Huntington Beach voters to decide on three charter amendment measures this fall

Mike Posey is officially the mayor pro tempore of Huntington Beach. Next year, though, that position might rid itself of the Latin phrase and simply be known as “vice mayor.”

That’s one of the proposed Huntington Beach City Charter amendments the City Council sent to the November general election at Tuesday night’s meeting.

However, the council decided not to ask voters to weigh in on changing the city clerk and city treasurer positions from elected to appointed.

Seventeen charter amendments are divided among three measures, each of which was approved Tuesday by a 6-1 vote. Councilman Erik Peterson was the lone “no” vote.

“I think that the three [measures] are absolutely excellent and clear up quite a bit of stuff,” Councilman Dan Kalmick said. “They really get rid of ambiguity, and I think that ambiguity in the law is not great for government and gets us into situations where we don’t want to be.”

The first measure, which contains 11 separate charter amendments, would largely improve wording in the charter. It would also make minor clarifications and modify administrative processes.

The second measure focuses on five amendments relating to the roles of the city attorney, clerk and treasurer. It would remove the requirement that the city attorney must be a graduate of a law school that is specifically accredited by the American Bar Assn.

Catherine Jun, assistant to the city manager, told the City Council the change in that requirement would put Huntington Beach in line with the other nine cities statewide that have an elected city attorney.

Additionally, the second measure has an amendment that the city clerk and treasurer must meet minimum qualifications for the position at the time of filing for candidacy. It would also require at least four affirmative votes from the City Council to fill a vacancy, and establish that appointees would only hold office until the next general election, when a replacement would be voted in.

The final measure approved Tuesday adds a new section, Section 310, to the charter that more clearly defines the relationship between the city attorney and the council. That issue has been in dispute recently between council members and City Atty. Michael Gates.

“We’ve heard people week after week after week coming into these chambers asking for transparency, asking to understand,” Councilwoman Natalie Moser said. “I think that the language that’s provided here is seeking to do that, seeking to provide clarity. This isn’t about this council or this city attorney ... I think it’s really about the future of the city, to make sure we’re governing appropriately and that we’re all following our duties as elected officials.”

The proposed amendment states that the City Council has control over all litigation and legal business of the city and may contract with other attorneys in certain circumstances, including when there’s a conflict of interest for the city attorney.

However, the panel nixed moving the city clerk and city treasurer positions, currently held by Robin Estanislau and Alisa Backstrom, from elected to appointed. Earlier in the evening, Shari Freidenrich, the elected city treasurer for Huntington Beach from 1996 through 2010, before becoming the Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector, spoke to the matter during public comments.

Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich speaks during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

(Screencap by Matt Szabo)

Freidenrich urged the City Council to keep the position an elected one.

“Oversight is critical to protecting public funds,” she said. “It makes sense always for you as a business to not have access to cash with people who have access to records. If you look at most of the fraud that has occurred, it’s because of lack of segregation of duties.”

Freidenrich’s comments seemed to ring true to several of the council members.

“There is some credence to having a treasurer be elected and not be beholden to staff or other elected officials to try to direct investment strategy,” Posey said later in the meeting. “I think that holds true to me for the clerk’s office as well.”

The City Council formed a charter revision committee in August 2021, and meetings were held from December through May. The committee recommended 18 charter amendments, which were presented to council on June 7 during a study session.

City staff recommended 13 of the 18 amendments during the meeting on June 21. Additionally, five other amendments proposed by various city representatives were discussed.

A straw vote to place 18 total amendments on four measures was conducted during that meeting. Tuesday night represented the final vote, with three of the four measures being approved and the 17 total amendments.

Council members Posey and Kalmick will prepare written arguments for the first two measures, with Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton and Kalmick preparing written arguments for the measure dealing with the relationship with the city attorney. Peterson will prepare written arguments against all three measures.

The city will also prepare an impartial analysis for each measure.

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