially Koreatown soliciting money in your behalf for some fundraising. As he approached any businesses within your district, he reassures approval for any cases submitted through the City Planning as long as he gets that “support money” or else, he will make sure the case gets denied. I am not sure if you are aware of this that is why I am writing to you directly. This has been going on for many years now and many small business owners that can barely survive in this economy are complaining that every time there [sic] City application is in the process of renewal, not only that they have to worry about the high application fees but also worry about pleasing your deputy Michael Bae [sic]. Most of this business owner are hardworking individuals who came to this country to start a business and are afraid to make complaints especially to a City employee”.

It goes on to accuse a popular land use consultant who used to work for the council office of consistently getting their clients permit’s and licenses approved because of their association with the Council District office and their land use deputy Michael Bai (this experience was repeated by our separate source weeks before the public airing at the Redistricting meeting). Mr. Bai did not respond to TNN’s request for comments but Edward Johnson, Chief Deputy reiterated that the letter was forged and the contents untrue.  The letter ends by warning Councilman Wesson of the potential for future embarrassment.  The restaurant owner identified in the letter has strongly  denied having written it claiming the writer wanted to create trouble for him, the signature was a cut and paste job and the company logo on the paper is not his. It is entirely possible that someone else wrote the letter using this unfortunate restaurant owner’s name. But it leaves us with  many unanswered questions. Primarily, why?  If it was a rival who wanted to get the owner of the ‘forged’ name in trouble, what kind of trouble could he get him into?  It isn’t against the law to file a complaint with your councilperson. Possibly anger the Council Office who might “punish” or oppose his liquor renewals?  Is that a possibility?  Either way, the letter states clearly what the activists and our source claims has been happening for a long time.

Let’s say the whole thing is untrue. Councilman Wesson is still left with a problem…this perception in the Korean business community that his office has a threatening reputation that aggressively pursues them for money. It doesn’t help when a third of his donations comes from a small percentage of the district. And more cause for concern may be that in December of last year Councilman Wesson asked the Ethics Commission to raise donation levels for candidates for City Council from $500 to  $1,000 and this March they voted to raise the levels to $700.  Another concern addressed in the letter was that Korean businesses are struggling and can’t afford these donations.

Koreatown had been split in 4 districts and ended up in two, CD10 and 13 which continues to diffuse their collective voting power but there is a silver lining to the failure of the Commission to bring Koreatown together. That is the emerging organization  and coming together of the younger generation of businessmen and women in Koreatown who are mad as hell, not willing to take it anymore and are starting to speak up.  A savvy younger generation who are  inheriting or creating new businesses and are not likely to be as accommodating as their elders. Can the newly motivated activists support and encourage the current businesses to simply stop responding to pressures to donate?  There was a timely image being passed around on Facebook, a large fish with an open mouth about to swallow up a school of small fishes. The caption said “Don’t Panic” The next image had the big fish turned about, trying to escape as the small fish banded together,  shaped themselves into a larger fish and took chase. The caption? “Organize!”

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