Election 2018 Update: Torrance Mayor's Race

The City of Torrance is at a crossroads.

On the one hand, the quality of life is still good, and business is booming. The roads are looking better, probably since that terrible gas tax was forced on all of us and now municipalities can justify paving their roads, I guess, because more money (?) is flowing in.

The city of Torrance remains a great place to live, in spite of the corrupt shenanigans of Mayor Pat Furey. I love living in the city of Torrance, and I have no regrets or major quality of life qualms about living there.

On the other hand, there are major issues rising on the horizon:

1. The pension and benefits liabilities are massive. At this point, $1 out of every four in the budget is going to a retiree, and most of them do not live in the city anymore. The redistributionist element of this move is not putting money into the local economy, as some collectivists would allege.

The costs of running the city are getting bigger, no doubt.

2. Public safety. I don't worry about well-being or security where I live, but more people have suffered burglaries and break-ins. The crime rate is a concern in the city of Torrance.

3. The "Clean Streets" program. More residents are up in arms about this new ticketing system, as more people have to get their cars off the streets at set times. The new street sweeping program is raking in at least $1 million a year, even though the program was supposed to be revenue neutral. What's up?!

4. Zoning ordinances, Historic District of Downtown Torrance. It was a sad day when I saw the city council decide to impose new rules and strictures on homeowners in the "Historic Section" of the city. The council went along with the Historical Society's interest in preserving the quality and character of the neighborhood.

So, property rights mean nothing in the vain pursuit of hometown history? Most of the homes in the region are old, not necessarily historic. If any ordinance needed to be imposed, the beginning enforcement period should have begun with home purchases after the passage of the ordinance.

The city council chose to impose a compromise ordinance on planning commission projects in the Historic District, but that still is not right.

5. Garbage tax increase. Why can't the city live within its means? Why raise taxes on anyone?

6. Corruption. Mayor Pat Furey violated campaign finance laws by colluding with the McCormick Ambulance contract. He was the key vote which terminated the contract with Gerber, a Torrance-based ambulance firm. He was fined $35,000, even though he protested that he did not pay a penny.

He also played the race card against me, Joseph Turner, and others who have fought against illegal immigration and want to stop the undermining attacks on our nation's sovereignty. He felt compelled to write some apology letter to every mayor in Los Angeles County. Not sure by what authority he has a right to apologize to anyone on behalf of anyone else who exercises their First Amendment rights. If the rule of law and the natural rights of American citizens are so offensive to him, then he needs to step down as mayor, since he doesn't want to honor or uphold his oath of office.

7. Big Green Agenda, Agenda 21. Tim Goodrich, the anti-war veteran, is still pushing the Community Choice Aggregation scheme, and it looks like the city is going further down that pathway. The city voted to continue participating in SBCOG, even though these un-elected shadow governments have no right to exist, and there is no accountability for them to be there in the first place.

8. Rule of law issues. The city attorney is frequently faces conflicts of interests, and has not prosecuted municipal code violations against the city council. The statute of limitations elapsed against Mayor Furey following the FPPC fine and dust-up which occurred shortly after the McCormick Contract debacle. Where is the rule of law here? Is the city council now above the law? Let's not forget, either, that the beekeeper ordinance has established that one objection to an apiary was supposed to mean a rejection of the permit.

9. The Torrance Refinery. Yes, the refinery, the big gas-maker which, in the opinion of all the fearful greenies, is going to explode and kill everyone within a twenty-mile radius. Blah, Blah, Blah. I have never felt safer, and the truth is that it's a diligent, anti-growth, anti-carbon agenda

Yet the city waived that clear-cut requirement in their own ordinance. Such lawlessness cannot continue unchecked.

So, who's running in the Torrance Mayor's race so far?

Yes, I live in Pat's head rent-free.

1. Evil, Crooked Pat Furey, who should be in a jail cell. This man reeks of an embittered arrogance which bothers many people. There are men and women in the city of Torrance who are as liberal as I am conservative, but they want Pat Furey gone because he is corrupt, enabling the labor unions to have everything and make everyone else pay for it.

2. Ron Riggs, a real estate agent, advisor, with a lot of money, but little else. He is not as well-connected to the inner workings of the community, but he is keenly interested in shaking things up in the city of Torrance. He has a number of business and other community contacts, of course, and has raised money, too. He has energy, and he is an outside voice, but he seems more hot air than ballast and balance.

3. Tom Brewer, whom I liken to low-energy Jeb Bush. He is very much an establishment candidate at this point. He served on the Torrance City Council for 8 years, and he has commensurate experience to run the city. Yet at the same time he isn't committed to changing much of the city's culture of spending and accommodating basic interests in the city. I supported Tom Brewer for mayor in 2014, and so did the Daily Breeze. He took a serious stance on dealing with the labor unions and reining in the pension and liability debt looming over the city.

I have a feeling that the Daily Breeze will endorse Tom Brewer for mayor–again, in part because left-wing journalist Nick Green has written one glaring hit piece after another against the mayor. Don't get me wrong. I am glad that he has gone after Furey with fury, and of course he has smeared conservatives, too.

So far, this election is ho-hum. I don't want Furey in office again, but the two candidates running against him are bound to cancel each other out and hand another victory to the incumbent. The public integrity and corruption issues have not excited enough outrage or interest from the public, it seems. The quality of life issues are on course.

One of the two candidates needs to step out of the race, and then ensure that there is one candidate who can grab the ongoing discontent with the city leadership and challenge Furey. Besides the fact that he is a progressive Leftist more interested in shaming his opposition and critical citizens in general

I wish that there was more excitement from the city to do something about the excessive pensions, benefits, etc swallowing the city whole, but nothing has come forward. It looks like there are too many people who are not paying attention, and because of that, we may see a replay of 2014, where all the elected officials get re-elected, and the nicest candidates are the ones who win any open seats.

Except this time around, there are no open seats at all. Gosh, can't we get this race into gear or what? Please, Torrance, we can do better for our mayorship than what we have now!