HUNTINGTON BEACH : Planner Says Politics Played Role in Ouster

Planning Commissioner Kirk Kirkland said Wednesday that he was fired by Mayor Jim Silva because his “anti-business attitude” would be a liability in the mayor’s upcoming bid for reelection.

Silva reportedly was in Sacramento on city business and could not be reached for comment.

Kirkland, 62, broker and real estate company owner, denied he has an anti-business attitude. He said Silva broke the news to him Tuesday. “It was either quit or be fired,” Kirkland said. “He appointed me, he can fire me.”

Kirkland said a rift developed with Silva over Kirkland’s concerns over non-conforming business signs along Beach Boulevard. Kirkland wanted the signs to be scaled down to comply with a 1986 City Council resolution. Kirkland is also a critic of auto dealers’ banners and balloons that can fly into public right of ways.

Auto dealers, who are mainly clustered on Beach Boulevard and reportedly contribute about $2 million a year in taxes, were later exempted from a clampdown on signs that was imposed in 1986.

Kirkland said he sought enforcement action against the auto dealers, which caused more friction with Silva.

Kirkland said Silva doesn’t know the difference between an anti-business attitude and “ugly signs.”

Observers noted that Kirkland has singled out individual businesses with offending signs in televised coverage of Planning Commission meetings.

Kirkland’s treatment of a school official earlier this year at a Planning Commission meeting was described as brusque by some and reportedly offended some school board members.

Kirkland and Silva became embroiled in a public “heated exchange” last year, finding themselves on opposite sides of controversial and ill-fated plans by local school districts to impose assessment districts to raise tax funds.

City Councilman Don MacAllister said Wednesday that he was surprised to learn of Kirkland’s ouster.

“I’ve always found him to be pro-business,” MacAllister said. “But it’s (each) individual City Council member’s decision who they appoint to the Planning Commission.”

Silva appointed Kirkland to the Planning Commission in 1988.

Kirkland, who served as Planning Commission chairman last year, is a director in charge of fund-raising for the Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley branches of the American Heart Assn.

Planning Commission Chairman Jan Shomaker said Kirkland will be “sorely missed. He was absolutely an excellent commissioner,” she said.

Each of the seven City Council members appoints a planning commissioner, who serves at the council member’s pleasure.

On Monday, the Huntington Beach City Council will take up the matter of Kirkland’s departure and his replacement.