Our Mayor, the Lobbyist, Part 4

Like his six colleagues, Oliveri ultimately approved the concept, but only reluctantly. A few months later, however, he began to wholeheartedly support it. He says the developer and consultants addressed his concerns, but there may have been other factors. One possibility: In January and February, Pinnacle gave him $1,500 in campaign contributions for his successful reelection bid against neighborhood activist Pete Brewer. "I get campaign donations from many people, including developers, and that does not obligate me to do anything," he says. "All I do is give them a consideration, just as I would with any other developer."

Thickening the connection between Oliveri and Pinnacle is the fact that Lieberman served as an attorney for the commissioner in an ethics complaint involving a 2000 trip to Las Vegas that he failed to report as a gift in disclosure forms. The complaint, filed in 2002, wasn't resolved until this past July, when the ethics panel found Oliveri guilty but declined to punish him.

Oliveri insists that the mayor wasn't his attorney, but rather that her husband and law partner, Stuart Michelson, handled the complaint. Ethics commission reports and newspaper clippings -- in which Lieberman identified herself as his attorney -- refute that claim, though.

The Hollywood commissioner said last week that the only lobbyist who approached him on Pinnacle's behalf was Alan Koslow, an oft-used and highly controversial lawyer with close ties to Giulianti. The commissioner, in fact, said he didn't even know Lieberman was employed by Pinnacle.

Oliveri further denied that his constituents in neighborhoods surrounding the project oppose the development. "No [residents] have called me about this project since we had the [December 17] hearing," he said.

But Ellen Mata, vice president of the North Central Civic Association, says she and several other Hollywood citizens who live in nearby middle-class neighborhoods recently voiced their concerns to Oliveri. Mata and other community activists have also gathered nearly 1,000 signatures in protest. "We had asked that it be owner-occupied, instead of rental," she said last week. "They've got it slated for seven stories when there is nothing in our community that is over four stories. These rentals deteriorate and become places where no one wants to be. They ruin neighborhoods. And there will be a tremendous traffic problem."

Mata said Oliveri's support for the project, which is still in the planning stages and has not been given final approval by the commission, flies in the face of good governance. "I don't know why he's supporting it, but it makes me feel suspicious there are other motives," she said. "Every time we bring up the project with him, he becomes hostile and says the developer won't do anything that is not correct."

She's also not happy that Mayor Lieberman worked for Pinnacle, a company she believes is threatening the quality of her neighborhood. "It shouldn't be that way," Mata said when the issue of the mayor's lobbying work was raised. "I feel that [officials] do exactly what they want regardless of what the people say to them. They are going to do it and that's it."