Garofalo attempts to mend fences with committee

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Although he hasn’t apologized for his behavior toward

volunteers on the city’s Infrastructure Committee during a meeting

earlier this month, Mayor Dave Garofalo is trying to mend political

fences.

Garofalo sent a letter dated Jan. 12 to members of the committee, trying

to explain his latest blunder.

It didn’t work.

“I don’t know what he is trying to tell us,” committee member Art Rosen

said.

Garofalo would not expand on the letter, except to say in a note to the

Independent that he felt the letter “seems pretty self-descriptive.”

Because the meeting he interrupted began in the evening, Garofalo started

the letter with a not-so-veiled reference to how tirelessly he’s working

for the city.

“My Jan. 6 started at 7:45 a.m. with government meetings,” he wrote.

It ended about 12 hours later with him dropping a bombshell, strongly

hinting that the committee members were coming to the wrong conclusion

about ways to finance the city’s staggering $1.3-billion estimate for

repairing sewers, streets and sidewalks, among other things.

What bothered members most was the offensive way he expressed his

disapproval.

“If Dave is behind what you do, he’s great,” Rosen said. “But if he’s

not, it’s ugly.”

In his letter, Garofalo conceded he had stepped on some toes.

“Several people at the meeting tell me that some wanted to know why I was

mad, another asked if I was picking a fight,” he wrote.

But he goes on to suggest that he was simply acting as a messenger for

the council, which at least one City Council member, Shirley Dettloff,

disputes.

Talking about the city’s financing options, she said, “It’s wide open.”

Garofalo further wrote that the committee needs to stop dragging its

feet, which shows how ill informed he is about the complexity of the

problem, member Chuck Scheid said.

“It was just a gratuitous observation without really understanding what

we’re talking about,” he said.

The committee is expected to present its final recommendations to the

council within the next few months.