Visitors bureau terminates publishing contract

Theresa Moreau

HUNTINGTON BEACH--The city’s Conference & Visitors Bureau voted 8-1

Wednesday to cancel its publishing contract with Coatings Resource Corp.

The vote came a month after the bureau’s board was advised by City

Atty. Gail Hutton that it should end the contract with Coatings Resource

whose president purchased the contract for the bureau’s annual guide from

Garofalo in January 1998 but kept the mayor on as a paid consultant.

The City Council concurred in recent weeks with Hutton, who said the

agreement may violate state law that prohibits city officials from

self-dealing when making contracts. If the bureau didn’t follow the

advice, Hutton recommended the city yank its funding -- which is 100% of

the bureau’s budget.

Steve Bone, a nonvoting visitors board member and president of the

Robert Mayer Corp. urged his fellow board members to follow the city’s

recommendation.

“You may not like what’s happened,” Bone said, “but I think we have to

acknowledge the fact the City Council had made it quite firm what the

interest should be. The council has said to terminate. It’s not a

negotiable position.”

Visitors board Vice President Steve Daniel, who was the lone

dissenting vote, said the judgment was premature.

“The [city] suspects this [Government Code Section] 1090 violation,” he said. “If [Garofalo] has made a violation of 1090, then the contract

is null and void, but they’re just suspectful of that. So we’re voting on

suspicion, and I do believe this is a country where you’re innocent until

proved guilty.”

This code makes it illegal for city officials to profit from a city

contract.

Visitors board members Merritt Sher and Dean Torrence abstained from

voting, and Ryan Rieches was absent.

Garofalo attended the meeting but abstained from voting. He said,

“Don’t even think about it,” when asked for a comment.

At the center of the controversy is Garofalo, who first won the

publishing contract for the visitor’s guide in 1993, a year before he

joined the City Council. Since then, Garofalo has voted to approve

funding for the bureau four times. He abstained once and was absent

another time.

Garofalo is being investigated for possible conflict-of-interest

violations by the Orange County district attorney’s office, the Orange

County Grand Jury and the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Last week, the visitor bureau’s chairman, John Gilbert, sought further

guidance on the issue from the City Council, asking members to choose one

of two options: either again order the bureau to terminate the contract

and agree to cover legal fees if Laird sues, or allow the bureau to honor

the contract through Dec. 31, when it expires.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, with Garofalo stepping away from

the dais after declaring a possible conflict of interest, members didn’t

waive from their former standing when the visitor’s bureau item agenda

was addressed.

They remained steadfast that the city’s Conference & Visitors Bureau

must terminate its publishing contract for its annual guide or lose its

city funding, which totaled $270,000 for its 2000-01 budget.