Three years after the 2014 Torrance City Council election and a year ahead of the next one, former Councilman Tom Brewer was fined $757 this week for failing to properly disclose three campaign payments.
After a 14-month-long investigation instigated by a complaint from Mayor Pat Furey, the Fair Political Practices Commission signed off on the penalty at its Thursday meeting. The commission noted that it “found no evidence of intent to conceal.”
The fines of $219, $290 and $248 were for the failure of Brewer’s unsuccessful 2014 mayoral campaign to disclose three payments totaling $15,803.17 to subvendors from July 2013 to June 2014, the state’s political watchdog said.
“You have to wonder why it took him two years to discover that and file a complaint,” Brewer said. “The campaign was over.”
Furey, who defeated Brewer and fellow Councilman Bill Sutherland in a three-way race to succeed the termed-out Frank Scotto, did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Brewer said he had believed his political consultant was responsible for ensuring paperwork was filled out correctly and, when he found out that had not occurred, he “fixed” the paperwork issue immediately.
Brewer declined to speculate on Furey’s motives and whether the complaint was payback for some perceived slight during the 2014 campaign or the opening salvo of next year’s campaign.
But Brewer’s run-in with the FPPC pales in comparison to that of Furey.
His campaign, orchestrated by his political consultant son Patrick Furey, was fined $35,000 by the FPPC for deliberately hiding illegal campaign contributions in the wake of the last election.
The illegal campaign contributions were connected to a supposedly independent political action committee funded by McCormick Ambulance and Torrance firefighters.
McCormick later won the city’s lucrative ambulance contract, with Furey casting the deciding vote.
But the FPPC said it found evidence of coordination between the two separate campaigns.
In all, the FPPC found eight violations of state law. The expenditures also violated the city’s code because the contributions that gave Furey’s campaign “an unfair advantage” over other candidates exceeded the city’s $1,000 local limit.
Furey’s son also was previously fined $1,750 by the FPPC in April 2014 for his role in creating a slate mailer for his father that many in the community found deceptive.
Neither Brewer nor Sutherland — or for that matter Scotto — have said publicly whether they will challenge Furey next year. Those decisions are likely to be made public about July, a move intended to reduce the amount of paperwork that must be filed when a campaign gets underway.
The formerly collegial relationship between Furey and the trio largely evaporated amid bitter campaign animus.
Brewer and Sutherland, both moderate Republicans, split the local GOP vote in 2014. That enabled Furey, a Democrat, to win.
Next time around, local Republicans are hoping leading contenders in the mayoral race don’t split the vote again.
Two political unknowns — Ron Riggs and Norman Sais — already have filed paperwork with the city indicating they intend to challenge Furey, who also is seeking re-election.
