State Probe of Huntington Beach Mayor Sought

The state’s political watchdog agency has been asked to examine possible conflicts of interest by Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Garofalo involving his publishing business, the profit he made on a real estate sale and approval of a redevelopment project near his home.

This week, Huntington Beach City Atty. Gail Hutton asked the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to determine, among other things, whether Garofalo should have voted on matters involving companies that paid for advertising in the Local News and the city’s visitors guide. Garofalo told city officials he sold the newspaper in 1997, but county and state documents list the owner as David P. Garofalo & Associates, which is owned solely by the mayor.

Hutton also asked the commission to rule on whether Garofalo’s 1998 purchase and sale of a new home, and the profit he made on it, would affect his ability to vote on matters involving the builder, and if he can continue to vote on a redevelopment project within 2,500 feet of his house that potentially could boost his home’s value.

State law forbids elected officials who receive $250 or more to vote for one year on matters that would have a financial impact on the donor.

Hutton said her office separately will investigate the relationship between Garofalo’s company and the city-funded Conference and Visitors Bureau, for which Garofalo’s company has published the city’s visitors guide since 1994. Garofalo served on the board of the visitors bureau for several years and still sits as a nonvoting member.

State law also prohibits elected officials from having financial interests in any contracts approved by them or by bodies of which they are members.

Until the state makes a ruling, she said, Garofalo should stop voting on projects involving advertisers with the Local News and the Visitors Guide. She said he should declare a conflict of interest toward those companies, as well as the builder of the home he bought and the developer of the redevelopment project near his house, also an advertiser.

Garofalo said he has done nothing wrong. He said in a memo this week that he sold his splashy twice-monthly tabloid, the Local News, in December 1997 to Ed Laird, a community activist who owns Coatings Resource, a local paint manufacturing company. County documents reflect a change of ownership to Laird’s son in January 1999, but Garofalo was listed as owner again last April.

In a surprise announcement Monday during the City Council meeting, Garofalo said he has divested himself of any remaining interest or activity in his publishing businesses. He has received $100,000 a year as a consultant to Coatings Resource as part of the terms of the sale.

Garofalo did not respond to a request Wednesday for comment.

In an earlier interview, he blamed the controversy surrounding his business deals on environmentalist enemies and jealous council colleagues. He said his past votes involving projects of advertisers were cleared by Hutton and that he was following state law.