Former candidate for Long Beach City Council is M.I.A.

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Progressive Values? William Francisco Grisolia - Equality

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   It’s been a week since Robert Garcia won the elections for the 1st District seat of the Long Beach City Council. His former opponent, controversial candidate Bill Grisolia is nowhere to be found.

            Grisolia dropped out of the race a week from the election. An email from his spokesperson cited medical issues as the reason “the Grisolia family is forced to suspend Bill’s campaign for the First Council District of Long Beach, effective immediately.”

The day before the announcement was made, an article about Grisolia’s “personal struggles” ran in the Long Beach Press-Telegram. An outgoing message on his cell phone said, “For health reasons, I am out of town,” according to a follow-up article in the Press-Telegram that ran the day he announced his decision.

During an interview just three days before he suspended his campaign, Grisolia said he was still confident about the upcoming elections for the 1st District seat, despite a recent DUI arrest, federal and state tax liens for his failed business, and the loss of two union endorsements,.

            “I’m working on my campaign plan with exact precision and diligence and with a lot of fun,” he said, while sipping red wine from a fast food beverage cup he brought into the restaurant with him.

            The former city council candidate said he aimed to fortify his plans to address what he believes are the most important issues in the city of Long Beach: protecting the environment, establishing a job creation program and revitalizing businesses on Pine Avenue. Grisolia elaborated on these plans at Gladstone’s in Long Beach, where he introduced two of his colleagues and advisors, the Hon. Dr. Drew Allbritten and Vernon Anderson, to each other for the first time. Grisolia said that he believed the people working with him on these separate issues should work together and pool their resources.

            “I’ve been scaring a lot of people lately because I’m a man with a mission,” he said.

            According to a slew of articles written about Grisolia in the Long Beach Press Telegram and the District Weekly, his mission wasn’t the only thing that had been scaring people.

            Grisolia’s DUI arrest in January and tax liens of around $170,000 (his restaurant, the Island Sunfish Grill, filed for bankruptcy in 2005) cost him endorsements from Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Both unions had since switched their support over to Grisolia’s competitor, former councilman Evan Braude.

            When asked to comment on these articles, Grisolia said that Press Telegram writer Paul Eakins, who wrote several of the news stories, “seems to have it out for me.”

            “There were also one or two factual inaccuracies in Paul Eakins’ articles about my DUI arrest,” Grisolia said.

            When Eakins was contacted to confirm if there were indeed factual errors in any of his articles, he replied yes and said he had written that Grisolia was arrested in Long Beach, when in fact, the arrest occurred in San Pedro.

            All the talk about controversy did not seem to dampen Grisolia’s spirits. He cracked jokes with his colleagues, laughed out loud and at one point during the meeting, got up and danced to the rock music playing in the background.

            “I’m a rocker, did you know that?” Grisolia asked, as he took a seat and flagged down the waiter. “I’m thirsty in this desert!” he said. The waiter left momentarily and returned with a glass of red wine for Grisolia.

            When asked about all the flak his associate is getting from the press, Allbritten chuckled and said, “Some of it is probably deserved. But it’s not fair.”

Allbritten is a former U.S. congressman who worked under the Reagan and Clinton administrations and is advising Grisolia on his jobs program, while Anderson is an environmentalist and working with Grisolia to protect the waters of Long Beach from illegal dumping.

            Grisolia’s cracked Blackberry buzzed and he briefly paused the meeting to make plans with the other party, who he was supposed to meet afterwards.

            “[I want to meet up] so we can talk about how you’re going to help me with the campaign,” Grisolia told his friend. “And because I like drinking with you.”

            “My challenge in the next two weeks is to let people know I’m a regular guy,” Grisolia said. “I make mistakes… If you’re perfect, vote for the other guy!”

            The city council candidate ended the discussion by getting up to take a smoke break. He smiled as he lit up his cigarette and said he wouldn’t stop until he got to congress.

            “I’m a risk taker… I’m a survivor,” Grisolia said, as he puffed on a Marlboro. “I’ve survived nearly everything; cancer…a divorce… I’m risk adverse.”

    To read the Press-Telegram article about Grisolia's personal and financial issues, click here.