Mailbag: Huntington Beach should rethink how they spend taxpayers’ money

Re Forced by courts, Huntington Beach passes its overdue housing element plan

Casey McKeon said that “Fighting for local control is imminent, it’s imperative.”

I beg to differ.

Public safety is imperative.

Infrastructure is imperative.

Following the law is imperative.

Keeping the city solvent is imperative.

Fighting for local control doesn’t come close to being an essential service that Huntington Beach residents need. The current council members feel otherwise, spending countless taxpayer dollars on their wasted efforts, losing lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit.

Residents don’t want to be seen as losers. We want to be Surf City again, which is why we need to vote for the Surf City 4 (Taryn Palumbo, Ben Davis, Erin Spivey, Brenda Glimin) in November.

Julie Bixby
Huntington Beach

The Huntington Beach City Council is destroying Huntington Beach financially, legally and reputationally. These comments are not personal attacks; they are factual indictments.

This council will hand over millions in taxpayer dollars to a political donor in a settlement for airshow damages caused by an oil company. This was negotiated in secret and given to a company whose CEO made political donations to the council majority. In addition, H.B. taxpayers will pay undisclosed costs for police, fire, marine safety, utilities, and cleanup of future air shows. A resident took legal action so residents could see the Pacific Airshow deal. A judge then ordered this council to pay $182,092 in legal fees.

This council lost a lawsuit over its own library book restriction policy and was court-ordered to pay $960,000 in legal fees.

This council stripped $15,000 from local after-school and at-risk youth programs and handed it to a Temecula nonprofit run by a sitting councilmember, thus defunding local kids without disclosure or recusal.

Five of the seven members of this council nearly awarded a single-bid $720,000 rebranding contract that was stopped only by public outrage. What gets approved when no one is watching?

This council was advised the voter ID fight was not winnable but spent taxpayer money on it anyway. Trial court. Appeals court. California Supreme Court. Three courts. Three defeats. The total litigation cost to taxpayers remains undisclosed. And yet, one of those lawsuits was separately settled for approximately $300,000 in taxpayer money without admitting any liability or fault. It bears repeating: Local governments cannot impose voter identification requirements that conflict with state voting laws.

Lost lawsuits. Secret settlements. Defunded kids. Hidden costs. This is not a string of mistakes, this is how this council governs. Every dollar they waste is a dollar our streets, our infrastructure, and our community will never see. The record speaks. Now it is the voters turn to wake up and think about who you are voting for in November!

Andrew Einhorn
Huntington Beach