Lobbying
When he left the council, he "created a furor" when he decided to keep for his personal use $44,932.48 in unspent campaign funds.
Wilkinson became a top-paid registered lobbyist, earning nearly half a million dollars from the Porter Ranch Company alone. He was officially a real estate broker and investment counselor. He said his links with City Hall were not important. "I'm just a country boy, doing my thing," he said. "I don't drive a Mercedes-Benz. Nor a Jaguar. I'm a station-wagon person."
One of his clients was pop star Michael Jackson, who sought zoning variances for his Encino district estate on Hayvenhurst Avenue that would have allowed him to add a giraffe to his backyard zoo. Jackson wanted to maintain a seventeen-foot-high fence instead of the legally allowed six feet. He withdrew his request after neighbors objected.
Another client was the Islamic Center of Northridge, which needed planning and zoning permission to build the Valley's first mosque, in Granada Hills.
Read more about this topic: Robert M. Wilkinson