‘Thanks’ Can Be as Elusive as the Surf

Mike Thompson occasionally chuckles as we talk, but he’s not all that happy. Truth is, he’s got a bone to pick with Surf City. Make that a couple of bones.

He says he was the early ‘90s marketing guy behind the idea that brought Huntington Beach plenty of dough over the last decade or so.

The idea: Incorporate the long-standing “Surf City” moniker into Huntington’s marketing campaign and use it to lure private companies into partnerships.

The idea took off. But what now seems obvious wasn’t so obvious 15 years ago, Thompson, 53, says.

All he wants, he says, is a little recognition for his brainstorm.

“I’m getting older,” he says, “and everybody got a huge benefit from it, monetarily or otherwise. I was the architect and did everything from soup to nuts, and all I’m asking them to do is recognize me and say, ‘Mike Thompson did this.’ ”

That brings us to Bone No. 2. In a way, Thompson fears he created a monster. Not a terrible monster, but he doesn’t like the way Huntington Beach has so aggressively claimed the Surf City identification all for itself. He points to the city’s buying of the Surf City USA trademark last year and reigniting a surf war with Santa Cruz, which also wants to be known as Surf City and has said it will do whatever it takes to preserve its connection to the moniker.

There’s enough surf for both, Thompson says.

“I think it just smacks of elitism and exclusivity,” he says of Huntington Beach’s actions. “It seems that no other place has a claim to be a surf city or a surf town than Huntington Beach. We did not design this in the early days to get any other city adversarial with us.”

One sticking point to verifying Thompson’s claim is that he never billed the city. Besides being young and caught up in the excitement of the moment, he says, he assumed his small company, Medialine Associates, would reap benefits down the line.

That, of course, is all said from the benefit of 15 years’ hindsight.

Current Huntington Beach Community Services Director Jim Engle says he isn’t certain exactly what Thompson did. Therefore, he doesn’t know what the city should do, if anything, for him.

“I feel for the guy,” Engle says. “I told him I can’t verify any of this. We don’t have anything on file. I told him it sounds right and I believe what he’s saying, but we have no proof of it.”

Thompson bridles at that. He says Engle worked closely with former department director Ron Hagen, who has retired and left Orange County. It was Hagen, Thompson says, who asked him to write lengthy reports and detailed summaries that were presented to the City Council and community groups. Thompson says he has a September 1991 copy of a “Request for City Council Action” form that specifically mentions Thompson by name.

I was unable to track down Hagen.

Thompson also says he met with then-Mayor Peter Green in his office to discuss the plan in 1991. Green says he doesn’t remember the meeting or Thompson.

All of this happened a long time ago and, unfortunately, it strikes me as analogous to someone who gave other people an idea for a screenplay, only to have them run with it. Thompson says his involvement went well beyond the mere idea, however, claiming that his work for Hagen stretched over at least 18 months.

He won’t go so far as to say he wishes he’d never come up with the idea. He professes only to disappointment that the city “has found in its heart not to do the right thing” by acknowledging his contribution.

Nowadays, Thompson is working with Hermosa Beach on a campaign. I ask if he’s under contract.

“Now that I’m in the beginning stages with Hermosa Beach,” he says, “the first thing I’m doing is get everything in writing.”

I think I heard him chuckling as he said it.