Editorial

The mayor says he has been wronged, victimized by an overzealous

press, lynched in the headlines.

Indeed, Huntington Beach Mayor David P. Garofalo has amassed a healthy

pile of press clippings in recent weeks, most dealing with concerns or

assertions that he violated state conflict of interest laws by voting in

favor of business interests who advertised in publications he owned or

published.

The reason for the bountiful news reports -- trial by ink, the mayor

retorts -- is fairly simple: Getting to the bottom of Garofalo’s tangled

business affairs is a tricky bit of excavation.

Using state, county and city records as road maps, it is difficult to

determine what he owns, when he owned it, when he sold it and even if he

ever did sell it.

So confounding is the snarl that it appears the mayor himself had

trouble keeping his affairs straight, claiming on one hand that he no

longer owned the bimonthly Local News and then filling out paperwork in

April that showed he did -- and always had -- owned it.

Garofalo, in defending himself, also says that he did not sell

advertising in his publications but, rather, busied himself with the

“production and mechanical” end of the industry.

And when it came to light that one advertiser had written a $2,995

check to David P. Garofalo & Associates -- a business interest he does

own -- the mayor dismissed it as an aberration and insisted the money was

quickly moved to the Local News, which he says he didn’t own at the time.

Even if we take the mayor’s statements at face value -- that it was no

more than a paperwork blunder that shows he still owns the Local News and

that the $2,995 check made out to his namesake company was a “one out of

a thousand” goof -- we are left with a daunting paper trail.

Even if we accept everything Garofalo says as fact, we are left to

explain why an experienced businessman accidentally filled out a vital

public document showing himself as the owner of something he says he

didn’t own.

Even if we take his word that he doesn’t sell advertising, we are left

wondering why not one, but at least two advertisers contend the mayor

lobbied them for their advertising dollars.

Even if we accept the mayor’s statement that the $2,995 check was a

“one out of a thousand” error, how do we get past another advertiser who

contends he also was told to make his check out to Garofalo’s company --

not to mention the $300 in cash and an equal amount in gift certificates

he said he also gave the mayor.

The mayor may find the questions, the news stories and even the

headlines to be uncomfortable. He may vent, deride this newspaper and

others. He may posture and say this attention is little more than

political bad blood. And even if we buy that, the questions remain.

Unanswered.