H.B. City Council orders investigation into Ocean View School District over election advocacy

The Huntington Beach library initiatives special election set for June 10 continues to roil as it makes its way into school board meetings, City Council meetings and everything in between.

On Tuesday night, the Huntington Beach City Council unanimously voted to investigate a resolution unanimously passed by the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees supporting both Measures A and B, while sharing copies of the resolution with district parents.

“Such conduct raises serious legal concerns regarding the potential misuse of public resources for campaign purposes,” Councilmember Chad Williams said during the meeting. “Dissemination of advocacy communication using taxpayer funded platforms may constitute unlawful electioneering.”

The vote was 6-0, with Mayor Pro Tem Casey McKeon absent, to direct the city attorney’s office to review the resolution and work with Mayor Pat Burns to file a complaint with a relevant agency, if necessary.

Huntington Beach City Council member Chad Williams, center, makes a comment at the May 6 council meeting.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Williams has campaigned against Measure A, which would repeal a parent/guardian children’s book advisory board, and Measure B, which would require voter approval before outsourcing public library operations. He started a political action committee against both of the measures and faced backlash from parents after the PAC was responsible for hanging signs that read “Protect our kids from porn” near local elementary schools.

Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, Ocean View School District Supt. Julianne Hoefer and Board President Patricia Singer sent a letter to the council lambasting the potential investigation.

The letter states that OVSD will not cooperate with an investigation “in any way, shape or form.”

“The city has absolutely no jurisdiction or authority to undertake any type of ‘investigation’ into the actions of the OVSD,” the letter from Hoefer and Singer reads. “OVSD is not under the control of the city and not subject to its jurisdiction.”

Ocean View School District board member Gina Clayton-Tarvin speaks in Huntington Beach.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

At the previous council meeting, Williams and his colleagues voted to launch an investigation into library nonprofit Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library, alleging a possible misuse of funds, also in relationship to the two ballot measures.

In their letter to the council, Hoefer and Singer said the votes appeared to be simply an effort to improperly intimidate political opponents and seek retribution.

Williams took issue with OVSD Trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin making similar remarks during public comments on Tuesday night.

“By framing OVSD as political opponents of the City Council, that explicitly acknowledges a partisan and adversarial role in the Measures A and B debate,” he said. “The political opponents’ framing is a self-inflected wound, as it suggests OVSD’s resolution was a political act.”

Clayton-Tarvin said after the meeting that the OVSD Board of Trustees, just like the City Council, is a nonpartisan governance board comprised of political figures.

“The City Council cannot direct us, investigate us, they cannot do anything to us,” she said. “Now, can they turn in a complaint to the FPPC? Sure, any individual can, but the FPPC will take it and throw it into the trash can where it belongs, because we haven’t violated anything.”

Clayton-Tarvin also suggested that an investigation could be a violation of the board’s 1st Amendment rights.

“Our Board of Trustees has free speech rights to make statements and take official positions on issues, and this is one of the most important issues we can take a stance on,” she said. “[Williams] will never silence me, nor will he silence the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees.”