HUNTINGTON BEACH : 2 City Offices Could Become Appointive

The City Council has taken the first step toward asking voters whether the city treasurer and city attorney should be appointed to office.

Both offices are now elected. Huntington Beach has the only elected city attorney in Orange County.

A three-person council committee has been appointed to work with city staff to develop the charter amendment needed to effect the change, which will be on the March, 1996, ballot.

Because Treasurer Donald L. Watson has announced that he will retire Sept. 15, the council agreed to seek applicants to fill the post when he leaves.

The move to make the two offices appointive was headed by Councilman Tom Harman, who said he thinks it would improve the quality and caliber of the officeholders and streamline management.

“It makes sense from a management standpoint,” Harman said. “The city treasurer and city attorney do not answer to the city administrator. It’s like being the head of a major corporation and not having the ability to tell some department heads what to do.”

“The other factor goes to quality,” he said. “The city could hire the finest and best municipal lawyer in the state of California.”

City Atty. Gail C. Hutton, who has held the job for 17 years, however, charged that in 1964, 1968, 1973 and 1978, the electorate voted to keep the elected status of the city attorney.

“I think the people are reluctant to give up the oversight and their right to chose the city attorney of the city,” Hutton said, adding that it is “an effort to power grab. They’re trying to consolidate all the power in the City Council so they’ll have the power to hire and fire the city attorney.”