Mailbag: A city council’s inconsistent moral values

Re “Huntington Beach City Council approves full liquor license for bikini bar,” June 3.

As a long-term resident of Huntington Beach, I thought I’ve seen just about every form of utter nonsense from our city council. But, as it turns out, I was wrong — our current group of councilmembers have no problem raising the bar.

Did you say, “raising the bar”? Yes, in this case we mean the Distractions Lounge, a bikini bar located only feet away from Westmont Elementary. In justifying the City Council’s vote, Mayor Casey McKeon was quoted in the Daily Pilot as follows: “It’s not our job up here to impose our morality onto the city.”

You must be joking! Over the last four years, the City Council has done NOTHING but try to impose its conservative church-based morality upon our city. It was just a year ago when voters of Huntington Beach had to pass Measures A and B to force the city to stop trying to take control of our libraries.

On one hand, the City Council spent large amounts of money providing falsehoods about our libraries and denigrating its staff to “protect” the children from “porn” (councilmembers’ words, not mine). On the other hand, they have no moral problem with a bikini bar serving hard liquor next door to an elementary school. A bar that, according to the Daily Pilot, has had two rape calls since 2020 that started with drinking in this bar.

The utter hypocrisy of McKeon’s statement and the City Council’s actions cannot be understated. Their lack of morality appears to only apply to themselves.

Huntington Beach, it is time to take a stand. Do not let these reports be a “distraction” from the reality of what is happening all around you. Do not “lounge” around when the next election comes up.

We need to restore integrity to the Huntington Beach City Council. I urge Surf City residents to vote McKeon, Pat Burns and Andrew Gruel out of office.

Larry Hersh
Huntington Beach