Huntington Beach will seek more public input on charter amendments

Tuesday night’s Huntington Beach City Council meeting stretched into the wee hours of the morning as the Council grappled with a mostly angry public and several controversial issues.

There were 116 people signed up for public comments, which lasted until just minutes before midnight. The meeting was eventually adjourned at 2:49 a.m. Wednesday.

City charter amendments were one of the hot-button issues where the conservative majority made the rare move of pumping the brakes, deciding not to send three potential ballot measures for next March’s statewide primary election on to voters.

At least not yet.

After a 4-3 vote Tuesday night supported by the conservative majority — Mayor Tony Strickland, Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark and Councilmen Pat Burns and Casey McKeon — the City Council will hold special public meetings for charter review on four consecutive Thursdays. Beginning Sept. 14 at 6 p.m., the meetings will feature public comments before and after discussion.

A charter review ad hoc committee comprised of Strickland, Van Der Mark and Burns had been formed in June. At the last council meeting on Aug. 1, members approved seven proposed amendments and added four more.

“I think a lot of these charter amendments are great, and I even included two,” McKeon said. “But over the last month, I just have received an enormous amount of calls from residents and our biggest supporters, who are adamantly opposed to just this process we are using to come up with these charter amendments to our city’s constitution. There might be some areas worthy of review, but in my opinion, that has to happen through a transparent process.”

The Pride at the Pier group rolled out a huge Pride flag on the steps of Huntington Beach City Hall prior to Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The three amendments on the table Tuesday included local election issues and updating the qualifications for city clerk. City Atty. Michael Gates’ wife, Kelly, who had been considering a run for city clerk, announced Monday night that she would not be running due in part to the bad optics mentioned by McKeon.

Other proposed charter amendments would dictate that the only flags permitted on city property would be the U.S., county, state, city, Armed Forces and P.O.W. flags.

In protest of this, a citizen group called Pride at the Pier brought a huge Pride flag and draped it over the steps of City Hall prior to Tuesday night’s meeting. The 33-foot-by-24-foot flag, the largest Pride flag in Orange County history, was the same one draped over the Huntington Beach Pier in May, after the council voted to stop flying it on city property every June in honor of Pride Month.

The third proposed charter amendment deals with requiring voter approval of any city transaction that forgives, waives or forgoes the collection of property in excess of $100,000 per year, along with other issues.

Those amendments had been grouped into three ballot measures by the city attorney’s office, for voters to decide in the March 2024 statewide primary election. The three measures would cost the city an estimated $1.2 million.

But the council will now seek more public input before moving forward.

People watch Tuesday’s Huntington Beach City Council meeting from an overflow room.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Before being elected to the City Council, McKeon was a part of a charter revision committee in late 2021 and early 2022, which eventually helped put three measures on the ballot last November.

“I was outvoted 6-1 all the time, but there was a maximum amount of opportunity for the public to participate, come speak, address comments, etc.,” McKeon said.

Burns countered that the council was elected to make decisions. Notably, however, even the conservative Save Surf City citizen group sent out an email blast opposing the charter amendments recommended by the ad hoc committee without public input.

Some public speakers noted that the council’s current conservative majority ran on a ticket last fall that included opposing charter amendments measures. Others also held signs, given out by a new progressive group called Protect Huntington Beach, which read, “Vote No! Stop the Power Grab!”

There would be a tight timeline to get any proposed charter amendments on the March ballot.

“Can I ask, what’s the rush?” Councilwoman Natalie Moser said.

Strickland responded that he preferred to have any possible amendments on the March ballot instead of the November one, given the large number of initiatives typically already on the fall ballot.

Gates subsequently cited California Elections code 1415, which he said allows cities to put charter amendments on the March ballot.

But council members continued to have issues, including legality questions about requiring voter identification.

“It would be helpful to have a legal memo on this,” Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton said. “We’re about to spend $1.2 million of taxpayer money, and I’m not even sure any of this is legal.”

Gates quickly responded.

“We’ve had three attorneys in our office work on this, and all three attorneys arrived at the same conclusion,” he said.