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.

-- Eva Scholtz contributed to this story.