Garofalo Should Resign

Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Garofalo’s ability to move to the head of the line and grab the best house in a tract represents a classic case of swapping influence for perks. In this and other matters, his betrayal of trust and his insistence that serious questions raised about his stewardship are strictly politics indicate his unfitness to continue in public office.

When Garofalo was a councilman, he was put ahead of about 300 people who wanted to buy homes in a gated community developed by PLC Land Co. He got to buy the first house in the Huntington Beach tract. Records show he sold the building the next day for $60,000 more than he had paid.

Garofalo voted 56 times on approvals PLC needed for the development, records show; 26 of the votes came after he said he called the developer to say he wanted to buy a home. Garofalo says he never was told he was at the top of the home-buying list. He also says that because the house included upgrades, he made no profit. But the developer has said upgrades in that subdivision would have been included in the initial price, and hopeful home buyers without Garofalo’s connections understandably think otherwise about the favorable treatment he received.

The Orange County district attorney’s office now is investigating Garofalo’s voting record, his purchase of the home and his involvement with local publications he has owned. For years Garofalo owned a local newspaper and published an annual visitors guide for the city. For some of the time he was on the City Council, he voted in favor of agenda items involving businesses that advertised in the visitors guide.

Garofalo’s interweaving of his political and financial activities deserves the closest scrutiny from the district attorney. Residents need to know whether laws were violated. Garofalo says none were.

It’s proper that the city attorney fulfilled her pledge to forward Garofalo’s voting record to the state Fair Political Practices Commission, which also can see whether rules were broken.

Garofalo has behaved as if public office were a kind of extension of the business realm, existing to cement relationships and advance the interests of both business partners and himself.

Even if it turns out he violated no laws, his cavalier mixing of the personal and the professional deserves censure. He ought to step down and make way for someone who better understands, and keeps faith with, the obligation of public office-holding.