Third term for Mattucci?
PACs unregulatable?
Trump flag on City website
Mobile-home rent relief on table
The more I learn about what is and isn’t in Measure TC the more I am baffled that this mess made it onto the ballot with all its issues.
In case you are just beginning to research the material for the Nov. 5 election, Torrance’s Measure TC was put on the ballot ostensibly to clean up the City Charter’s outdated language, change the employment status of the city manager and city attorney, give the mayor and council members hefty pay raises and put controls on PACs.
It also may give District 5’s Aurelio Mattucci and District 4’s Sharon Kalani a chance for third terms because of dated language inadvertently left in.
When voters approved term limits many years ago, there was a paragraph that allowed everyone then serving to have that considered a first term so they could run for re-election when that term ended.
In updating the charter, whoever was editing the section failed to remove that sentence. A lawyer spotted it, ran it by fellow lawyers who agreed it would allow those two council members to have third terms if they wanted to run for their seats again.
If you are still researching how you should vote on Measure TC, here are some sources:
Go to www.TakeBackTorrance.com, and look at Newsletters No. 54, 55, 56, 57 and 58.
Check out the “Mayor Pat Furey” account on Facebook. Furey does an excellent job of highlighting the problems with the measure, and he offers up a direct link to a red-line version of the charter update. Here’s another way to find the red-line document: Go to https://www.torranceca.gov/government/city-clerk/election-information, and click on the second item on the page.
The Los Angeles Times did a good story on the measure; to read it, go to
The Daily Breeze finally printed a credible story on the issue: https://enewspaper.dailybreeze.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=05d80aac-eaaa-46b3-98d7-6efd9a1123a2&share=true
Possible problem with regulating PACs:
A number of people have told me they dislike the pay raises for the council and mayor but they plan to vote for Measure TC because of its limiting PACs spending.
However, we are now hearing that it’s possible Torrance won’t be able to enforce the regulation. So, call in the lawyers.
If it is enforceable but the measure fails, the City Council could pass the ceiling on PACs. It doesn’t need to be in the Charter. The current $1,000 per-person limit for campaign donations was passed by the Council without needing a vote of the residents.
FYI, Furey discovered that the campaign financing was dropped from the Code. Another example of sloppy editing in the Charter for Measure TC.
No saluting Trump flag:
As flooded as my inbox has been with residents furious about Measure TC, it was equally overwhelmed by readers upset with the City’s videocam located in Rocket Ship Park. Chris Martin was the first to alert me to the issue: Evidently the camera had been focused on a scene that included an American flag. No problem there. But Martin saw that a huge Trump flag had replaced the original flag. Readers were asking how to get the flag out of the camera’s frame.
Martin decided to enter the feedback section on the City’s live stream.
“Johnny Romo, Interactive Communications officer from the Office of the City Manager, got back to me within an hour on a Saturday afternoon,” Martin said. “I was really impressed. He had the camera orientation moved and followed up with an email after he verified this morning that the flag was out of the frame. What a great guy!”
Historic moment:
The Torrance Historical Society, which is housed in the City’s former main library, finally got a lease – it had been operating on a month-to-month arrangement since its inception in 1973. The City agreed to 20 years at $1 a year.
As THS President Michelle Polcari put it: “You can’t put a price on history.”
Hope for Skyline residents:
Torrance’s mobile-home owners cheered District 6’s Jeremy Gerson when he took up the issue that has been bedeviling them: While California caps rent increases at 5 percent, the residents of Torrance’s Skyline Mobile Home Park lack those protections.
Gerson read into the record 16 increases ranging from 12 to 16 percent. His fellow council members agreed to have City staff put on the agenda a space rent-stabilization ordinance for mobile home parks.
Look for it to happen in November.
How late was it?:
The Oct. 22 meeting adjourned at 10:17 p.m., a reasonable time.
Before I go:
Marking your ballot and looking for help with the state props? Check out https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2024/propositions/.
The City’s deadline for correspondence to be included in the Council’s pre-meeting public supplemental is now 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. If you also want your comments to appear in an agenda item’s Staff Report, send it as well to CouncilMeetingPublicComment@torranceca.gov.
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.
I agree, Measure TC just seems to be a weird mish mash of unrelated things.