Southwood HOA Candidates Forum
Candidates Forum at Anza Elementary
The six candidates for Torrance City Council appeared at Anza Elementary yesterday evening for a forum sponsored by the Southwood HOA. Below is a summary of the candidate responses to some of the questions asked.
Q. The Mayor has been critical of the Daily Breeze reporting. Do you share those concerns?
- Eng: Any elected official has a special relationship with the media. This is to be expected. I don’t see this as a particular issue.
- Herring: The public has an obligation to take what they read with a grain of salt and do their own investigation, but I am endorsed by the Daily Breeze and so I think they are doing an excellent job.
- Rizzo: It’s important to have multiple sources and perspectives. I have a concern with all media sources that you get the perspective of that individual reporter.
- Griffiths: It is important for the Council to share information with the media so people can understand what is going on in our City. To shy away from that completely is an oversight.
- Dagastino: The quality of the Daily Breeze has really been declining. They are publishing opinions rather than news or actual facts. When you try to get them to make corrections, it’s almost impossible to get them to print a retraction.
- Sheikh: It’s immature at this point to make any comments. We need more time to do more research and do our due diligence.
Sidenote: The relationship between Mayor Furey and the Daily Breeze can be fairly characterized as “hostile.” Mayor Furey has been sharply critical of the local paper and reporter Nick Green. He once attempted to have Nick Green removed from his position and recently referred to him as a “hatemonger.”
Q. Former Councilmembers have expressed concerns that the unions run the show in Torrance. Do they? Is too much union influence a concern?
- Eng: Collective bargaining is important. Historically unions have been very good, but they have been in decline so I am surprised anybody would think they wield too much power. I think in general it’s been a good balance.
- Herring: I don’t have an informed response to that. I respectfully pass. We should have a good relationship between City and Union leaders.
- Rizzo: Union members are important stakeholders. I don’t think they have the power that some people think they have, but they do have a place at the table.
- Griffiths: Unions do a great job representing all the different employee groups in our City, but there should be a line between their representation of their employees and their involvement in politics. The unions involvement in politics creates a dangerous conflict of interest that concerns me greatly.
- Dagastino: I believe in people’s right to collective bargaining. You have to work together to come to a decision. The unions have to work with the City Council.
- Sheikh: I have not heard that so I am going to pass on that question, but unions have done a good job and are an important element of the City.
Sidenote: With regard to this subject, former councilmember and mayoral candidate Bill Sutherland stated in an interview that, “The unions have a lot of power. They have more power than the Council has. You can’t do anything without them signing off on it.” Former Mayor Scotto echoed similar concerns in an article that appeared in the Daily Breeze shortly after the 2014 election. The public employee unions are a major player in Torrance elections giving thousands of dollars to their preferred candidates.
Q. How would you pay for needed street repairs and infrastructure improvements?
- Eng: The recession hurt the City, but it’s now turned around. I would like more polling of the population to identify what streets need to be fixed and in what order. It’s important that our streets look good.
- Herring: We should be more aggressive when it comes to our infrastructure. Look at the streetscape around Lomita and Crenshaw where they have new developments coming in. Why can’t that be all of Torrance? We must find ways in which to do this. I will make it priority.
- Rizzo: It is time to do these projects as the economy is improving and as our revenue is increasing. These things take time.
- Griffiths: Our facilities and infrastructure are aging. The recession hurt us as well as Exxon being offline, but with Exxon coming back that should help us. We are spending a large percentage of our capital budget on infrastructure.
- Dagastino: When I was in DC a few weeks ago we talked about how we could secure more grant funding for the City. We have to stay on top of our representatives in DC and Sacramento and aggressively pursue those grants.
- Sheikh: Spending on infrastructure will bring a good ROI to the City and its residents.
Side Commentary: Everybody agreed that more street improvements and infrastructure spending is needed, but nobody was able to articulate how they would pay for it with the possible exception of Dagastino who cited the need to capture more federal and state grants.
Q. What is your commitment to scrubbing the City’s budget to eliminate waste? How conservative will you be when it comes to spending our City’s funds?
- Eng: I think Torrance has done a very good job. I would like to see alternative budgets developed through the Planning Commission that give options on what to do if there is a shortfall or what to do if there is extra money. Torrance has a conservative budget.
- Herring: I would audit the various departments and see if there is any fat that could be cut.
- Rizzo: I used to handle the police department budget. Those budgets do get audited on a regular basis. This is a very conservative Council. We do spend our money wisely.
- Griffiths: I’ve been impressed with how City staff organizes their projects and how the City Manager determines what they will go forward with. We didn’t just willy nilly approve everything that was proposed by staff. I think we are being conservative and doing a really good job.
- Dagastino: My background is in finance. I have an MBA in quantitative analysis. I used to manage a billion dollar budget for American Airlines.
- Sheikh: We have to prioritize based on the needs of the City and the ROI.
Sidenote: The City operated at a deficit in several of the last fiscal years. With an uptick in projected revenues, however, the Council approved at the last Council meeting to set aside funds for several new annual expenditures such as fireworks ($75K), historic preservation ordinance ($169K), tree ordinance ($168K), increase of Torrance Cultural Arts Center donation ($60K increase bringing total to $168K), and Police Department Social Media Manager ($86K). While still voting yes to the budget, Councilwoman Ashcraft said she opposed the $75K expense for fireworks.
Q. What do you intend to do as a Councilmember to mitigate the risk to the community presented by the use of hydrofluoric acid (HF) at the refinery.
- Eng: I am the only scientist running for Council. I think the Council has missed a lot of opportunities dating back to 1989 by deffering to the experts and presuming they had to listen to what they said. Many of those experts like Norton engineering have a history of working for Exxon and so it’s hard to get an independent expert. I would like to see a refinery commission created made of non-oil industry people that are scientific and technical experts.
- Herring: I am the only candidate calling for an independent safety monitor to be hired and paid for by fines levied against Exxon. It’s important to restore the credibility gap we now have between the community and Exxon. HF is something that should not be used and we should work with local and state officials to eventually outlaw HF and find other safer additives to use.
- Rizzo: I have no opinion on HF yet. I am still waiting for the report to come back to determine whether there is a safer alternative. Until that report is completed, I can’t give a solid opinion.
- Griffiths: HF is a very dangerous chemical, but dangerous chemicals can be used safely and that is my goal to ensure HF is being used safely. There is a big misconception by a lot of people that we can just drain out the HF and replace it. That’s not true. It has to be redesigned for a different chemical process. It’s a very complex process. I am going to defer to the experts and will follow their recommendations on how to operate the refinery safely going forward.
- Dagastino: We should continue to explore alternatives and look to re-establish the Disaster Commission that was abolished about 4 years ago. We could also form an Ad-Hoc Committee of residents that could provide suggestions to the City Council.
- Sheikh: I would like to get an opinion from experts and then we should ensure the refinery abides by all laws and regulations.
Sidenote: Organizations like the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance continue to advocate for the refinery to stop using HF in its operations. One recent Facebook post from the organization criticized the Mayor and Council for their absence of a fighting spirit in the battle against HF and claimed that:
City elected representatives cower behind a slogan we hear repeatedly: “I’m not an expert. I will defer to the experts…There’s nothing the city can do.” Don’t ask for a city investigation, they advise. There are better ways to “handle” this problem. This is utter rubbish, meant to evade their responsibility as elected representatives of the public … Show some backbone, take a public stand and SPEAK UP!
When the city council campaign started I asked Leilani Kimmel-Dagostino if she was using Pat Furey Jr. to help her with her campaign. She said she was running her own campaign. She didn’t really answer my question about using Mr Furey Jr. though. In light of what has happened with Mr. Furey Jr. I looked at the financial statements available on the Torrance website. Leilani did write 2 checks to Liberty Campaign Solutions, LLC in 2014, totaling about $2,200 for campaign literature. She might be forgiven for using Mr. Furey Jr. then, because she may not have known about his current problems with the FPPC.
However, looking at her financial statement for the last 6 months for 2015 there are 2 payments for about $4,400 made to RFC Communications for campaign material. If you look up RFC Communications, you will see that they are a rebranding of Liberty Campaign Solutions. RFC and Liberty have the same P.O. box and phone number. Leilani can still say that she is running her campaign until you see her current financial statement for the first part of 2016. She has 3 separate payments to RFC for consulting totaling $3,000. She is using Mr. Furey Jr. to run her campaign. She also has 5 other checks totaling about $8,000 for campaign material.
I called out Leilani when I saw her posing with a Torrance fire fighter and Police officer who were both in uniform (meaning they were on duty) and she brushed it off. Considering that and the fact that she is using a campaign consultant that has serious ethical issues, I have to question her ethics as well.
Thank you for taking the time to report these Forums. Your writing is succinct and well organized.
Susan Hughes, nice digging. I had heard the same but didn’t research it. Leilani is a real piece of work who will say anything to get elected. Now on top of that she’s caught in yet another lie about her relationship with Jr.
Shame on her.
Good work, Susan. Leilani gives off this vibe of “used car salesperson”.
Given the candidate responses to the questions, I can understand why my local HOA had such a hard time committing to any of them.
It’s time to select who is going to do the LEAST damage to our city. I know we have better candidates.
Seems like this is information the public needs to know.
As you know Torrance City Council Candidate Leilani D’Agostino is using Patrick Furey Jr. as her consultant. Amid the controversy with the Furey family, Leilani has been getting a lot of pressure from supporters about her relationship with Jr. and many advised her to drop him.
Funny thing is that she is now stating that she is no longer using Jr. but interestingly enough the company name changed according to her most recent 460 filing, but both the address and phone number of this “New” consultant is still the same as Liberty Campaign Solutions.
Feel free to compare for yourself.
http://www.torranceca.gov/20148.htm
New company http://rfccommunications.com/contact-us/ Presumably owned by Patrick Furey Jr.
Old Company http://www.yellowpages.com/torrance-ca/mip/liberty-campaign-solutions-llc-475556929 Also presumably owned by Patrick Furey Jr.
Do what you want with the info, after all it’s public record.
SOS with Leilani.
She also removes legitimate, respectfully asked questions from her campaign Facebook page that she doesn’t like.
This is someone who wants to “represent” us. Sheesh.
or just blocks you so you can’t comment at all
Might be time for everybody to get a life. Starting to seem a bit obsessive at this point.
Says a coward who hides behind anonymity.
Spoken like a true couch potato activist. How come I’ve never seen you at anything that benefits our city? In fact, that question can go out to the blog owner and the rest of his fans. When are you going to get involved in making Torrance better instead of bitching about it or being obsessed with politics?
My mistake. An ignorant coward.
I’m sorry that people may think we’re obsessed about Leilani, but she is running to represent us on the city council. Her judgement is a critical issue for me and so far I think it is very poor. Mr. Furey Jr. Leilani’s consultant, has had 2 run-ins with the FPPC and has created a fake email account to mislead Torrance residents when he was running his father’s mayoral campaign. I hope the Furey family remembers that our mayor did not get the majority of the vote in 2014. As far as Anonymous is concerned, it is very easy to criticize the people in this discussion, but at least they are using their names. For that matter, I’ve seen almost all of these people at the forums, but I haven’t seen you. Oh that’s right, you are too afraid to use your name. As for Mr. Paulson, he has stepped up to run for the city council and the school board. Where were you. Oh yes being the Anonymous blogger that has nothing better to do than complain.
But let’s get back to Leilani. When I was looking at Leilani’s financial report for the first part of 2016, I noticed that the majority of donors that gave $1,000 were retired. Not only that, there were 3 families that were all retired and each member gave $1,000. After very little searching on the WWW, it seems that at least 3 donors do not appear to be retired. William Shopoff is President and Chief Executive Officer of Shopoff Realty Investments. John Santry also is listed on the Shopoff Realty Investments website as working for them. Finally, Daniel Oschin is Chief Operating Officer of Shopoff Realty Investments. What interest does Shopoff Reality have in Torrance? Why is Leilani covering up these donors’ true identity? It is a violation of the Fair Political Practices Act to falsely list the occupation of your donors. I guess she is learning from the Furey family how to be deceptive.
Candidates can only report what the donor provided as information. Rizzo got hit for something similar in 2014.
Well someone is lying here. Either way it is still a violation of the Fair Political Practices Act. It also calls into question why the donors are afraid to tell us what they really do. Shady Leilani, shady donors.
Showing up at “events that benefit our city” takes time and money. There is a ROI that has to be considered for the cost conscious. Don’t think for one minute that the ‘want’ is not there. — In fact, I would love to see exactly what the CoT benefit is (and for whoever puts on the event) for the various events that are held. Maybe that would entice the good citizens of our City to support the events that mean something to them. But I digress.
The fact that I do or do not attend is not the issue. I happen to volunteer my time for the benefit of the City, as you say. Sometimes it happens that I get to see those who are politically inclined at the various events. Remember, just talking to a candidate reveals a lot, so in that respect, going to the “events that benefit the City” will not guarantee any insight if you don’t get to talk to the candidates who are there also. In fact, the candidates seldom break from their circle of City Friends at events unless they are campaigning. And city events are not really a place to campaign, in my opinion. And I wouldn’t go to a city event for the purpose of looking for candidates to discuss our City’s issues.
For all those events all I *don’t* go to, I sure get a lot of people asking my opinion on who to vote for. So in response to your ‘couch potato activist’ comment: Bring it on. The ones that pay attention to the detail know which end is up. Reading the articles and comments on *all* the forums/blogs/pages is way more entertaining and educational than any conversation with someone who has no idea what the heck is going on. And to be able to enlighten someone on the finer point of Torrance’s political mayhem and have them respond ” I didn’t know that!” has way more meaning than being cornered by a political hack spewing memorized lines from a mailer that lies or denies the facts.
I guess the problem lies with the fact that Susan and Clint dig up inconvenient truths regarding Leilani and Jr.
D’Agostino has shown time and again she is not worthy of the voters’ trust. If another candidate had similar issues, those would be exposed as well.
I have a sneaking suspicion our “anonymous” troll is Jr. Same words and phrasing as the last time I caught him defending her dishonesty under a fake Facebook identity. (He quickly removed all posts, the the whole profile.)
Mike Moran – why attack anonymous posters? Only when they disagree with you. You never seem to call out any of the others.
This is a place where people sit and preach to the choir. And as soon as one of us disagrees, we are immediately personally attacked and accused of wrong doing.
Open forum indeed
Someone say you can’t post? If you don’t like it here, why do you care what anyone says?
Disagreement is fine; I’ll comment when I think it’s necessary and I have time, agree/disagree, name or not. You apparently know what I look like, since you say you haven’t “seen me” at anything you consider beneficial. I do plenty, thank you.
But you have me at a disadvantage, since I have no real idea who you are, and for some reason you’re afraid to identify yourself.
Your call, but it’s hard to take someone seriously who shows no backbone.
Leilani is also spineless, and unethical to boot, then flat-out lies about it numerous times. She brags about her endorsements, as any politician would, but she claims to be a conservative while crowing about Maxine and Al. She could not get the endorsement of the TLRA, where she has been a member for many, many years. And boy does she love her unions. Blecchh.
Eng is a one-issue guy.
Sheikh doesn’t seem to have spent any time informing himself.
Oh, and one last thought, Mr. Anonymous Chicken: although many liberals can’t seem to wrap their heads around this, you are not entitled to your own facts. So “disagreeing” with what was written earlier is pretty silly, since arguing against statements of fact just shows total ignorance of reality.
Immediately I’m a “liberal,” and the partisan attacks begin. Even though you have no idea my political leanings. Gotta love extremists.
LOL. That was not much of a reach. You disdain facts, go on the defensive, and label me an “extremist”.
Whatever. You’re a waste of my time.
Ok, Mike Moron. Whatever you say. Lol
My goodness, aren’t we the clever one. Good thing you had help coming up with that one!
It just fits so well. You should marry Clint so he can share your last name lol
I didn’t realize we had junior high kids on this blog.
Marry, me Clint?
So for the adults, the points made here by several of us are that Dagostino should not be elected to our city council. She is a liar on many counts and is not to be trusted.
I don’t know her personally; she may well be a very nice person. But I’d rather vote for an honest person with whom I disagree than a liar who happens to be an otherwise terrific person.
Lol you say you don’t even know her? And yet you accuse her of being a liar? Have you even tried speaking with her like an adult?
Jr., go play with your Power Rangers.
Does it get old attacking the wrong person every time somebody posts? Would it be better if I just assumed you were somebody else too every time you post?
Right, Tommy B?
This all reeks of micro-aggression and false outrage. Rizzo is working with Jim Freeman, who is under investigation for HUGE campaign finance fraud where he literally ran the candidate and his independent expenditure from his office. Griffiths is working with Steve Samarco, who as a Redondo Beach City Councilmember has violated the Brown Act on at least three occasions and is under investigation. And lets not get started on all of the candidates who have used Tom Shortridge over the years (including the past Mayor, Griffiths in 2014 and many more)… he is a convicted child sex offender. Took pictures of little girls and got caught doing it.
So… where is your outrage with all of these candidates and their consultants? Oh… that’s right. They aren’t related to the Democrat Mayor. Got it.
Mr. Anonymous:
Citations would be greatly appreciated.
Do the research. I’m sure Clint will look into it all, as he is such a fair journalist and this is obviously news to you all.
Anonymous,
I’m not on here to field your snarky remarks. I am only after the sources from which you quote the information you put out there. I, like others visit a variety of sites and are more than able to form an opinion when presented with factual, verifiable, material.
It’s all in their campaign finance reports. And the fppc can verify the investigation into the Santa Clara Sheriff’s race in 2014.
Thanks to all those that have commented on this thread. I have followed it with great interest. It’s true that I am obsessed with Torrance politics. Why? Because I love this City I call home. While there is a lot of positive happening, I do believe this City can and should be better. To borrow a quote that I believe applies to Torrance. “It’s time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few.” The few have dominated and benefited from Torrance City Government for far too long. It’s time for a change, but only the voters can choose leaders that will truly represent all of Torrance and not a few politically well connected special interests.
To the Anonymous poster I would say, you may not be Patrick Furey Jr. but from what I know of him you sure sound like him. Instead of taking responsibility you deflect accountability by belittling others and spreading lies. Torrance will never get where it needs to be as long as it is being led by people with that kind of ethics. For a reference to what I am talking about just read Furey Jr.’s resignation letter from the Traffic Commission. Torrance deserves better.
Silly me. I thought the freebie about the child molester helping Griffiths (and Scotto and Brewer and Sutherland and Lee) in the past would be a freebie for a sleuth like you. Funny thing is the Daily Breeze didn’t do anything with the story either…
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/apr/06/local/me-47737
I worked on Mayor Scotto’s campaign in 2006 and I know he did not use Tom Shortridge for his campaign. He worked with the same consultant that Sutherland and Brewer used and none of them used Shortridge. Good thing you are Anonymous, because your comments border on slander.
“Child molester” is a very strong term for what this guy did, provided that the Easy Reader article from 2001 is factual.
He likes to remain anonymous Susan, to avoid any accountability whatsoever.
I, for one, will not engage with a coward anymore. He’s on a par with… naa, never mind, not worth the time.
http://archive.easyreadernews.com/archives/news2001/0621/rb%20Shortridge.php