Mobil Amends Ballot Financial Report

Mobil Oil Corp. has filed an amended financial report for the campaign committee that helped defeat a March ballot measure aimed at banning the use of hydrofluoric acid at the company’s Torrance refinery.

The new report, received Thursday by the Torrance city clerk, corrected a discrepancy in an earlier report that was caused by a mathematical error, said Charles H. Bell Jr., a Sacramento attorney representing Mobil.

The report shows that the Mobil Oil Corp. Refinery Safety Committee/No on Measure A collected a total of $710,238.78, all but $200 of it from Mobil. The committee received $644,895.07 in monetary contributions from Mobil and $65,343.71 in “non-monetary contributions,” which Bell described as staff time of Mobil employees.

The only contributors besides Mobil were David E. Novitski, a Mobil attorney and the committee’s treasurer, who gave $100, and attorney Ernest J. Getto, who also gave $100, the report says.

The group spent $644,895.07, primarily on broadcast advertising, literature and polling, the report states. It reports no cash on hand as of June 30, the end of the reporting period.

The ballot measure lost 3-1 in the March 6 Torrance election.