Mobil’s Public Relations Firm Surveys Torrance to Aid Refinery

A public relations firm hired by Mobil Oil Corp. is surveying residents by telephone and interviewing community leaders as part of an effort by Mobil’s Torrance refinery to quell public concerns about safety at the accident-plagued plant.

For the past three months, Braun & Co., a public relations firm from Los Angeles, has asked residents, business leaders, City Council members and school officials about their perception of the refinery.

Braun will compile the information and suggest ways Mobil can ease anxiety about safety and improve relations with Torrance residents, Mobil officials said.

“They were hired to help us communicate with the community,” said Mobil spokesman James Cabonetti.

However, residents and city officials say Mobil’s efforts may be too little, too late.

Mayor Katy Geissert, who met with Braun representatives last month, said: “I told them they have been brought in after the house had already burned down.”

Gargantuan feat

Janie Butcher, PTA president at Magruder Middle School, said improving Mobil’s image is going to be a Gargantuan feat. Butcher’s 12-year-old daughter was among 10 people hospitalized in March after foul-smelling fumes entered the school. The fumes were not traced to the nearby refinery, but Mobil officials offered to pay the hospital bills.

“If people stop dying,” Butcher said, “if people stop blowing up; if the city stops smelling like rotten eggs, and if kids stop throwing up in the playgrounds, then I’d be impressed.”

The troubled refinery has been plagued by explosions, fires and releases of gas. Three people have been killed and more than a dozen injured at the refinery. The series of accidents, which began with an explosion and two-day fire in November, 1987, has prompted a city lawsuit and an initiative campaign to limit the refinery’s use of hydrofluoric acid, which is acutely toxic.

Wyman D. Robb, refinery manager, said these actions prompted Mobil to try to improve public relations.

“I guess we’re a bunch of engineers, and we’re not geared for that kind of public relations communication,” he said. “Perhaps things would have been better if we’d done that sooner.”

“The problem is a lack of understanding,” Robb said. “We need an educational effort to let people know what we do and how we do it.”

Mobil is also considering placing ads in local newspapers, holding public meetings and offering tours of the refinery to improve ties with Torrance residents, Robb said.

This is not Mobil’s first attempt to communicate directly with Torrance residents.

The firm mailed letters of apology to 14,000 households last August “for any inconveniences or anxiety” created by accidents at the plant. The letter said that the series of accidents may have given residents “cause for concern about the safety of our operation.” But, it said, “safety remains the No. 1. priority” at the plant.

Braun & Co., which specializes in investor relations, public affairs and marketing, was hired in February. Among some of Braun’s better-known clients are Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Braun has worked with other petroleum companies, such as Pauley Petroleum in Los Angeles, and Western States Petroleum Assn. in Glendale.

Safety Prime Issue

Interviews with residents and community leaders have shown that people are most interested in learning what Mobil is doing to ensure safety at the refinery, Braun representatives said.

“What Mobil has been hearing, and what we are hearing also, is that one problem is a real lack of communication with the community,” said Betsy Eaton, a senior counselor with Braun. “We keep hearing from City Council members all the way down to people in their homes that they want more information about the refinery.”

City officials agreed.

“I told them to get out from behind the walls and get out in the community,” said Councilwoman Dee Hardison, who met with Braun representatives three weeks ago.

“Saying nothing is perceived as not caring,” she said. “I said, ‘Go out and make the community more knowledgeable about what you do and how you do it.’ ”

Hardison said she doesn’t believe that Mobil’s public relations push will hurt the lawsuit the city filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last month. The suit alleges that the refinery is a public nuisance and asks for authority to regulate it.

Geissert agreed with Hardison, saying the suit will most likely not be affected by public opinion. Braun representatives did not try to discuss the lawsuit when they met with her, the mayor said.

She said she told Braun representatives that Mobil should have invited concerned residents to a public meeting months ago to discuss how the refinery is addressing safety issues.

Councilman Bill Applegate said that, before the accidents, Mobil had a good reputation among residents and city officials.

“They supported city projects and the city,” he said. “I felt that they played a part in the community.

Unaware of Extent

“I guess they didn’t realize how bad they screwed up and how bad their image was being battered on a regular basis,” he said.

Councilman Dan Walker, who has launched a direct-mail initiative campaign aimed at forcing Mobil to abandon the use of hydrofluoric acid, said the refinery’s efforts to improve its image would not affect his campaign.

“If Mobil Oil can prove that (hydrofluoric) acid is safe, then they will be pulling a rabbit out of a hat,” he said.

Paul Mackey, special services administrator for the Torrance Unified School District, said concern among school officials has been heightened since the incident in March at Magruder Middle School.

“We have had concern about the things that are emitted from the refinery,” he said. “From time to time, we have complained about odors.”

A 20-year resident of Torrance, who asked that her name not be published, said she received a telephone call from Braun more than a month ago. She said that during the five-minute interview she was asked her opinion about life in Torrance, the refinery, chemicals used at the plant and her city representatives.

“They were very general questions,” she said. “Nothing specific.”

She said that she is worried and that Mobil will be hard-pressed to ease her concerns.

“I think, if they cleared up their safety record, people might feel better,” she said.