Case Against Huntington Mayor Goes to City Attorney

The Huntington Beach city attorney’s office has been asked to review whether Mayor Dave Garofalo violated conflict-of-interest laws while serving as a voting member of the city’s Conference & Visitors Bureau board of directors in the early 1990s, before he was elected to the City Council.

Debbie Cook, a local land-use attorney and perennial Garofalo critic, last week submitted information to City Atty. Gail Hutton, calling attention to Garofalo’s service on the board at the time his company was awarded the publishing contract for the bureau’s Visitors Guide.

Included in the packet was a 1989 advisory letter issued by the Fair Political Practices Commission, which determined that a Bakersfield visitors bureau was subject to the conflict-of-interest provisions of the Political Reform Act. The commission ruled that Bakersfield’s bureau qualified as a local government agency because it was a nonprofit organization formed and funded by the city to perform duties that are traditionally conducted by the city.

“In my opinion, there is no longer any wiggle room for Garofalo with regard to a violation of Government Section Code 1090,” which forbids a member of a legislative body from making a contract in which he or she has a financial interest, Cook wrote in her letter to Hutton.

Cook contends the Huntington Beach bureau is comparable to Bakersfield’s because it too promotes tourism to the city and receives its primary funding from the City Council, which voted to grant the bureau $235,000 this year alone. Cook maintains that members of the Huntington Beach board also must comply with the Political Reform Act, which would call into question Garofalo’s publishing contract with the bureau.

As publisher of the Visitors Guide, Garofalo profits exclusively from generating advertising revenue. Although the visitors bureau shares in none of the profits, it must independently distribute the guide.

Garofalo reiterated Tuesday that he has done nothing wrong: “I’ve answered all the authorities. I’ll be vindicated in the end.”

Cook also cited a section of the Huntington Beach Municipal Code, which mandates that a formal bidding procedure must be used to purchase services with an estimated value of more than $15,000.

Garofalo’s company, David P. Garofalo & Associates, was awarded the publishing contract for the bureau’s Visitors Guide in 1993 and has published the guide every year since. His contract has been automatically renewed, without a bidding process. As a member of board of directors, however, Garofalo never voted on his own contract.

The city attorney’s office is already investigating Garofalo for possible conflicts of interest during his time on the City Council.

Garofalo also publishes a weekly newspaper, the Local News, which shares many of the same advertisers as the Visitors Guide. Hearthside Homes, formerly Koll Real Estate Group; PLC Land Co., a Seacliff home developer; and Commercial Investment Management Group, the developer of a downtown multimillion-dollar project, are among them.

Since it was recently revealed that Garofalo received a $2,995 check made out to David P. Garofalo & Associates from the Commercial Investment Management Group for a half-page ad in the 2000 issue of the Visitors Guide, Hutton began compiling a packet to submit to the FPPC for an opinion on whether a conflict of interest existed when the guide’s advertisers appeared before the City Council.

Hutton said she expects the investigation will be completed in a few weeks.