Mobil Spent $700,000 on Defeating Initiative

Mobil Oil Corp. contributed more than $700,000 to its high-profile campaign to defeat a March ballot measure that would have forced its Torrance refinery to stop using hydrofluoric acid, a new finance report shows.

Much of the money went for polling, mailings and advertising.

In contrast, the group that spearheaded the drive to eliminate hydrofluoric acid spent only $62,266, or less than one-tenth as much as the Mobil-sponsored committee.

“There wasn’t any way to respond to the financial onslaught of Mobil Oil,” said Councilman Dan Walker, who sponsored the initiative.

The Mobil report confirms that the oil company set a record for campaign spending in Torrance, said City Clerk John A. Bramhall.

“It’s an incredible amount of money to pour into a public relations campaign on a local issue,” Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert said Wednesday afternoon.

The measure lost by a 3-1 margin in the March 6 election. It would have forbidden Mobil to store more than 250 gallons of hydrofluoric acid at the refinery, effectively banning the highly toxic chemical.

Mobil argued that the measure would force it to spend as much as $100 million to convert its refinery to use sulfuric acid, a less volatile substance.

Walker proposed the measure last year after a series of explosions, fires and other accidents at the refinery had caused three deaths and more than a dozen serious injuries during the preceding two years.

The Torrance City Council last year filed a lawsuit asking a judge to declare the Mobil refinery a public nuisance and to give the city more control over its operations. The case is expected to go to trial in October.

Campaign finance reports filed this week with the Torrance city clerk’s office show that Mobil contributed a total of $762,710 to its campaign arm, the Mobil Oil Corp. Refinery Safety Committee/No on Measure A. But Charles H. Bell Jr., a Sacramento attorney who worked on the Mobil report, said that after accounting adjustments, Mobil’s contribution totaled $712,710.

However, in an apparent discrepancy that Bell said he could not explain, the report also listed total campaign contributions from all sources as $710,238.78.

The report showed $65,343.71 in non-monetary contributions, which consisted of staff time, Bell said.

A Mobil corporate spokesman could not be reached for comment on the report Wednesday afternoon.

Bell said Mobil plans to disband the committee in a few weeks.

The report shows that Mobil spent heavily on literature and broadcast advertising and on polling conducted by Market Opinion Research of Detroit, a major polling firm.

Another committee that opposed the measure, known as Citizens for a Safe Torrance Environment, spent a total of $26,643.93, according to its finance report. Contributors included Mobil, two unions and Southern California Edison Co.

The committee that lobbied for the ballot measure, known as Citizens for Yes on Measure A, spent $62,265.86, according to its report.

Most of that money came from the Dan Walker Election Committee. Walker’s committee made a series of large contributions, totaling $46,400, the report shows.

Walker said Tuesday that he had no regrets about the amount of money he channeled into the campaign.

“I’d do it all over again tomorrow,” Walker said.

City officials grew testy when the Mobil report was not received at the city clerk’s office Tuesday. Bramhall sent a letter to Mobil by certified mail, saying no statement had been received and warning of a $10-a-day penalty fee.

The Mobil report arrived at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday by Express Mail.

Mark Cohen, a Mobil spokesman in Fairfax, Va., said earlier in the day that the law firm responsible for filing the papers had sent them to the city Tuesday by express service.

Campaign reports delivered by hand would be due at the city clerk’s office Tuesday, according to state guidelines. But statements sent by guaranteed overnight delivery service are considered to be received on the day the delivery service receives them, the guidelines state.