Skepticism remains about children’s library book review committee in Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach is moving ahead with creating a parental committee that would review and possibly stop children’s books it deems offensive from entering the public library.

A recent posting on the city website, however, drew the ire of at least one citizen.

Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin sent a “cure and correct” demand letter to Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark on Saturday after incorrect information was included on a city posting dated Jan. 11 regarding the committee.

Resolution No. 2023-41, passed by the conservative majority City Council on a 4-3 vote last October, calls for a parent/guardian review board of up to 21 adults to be established, with each City Council member able to appoint up to three members to the board.

The Jan. 11 posting on the city website, however, states that the committee members would be selected only by the council liaisons.

Clayton-Tarvin’s letter alleges a Brown Act violation and accuses the City Council of trying to “hoodwink our H.B. community with this bait and switch.”

A man takes his grandchildren to the Huntington Beach Central Library last May.

(File Photo)

“Even if it’s a not a violation of the Brown Act, it’s a violation of their own resolution, which then becomes a violation of California law,” Clayton-Tarvin said during a phone interview Tuesday. “I wrote it to the mayor because the chair of the meeting is who’s in charge.”

Clayton-Tarvin received an email response from City Atty. Michael Gates confirming that the posting had errors in it, and stating they would be corrected. His email assured her the posting, which was seeking applicants for a four-year term on the children’s book review committee, would be taken down, and he was looking into how the errors occurred.

Gates said Tuesday the initial response from the city manager’s office was that the wrong wording was inadvertently posted.

Huntington Beach public affairs manager Jennifer Carey confirmed in an email Wednesday the error “was an unintentional administrative mistake made during the drafting of the document.”

“We’re going to fix it,” Gates said. “There’s no conspiracy ... As far as I know, I haven’t heard one single word from council members about modifying the implementation of that program.”

An audience member holds a sign opposing book censorship at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting last June.

(File Photo)

Clayton-Tarvin was happy the error was acknowledged but said she didn’t necessarily believe it was a simple mistake. She said Wednesday she might submit a California Public Records Act request on the mistake, to see who made it.

“That [posting] sat from Jan. 11 all the way until I wrote that letter,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “So how is it that the four people who voted for that, the city manager, the city attorney and all of the others, why is it that nobody saw that this is supposedly an error? Although I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt, I personally don’t believe that was accidental.

“It was debated and debated and debated. There were hours of public comments and arguments. There were literal tears at the microphone by residents not to [set up a book review committee]. Do we really think this was a mistake? I don’t.”

As for the review board itself, Carey said in her email that it is still in the process of being formally established.

“Once that has been done, City Council members can begin making their selections for appointment,” she said.

The committee would be subject to the Brown Act, meaning meetings will be noticed in advance and held publicly.

“There’s nothing that’s going to be done behind closed doors or anything like that,” Gates said. “There’s going to be the maximum amount of transparency for the entire process, period.”

Members of the Huntington Beach City Council listen to resident Carol Daus speak about the proposed children’s library book screening process last October.

(File Photo)

Questions remain, however, as to whether or not the three progressives on the dais will even participate in the process championed by the conservative majority.

“I can’t speak for Natalie [Moser] and Rhonda [Bolton], but I’m not planning on being complicit in an uninformed board that will censor books entering the library,” Councilman Dan Kalmick said in a text message.

Clayton-Tarvin also has continued litigation against Gates and the city for not releasing the full terms of the city’s multimillion-dollar settlement with the operator of the Pacific Airshow. The next court date is set for May 13.