City Hall News : ARCADIA : Official’s Carwash Cleans City’s Fleet

A carwash business owned by an Arcadia councilman seeking reelection Tuesday has received more than $40,000 from the city in his last four years of office for cleaning the city’s fleet of cars, city records show. Fasching’s Car Wash, owned by George Fasching, reportedly netted $41,743 while he was on the council.

The councilman voted four times to approve a vehicle maintenance budget that included cleaning of city cars and vans at his own facility. The city attorney said although conflict of interest is not a crime, he will advise that if Fasching is reelected, the councilman should abstain from voting on the issue in the city budget.

Fasching’s defenders said that his carwash is the only one in town and that the business cleaned the city’s cars for several years before Fasching was elected. But the councilman’s critics pointed to a new carwash on the Arcadia/Temple City border, which is not getting the city’s business.

Fasching said his carwash has cleaned the city’s cars for 12 to 14 years and that he gives the city a discount of $2.25 per vehicle because it buys blocks of tickets. “I do a favor for the city,” he said.