THE GAROFALO FILES

With all of the accusations, investigations and rumors surrounding the

business practices of Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Garofalo, you need a

playbook to figure out what everyone is talking about. So here it is -- a

timeline of Garofalo-related events:

* May 2000 -- Independent articles reveal that in January, Los

Angeles-based developer Commercial Investment Management Group paid a

company owned by Garofalo $2,995 for a half-page color advertisement in

the 2000 Huntington Beach Conference and Visitor’s Bureau visitors guide.

Four months later, Garofalo voted to keep the developer’s $46-million

Downtown hotel and shopping complex on track. Garofalo said the money was

placed in the accounts of the visitors guide publisher, the Local News.

* May 2000 -- Local environmental lawyer Debbie Cook sends an

80-plus-page complaint to the Fair Political Practices Commission, asking

the agency to look into the mayor’s dealings with advertisers in the

guide and the Local News, a paper he once owned.

* December 1999 -- The Orange County Grand Jury dismisses a complaint

accusing Garofalo, then-newly elected mayor, and Councilwomen Pam Julien

and Shirley Dettloff of a conflict of interest for investing in Pacific

Liberty Bank, at Adams Avenue and Beach Boulevard. The district

attorney’s office also conducted a review and said it found no conflict.

* August 1999 -- Bob Bolen, chairman of the Main-Pier Project Area

Committee, files a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission

alleging that council members Garofalo, Julien and Ralph Bauer stood to

gain financially by voting in June on a preliminary disposition and

development agreement between the Los Angeles-based developer CIM and the

Huntington Beach Redevelopment Agency to revitalize Downtown. Garofalo

and Julien both own property within the redevelopment area, while Bauer

owns property near the area. In May 1999, before the vote, the city

attorney’s office cleared Garofalo and Julien to vote on the CIM project.

* October 1998 -- The Fair Political Practices Commission, in response to

a letter penned by City Atty. Gail Hutton with Garofalo, writes that

because the query letter was not requesting a government decision, the

commission would offer only “informal advice.” The advice? “While Mr.

Garofalo continues to have an economic interest in a given advertiser

because that advertiser is a source of $250 or more in income to him

during the 12 months preceding a particular decision, he may not take

part in the decision if the decision is substantially likely to have a

material financial effect on the advertiser.”

* July 1998 -- David Garofalo announces the sale of his paper, the Local

News, to businessman Ed Laird, for the price of $200,000, reported the

O.C. Weekly. County records show that Air Quality Consultants, which is

run by Jeff Laird, didn’t start running the paper until January 1999.