Torrance resident Patsy Okada has filed a complaint with the FPPC in connection with Jean Adelsman’s recall effort against Torrance City Councilman and City Treasurer candidate Aurelio Mattucci.
This is a significant development, since the FPPC receives between 1,000 and 2,000 complaints each year. Patsy’s complaint was accepted!
I received the following text message from Patsy, which she had received from Bob Habel, one of the Torrance Parks and Recreation Commissioners, who organized the failed recall effort against Torrance City Councilman Jon Kaji:
Here’s the full message, if you cannot read the text in the picture:
Thanks [sic] you. The names will not appear in the Breeze because we are just going to scare him into that we are going to recall him. After we gather the necessary signatures, we turn them into the city clerk, she verifies that they are valid. Then we can pay someone to serve him that he is being recalled.That is where it ends. Names and addresses will not appear in the paper. It’s not going to go that far. Once he is served, he will know that District 1 people are not happy with him. There is no lawyer with the Kaji recall. I don’t know who Jean is using for the Mattucci recall.
So, the Kaji recall effort was a hoax.
What about the Mattucci recall?
Patsy shared the following with me:
[T]he proponent who submitted the recall to the city clerk wasn’t Jean Adelsman. I found that out from Rebecca but Jean Adelsman was the director of the recall. My complaint was 99% from Jean Adelsman’s newsletters. But in the newsletters Jean asked for donations for the recall. FPPC jurisdiction is money involved in an election/recall.Â
In case anyone has forgotten, Jean Adelsman was one of the key organizers of the Mattucci recall. She asked for donations!
She was the biggest cheerleader, outlining all the reasons why Mattucci “needed” to be recalled.
She did have a considerable role in the recall effort:
A few personal points: I am No. 39 out of the 60. If the recall succeeds, I will not seek the seat. I ran in 2022 because, at that moment, no one else was prepared to oppose Mattucci. Some excellent candidates have already indicated that they would be available to fill the seat in 2024. I am neither chair nor treasurer. I am serving as the committee’s communications director.Â
She frequently promoted the donation links for the recall effort, too.
Was the Mattucci effort just another bluff? If so, why raise money for it? If the circulators had no intention of actually collecting enough signatures to put a recall measure on the ballot, why fundraise?
Pasty shared with me:
I got the financial disclosure for this recall and I used it as an exhibit. The treasurer of the recall is Evelyn Smith, and Marilyn Bailey is the state measure proponent. Also, Jean was interviewed by the Daily Breeze when the recall ended . The reporter asked her how many signatures were collected, and she wouldn’t answer. I gave that as an exhibit.
YIKES!