Torrance City Council – A Town Hall Style Conversation About Local Politics

Recently ousted Library Commissioner, Arthur Plourde, is now pursuing legal action against Torrance for defamation of character.  He claims that the City made several false allegations against him in order to justify his removal from the volunteer position. Those false allegations were subsequently circulated widely in the community through social media and an article in the Daily Breeze. Plourde believes this negative exposure slandered his character and unjustly harmed his reputation.

The City accused Plourde of advocating a personal agenda thereby exceeding the scope of his duties. This allegation appeared to stem from a March Library Commission meeting. In reference to Plourde’s behavior that day, the City staff report stated that Plourde “gave a speech” about how President Roosevelt declared English the language of this country and how all people coming to this country need to learn English. The staff report also noted that when another commissioner asked what item on the agenda they were discussing that Plourde directed his comments to that commissioner and was “direct, loud, and used an accusatory tone” while “pounding his fists on the table.” The City also claimed that Plourde’s action resulted in the offended commissioner being “too upset to speak for the rest of the meeting.”

Plourde adamantly denies the City’s portrayal of his behavior. He claims he did not pound his fists on the table and that there were witnesses in attendance who will testify to that effect. He says he was only trying to offer his opinion based on his interpretation of the oath of office that he took to uphold the California Constitution. If guilty of anything, he believes it would be solely offering a perspective that his colleagues apparently did not agree with.

A newly released audio recording of the meeting would seem to corroborate Plourde’s version of events and may ultimately provide some of the evidence Plourde will need in order to prevail in a lawsuit.

During the meeting, there was a discussion about the changing mix of ethnic groups in the community and the desire to have more materials available in foreign languages to accommodate those groups. At one point, one commissioner wondered aloud if the City was addressing the needs of the community by not having more foreign language materials available. To that, the City Librarian commented that one of the long term needs was material in other languages. In reference to that need she stated, “We know we need to invest more … we need more money in international languages.”

That prompted the following response from Plourde provided in its entirety:

“The primary focus here in America is the English language.  The people coming to this nation in 1907 were welcomed by President Roosevelt and [he] stated clearly that he welcomes all immigrants, that our language in this country was English and that we had one flag and one flag only in this country and there would be no other flag flown in this country.  And this is a Presidential order and now we are drifting away from our American institutions and our heritage with respect to allowing these other languages to drift into our society and become primary languages instead of secondary languages.”

Plourde’s statement above barely totaled 40 seconds in length and he hardly spoke at all during the rest of the 90 minute meeting. His comments were succinct, on point, and relevant to the matter under discussion. Plourde did speak with conviction, but contrary to the staff report his comment did not appear directed at any one colleague in particular. In fact, he was actually interrupted toward the end of his thought by a colleague asking where they were on the minutes in what appeared as an attempt to cut him off. He did not state that everyone coming to this country should learn English, nor did it seem like his comments were overly loud or accusatory. The audio also does not reveal any obvious fist pounding sounds.

After Plourde’s comments, the meeting continued to proceed amicably and in a professional manner with all Commissioners continuing to speak at various times in contradiction to the staff report stating that one commissioner did not speak the rest of the meeting.

Plourde had no idea he had upset any of his colleagues until Mayor Furey called him in for a closed door meeting shortly before he was removed. At the meeting, he was told the Mayor had received complaints about his disruptive behavior at the March meeting and pins he wore on his suit, as is his custom, to his initial Library Commission meeting in February. Those pins included an American flag, the Marine flag, a pro-life pin, a 9/11 remembrance pin, a support the troops pin, and a support Israel pin. Plourde did not wear the pins to the meeting in March or his last commission meeting in April.

The relevant portion of the audio recording is provided below.

 

Recently released revenue figures from City Hall show that the Toyota Sports Complex generated $373,681 in field rental fees during its first year of operation. That number is well above the maximum projected revenue of $296K city staff had forecasted back in February 2014. Those revenue figures are offset, somewhat, by yearly maintenance costs of $220K budgeted by the City.  Still, the better than forecasted revenues must be a welcome sight for a City suffering from significant revenue hits of as much as $700K a month due to the ExxonMobil explosion and resultant shutdown of the local refinery.

In addition to revenue, the field provides other more difficult to measure benefits to the City. During his campaign for mayor, for example, then Councilmember Furey expressed hope that the fields would help Torrance become the “Williamsport” of youth soccer. Though Torrance has yet to rise to that level, the complex does attract many people from outside the city for practices and tournaments. The hope is that those people frequent Torrance businesses thereby contributing to the health of the local economy and sales tax revenue.

The completion of the sports complex was championed by longtime AYSO volunteer and former mayor Frank Scotto and was perhaps one of the signature accomplishments of his tenure. It cost upwards of $3.5 Million to build and represents a significant investment from the community.

Some community partners helped reduce the taxpayer burden that came with the hefty price tag by contributing to the cause. Just prior to announcing they were leaving town, for example, Toyota gave $500K for the naming rights to the facility. Other entities also contributed just over $100K in total to have their names represented on the donor wall. Of those, direct beneficiaries LA Galaxy and FRAM Soccer pitched in $10K a piece while Beach Futbol added $5K. Continental Development, ExxonMobil, Ferrari, Surf Management, Alcoa Fastening Systems, and Gerber Ambulance were among the others giving at least $5K.

The revenue boon is largely due to a small handful of organizations that have found a home at the complex. The current schedule for May-July 2015 shows that the soccer fields will primarily be used by only four organizations – LA Galaxy of the South Bay (which also operates an indoor soccer facility across the street), Beach Futbol Club, FRAM Soccer Club, and the LA Wolves. LA Galaxy, Beach Futbol, and FRAM Soccer each have the complex booked for approximately 10 hours a week, while the LA wolves, a local professional team, uses the field for about 4 hours a week.

Despite the better than expected revenue, the future operation of the Complex is not without its challenges for City officials. Based on the current bookings, it would appear that the facility is at risk of becoming the exclusive haven of expensive and selective club organizations like Beach Futbol and FRAM soccer that draw customers from the entire South Bay region. Should that occur, it might leave out Torrance based AYSO regions that primarily serve Torrance youth.

AYSO did utilize the fields during the past Fall and Winter seasons, but their continued participation is uncertain due to AYSO’s ability to afford the rental fee of $75 per hour (plus $15 per hour lighting fee) per field. Unlike club teams, the all-volunteer based AYSO, with their mantra of “everyone plays” is open to anyone and strives to keep costs low to enable more participation. Going forward, the City may have to balance greater revenues versus the desire to accommodate more locally based non-profits like AYSO that typically serve more Torrance residents.

The long term future of the facility is also still in question as the City leases the site from the Administrative Office of the Courts. That organization has a right to terminate the lease after 5 years from when the parties entered into the agreement.

 

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s council meeting Mayor Furey announced that they were planning on meeting with the Daily Breeze “to discuss a number of issues.”  That revelation came just hours after the Daily Breeze won journalism’s highest honor – the Pulitzer Prize.

With regard to the Pulitzer, the Daily Breeze Editorial Board released a statement noting that:

“The Pulitzer for the Breeze honors local reporting, which is fitting, since that’s what LANG [LA News Group] does best — watchdog reporting on a local level. While we are extremely honored by the prize, we are even happier that it draws attention to the work that drives us, the communities we care about and our commitment to them.

The Pulitzer is a win not just for this organization, but for communities in Southern California that deserve a good, honest government.”

Prior to mentioning the upcoming meeting with the Breeze, Mayor Furey joined Councilwoman Ashcraft in recognizing the Daily Breeze on the “well deserved” accomplishment. The congratulatory tone marked a stark contrast to how the Mayor has described Daily Breeze reporting in the past.

Indeed, in one of Furey’s first acts as Mayor he directed staff to prepare a solicitation for the next legal advertisement contract claiming that at least one additional publication, other than the current provider the Daily Breeze, had become qualified to meet the requirements.

In a separate council meeting, he publicly cautioned residents about the Daily Breeze exerting them to “consider the source” as the source in question was “generally incorrect.”  He then stated, “so don’t always believe everything you read.”

In another incident that came to light only a few months ago, Executive Editor and Vice President of LANG, Michael A. Anastasi, claimed that Mayor Furey met with a Managing Editor of the Daily Breeze and requested that local reporter Nick Green be removed from his current position. According to Anastasi, Furey then related that if Nick Green was not removed that he would no longer talk to the Daily Breeze. The absence of quotes from him in the local paper suggests Furey has lived up to that promise.

Interestingly, the Council recently took a strong stance against public officials having a personal agenda that goes beyond the scope of their duties when they removed Commissioner Arthur Plourde from his post.

Referring to that action Councilman Weideman commented that, “You can’t have a personal agenda and be a Commissioner, that’s not the purpose.” Councilman Griffiths echoed that thought by stating, “You have to take your personal feelings out of what is being addressed … you’re looking for the greater good of the community.”

How the Council would apply that same standard to the Mayor’s conduct with the Daily Breeze could prove fascinating. Is it within the scope of the Mayor’s duties, for example, to dictate job assignments to the Daily Breeze?

Furthermore, Plourde initially came under fire for advocating, perhaps too fervently, on behalf of an interpretation of California’s constitution he believed would restrict the libraries purchase of materials in foreign languages. With constitutional interpretation issues on the table, one might also wonder how the Council views the sacrosanct precept of the 1^st Amendment prohibiting the infringement of the freedom of the press and how that applies to Furey’s action with the Daily Breeze.

Whether the meeting leads to a thawing of what appears to have been a frosty relationship up to this point is yet to be seen, but at the very least the parties should not be bored due to a lack of issues to discuss.