City attorney resigns after condemning city’s ties to casino owner

Thursday, March 25, 1999 | 7:59 a.m.

City Attorney Julia Sylva delivered a scathing speech Tuesday night, condemning city ties to gambling club owner Irving Moskowitz and his attorney. Then she resigned, moments before a closed council session to discuss her termination.

Ms. Sylva claimed Wednesday that the bingo club-casino was illegally built with taxpayer money.

Moskowitz controls the nonprofit foundation running the city-licensed Hawaiian Gardens Bingo Club, whose tax-free proceeds are funneled to the Mideast.

More than $58 million raised at the Hawaiian Gardens bingo parlor some 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles goes to Israel each year, Ms. Sylva said. "And the city gets zero," she said.

Ms. Sylva was also legal counsel for the city's redevelopment agency, which is involved in the bingo parlor and casino project. The casino started in 1993 as a proposed supermarket and evolved into a block-long gambling hall.

Ms. Sylva claimed the development could cost taxpayers $20 million.

"According to a sweetheart agreement, the agency has to pay 50 percent of some costs that will total about $20 million, including engineering, attorney's fees, tenants who lived there and were forced to relocate, and staff," she said.

"Redevelopment agencies are not in the business of building casinos," Ms. Sylva said.

Ms. Sylva said it took her three years to uncover illegalities and what she called "the incestuous relationship" between Moskowitz lawyer Beryl Weiner and the city. Weiner also acts as an attorney for the city.

Weiner denied the allegations.

"Lies, lies and lies," Weiner said Wednesday night. "It's just another pathetic showing by Julia Sylva when she is trying to lash out at people who she regards as her enemies. None of what she's saying is based on any fact."

The club has passed state and federal audits, he said. The club grosses between $25 million to $26 million a year, with about 80 percent of that going to prizes. Another $1.5 million covers operating expenses and the rest goes to a variety of local charities such as the Hawaiian Gardens Public Safety and Police Foundation, the city's food bank, and ABC Dental Clinic, Weiner said.

The club gives the city between 10 percent to 13 percent of its monthly gross revenues for its license.

In her resignation speech delivered to the council Tuesday night, Ms. Sylva said she was concerned about the city's relationship with the casino. "I requested that this relationship cease at once," she said. But her pleas were ignored.

The City Council planned to meet Tuesday night "to terminate me for pursuing, uncovering and reporting many illegalities perpetrated by the Moskowitz Foundation, Irving Moskowitz and Beryl Weiner," Ms. Sylva said.

"I told them gambling should not be supported with public funds. The city is nearly bankrupt because they keep supporting his gaming and gambling projects," Ms. Sylva said Wednesday.

The city attorney's undoing came on March 2 when a third pro-Moskowitz council member was elected to the five-member panel representing 13,600 residents.

"The council had scheduled a closed session on the possible termination of the contract with the city attorney and she resigned prior to that," city spokesman Paul Hogan confirmed Wednesday. The city attorney isn't elected.

Mayor Betty J. Schultze refused to comment Wednesday on Ms. Sylva's resignation or her allegations.

There was no telephone listing for Moskowitz, a Miami Beach multimillionaire. Weiner said he had not spoken with Moskowitz.