It’s official: Hermosa Beach Councilman Patrick “Kit” Bobko lives in Hermosa Beach.
In late August 2010, retired firefighter Paul Hawkins called upon county prosecutors to probe whether the two-term councilman lives within the city, as he must to hold his elective office.
Dave Demerjian, head deputy in the Public Integrity Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, has responded with an email telling Hawkins that Bobko is legal.
“The Public Integrity Division has concluded its review of your allegation that Hermosa Beach City Council member Patrick Bobko does not reside in the city,” Demerjian wrote. “Based on a review of official records and several weeks of surveillance we are satisfied that Mr. Bobko has established a domicile within the City of Hermosa Beach.”
In an interview, Demerjian declined to elaborate on details of the investigation, but said such probes typically involve reviews of public records, interviews, surveillance and “good old-fashioned police work.”
In August, when Hawkins made his allegations to prosecutors and City Hall, Bobko called the contentions “a joke” and offered reporters a tour of his 19th Street apartment.
Fellow Councilman Michael DiVirgilio said he had been to the apartment several times.
“I’ve seen it being lived in,” DiVirgilio said at the time, “papers here, dishes there, books lying around.”
This week, Bobko reiterated that he believes the allegations were “character assassination” and traced them to his debates with the Hermosa Beach Firefighters Association, of which Hawkins is a past president.
“It’s shameful and it’s disappointing,” Bobko said.
Bobko has joined other council members pushing for a two-tiered pension system that would reduce benefits for new city employees, and has sharply criticized a lawsuit by the police and firefighters associations aimed at the way the pension plan is being pursued.
“I’ve never once said anything about anybody [in the firefighters and police associations] personally – in fact, they are great guys,” Bobko said. “But we can’t afford to pay them what they are getting paid any more.”
Bobko referred to the Sherlock Holmes story “Silver Blaze” as he complained that the police and fire associations did not publicly distance themselves from Hawkins’ allegations.
In the short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes surveys a crime scene and directs attention to “the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.” Another character objects that the dog did nothing in the nighttime, and Holmes replies, “That was the curious incident.”
Just as the dog was notable for his silence during a crime, the police and fire associations were notable for their silence, Bobko said.
In an August 2010 email Hawkins, a decorated, 30-year firefighter, told City Manager Steve Burrell that police officers did not find Bobko at the apartment when they deliver city correspondence to him as part of their duties, and the apartment appeared unoccupied.
“Every police officer I’ve spoken to who has been tasked with delivering city correspondence, several times a month, to his residence of record has said the 19th Street apartment appears unoccupied,” Hawkins wrote at the time.
“Mail is stacked behind the screen door and nobody ever answers the door. Myself and my co-workers have never seen a light on in the apartment when returning from calls at night,” Hawkins wrote.
Bobko said he works long hours as a municipal attorney and often is away early in the morning and late at night.
“It’s disturbing to me that they check to see if the lights are on in my apartment, but that’s life in the big city,” Bobko said.
“Friends have told me they think [Bobko] lives” at a Torrance address, Hawkins wrote.
“And if this allegation is true, every opinion expressed and every vote cast by Mr. Bobko that was harmful to wages and benefits of city employees would warrant a legal remedy,” Hawkins wrote.
“If you don’t think this is a blood sport on the local level, you’re wrong,” Bobko said. ER
