Ex-Official Admits to Having Sold His Vote

Former Huntington Beach Councilman Dave Garofalo pleaded guilty Thursday to one felony and 15 misdemeanors for repeatedly voting on matters involving companies that bought advertising from his local publishing business.

The plea ends a 17-month investigation by local and state prosecutors.

Garofalo, who resigned from office last month, was given a suspended sentence by Superior Court Judge Ronald P. Kreber and placed on three years’ unsupervised probation. He must pay fines totaling $49,700 and complete 200 hours of community service by April 1, 2003. He also cannot run again for public office unless he can persuade a judge to clear his record after three years.

Of his fines, $47,000 will be paid to the state Fair Political Practices Commission for 24 counts of violating financial reporting laws. The commission is scheduled to formally approve the civil fines at a meeting Tuesday in Sacramento.

The embattled former councilman spoke outside the courtroom Thursday about what he called his “massive, total self-destruction.”

He insisted that he didn’t realize that it was illegal to vote after soliciting tens of thousands of dollars in advertising from businesses seeking city decisions. He said the punishment was harsh but admitted that he broke the law.

“I’ve got to take my medicine,” said Garofalo, 56.

But prosecutors said Garofalo’s behavior was not a case of a local official inadvertently stumbling over state law. His votes spanned two years and were “flagrant, repeated and consistent,” Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said.

“The disposition on this is a very good one,” he said. “It puts into perspective what was going on with Mr. Garofalo.”

The felony violation stems from Garofalo’s vote in 1999--with a unanimous council--for the city to fund the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau, for which Garofalo had published an annual visitors guide since 1993. Under the contract, the city funded the nonprofit bureau with $200,000 for 1999-00 and an additional $270,000 for 2000-01. The agreement allowed Garofalo to keep the advertising revenue from the guide.

Garofalo also published a newspaper called the Local News, the directory for the city’s chamber of commerce and two political mailers called Huntington Beach Today, distributed in 1994 and 1998--the same years Garofalo ran for council.

The misdemeanor violations involved 15 companies seeking city approvals that paid Garofalo $500 to $13,000 annually for advertising from January 1998 to August 2000.

The fair practices commission fine stemmed from Garofalo’s failure to report that and other income on annual statements of economic interest.

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Times staff writer Jack Leonard contributed to this report.