A judge denied two emergency requests in the morning hours of June 30 targeting Huntington Beach’s settlement for Pacific Airshow, which was partially canceled in 2021 due to an oil spill off the city’s coast.
One of the requests sought to stop the city’s $1.9 million payment to the event’s organizer, which is due by July 31, and the other was requesting disclosure of the full settlement agreement to the public.
On June 29, former Huntington Beach Mayor Connie Boardman and former Planning Commissioner Mark Bixby filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing that the settlement is an “unlawful gift of public funds,” and that the city’s first payment should be stopped immediately.
The settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed against the city by the operator of the Pacific Airshow, Code Four, in 2021 after the final day of the three-day event was canceled due to the oil spill, where 25,000 gallons of crude oil leaked through a cracked pipeline into the ocean of the city’s coast.
Bixby and Boardman in their argument allege that the air show’s lawsuit against the city is “wholly without merit,” since the oil spill was out of their control and the oil was toxic, and that “even the city recognized that the air show litigation was without merit,” as they had filed a motion to dismiss before deciding to settle the case instead.
“I think the city had every right to protect the public safety when there’s an oil spill, and I disagree with the council’s decision to settle even before a judge has an opportunity to dismiss the case,” Boardman told The Epoch Times.
On June 7, Gina Clayton-Tarvin—vice president of Ocean View School District—also filed a lawsuit seeking full disclosure of the entire settlement agreement, after her own request to the city was denied.
During the recent court hearing, Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Strickroth denied the two emergency requests to have their demands met immediately.
Judge Martha Gooding—who has been presiding over the case between Huntington Beach and the air show—will hear both cases July 17.
Clayton-Tarvin told The Epoch Times she believes her request for immediate action was denied because Strickroth “was weary of making an action that is going to end up before another judge.”
She said the emergency request was “a gamble to see if you can get your issue heard before a judge and get them to understand the urgency of the matter.
“So I think the judge kind of punted, and that’s fine … I have no doubt that I’m going to prevail,” she said.
Boardman argued that the city officials’ claim that they needed to save the air show because it brings in millions each year isn’t justified, since there are other operators who can put on the same event.
“Code Four is not the only company that can provide an air show … The council might have saved Code Four by giving them $7 million of taxpayer money, but they didn’t necessarily save an air show,” she said.
The city will pay $5 million to the Pacific Air Show, waive $195,000 in fees owed from the 2021 show, and refund an additional $149,000 in fees from last year’s event in the form of a credit, according to city officials.
Up to an additional $2 million could also be dished out in related funds if the city files its own lawsuit—and prevails—against Amplify Energy, the pipeline operator involved in the oil spill, which mostly affected Huntington Beach.
City Attorney Michael Gates told The Epoch Times, regarding Boardman and Bixby’s case, “the plaintiff’s position is entirely ridiculous.”
He said the city was sued by the operators of the Pacific Airshow not because they canceled the last day of the three-day event, but because of how the previous city council handled the cancellation.
“It was that dispute that the city council evaluated,” he said. “And after months and months of negotiations, which were done at arm’s length … the city council chose to resolve the matter, rather than continue litigation for months and possibly years.”
In the case of Clayton-Tarvin’s request for a full copy of the agreement, Gates said he couldn’t release it while the city is still in pending litigation over the matter, including the lawsuit they have yet to file against Amplify seeking to recover damages from the spill.
“In this case, we did release the terms of the agreement that are of importance to the taxpayer,” Gates told The Epoch Times in an interview last week. “Government code is very clear that we’re required to disclose the substance of the settlement, but nowhere in state law does it say the settlement agreement itself.”
During the announcement of the settlement in a press conference in May, Mayor Tony Strickland pointed to a study facilitated by Visit Huntington Beach—a tourism marketing agency for the city—on last year’s air show, which demonstrated “astronomical” financial benefits the event brought to the city, which he said shows the importance of continuing the yearly event.
According to the study conducted by Destination Analysts—a market research company for travel and tourism—the air show generated $70.4 million in direct spending in 2022 and attracted 690,000 attendees.
Of the total visitors, 520,000 were from outside of Huntington Beach and 91 percent were returning visitors specifically because of the show.
