Power Play in Huntington Beach?

Re “AES Pushes for Friendlier Surf City,” May 18:

It seems the corporate citizens at AES and their lawyer, Scott Baugh, are even sore if they win. They got the “fast track” approval for their generators in spite of the pollution and noise concerns expressed by the city. They defeated the ballot measure that would have required them to pay the same utility tax that applies to the rest of the businesses and residents in the town. Baugh even got to go to the state Assembly in spite of his dubious election practices.

Now they are spending $7,500 for a ballot measure to remove two council seats and partition the city into five districts. One wonders how many thousands of dollars they plan to spend on the election itself.

A majority of five council members should be much cheaper to influence than a majority of seven. So maybe they just see it as a way to reduce expenses.

Phil Smith

Huntington Beach

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I would like to thank The Times for exposing AES as the driving force behind the move to reduce the Huntington Beach City Council from seven members to five and establish new districts.

A resident with a concern can now approach seven council members. If new districts are established, that same resident would only have one council person to appeal to for assistance.

Reducing the City Council in no way provides for better representation for residents.

These proposed districts would make it easier for large entities, including AES, which owns the power plant, to control the City Council. As long as they know it’s happening, the people of Huntington Beach are intelligent enough to see through this attempt by a giant, powerful corporation to control city politics.

Your article has helped to alert the people of Huntington Beach about the attempt by AES to manipulate our city government.

Connie Boardman

Huntington Beach

council member

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Ex-Assemblyman Scott Baugh is doing the bidding of the ethically challenged power industry to fix something that isn’t broken.

The last Huntington Beach City Council election had no shortage of candidates, including some aligned with environmentalists and others aligned with developers. The pro-environment candidates received more votes than the developer candidates, so Huntington Beach has a pro-environment council. Sounds like democracy in action to me!

Rather than implementing a district-based council scheme, people unhappy with the current council should actually bother to register to vote, educate themselves on the issues, and then show up at the polls on election day.

Mark Bixby

Huntington Beach

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Your article only scratches the surface in exposing what ex-Assemblyman Scott Baugh and his cronies are attempting to do. For example, the most vocal homeowners’ group opposed to AES is the Southeast Huntington Beach Neighborhood Assn. This group represents the interests of more than 1,600 residences near the power plant.

Under the Baugh plan, this area is lumped into District 1, which includes the downtown area. If a “downtown” candidate (a pro-business AES supporter) were elected to this gerrymandered district, it would result in “negative representation” for the thousands of residents most concerned about the AES power plant.

Predictably, there are other little surprises in the way the districts are drawn that benefit Baugh’s benefactors. Regardless of the merits of districting in Surf City, the Baugh plan is a sham that should be rejected by the voters.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach