Tom Harman’s campaign donations, ethics questioned

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- City Councilman Tom Harman helped kill a

redevelopment project after receiving campaign contributions from

opponents of the plan, public records show.

Before a critical vote by the City Council in November, Harman, who is

running for a state Assembly seat, accepted more than $2,000 from two

businessmen who operate in the Holly-Seacliff industrial area, according

to campaign statements filed Jan. 7.

Cleaning up the 105-acre site, which houses oil wells and dilapidated

warehouses, was considered a top priority by the council. But at a

meeting Nov. 19, the council changed its mind, voting 5-2 (Mayor Dave

Garofalo and Councilwoman Pam Julien dissenting) to drop the plan from

its “major projects list.”

“We’re getting a lot of complaints from people who purchased homes

nearby,” said Gus Duran, the city’s housing and redevelopment manager.

“They don’t like to see the area as rundown as it is.”

Although a majority of the council agreed with him, Harman was the only

one who spoke against the redevelopment of the area, bounded by

Goldenwest Street, Ellis Avenue, Main Street and Yorktown Avenue. He said

the city was meeting with enough resistance on other projects, and he

didn’t want to add more controversy.

Duran doesn’t buy that excuse.

“Everything in Huntington Beach is controversial,” he said.

Less than a week before the vote, Harman’s campaign statements show a

$1,725 contribution from John Thomas, who owns an oil production facility

in the targeted area. Thomas had not given money to Harman’s Assembly

campaign until then, records show. Harman, who considers himself an

environmentalist, accepted the money even though Thomas is under

investigation for allegedly dumping oil in the Bolsa Chica, possibly

endangering wildlife in the sensitive habitat, said Orange County Deputy

Dist. Atty. Lance Jensen.

Before he voted, Harman did not disclose Thomas’ contribution, nor did he

mention a $500 donation he accepted two days earlier from a company that

recycles tires in the area.

Harman points out that the law doesn’t require him to abstain from voting

or even to disclose the source of political contributions he receives

before voting. He justifies his conduct by saying the country’s entire

political system runs on “tremendous” contributions from “special

interest groups.”

“It’s a very common practice,” he said. “We just have to deal with that.”

The owner of Ecology Tires Inc., Mike Ramsey, said the money could have

made a difference.

“Maybe it got his attention to go ahead and listen to me,” he said.

While Harman can’t personally benefit from votes he takes as a council

member, he can vote in ways that benefit his contributors, said Jim Knox,

executive director of the California chapter of Common Cause, a

nationwide public interest group that tracks abuses of power by

government officials.

“Unfortunately, that’s not against the law,” he said.

But that doesn’t make it right, he added.

The “broken” political system needs fixing “so elected officials are

accountable to taxpayers instead of their campaign contributors,” he

said.

Knox suggests that political campaigns be publicly funded.