by Kevin Cody
Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce President Jessica Accamando, and her wife, Ashley Tull, have filed a libel lawsuit against Hermosa Beach residents Matt McCool and Kent Allen, seeking unspecified damages.
McCool, a business consultant, and former Hermosa Beach Emergency Preparedness Commissoner, has been publicly critical of Accamando in her role as Chamber President since his unsuccessful run for Hermosa Beach City Council in 2022. He plans to run for council a third time in November, he said.
Allen is a retired construction engineer, and former three term member of the Hermosa Planning Commision. He has been publicly critical of Accamando since she was named Chamber President in February 2021.
Their criticisms of Accamando have frequently appeared on Advocates for Hermosa, a Facebook page the two are administrators of.
Last Thursday, May 16, Accamando posted on her personal Facebook page, “…. my wife Ashley Tull and I have become increasingly invested in Hermosa Beach and we’re proud of our contributions over the last several years….”
“Unfortunately, our efforts in the community have garnered undesired attention from a couple of residents/part-time residents who post, comment, and harass us on social media, in person, and at City Council meetings….”
“…these individuals do not choose civil discourse. And have often taken to spewing hatred — most notably anti-LGBTQIA comments….”
“Why are we telling the public this? Because we want the community of Hermosa to know that this hatred exists within our borders and is felt most often by those of us in minority communities…. for any woman or queer person who wants to get involved in Hermosa, we want to be sure that we as a community band together to protect the people who care for and invest so much in this community.”
The lawsuit traces the social media attacks back to September 2021, when “Notch Johnson,” a pseudonym, posted the following on the Advocates for Hermosa Facebook page:
“A real Chamber of Commerce would be a good start, instead of some
blue-haired lady that takes orders from the City Manager….. Maybe next year we can upgrade to
putting a special needs chimp in charge of Fiesta?”
The suit also recounts a statement by McCool at the October 11 Hermosa Council Meeting, in which he states, ” … the Chamber of Commerce is embezzling money. I will put out the details on Advocates for Hermosa Facebook … tomorrow morning.”
On or about September 1, 2023, the suit states, Allen posted the following on Advocates for Hermosa: “Back in the day when the tips were given to local charities and did not disappear!” … “Word around town, the [Fiesta Hermosa] beer garden manager [Tull] has sticky fingers with the tip bucket.”
The suit further alleges that on or about February 15, 2024, Allen “posted a private invoice from Plaintiff Tull to the Chamber that included her private banking information.” The post was accompanied by the following comment, according to the suit: “Chamber President’s highest paid ‘Volunteer’ at Fiesta Hermosa? You guessed it, none other than her spouse, Ashley Tull. $50.00 an hour to pick up snacks and do what…”
On or about April, 2024, the suit states, “Notch Johnson” posted: “Ok, so maybe Chamber leadership is corrupt, incompetent, and embezzles our money and wouldn’t exist without DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion]. But let’s not be Debbie Downers and look at their achievements: they canceled NYE, canceled Labor Day Fiesta, paid off one of their own $1,900 to ‘volunteer,’ painted [lifeguard] Tower 13 gay/tranny, and brought us transvestites reading to kids for Pride month. So much public service! Are they the Chamber for Hermosa or for Hermosa LGBTQ^&*+!?”
The Accamando/Tull suit contends, “Plaintiffs did not embezzle funds from the Chamber, did not commit any financial improprieties…. The posts are libelous on its face.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Tull suffered financial damages because she was “terminated” from her job with NuVoodoo Media Services, as a result of allegations by McCool and Allen.
“Plaintiff Tull suffered direct financial harm because clients of NuVoodoo Media Services who saw the disparaging posts by Defendants Allen, McCool and Does 1 through 25…acted in reliance on the statements.”
The intent of McCool’s and Allen’s criticisms was “to harass Plaintiffs so that Plaintiffs would be so intimidated and fearful and result in Plaintiff Accamando to surrender her position at the chamber,” the suit states.
Accamando announced her resignation as Chamber President in early May, though she is continuing in that position while the chamber board searches for her replacement.
McCool, in an interview this week, traced his conflict with Accamando to the 2022 Hermosa Beach City Council race. He said he was the only candidate not invited to participate in a candidates forum hosted by the Hermosa Beach Residents’ Forum Facebook page, which Accamando had been an administrator of.
“I understand politics is a contact sport. But I was trashed on the site and I was blocked from responding,” he said.
McCool characterized his accusing Accamando of embezzlement as “hyperbole.”
“I later softened the accusation to ‘financial impropriety,’” he said.
Allen dates back his embattlement with Accamando to her appointment as chamber president in February 2021.
“I thought she would take the chamber in the wrong direction. I posted a gravestone with the words RIP Chamber. Jessica asked me to take it down. I said no,” Allen said in an interview this week.
“As time progressed, she began pushing her gay agenda. I didn’t think that was the responsibility of the chamber. But any time you are against her, you’re accused of being homophobic,” Allen said.
Allen said he opposed Accamando’s support for painting the 13th Street beach lifeguard tower in the Pride colors, but not because he is anti gay.
“I wouldn’t support painting lifeguard towers green for the Irish. I protested the city allowing Bud Light’s name being on volleyball nets when I was on the planning commission… I think the beach should be free of politics and advertising,” he said.
As evidence of Accamando’s financial impropriety with chamber money, both McCool and Allen cite a January 2024 letter to the Hermosa City Council by former chamber board member Andrea Jacobsson.
The 2,000 word letter to the Hermosa Beach City Council alleges a range of financial practices by the Chamber, from payments for services to board members to inaccurate financial reports to government agencies.
Jacobsson served on the Chamber Board for 10 years, and was the board’s first female chairperson.
She and her husband owned Jama Auto House, a used car dealership on Pacific Coast Highway. She served as its office manager for over three decades, until it closed last year upon her husband’s death in 2021.
“In early 2022, I began expressing concern to the Executive Committee about undisclosed and unapproved financial transactions between various Board Members, our Executive Director, and the Chamber,” Jacobsson wrote to the Council.
Her requests for the Chamber’s financial records, she said, “were met with resistance, and shortly thereafter I was removed from the Board…. After failed attempts to be peacefully reinstated, I contacted an attorney and was quickly reinstated. Thereafter, I spent the next three to six months gaining access to the financial details of the Chamber…”
Among her findings, she said, was $160,863 paid to board members and chamber insiders for services delivered between late 2021 and 2023.
The majority of these payments were to Fiesta Beer Garden vendors who were also board members, Jacobsson wrote.
Over the three year period, Hermosa Brewing Company, co-owed by Chamber Board Chairperson Dave Davis received $42,730. Chamber Board Member Kathy Knoll’s Uncorked wine store received $22,659. And then-Chamber Board Member Tim Shea’s The Brews Hall received $31,436.
Jacobsson’s letter to the Council also questioned the propriety of $20,729 paid to NuVoodoo Media Services.
“In 2021, Jessica Accamando hired NuVoodoo Media Services for marketing services without Board approval and made payments on behalf of the Chamber via wire transfers, and payment on her Chamber credit card. Jessica Accamando had recently worked for NuVoodoo Media and her spouse, Ashley Tull, was hired by NuVoodoo to do work for the Chamber.”
(The lawsuit filed against McCool and Allen states, “Plaintiff Tull was employed by NuVoodoo Media from August 2021 through January 2023. While Plaintiff Tull was employed, NuVoodoo Media was retained to provide contract work for the Chamber for two separate events in September 2021 and May 2022. After Plaintiff Tull was disassociated from NuVoodoo Media, she contracted individually with the Chamber to provide event production for a couple events with the Chamber.)
Jacobsson, in her letter to the council, said the Chamber paid Tull $3,570 in 2022 for Fiesta Hermosa services.
Jacobsson also wrote in her Council letter that the Chamber made payments totaling $23,158 to Bridget Prendergast, of Creative Fish Studio, for Chamber work between 2021 and 2023. According to the company’s website, “Creative Fish Studio is owned and operated by superwomen Jessica Accamando and Bridget Prendergast. Two old pals tackling branding for over a decade.”
Jacobsson also contended in her letter to the Council, that the Chamber’s tax returns and Federal Payroll Protection Plan foregivness application were inaccurate.
The chamber’s 2021 and 2022 tax returns stated it owed no sales taxes. Jacobbsson said the chamber owed “approximately $50,000” in sales tax, which it paid following a CDTFA (California Department of Tax and Fee Administration) investigation.
The Chamber’s application for Payroll Protection Money forgiveness, appears similarly flawed, Jacobsson contends in her letter to the Council.
Companies that used PPP money for payroll and payroll related expenses during the pandemic could have the loans forgiven.
The Chamber received $31,487 in PPP money between February 9, 2021 and July 26, 2021, according to the Chamber’s forgiveness application.
The forgiveness application signed by Accamando states the Chamber payroll during this period was $25,000. Following submission of the application, the loan was forgiven, Jacobsson said.
Disbursement of the PPP loan on February 9, 2021 coincided with the week Accamando was named Chamber President. But she was hired as an independent contractor, not a payroll employee.
PPP recipients were not eligible for reimbursement for independent contractors.
Chamber Board Chairperson Dave Davis and Chamber Finance Chair Seth Weiss refuted Jacobsson’s allegation of financial improprieties by the chamber in an interview on Tuesday. They noted that Jacobsson was the Chamber Board Chairperson when Accamando was hired in 2021 as an independent contractor.
When the chamber’s accountant advised them Accamando must be reclassified as an employee, the Chamber had to retroactively pay her withholding taxes, and Accamando had to refile her tax returns.
Doing so qualified the Chamber for PPP forgiveness, Weiss said.
Davis and a partner opened Hermosa Brewing Co. in 2018 at the corner of Hermosa Avenue and 14th Street. Weiss has owned the Underground Bar since 2009 and opened Fox and Farrow restaurant in 202, upstairs from Hermosa Brewing Co.
“We spent the better part of every board meeting in 2022 addressing Jacobsson’s concerns. We had a three hour board meeting at the start of 2023 with our lawyers and accountants about her complaints. The board was unanimous, with her being the one exception, in agreeing nothing nefarious had been done,” Davis said. The Chamber Board is composed of 15 members, who must live, own a business, or work in Hermosa.
Davis and Weiss acknowledged the Chamber paid approximately $50,000 in back sales taxes, primarily for the beer sold at the Fiesta Hermosas and the 2023 OctoberFest.
But they noted that laws regarding non profits and sales tax are a gray area.
“Non profits generally don’t pay sales taxes on fundraisers. The Chamber is a non-profit and the beer sales were a fundraiser,” Weiss said.
They similarly disputed that the Chamber’s contracting with chamber member businesses was inappropriate.
“One of the functions of the Chamber is to help its businesses. And the work members do for the chamber is often discounted,” Weiss said.
NuVoodoo owner Russ Gilbert, Accamando’s former employer, responded to a request for comment on this story with an email showing his charges to the chamber were substantially less than his usual rates.
Davis, in response to questions about his company’s beer sales to the chamber for Fiesta Hermosa and the OctoberFest, said, “I get 30 requests a year to serve beer at charity events, and I can only afford to do a few. I get $7 a pour on beers I serve at my restaurant, which is many multiples of what I get selling kegs to charities. When brewers do events like the Fiestas, it’s for marketing,” he said.
He said the chamber had difficulty finding local craft brewers willing to participate in the Fiesta beer gardens and OctoberFest.
He also noted he and the other chamber members who sold beer at the chamber events recused themselves on votes involving the beer agreements. The agreements were uniform for all brewers, he added.
Weiss said the chamber shift from serving exclusively Anheuser-Busch beers to serving local craft beers was part of Accamando’s vision to make chamber events more popular with residents.
He said Fiesta vendors, like time-share sales, were eliminated in favor of more local artists, local musicians, and kids rides.
“Residents told us they’d leave town during the fiestas. Now the Fiesta is popular again with residents,” Weiss said.
The two said the Chamber is not involved in Accamando’s and Tull’s lawsuit but are supportive of the couple’s decision to sue. The chamber agreed to pay $10,000 for the couple to obtain a restraining order against McCool and Allen, according to other sources.
“The chamber has an obligation to protect its employees. We support them in taking the steps they deem necessary to halt years of ongoing harassment, derogatory slurs and libel,” Davis said. ER
