$10,000 for Height Variance : Restaurateur Pleads Guilty to Offer of Bribe

Restaurateur Francis M. Delaney pleaded guilty Wednesday to offering a $10,000 bribe to a Newport Beach planning commissioner to win city approval for raising the height of a planned restaurant to improve the view.

Delaney, 63, of Rancho California in Riverside County, admitted the bribe attempt during a preliminary hearing after North County Municipal Court Presiding Judge Margaret R. Anderson indicated that, if she were to rule immediately, she would convict Delaney and order him to serve 3 years’ probation.

Delaney then pleaded guilty, and Anderson sentenced him to probation and to pay fines of about $4,000 and perform 200 hours of community service.

The judge--who cited Delaney’s age, record of volunteer work and donations of food for the poor--could have ordered him to serve 4 years in prison and pay $10,000 in fines.

The sentence came 1 day after prosecutors played several taped conversations, including one in which Delaney told former Newport Beach Planning Commission Chairman James (Buzz) Person that there is “lot’s of green lying around if we can push it (the height variance) through.”

Delaney, owner of the multimillion-dollar Delaney’s restaurant chain, needed city approval to raise the height of a planned restaurant on West Coast Highway to give diners a better view of Lido Channel.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg L. Prickett expressed disappointment with the sentence, which he said will make future bribery cases even more difficult to prove.

“Clearly, some custody time, up to one year in jail, would have been appropriate for this crime,” he said. “The sentence will discourage other people who have been offered a bribe from coming forward.

“And second, what message does it send to people who are considering bribing? They see as a consequence they will have to pay some money--as a bribe or as a fine.”

Delaney could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But defense attorney Byron K. McMillan called the sentence “a good deal.”

“I don’t think the judge was impressed with the people’s witness, Mr. Person,” McMillan said, adding that his client “just wants to get on with his life.”

The prosecutor, however, praised Person, who contacted Newport Beach police after Delaney strongly hinted at a bribe during a telephone conversation on Jan. 15, 1988. Person agreed to wear a hidden tape recorder to collect evidence, and Tuesday he testified in the Fullerton courtroom to the bribe offer.

“This was solved because Mr. Person was honest and came forward, and because Newport Beach police did such a good job with the investigation,” Prickett said.

Person’s cooperation with investigators was nearly discovered during a meeting at a Newport Beach restaurant on Jan. 21, when Delaney patted Person’s clothing and found a blank cassette tape but missed the recorder. A short time later, as Person excused himself to go to the bathroom to turn the tape recorder over to Newport Beach Police Sgt. Al Fischer, Delaney asked him, “Are you going to check your tape recorder?” according to transcripts of the tape introduced as evidence.

Close Call ‘Unnerving’

“It was unnerving,” Person said Wednesday of that close call. He declined to comment further on the case or on Delaney’s sentence.

In rambling conversations captured on tape, Delaney said an unnamed backer would supply $20,000 for bribes, and he proposed that he and Person double-cross the backer by splitting the money. Authorities never determined whether such a backer existed or whether Delaney lied about the man to distance himself from the crime, Prickett said.

Delaney also hinted at potential violence, saying that his “associates” drove rather than flew because they couldn’t “carry cannons (guns) on planes.”

Delaney and Person, who had known each other for 18 years, also exchanged family gossip and joked darkly about going to jail, transcripts show.

“I don’t want to be your cellmate,” Delaney said. “This goes to the grave with us.”

Delaney’s Son Warned Person

Transcripts also revealed that Delaney’s son Michael contacted Person as the bribe plan took shape. “My father is a desperate, unethical man,” Person said Michael Delaney told him. “I don’t know what he’s trying to do by calling you.”

Francis Delaney, who had previously hired Person to do legal work for his restaurants, wanted Person to persuade a majority of the seven-member Newport Beach Planning Commission to let him to raise by 9 feet the level of the Lancer’s Landing building, where he planned to open a restaurant, according to the transcripts.

Without such a height increase for the building, then under construction, the view would have been obstructed and customers would “be looking right into the bow of a boat,” Delaney complained.

The question never came before the commission for a vote. And Delaney now has no financial interest in the building at 3100 W. Coast Highway.

Delaney is board chairman of the corporation that bears his name and operates a chain of restaurants and catering services in Southern California. In 1986, Delaney’s Inc. had sales of $15 million and a work force of several hundred, according to “Dun’s Million Dollar Directory,” published by Dun & Bradstreet.