Mailbag: Both the Surf Museum and the library deserve their own space

Re “H.B. International Surf Museum moves to new home inside Main Street library,” July 29

Huntington Beach is Surf City, USA — we don’t just deserve a state-of-the-art surfing museum, we expect one that reflects the pride of this town. The former space on Olive Street was quaint but tiny, and yet the International Surfing Museum (ISM) still struggled to pay its minimal rent to the city. That struggle points to a board of directors that has lacked the vision and fundraising capacity the organization needs.

The City Council approved a rental agreement with ISM in March that rightly established unique and shared space for the library, ISM, and Friends of the Library. The agreement was unambiguous; the only questionable part of the agreement was the below-market rent ISM would pay.

ISM’s celebratory grand opening last week revealed a breach of that agreement: its gallery exhibit had encroached on the library’s main reading room. There is an easy fix: either the City Council approves an amendment to the original agreement, or ISM relocates its exhibit back to its designated space.

Either way, the council needs to act now — not later — to resolve this encroachment and revise ISM’s rent to reflect whatever footprint it ultimately occupies. This is also an opportunity for the council to bring forward for discussion the library master plan where there is an option to develop an addition of museum space to the Main Street Library. Huntington Beach residents deserve a library that works as promised, and a surf museum that pays its fair share.

Pat Goodman
Huntington Beach

H.B. mayor pro tem should mind his Ps and Qs

Re “Twining apologizes for profane remark to protesters,” July 22
Having read this article in the Daily Pilot, July 23, I cannot help but wonder if Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Butch Twining has been tutored by Pat “Potty-mouth” Burns. It seems Twining has employed Burns’ favorite vulgarity in confronting protesters, specifically council critic, Andrew Einhorn.

I also wonder how sincere Twining’s apology is. Does he really show any contrition when his apology includes a thinly veiled defense of his action in which he attempts to excuse his actions using the “they did it first,” defense, telling the Daily Pilot that he was offended by the same vulgarities that appeared on some protest signs. Apparently Twining feels that offensive verbiage on protest signs justifies his use of the very word he claims offended him, once again proving the adage, “two wrongs do not make a right.”

Twining also stated, “In retrospect, I should have used another pejorative.” Really, Mr. Twining?

Why should you have used a pejorative at all? Had you done so, no matter what belittling and/or argumentative term you might have used, Mr. Einhorn would still have gotten exactly what he had been seeking when he told you to “go vape.” He would have gotten a hot-headed outburst. No, Mr. Twining, what you should have done, the classy thing to have done, would have been to take the high road, set a good example, ignore his comment, and walk away.

Mark Wimbish
Huntington Beach

City needs a responsible council

I’ve lived in Huntington Beach since 1978. My husband is a retired mail carrier who delivered mail here for nearly 40 years, starting in 1975. When we moved down the hill from Westside Costa Mesa, we never would have imagined Huntington Beach would become what it is today, a city divided by our own city council and the president of the United States.

The current city council’s term will not be remembered for anything good they might accomplish. It will be remembered for the darkness they have all promoted to divide neighbors against neighbors. It will be remembered for their culture wars, book banning, the futile lawsuits that have cost us dearly, their rejection of state mandated laws, the rudeness from the entire council to opposition — stunts like Mayor Pro Tem Butch Twinning telling protesters to f— themselves while they were peacefully protesting on a recent Sunday, or Councilmember Pat Burns caught on a hot mic calling a constituent a fat cow, installing the MAGA plaque at Central Library, forcing their religion ahead of other faiths by removing interfaith invocations, banning the pride flag, removing community organizations and volunteers, attacks on the library including trying to privatize it, the rotten deal with the air show, the open dismissal of opponents at council meetings, the corruption.

The city deserves leaders who are fiscally responsible and take care of the actual needs of the people.

We very much object to the proposed bronze Trump statue that would dishonor our actual fallen heroes and further embarrass the good citizens of our town, regardless of who pays for it. MAGA is not patriotism; it has torn apart our democracy. Trump does not represent Surf City. The Huntington Beach City Council used to be non-partisan. It should have remained so.

November can’t come soon enough for us to replace four of the council members up for election this fall with Taryn Palumbo, Ben Davis, Brenda Glim and Erin Spivey. It’s a pity we can’t take them all out this election, especially the disgraced mayor pro tem who really should be disciplined and removed from his position. He isn’t fit for office. We need council members who will listen to all of the people. H.B. first, politics last.

Mary Ann Celinder
Huntington Beach