Under bylaws, Garofalo can be board member

Theresa Moreau

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- According to the bylaws of the Huntington Beach

Conference & Visitors Bureau, the city’s mayor is a voting member of the

nonprofit organization’s board of directors.

However, after the subject was brought up during the public comments

portion of Monday’s City Council meeting, Councilman Dave Sullivan, who

served as mayor in 1996, said he wasn’t informed of his extracurricular

duties to be a participant on the visitors bureau’s board.

“I was never told that I was part of the voting process of the

Conference & Visitors Bureau,� he said. “When I was mayor, I was never

asked to give up my authority to be on the Conference & Visitors Bureau.�

However, David Biggs, the city’s economic director and ex officio

member of the bureau’s board of directors, said Huntington Beach mayors

have attended the board’s meetings in recent years.

“I do know that for the past couple of years that Mayor [Dave]

Garofalo did attend and has been going to the board meetings,� Biggs

said. “And Peter Green had been mayor before him, and he’s been going to

meetings.�

However, it is unclear whether Garofalo has been actively

participating as a member of the bureau’s board.

According to the bureau’s bylaws, which were written in 1994, “One

voting director shall be the mayor of Huntington Beach, or an individual

appointed from time to time in writing by the mayor.�

Biggs’ department administers the city’s funding to the bureau, which

totaled $270,000 for the 2000-01 budget. One of Biggs’ official roles is

to manage the financial contract.

Garofalo’s corporation, David P. Garofalo & Associates, has held a

contract to publish the bureau’s visitors guide since 1993, which may be

a possible violation of a state law that prohibits city officials from

awarding themselves contracts.

The mayor is under investigation by the Orange County district

attorney’s office, Orange County Grand Jury and the state’s Fair

Political Practices Commission for such possible violations.

Debbie Cook -- an attorney, environmental activist, perennial Garofalo

critic and a City Council candidate -- said it has concerned her that the

bureau’s board of directors seem to exclude certain people.

“If you weren’t a member of that private club, then you were never

notified that you were a voting member. It seems like you were excluded

from that club,� Cook said.