Laird pulls papers for council

Theresa Moreau

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Seven months after stepping down from the city’s

Planning Commission to take care of his ailing wife, Ed Laird has taken

the first step in joining the race for the upcoming general election.

Laird, a longtime friend of Mayor Dave Garofalo, took out nomination

papers from the city clerk’s office last week in what could be a prelude

to running for a seat on the City Council in November.

Appointed by Councilwoman Pam Julien, Laird served as a planning

commissioner for just one year, taking his seat in January 1999 and

stepping down in February.

Laird, at the time, said he was leaving the post in part to take care

of his wife, Sandi, who has been battling cancer that started eight years

ago in her breast and has spread to her bones.

He said he joined the board to help reduce the rules and regulations

in the approval process for city projects. However, the task proved too

great, the red tape too difficult to cut, he said.

“That’s going to take a lot longer than a year,” Laird said upon his

departure from the commission.

Resident Bob Hoxsie said it was “kind of a shock” to find out that

Laird may run for council.

“I’m sure that he’s going to get a lot of bad publicity and stuff,”

said Hoxsie, “but he’s given a lot back to community and this is just

another way of doing that.”

Julien, who has pulled papers for re-election, said she views Laird as

a worthy opponent.

“I think he’d make a very good council member,” she said. “He was a

good planning commissioner, which helps prepare a person for a role as

council member.

“I think we’re going to have a lot of good candidates running, and

he’ll be one of them.” Bob Biddle, a planning commissioner who served

with Laird, said Laird did a reasonable job during his short stint on the

board, but there was one drawback.

“We didn’t agree 100% of the time,” Biddle said. “In most cases, you

could say there wasn’t a development he didn’t like.”

Laird did not return phone calls placed by the Independent.

The pro-development, pro-business stance bothers other locals as well.

Huntington Beach resident Steve Gullage said he fears Laird would be

just another big business glad-hander if elected to council.

Gullage, who makes frequent appearances before the council during

public comments to speak on the loss of low-income housing for seniors,

said Laird has written a petition that would kill rent control in the

city.

If the petition, the Property Rights Protection Measure, makes it to

the ballot and passes, it would amend the city charter to deny the city

the right to implement any form of rent control, Gullage said.

Bill Bernard, a local mobile home park resident, said he’s amazed

Laird, owner of Coatings Resource Corp., is running because of all the

controversy surrounding him.

Laird’s reputation has been tarnished because of his association with

Garofalo and the Local News, Gullage said.

“He’s not only Dave Garofalo’s buddy, but he also has a major interest

in the Local News, and all the advertisers in the Local News would be a

conflict of interest -- the same conflict of interest that Garofalo has,”

Gullage said.

Laird has made conflicting statements regarding his ownership of the

Local News. At one point he adamantly denied owning the Local News.

At a Chamber of Commerce communications committee meeting, Laird

denied ever owning the newspaper that Garofalo began publishing in 1992.

“I’m in the paint business; I’m not in the newspaper business,” Laird

told the Independent during the meeting.

However, in an interview with the Independent several months later,

Laird said he paid “lots of money” for the Local News.

“I did initially [own it] a few years back through one of my

companies, but then I transferred it to my son’s company [Air Quality

Consultants], my engineering company that my son now runs and owns,”

Laird said last month.

The July 24, 1998, edition of the Local News shows a picture of Laird

and Garofalo holding up a copy of the paper. In that paper, Laird

explained his reasons for buying the Local News.

“So, why would I buy a newspaper, in early 1998, in Huntington Beach,

Calif.?” Laird asked. “The answer, two words: Dave Garofalo.”