Mayor Furey Busted by the FPPC – Now What?
“We are a well-managed City.” “We are ethical.”
“We are not Bell or Carson or Hawthorne.” “We don’t have those problems, our City officials are not corrupt or plagued by scandals.”
These are refrains oft heard around City Hall. Torrance officials pride themselves on ethics. What will they do now as that ethical compass that has guided and shaped our community hangs in the balance?
We are not Bell. Or are we?
On November 18, 2014 the Council discussed the award of the City’s emergency services contract. Mayor Furey was under fire. The FPPC had already initiated an investigation for alleged improprieties dealing with the Furey PAC. At the meeting, Furey attempted to quell any notion of wrongdoing by forcefully stating:
“I had nothing to do with it…They had no coordination with me…I didn’t ask them to do it. There was no control that I would have over it…This was no impropriety. Although there can be a perception and there’s a local newspaper that wants to believe there is a perception. There is no perception…I don’t see a conflict and I’m sorry that you do.”
The inescapable fact however, long suspected and now confirmed by the $35,000 fine levied by the FPPC, is that his campaign did coordinate with the PAC and even tried to conceal that coordination by going to such lengths as establishing fake e-mail accounts.
His campaign broke the law. The violation enabled powerful backers to pour more money into his campaign than is legally allowed. That gave him an advantage over his rivals. He cheated. Not only did he cheat, he lied about it.
But it’s not just the cheating and the lies, the Mayor’s family was also enriched in the process. Records indicate Mayor Furey’s campaign paid his son nearly $40,000 and the PAC contributed thousands more.
Those improprieties also cast a dark cloud over one of the most important decisions made by the Council under the Mayor’s tenure – the award of the emergency services contract. McCormick won. Gerber lost and shuttered its doors.
What now? Should Mayor Furey resign? Should he be recalled? Should his son continue to serve on City and School Board Commissions? Should we all just go quietly about our business and pretend nothing happened because we are too afraid to rock the boat or offend our neighbor? Or should we loudly protest at City Hall and on social media?
So far, questions like this have mostly been met with silence from current and former City officials. Some, however, have spoken out. At the council meeting last night, Councilwoman Ashcraft requested concurrence from her colleagues to bring back an agenda item to discuss the removal of Patrick Furey Jr. from his post on the Traffic Commission. Councilmember Griffith’s nodded his approval, but the request was quickly scuttled by Mayor Furey.
Of that exchange, Councilwoman Ashcraft would later say, “I know it was the right thing to do, in my world honesty and ethical behavior count.” Former Councilmember and contender for the Mayor’s office, Bill Sutherland, offered his support of the action. In an e-mail he commented that, “I would have seconded it [the motion] in a heartbeat. Torrance is more important than friendship or feelings.”
In contrast, Mayor Furey would clearly prefer the matter pass quickly and quietly into the night. Will the community allow that to occur? What does the Mayor continuing to serve say about Torrance? Does it mean we as a community condone cheating and lying? Like Councilwoman Ashcraft, can we say that honesty and ethical behavior still count?
We are not Bell. Or are we?
I will be protesting the city council and demand that they remove Patrick Jr. from the Torrance Traffic Commission!
Please attend the March 15 Torrance City Council meeting, 7:00pm 3031 Torrance Blvd.
Contact me if you have any questions: arthurschaper@hotmail.com
Why not just start recall process?
Yes we could, we just need people or funds to start collecting signatures. If anyone is willing please respond.
Let’s all meet Tuesday at 7pm at city hall and speak during orals and request the removal of Patrick Furey Jr from all city commissions. Let’s not allow Torrance to become Bell!
So Jr. creates not only fake email accounts but also at least one fake Facebook profile that he immediately edited (possibly deleted) when caught.
The mayor can deny knowledge until he’s blue; I’m not buying it, Mr. Mayor.
Jr. must be removed and forever banned from any office in Torrance, paid or volunteer. There must be ZERO tolerance for corruption in this city.
Start with removing Jr. and finish with removing Senior. They cheated and have tarnished the city of Torrance.
Now the mom is on Personnel Commisssion, appointed by city council where her mayor husband is a member, and taking over the spot on commission that her son had to resign
I agree with Torrance Truth. How long do we put up with politicians hiding behind their own agendas. They seem to forget that they got elected in the first place with public support which can be withdrawn at any time when they do shady things.
Well now this is really disgusting, we should not forget back in 2015 the violation of the Brown Act by Council Woman Ashcroft regarding the removal of a commissioner she recommended when there was no cause of action required as this commissioner committed nothing! Does anyone recall this? I do I was that commisioner! This city needs a dam good lawsuit and I am ready if there is any attorney who wants to take this city to task for their actions. We should begin a RECALL petition immediately and change the Council when we get the chance to vote again! How many signatures will it take and why is not the District Attorney looking into charges over this? This to me appears to be a criminal act is it not?
We should have realized that the PTA flyer would be beginnings of Furey’s deceptive campaign. I encourage everyone to click on the link in the Daily Breeze article to read the Stipulations that everyone involved in the Furey campaign admitted to. The admissions would seem to indicate that Mr. Furey exceeded the Torrance campaign donation limit of $1,000 per election cycle. The question will be, what consequences will come for violating Torrance muncipal code?
And what are the implications to now an illegal contract given to McCormick. Furey needs to review the definition of ethical, definitely not him!
we should not forget what this cost GERBER $
Gerber had one client: The city.
Sorry, but that is just bad business.
We may not agree with how things went down with the campaign, but don’t blame Gerber going out of business on this.
If they were better at what they did, they would not be dependent on one client to keep them afloat.
Let’s not forget when Patrick Furey Senior was applying for a city commission many years back he was caught lying about his education. He blamed it on a Scribner’s Error. Yah right, he got caught. He should have been booted then.
I will be protesting at the city council this Tuesday. We need Face-to-Face protests and actions. Complaining on Facebook is not enough!
Where are you speaking out against the mom now taking over jrs spot on personnel commission? I’ll be right there.
When will the rest of the City Council stand up and represent the citizens of Torrance? Heidi Ashcraft is the only member of the City Council with a spine strong enough to represent the people who elected her.
We understand that tyranny and retribution follows any opposition to Mayor Furey as he and his goons intimidate the remaining councilmembers (some of whom are receiving pension benefits from Torrance). But these weak Councilmembers are failing the people of Torrance with their silence.
Where is the PTA leadership in speaking out against the fraud that was committed with the false endorsement message sent out by the Mayor’s son on behalf of the campaign?
The truth is that where there is fraud in the City of Torrance, you can usually find a Furey.
I left a comment regarding the FPPC’s fines to Furey. The comments included a reference to the fines imposed by the FPPC against Patrick Furey. I meant to state the fines exceed $17,000, much larger than the $1,000 fine mentioned in my comment. So, while the original comment is still a true statement, the typographical error was misleading, in that the fines imposed were much greater. I attempted to edit the comment, but it had already been posted. My apologies
Linda, thank you for being courageous enough to speak out on this issue. I know it wasn’t easy for you to do, but I thought your message at the Council meeting was very powerful and I hope more of the good citizens of Torrance are paying attention to what you have to say.
Kudos on requesting Furey’s resignation. I was not surprised that he declined. The City Council is “in bed” with Furey. They are culpable due to “looking the other way” and should be removed.
Unfortunately, the low information voter is the mainstay of Torrance electorate.
Jr resigned also from personnel commission. Guess who took his spot? His mom Terry.
Thank you for your kind statement, Clint. I must say it was nice to meet you for the first time at that meeting (although I forgot meeting you when you were campaigning a couple of years ago for City Council). Your statements to council that evening were just as powerful … I had not heard that quote from Ronald Regan before. I must say you left some powerful questions before the City Council to ponder as they move forward.
Pat Furey Senior has misled and even lied on his commission application for a Torrance City Commission back in 2005. Go to the minutes of 4-12-05 and see how he got caught lying about having a Bachelor’s Degree from UCLA. Too bad the video is has blanked out for the public to see when he got caught.
Go to this link and look at item 6D.
http://www.torranceca.gov/PDF/CC04122005_F.pdf
Here is where things presently stand regarding any action the City Council may take regarding the FPPC’s findings that Patrick Furey, Jr. violated the Fair Political Practices Act in his work on his father’s successful campaign to become our Mayor. Councilman Rizzo requested (and received) concurrence from the Council to request staff “bring back” an item regarding whether the Council should send Patrick Furey, Jr. a letter requesting his resignation from the commission in light of these violations. No firm date is presently set. As such, the public must “monitor” the weekly agendas (available no later than the day prior to each meeting) to see if that “item” has been placed on the agenda.
Thank you for the update.
You are welcome. Further COUNCIL UPDATE: On Tuesday, April 5, 2016, The City Council will consider whether to send a letter to Patrick Furey, requesting his resignation from the Traffic Commission. I believe It is Item 12A on the agenda.
For all those interested in the City Council’s consideration of whether to remove Patrick Furey, Jr. from his position on the Traffic Commission, the Council will hear this matter on Tuesday, April 12, 2016.
OMFG! While Arthur Shiteface promotes and supports his buddies lies and illegal activities – that’s really frickin rich. It’s flecks like him who move into Torrance/California and ruin it for locals and everyone! Go crawl back into your hole!