Newsletter No. 81
- jeanadelsman4
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
For everyone trying to determine whom to vote for, the candidate forums are worth putting on your calendar.
Here are the remaining ones:
April 13. Mayor and City Treasurer. Southwood HOA and West Torance HOA.
7 p.m. Bert Lynn Middle School, 5038 Halison St.
April 20. Mayor and City Treasurer. Hillside Neighborhood Assn.
7 p.m. Alta Loma Park Meeting Room, 26126 Delos Drive.
April 23. Mayor, City Treasurer, Council Districts 1, 3, 5. Torrance League of Women Voters.
6:30 p.m. Toyota Meeting Hall, 3330 Civic Center Dr.
If you missed the earlier ones, here’s the good news: You can go online and hear the candidates for yourselves.
The Torrance Chamber of Commerce didn’t record its first forum for the Council district seats, but thanks go to Chris Truman who recorded and posted its session with the mayoral and treasurer candidates: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5YiOAvE0E&ra=m
The North Torrance Neighborhood Assn.’s District 1 and 3 candidates forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etAn38SqV1c
North Torrance’s treasurer candidates forum:
North Torrance’s mayoral forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ulI6FB8MtA
The Riviera Homeowners Assn.-Seaside Neighborhood Assn. had a technical glitch at the very beginning, so viewers will miss Michelle Brooks and Betty Lieu’s two-minute introductory remarks. This forum featured the candidates for District 5, treasurer and mayor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soc7N2d3LBc
My takeaways:
I have watched all the forums so far, and these are my key takeaways:
George Chen kept pushing Friendship Cities as a program that would make Torrance a player internationally. He reiterated all the accomplishments he credits himself for on his campaign literature – actions done by City staffers without any effort from him.
He is still making a case for annexing El Camino Village, El Camino College and Alondra Park.
At the RHA-SNA session, he was asked an airport question and reminded residents that he had voted for the pilots and against District 5 residents’ interests in 2025.
When asked at the North Torrance forum about an unpopular decision, he talked about his rejection of a Pride Month proclamation.
Even though he only had a minute to answer, he stepped into a self-created hole and then kept digging. At no point, could he bring himself to say the words gay, homosexual or queer.
The audience literally gasped when he said, “I work with people who are that way, too.”
Sharon Kalani won each of the forums.
At the end of most forums, there is polite applause when all the speakers have given their concluding remarks. At North Torrance, the room enthusiastically responded when she finished.
Kalani pointed to Friendship Cities as a disaster because, according to staff reports, it has brought in zero dollars. The annexation program was ripped as a budget killer to the tune of hundreds of millions.
As she talked about her work, her descriptions made it clear that these were hers – and not others’ – accomplishments. The more Chen stumbled, the more Kalani appeared to soar.
My Assessment: Kalani will pull an upset along the lines of Council member Frank Scotto’s win against Mayor Dan Walker.
Mike Griffiths made a case that with his extensive business background paired with his understanding of City finances he should get the votes for treasurer.
Aurelio Mattucci repeatedly put the job of treasurer down and said he will rely on AI to oversee the City's investments. Then he insisted they were all qualified and it would be a popularity contest. He repeated his claims about “actively managing a $50 million portfolio with 20 employees.”
My question: If Mattucci has such a responsible job, why is he paid only $50,000 a year (www.TakeBackTorrance. Newsletter No. 76)?
Charles Deemer is the perennial candidate who has never won. On paper, his business background would appear to make him a viable candidate. In person, at the two forums where he spoke, he made a reasonable case for himself.
But his attention to details appears to be problematic. He wasn’t onstage at the RHA-SNA forum. In an email, RHA Vice President Catherine Modesitt explained: “Unfortunately, Treasurer Candidate Charles Deemer did not respond to the RHA’s invitation to attend the Forum.” She then included Deemer’s statement detailing his background.
My Assessment: Griffiths will win in a landslide because he consistently makes the case that he is the best candidate.
Betty Lieu showed with almost every answer that living in Torrance for 25 years, being active in PTA, serving on City commissions and getting elected to the Torrance Unified School Board make her the most knowledgeable candidate of the three.
Michelle Brooks has a problem – she has only lived in Torrance for the last three years and has not had any community involvement.
That didn’t bother Chen when he asked her to be part of his slate. He sees her as his fourth vote.
Brooks proudly says she is the only candidate born and raised in Torrance. However, the lack of understanding of district concerns was evident in her vague answers. But she is a polished speaker.
In neither of her forums so far has she talked about being a lobbyist. She also spent 17 years after college in the Peace Corps administrative offices and clearly has held responsible positions. But she ended both forums’ discussions with no mention of her work life for the last 21 years.
Harry Ward tells voters they should vote for him because he is a combat veteran, a doctor, a father, a grandfather and a husband. But his answers to questions made Brooks sound knowledgeable.
My Assessment: Lieu also will win in a landslide because she comes to the seat best-prepared and not part of the Chen slate.
Jon Kaji is using the Chen playbook: Friendship Cities are good, and the annexation project should be approved. When asked how long he has lived in District 1, he answered five years. That would mean he had moved from his Rancho Palos Verdes home in 2021, but he only rented his North Torrance home in January 2022. And by now most people are talking about how he doesn’t actually live here.
David Kartsonis is Kaji’s worst nightmare: Someone who not only owns a home in the district but who also is up to date on all the issues and consistently challenges Kaji’s misstatements.
Usually at forums, incumbents have the advantage over any challengers because they are better-versed on every issue. Not in this case. Kartsonis was able to answer knowledgeably every question he received at both of his forums.
My Assessment: When Walker lost 20 years ago, he took Mike Mauno, his closest ally with him. Based on how these forums are going, Kaji could suffer Mauno’s fate.
Asam Sheikh wore his incumbent’s advantage well in both of his forums. He answered all his questions without a stumble, and he clearly had the audiences with him.
Mike Mauno has been on the Council, but he lost his seat 20 years ago and has not kept as current as he should have. When asked about Metro trains coming to Torrance, he pled ignorance. People gasped.
But that’s not where he really lost the audience. He repeatedly violated forum rules in an attempt to take Sheikh down (Newsletter No. 79).
My Assessment: Mauno did not repeat his Sheikh claims at the Chamber forum, but that wasn’t recorded and few of those attendees live in District 3. He lost the homeowners audience, and these are voters who are likely to talk to their neighbors about Mauno’s flaunting forum rules to not mention opponents.
Mauno’s slander campaign:
Mauno is showing his desperation in his race to beat Sheikh.
As I mentioned above, Mauno’s attempts to muddy Sheikh at the first forum didn’t work. The audience wasn’t buying it, and he was smart enough to realize he had lost them to Sheikh. At the end of the forum, as the candidates were standing up, Mauno whispered to Sheikh that he was going to make sure “a certain matter” got out.
Sheikh knew the slander that Mauno was hinting at because of the so-far unsuccessful moves by Mauno’s people to plant a story that Sheikh was guilty of elder abuse.
It had started with an anonymous complaint to the FPPC that Sheikh had absconded with an elderly neighbor’s home when he died. Usually the FPPC takes months, even years, to investigate charges, but it expedited this case.
Its finding: no truth to the charge.
If the FPPC case had lingered, Mauno could have smeared Sheikh by saying he was being investigated by the FPPC.
So, Mauno’s people reached out to Barbara Ohno, a Torrance commissioner on Aging, and told her a series of untruths that alarmed her enough to speak during City Council Orals earlier this year.
Mauno’s people had hoped for social media to pick it up and speculate which Council member Ohno had been referring to. But social media appeared uninterested.
At the April 7 Council Orals, an unidentified man read a list of elder-abuse accusations he claimed Sheikh had done.
Before Orals ended, Sheikh defended himself by saying, “My opponent and the five people who have endorsed him know he cannot win the election based on the facts or merit. So, now what they’re doing is basically resorting to an ugly campaign. My opponent’s campaign is working with someone who attempted elder financial exploitation to obtain my former neighbor’s home. Because I gave aid and comfort to my neighbor, which helped prevent him from losing his home, this individual is seeking revenge against me for thwarting that individual’s plan. This is the kind of person my opponent is working with.”
When I had heard Ohno’s statement, I immediately looked into it. In my fact gathering, I learned she was referring to the late John Fleming, a longtime neighbor of the Sheikh family.
As one of my sources told me, “The John Fleming I knew loved the Sheikh family, and they loved him back.”
I won’t go into the details of the situation, except to say that it is sad when a parent and child become estranged and that none of the claims made on April 7 are true.
What is true: Mauno’s fingerprints are all over this.
I predict two things:
1. The Chen PAC will create a flyer calling Sheikh an elder abuser.
2. It will blow up in Mauno’s face, and he will once again lose.
Mauno ran for City Council successfully in 2002. He ran and lost in 2000, 2006 and 2008.
Good government candidates worth funding:
Ballots will be mailed out starting May 4, so there is still time to donate to these five:
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
Feel free to share this email -- or tell friends about www.TakeBackTorrance.com. And if you email a response to jeanadelsman@yahoo.com, please indicate whether you are expressing a thought for my eyes only or whether I may share your comments with the whole audience.
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