HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—A Huntington Beach committee that was formed to review the city’s charter, or constitution, recommends that the city council change multiple elected positions in city government to be appointed.
In its April 26 meeting, the city’s Charter Revision Committee voted 5–2 in separate votes to recommend Huntington Beach’s city attorney, city clerk, and city treasurer be appointed by a councilor, instead of elected by residents.
The recommendation to turn the city attorney from an elected position to one appointed by the city council is quite controversial, as some say it is an endeavor to remove the elected city attorney Michael Gates, who is often publicly at odds with the city council on a variety of legal issues, including fighting the state on high-density housing mandates.
“Removing current elected positions and changing them to be appointed … we always talk about democracy, but they’re limiting the residents’—the taxpayers—say in their elected city government,” Casey McKeon, a charter revision committee member who voted against the change, told The Epoch Times.
“Roughly 70 percent of California voters vote for an elected city attorney. Why would we want to remove that vote and power from the residents of Huntington Beach?” McKeon.
McKeon said if the city’s attorney, clerk, and treasurer positions are appointed rather than elected, the individuals vying for these seats would be beholden to the council, not the city’s residents.
“They’re consolidating all of the power in one branch, city council, and that inherently makes their appointees political rather than elected by the voters. Instead, now you have a majority of four people deciding these positions instead of the 200,000 residents of Huntington Beach, which is removing democratic input into local government,” he said.
The charter review can only offer recommendations to the city council, which has the final say.
The review commission also voted 4–3 April 26 to put term limits on the elected city attorney if the position does remain elected.
Additionally, the commission voted 6–1 that the city attorney must have a minimum qualification of 10 years of experience in the field of law.
Finally, the review committee voted 6–1 to add language to the charter so that if a “conflict of interest” arises between the city attorney and the council, the council will get to decide the matter, not a third-party judge.
Following its final meeting as a committee May 12, the committee will finalize its recommendations into a report. That report will then be circulated in the community for around three weeks, and then will be sent to the city council on June 7.
Then, council will hold two meetings to deliberate and vote on the proposed changes.
Finally, changes approved by the council will be put on the November ballot.
