Mailbag: Huntington Beach leadership steers the city in a costly direction, away from civic services
- Share via
Re “California Supreme Court shoots down Huntington Beach’s voter ID law,” Jan. 29.
Cut and hung out to dry. On Jan. 28, the California Supreme Court declined to review Huntington Beach’s appeal to litigation judgements against its ill-conceived voter ID charter-amendment. That’s it. Ballgame over.
Through the whole process, our council has persisted in loser strategies. Sad.
No matter where you land on voter ID as a policy idea, this outcome should be a wake-up call about process and taxpayer exposure. From right out of the gates, California’s election rules were largely a matter of statewide concern. The appellate courts have been clear that cities can’t invent parallel election-regulation regimes without running into state law.
Now comes the part taxpayers should be watching closely: the bill. The plaintiff’s press release indicates the matter returns to the trial court, where attorneys’ fees will be sought. Huntington Beach residents may be on the hook not only for the city’s litigation costs, but for the state’s as well.
And for me the bill is the rub. This case sits alongside a pattern of headline-chasing governance that too often ends in court, ends in defeat, and ends with residents paying the tab. The city can call it “fighting,” but courts call it what it is: unlawful or preempted action. I call it taxation with representation, a loser’s representation.
Huntington Beach doesn’t need more symbolic lawsuits. Maybe claw back some of the obscene freebies fed to the Pacific Airshow LLC? The city needs potholes fixed, infrastructure maintained, public services stabilized, and trust rebuilt. If council members want to advocate for voter ID, they should do it the lawful way, through state legislation or statewide initiative politics. Not by gambling city funds, my tax bucks, on legal stunts.
Buzz McCord
Huntington Beach
Loss of reputation
On Jan. 28, the California Supreme Court denied Huntington Beach’s petition for voter ID once and for all. After multiple appeals, thousands of attorney hours, and hundreds of thousands of tax dollars, our city has lost again. The loss is one of status and reputation. The descent from Surf City to Loser City has been swift.
Since the advent of an extreme MAGA city council that followed the advice of former City Atty. Michael Gates, Huntington Beach has quixotically fought and lost case after case with the State of California. It is time that the council responds to the needs and wishes of their constituents and transparently work to remediate failing city infrastructure like leaking roofs, broken pipes and damaged roadways.
The public deserves a detailed look at city finances so we can see for ourselves that our budget was balanced by obtaining funds from city reserves. Our public librarians must be given the go ahead to return children’s books to their rightful place in the children’s library and not to banish them to the 4th floor on a high shelf.
It is the time for the Huntington Beach City Council to buck up and do their job for our city. Perhaps one day we can shed Loser City and become Surf City once again.
Nora Pedersen
Huntington Beach
Leadership collapse
Governance is judged by results — and in Huntington Beach, the results are clear: residents are paying for avoidable failures. The Pacific Airshow settlement fiasco exposed only through a taxpayer funded lawsuit as the City Council tried to hide the financial giveaway.
The city’s voter ID ordinance, sanctuary city, library, and housing lawsuits all ended in costly defeats. As more appeals come, so will more litigation bailouts and payouts. Will the council transfer more reserves this year as well? These were deliberate choices, not mistakes — evidence of poor fiscal discipline and wasted taxpayer funds. The result is a clear collapse of leadership in Huntington Beach as we have seen firsthand.
In 2026, our leaders must reject “MAGA-Ville” ideology, stop governing through litigation, focus on fixing our infrastructure and return to the basic duty of governing locally — not chasing national political fights. Their governing is not leadership — it is a hernia or rupture in our city. The people of Huntington Beach are not powerless, and we will no longer pretend that our current leadership is taking us in the right direction. It is not.
Andrew Einhorn
Huntington Beach
