Newsletter No. 69

/ Chen’s slate comes together

/ Mauno’s up to his old tricks

/ Chen and Kaji illegal meetings?

/ Resuscitating El Camino Village push

/ Friendship Cities strike out

/ Tony Yeh not giving up

The lineup for the June 2026 Torrance elections is coming into focus, and the potential results rest in three possibilities: Good, Bad or Ugly.

Let’s look at them – but not in order:

The Ugly:

Mayor George Chen and District 1’s Jon Kaji not only win re-election, but they also bring on board the other two members of their slate: Mike Mauno who is running to oust District 3’s Asam Sheikh and Michelle Brooks who wants to succeed a termed-out Aurelio Mattucci in District 5.

To add insult to injury, Mattucci wins his treasurer race.

The Bad:

Chen keeps his office but fails to get a fourth vote because either Kaji or Mauno or Brooks loses. Or perhaps even fewer votes. That means, for the next two years, he will continue not to have full control of his Council.

However, he will still be able to make mischief – such as the expensive Friendship Cities debacle. That’s bad but not ugly because he will continue to have guard rails provided by the council members whose votes keep him in line most of the time.

The Good:

District 4’s Sharon Kalani becomes mayor, and Chen goes down in history as the city’s worst mayor ever. What would make her victory even sweeter: Kaji, Mauno and Brooks also lose.  And the cherry on the sundae: Mattucci loses his city paycheck.

Chen’s slate:

If there was any doubt that Chen, Kaji, Mauno, Brooks and Mattucci are marching in lockstep, a look at the mayor’s most recent campaign photo shows they are supporting him and vice-versa.

Almost 50 people surround him while Kaji, sitting in the front row, holds a Chen campaign sign. Seated alongside Kaji are Mauno, Mattucci and Brooks.

Mauno up to his old tricks:

Voters booted Mauno from the Council in 2006. Because campaigns were still citywide, he was able to run again in 2008. Voters again said no to him. But he appears to hope that – 18 years later – people no longer remember his disastrous first term.

Unfortunately, back then, meetings weren’t recorded for YouTube. If they had been, voters could now listen to his bumbling discourses. I remember one time when Hope Witkowsky, his Council friend, said she didn’t understand what he was trying to say. Mauno had started to make a pitch for one thing, then rambled, and ended up talking against the issue he originally supported.

Future newsletters will take other strolls down memory lane, but here is Mauno’s latest foray:

It starts about a year ago.

Kaji, who had been telling people privately that he wanted to oust Sheik, identified Mauno as the candidate to do that. Mauno also had Chen’s support but not much voter recognition. They needed something for him to promote his name.

Then the Homekey+ project was announced, and – voila! – they had their campaign. They would let Mauno appear to lead the fight against turning District 3’s problematic extended-stay hotel into housing for people who want off the streets.

The City did not want the plan to go forward for various reasons and prepared a series of staff reports to make the argument against it.

Mauno jumped on the bandwagon by starting a Google site called C.A.R.E. Torrance, and he posted a 37-page document outlining why Homekey+ should be scuttled. Mauno had taken the City’s reports and claimed them as his own work.

When the project’s organizers withdrew their request, Mauno immediately claimed that his work was responsible.

Needless to say, the people who did the real heavy lifting were not happy with Mauno.

How much of the report was Mauno’s work? Well, when I was teaching journalism at USC, I would have compared his report to the City’s and flunked him for plagiarism.

Making the comparison normally would have been time-consuming, but AI makes it comparatively easy for anyone with the needed  tech skills. My thanks to the resident who ran the two documents through an AI program that pointed out all the City-written material Mauno took credit for.

Its assessment: Mauno’s “report is either word-for-word or very close to this formal opposition letter.”

That didn’t stop the Torrance Police Officers Assn. from posting a meme of “hero” Mauno floating over a grave labeled Homekey+ and flashing the victory sign.

Appropriating someone else’s words and work and calling it your own won’t get you arrested, but it surely doesn’t make you a “hero.”

Illegal meetings?

People working in City Hall saw Mauno in closed-door meetings with Chen and Kaji and wondered what was going on. When Mauno blasted his anti-Homekey+ campaign, they put two and two together.



It would be interesting to hear the three explain what they were talking about. Conversations on City property would be illegal the moment they had any links to Mauno’s council campaign.

Resuscitating El Camino Village annexation:

Taking over El Camino Village has been a pet project of Chen, Kaji and Mattucci.

Everyone thought it was dead until the City started getting letters from residents requesting the project. Reportedly, Chen and Kaji, behind the scenes, are asking their supporters to write in with the hope they can use the supposed interest to reopen the discussion.

A Friendship Cities strike out:

Friendship Cities started as another Chen pet project with strong support from Kaji and Mattucci. It was supposed to cost $35,000 for its first year and was supposed to be a business engine to bring new Asian companies to Torrance.

Instead, it is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars with little positive results to report.

The latest problem were some well-meaning baseball games with Asian school teams playing Torrance teams. It was a nice idea, but it was sold on the basis that it wouldn’t cost the City anything.

Kaji, who loves baseball so much that he skipped a Council meeting with an important budget item, promised that donations would subsidize the expenses.

It turns out the City had to absorb all the expenses. Chen and Kaji had said 310 BASEBALL would handle the underwriting because the IRS considers it a 501(c)3 organization. That allows people and organizations to take tax deductions for their contributions.

However, 310 BASEBALL no longer has that IRS rating. Consequently, Skechers, Honda and other companies declined to contribute the tens of thousands of dollars the City was left responsible for.

Tony Yeh isn’t giving up:

On July 22 Yeh sent the Council and some staff members an email complaining that he had been passed over for Planning Commission chair for the second time. The email went into detail and specifically asked that it be included in the City’s official correspondence and that his issue become an agenda item.

His request was too late to be considered for the July 22 agenda. However, it hasn't appeared on either of the August agendas. 

The mayor, who supported Yeh for a City council seat in 2024, has the power to put it on the agenda but reportedly has no interest in doing that. He has privately said he is finding Yeh's behavior during Planning Commission meetings embarrassing.

Before I go: 

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? 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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