Mayor ignored legal advice on voting
Theresa Moreau
HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Mayor Dave Garofalo voted five times on business
involving advertisers in the Huntington Beach Conference & Visitor’s
Bureau visitors guide after City Atty. Gail Hutton warned against it.
The votes came after Garofalo said he sold the Local News newspaper
and its publishing interests, which include the visitors guide and the
Chamber of Commerce Business Directory.
A September 1998 memo from Hutton warned the then-councilman that he
couldn’t vote on his former advertisers until Dec. 15, 1998, the one-year
anniversary of the Local News sale.
Council minutes show Garofalo voted at least five times in favor of
visitors guide advertisers, including three votes he cast after receiving
a second warning a month later from the Fair Political Practices
Commission.
Back copies of the Local News were not available, and the Independent
has not yet investigated chamber directory advertisers.
State law prohibits elected officials from voting for one year on any
business concerning entities from which they have received $250 or more.
Most of the ads in the guide cost more than $250.
During the year after he sold the Local News to a friend, Garofalo
voted at least 35 times on business involving visitors guide advertisers,
city records show.
Hutton and Garofalo did not return phone calls, but in previous
statements Garofalo has denied any wrongdoing and said he consistently
followed the advice of the city attorney.
In her September memo, Hutton told Garofalo that he should abstain
from voting on visitors guide advertisers -- specifically Koll, PLC Land
Co., the Waterfront Hilton and Shea Homes -- until December 1998. She
also advised him to announce on the record that he is abstaining because
of the conflict of interest posed by his visitors guide advertising
revenues and said he should not influence any decisions concerning the
advertisers’ projects.
Garofalo did not heed the advice. Although he was absent a number of
times, he voted five times from Sept. 4, 1998, to Dec. 15, 1998, on
projects pertaining to guide advertisers. The votes included one
involving the Waterfront Hilton that was taken during a closed session to
settle a lawsuit.
The other advertisers involved were Koll Real Estate, now Hearthside
Homes, and PLC Land Co.
The vote regarding Koll Real Estate had to do with who would provide
water services to the company’s proposed Bolsa Chica development. At a
Nov. 30, 1998, meeting, the City Council considered asking the city
attorney to file a protest against allowing an outside agency to provide
water to Koll’s development.
Garofalo proposed that the city should supply water if Koll ever
received permission from the state to build on the land.
The proposal was struck down by Councilman Tom Harman, who said it was
a violation of the state open meeting law, known as the Brown Act,
because the vote would be taken in a closed meeting.
Garofalo then proposed to have the issue studied by city staff. That
was also struck down as a possible Brown Act violation.
Harman then proposed to have the city attorney file the protest with
the commission and ask for a hearing. The council approved Harman’s
proposal on a 4-3 vote, with Garofalo, Councilman Peter Green and
Councilwoman Pam Julien dissenting.
The ownership of the Local News has been a murky issue since Garofalo
announced the sale in 1997. County records show conflicting information,
as do the publications themselves. As late as April, the newspaper listed
Garofalo as publisher, and ads for Garofalo’s consulting firm boast it
publishes the Local News, the visitors guide and the chamber directory.
Garofalo has said he became a $100,000-a-year consultant for the
publications after their sale, saying he wasn’t involved in sales but
only the “technical” aspects of publishing.
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Eva Scholtz contributed to this story.
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