Huntington Beach City Council weighs details of America 250 plaque
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Members of the Huntington Beach City Council this week could not agree about details to be included on an America 250 plaque to celebrate America’s semiquincentennial anniversary that would be installed at Pier Plaza.
Specifically, the panel was at odds over which names should be included in the design when the item came up for discussion at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The council voted 5-2 to come back with a design iteration that didn’t have the names of individual veterans on the plaque. Mayor Casey McKeon, Mayor Pro Tem Butch Twining, Councilmembers Don Kennedy, Pat Burns and Gracey Van Der Mark voted in favor. Councilmembers Andrew Gruel and Chad Williams voted against.
After the Aug. 18 council meeting, one iteration of the plaque added the names of Medal of Honor recipient Chris Carr and veteran Mike Ali near the bottom of the plaque.
Gruel and Williams, who is a former U.S. Navy SEAL, said they didn’t want their own names on the plaque and would rather have decorated military veteran names there instead.
McKeon, however, said he preferred a message in the middle of the plaque honoring all veterans.
“There’s so many veterans that we honor and we appreciate,” McKeon said. “To pick only a couple, it just doesn’t sit right with me.”
Williams asked McKeon if he would be willing to offer up the space of his own name to a veteran who was meaningful to him.
McKeon reiterated his stance that there are many veterans in the city, with memorials at City Hall and an upcoming American Legion plaque that will be dedicated on Veterans Day.
Williams said he was not a fan of putting his name on the plaque instead of a veteran’s name. Carr, who died in 1970, was a World War II Army veteran; Carr Park in Huntington Beach is named after him.
“I’m asking you guys not to remove Chris Carr’s name,” he said. “I don’t want my name on there. I’d rather his name be on there.”
Gruel suggested removing entirely the names of all councilmembers, but the council majority did not agree.
“Do you understand what an honor and privilege it has been to be on City Council on the 250th birthday of our nation?” Van Der Mark said. “We’re not being egocentric or egotistical or selfish by wanting to commemorate the fact that we were honored to sit on this dais, on the 250th anniversary of our country. If you don’t want your name on there, that’s OK … but trying to make us look like we’re just horrible people for being proud to represent Huntington Beach on this special anniversary? It’s kind of weird. I don’t know.”
Williams responded that it was better to let someone else put your name on a plaque one day, rather than doing it yourself.
Kennedy countered that sentiment by asking Williams where that mindset was when he voted on the controversial MAGA plaque, approved in February 2025 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Central Library last year.
That plaque, which was never installed at the library, contained the names of every member of the council.
“For the record, that was probably one of my greatest regrets from this dais,” Williams said. “Where is that MAGA plaque, anyway?”
“Well, it’s nowhere,” Kennedy said.
In July, city staff was directed to create an engraving template memorializing the country’s semiquincentennial to be put on one of the black granite panels located at the Pier Plaza monument. Both the Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board and the Community & Library Services Commission have also provided input for the design.
Community & Library Services Director Ashley Theel said at Tuesday’s meeting that staff worked with McKeon and Kennedy on the initial design of the 24-inch by 36-inch plaque, which included the Huntington Beach America 250 logo, the names of council members and the city manager, two cannons and the city seal.
Theel said the company producing the plaque should know by the next council meeting, scheduled for Sept. 15, if it is able to do so via laser off-site, after taking the granite out of the monument sign. The other option is to sand-blast the plaque.
The cost of the plaque is not to exceed $15,000, including both design and production.
