Garofalo Admits to Mistakes but Says He’s Never Profited by Votes

Acknowledging mistakes for the first time, Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Garofalo said Thursday that he failed to properly record a change of ownership in his publishing company that produces a local newspaper and the city’s annual visitors guide--a relationship the city attorney began investigating this week.

City Atty. Gail Hutton said she will ask the state Fair Political Practices Commission to rule on the propriety of Garofalo’s votes on matters affecting advertisers in the publications and on two transactions involving property owned by the mayor. Garofalo took office in January 1995.

State law bars elected officials who receive $250 or more from voting on matters that would financially benefit the giver. Officials also cannot be involved in votes or deliberations if it is likely that the outcome would have an “important impact” on the official’s economic interests.

Garofalo insisted Thursday that he hasn’t profited from thousands of dollars in advertising in the Local News and the Visitors Guide since December 1997. That’s when he said he sold the businesses’ “publishing rights” to Coatings Resource, a paint manufacturing company owned by Huntington Beach businessman Ed Laird.

“I have not nor will I ever knowingly commit a criminal offense while in public office,” an emotional Garofalo told The Times at his office in City Hall. “Was there an imperfection [in filing ownership documents]? Yes. Am I perfect? No.”

The mayor said his company also should not have accepted and cashed a $2,995 check for advertising in the 2000 Visitors Guide from Commercial Investment Management Group, which has a $46-million redevelopment project near Garofalo’s home. He said the money was put immediately into a Local News account. Four months after the check was written, Garofalo voted to move forward with CIM’s project.

“I’m going to recuse myself from any votes [involving CIM Group] because of the check,” Garofalo said Thursday. He said he also will abstain from voting on matters affecting other advertisers in the 2000 guide until a ruling has been made by the FPPC. Other advertisers include Hearthside Homes, formerly Koll Real Estate, and Golden West College.

State and county records show that the Local News, which prints the Visitors Guide, has been owned by David P. Garofalo and Associates Inc. except for a 15-month period between January 1999 and last April, when documents showed the business owned by Laird’s son.

Garofalo’s company has continued to be listed as publisher, and Garofalo has been paid $100,000 a year as a consultant by Coatings Resource as part of the terms of the sale.

Mayor Says He Tried to Comply With Law

Amid a swirl of conflict-of-interest allegations Thursday, the mayor said he has tried to comply with the law and repeatedly asked Hutton for advice before voting. He pledged to cooperate with the investigations and said he’s prepared to pay any fines levied by the FPPC.

“I’m prepared to stand the test of whatever scrutiny anyone wants to throw at me,” he said.

Garofalo said Thursday that he never voted improperly as a member of the City Council to give money to the city-funded Huntington Beach Conference & Visitors Bureau, which distributes the Visitors Guide. The bureau operates solely on city funds--$235,000 this year--but none of the money is used to produce the guide, he said. Garofalo has published it since 1994.

Hutton released documents Thursday regarding two earlier inquiries into potential conflicts of interest involving Garofalo. The mayor initiated one of these inquiries himself in September 1998, asking the city attorney whether he could vote on council matters involving advertisers even though he claimed to have sold the publications, and whether his past votes were improper.

Those questions were forwarded to the FPPC by Hutton, who also requested an opinion on whether Garofalo could vote on funding grants to the visitor’s bureau. The FPPC said Garofalo could not vote on matters involving advertisers for an entire year following the sale of his publishing company, and that his voting on the visitors bureau posed a potential conflict of interest. The FPPC also wrote also that it did not have sufficient information to determine whether past votes were improper.

Earlier this week, Hutton said she would ask for a new FPPC investigation after learning that Garofalo was still listed as owner of the publications.

On another occasion, in 1995, the city’s Economic Development Department asked Hutton to rule on whether Garofalo and another council member at the time, Peter Green, could vote on grants involving the visitors bureau even though they sat as voting members of the board. Hutton said neither councilman should vote on the grants. The issue arose again in 1998, and Hutton reaffirmed her opinion.

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Times staff writer Monte Morin and Times correspondent Theresa Moreau contributed to this report.