Fireworks at Council meeting
Mattucci's wasteful post
Chen's re-election problem
Torrance the Beautiful
The main item on the City Council’s Feb. 25 agenda seemed innocuous: The Council was asked to slim down the number of its committees by combining the two dealing with state and federal legislative issues.
That’s the kind of thing that, at first glance, elicits a yawn. But this was an attempted power grab, and it generated fireworks and apologies from the City staff.
In the end, the measure was voted down 4 (District 2’s Bridgett Lewis, District 3’s Asam Sheikh, District 4’s Sharon Kalani and District 6’s Jeremy Gerson ) to 3 (Mayor George Chen, District 1’s Jon Kaji and District 5’s Aurelio Mattucci).
Before the vote, the four no voters called out Chen for overstepping, and the Council received promises of future transparency from the City Manager’s staff.
If you missed the meeting, it’s worth watching: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqqoXbMgWyI&t=610s. For Item 10A, scroll to the 2:14:51 mark.
But if you don’t have the time to watch, here are the key issues and points made.
The problem started in late 2024 when Chen arranged to have Kaji, Mattucci and himself meet in Washington in early 2025 with Pentagon officials to discuss the Armed Forces Parade.
However, Kalani, a member of the parade committee, wasn’t told the meeting was scheduled. And that was not the only session Chen arranged without informing the other Council members.
It came out in Facebook posts with the three sharing photos and commentaries about City business they had conducted. The news was a surprise to their colleagues who expressed their anger at the Feb. 25 meeting. Gerson pointed out the trio had done things not authorized by the Council.
Assistant City Manager Danny Santana apologized to the Council for not having kept them informed and promised more transparency. As did City Manager Aram Chaparyan, who said, “All your comments are taken to heart.”
By now, you might be thinking: The agenda item was about paring down committees, so what does the Trip Gone Wrong have to do with that?
Just everything!
For some time, Chen has been overstepping the bounds of his mayoral authority by pushing staff. The Council only hires the city manager and the city attorney, but he, Kaji and Mattucci have evidently been pressuring staff to do things beyond the scope of their elected offices.
Some have said this was behind Finance Director Sheila Poisson’s decision to leave her post, that she grew tired of their inappropriate involvement.
Chen has also pushed for things that he didn’t want anyone to know he was behind.
Remember his decision to discontinue the Pride Month proclamation? As mayor, that’s his prerogative. But he was upset that Chaparyan had told City employees that Chen had eliminated it.
And the move to consolidate the committees was a textbook example. This time, however, the four opposing the proposal pulled back the curtain and exposed how he operates.
Carlos Huizar, who is on Chaparyan’s staff, made the standard presentation without indicating whose idea the committee consolidation had been.
When Lewis directly asked Chen where the idea originated, Chen implied it was staff. Chaparyan adroitly didn’t pin it on Chen, but if you parsed his response, it was clear Chen had asked for it. Then Chen tried to explain without ever admitting his role. As often happens, the more he talked, the more it became clear he just didn’t want to accept responsibility for the idea.
It also soon became obvious Chen wasn’t going to get his wish to have Kaji, Mattucci and himself take total control of all City business involving state and federal issues and dollars. But the Good Government 4 weren’t done with him. They wanted to make it clear to the public what was wrong with his concept.
Kalani said: “We can have more eyes on things that are important to us.” She pointed out that having two committees “builds a bench for the Council.”
The current two committees have overlapping memberships with Chen and Kaji being on both and Sheikh on the state committee and Mattucci on the federal one. In the consolidated version, Chen planned to drop Sheikh in favor of Mattucci. Both work, but Chen in a non-sequitur said he had considered whether it was fair to ask a Council member with a job to serve on a committee.
That caused Gerson to point out that the support for Council pay increases had been justified because they would help ensure working people could participate.
Going forward, the next issue to watch will be the Chen-Kaji-Mattucci push to annex the El Camino Village area, and whether the Good Government 4 will thwart him again.
Mattucci’s wasteful post:
“Identifying frivolous, wasteful, and unnecessary Government Spending is something we should all support. After all, it’s our money they’re spending (the taxpayers),” Mattucci posted on his Facebook page. (The parenthetical comment was his.)
After seeing that and then his self-congratulatory Facebook posts on the Washington visit, Katrina Hetrick commented:
“It is so ballsy of him to post this one day and then just a couple days later post a photo from his hotel room in DC with a view of the Capitol building, presumably funded by us, the taxpayers. Not sure I can think of a more frivolous, wasteful, and unnecessary expenditure for Torrance than sending this man to embarrass us on a national scale instead of just a local one.”
Chen’s first re-election post:
The piece managed to do things: Break the law and rewrite history.
It started with a picture of Torrance City Hall – his mugshot is embedded in the building’s top two stories. Torrance candidates are not allowed to use City structures in campaign material.
Then the verbiage began with his taking credit for the change in the City’s financial health. He neglected to mention that he campaigned against the sales-tax increase that took the City back from the brink of bankruptcy.
Torrance the Beautiful:
The Torrance Environmental Quality and Energy Conservation Commission will give out 15 landscape awards in June, and the nomination period ends March 31. One award recognizes exceptional landscaping while the other focuses on water conservation.
Each Council district will have two winners with three honorable mentions from anywhere in the city. The prizes: a certificate, a yard sign and a gift card to a home-improvement store.
For more information, contact the Neighborhood Services Division of the Community Development Department at (310) 618-5929 or at DDInfo@TorranceCA.Gov. Put “2025 Torrance Beautification Awards” in the subject line.
Before I go:
New Horizons residents got a shoutout from Gerson in oral communications. He applauded their diligence in dealing with a tagging problem. He ended his comments by saying he hopes something can be done for the residents because they need rent relief.
The Public Works Department has added March 29 to its free e-waste recycling and paper shredding. For locations and limits, go to https://www.torranceca.gov/our-city/public-works/household-hazardous-and-electronic-waste.
The City’s deadline for correspondence to be included in the Council’s pre-meeting public supplemental is 5:30 p.m. the Monday before the meeting. The Council will receive anything that comes in later before the meeting, but it won’t be posted until Wednesday. It will be at the top of the agenda. You can also leave voicemails to be included as Oral Communications in the supplemental. Call 310-618-2404 to leave up to a two-minute recording that will be transcribed. Voicemails have the same deadlines as the emails.
Want to tell the City Council your opinion on an agenda item or address any concerns? Send it to CityCouncil@torranceca.gov; in the subject line put the agenda item or the topic. The City has changed how to have your comments appear in an agenda item’s Staff Report. You should use the OneMeeting Public Portal at https://torranceca.primegov.com/public/portal?fromiframe=true.
Jean Adelsman
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