Uncle Sham

Okay. But while regurgitating the facts to support this ruling, McGee got them all wrong—suggesting that Garofalo had disclosed his relationship to the bank. The fact that he hadn't done so before the crucial Wal-Mart votes was precisely the point of Newman's original complaint to the agency.

Calls to Sacramento to point this out were greeted with whiny explanations about how overworked and underfunded the FPPC office and its staff are. When we pushed the point, FPPC media director Sigrid Bathen took the easy way out, closing the conversation by claiming she "couldn't discuss the details of the investigation"—even though that investigation had been closed for more than a month. Newman has filed a second complaint. The FPPC has failed to respond to the Weekly's May 15 California Public Records Act request for documents related to the investigation.

EPILOGUE On June 19, Garofalo delivered a three-minute speech during a regular City Council meeting, pledging that he would divest himself of the publishing business that had spawned so many conflict-of-interest charges.

The following morning, we visited his office at The Local News. Garofalo wasn't there, but his son Kevin, who sells ads for his dad's paper, was.

We identified ourselves as Weekly reporters and asked if The Local Newswas going out of business. We asked what Garofalo meant by the word "divest." We asked when we might be able to speak to his dad. Visibly agitated, Kevin Garofalo said he couldn't answer our questions, couldn't help us out, couldn't refer us to anyone, but that we should have a nice day.

Dave Garofalo never did call us back, but he did call the police from his office at City Hall, saying a couple of Weekly reporters were at his office harassing his employees. His employees? He'd just announced he had divested.

We later learned that Kevin had called his dad. Kevin confirmed that two uniformed officers showed up at The Local News office shortly after our exit.

Apparently, Garofalo really is finally getting tired of being the center of attention. Too bad it's too late.