What porn? Huntington Beach library advocates decry City Councilman Williams’ Measures A&B signs
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Good morning. It’s Wednesday, April 23. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events from around the county. Please note that for the next two Wednesday’s editions, my colleague Gabriel San Román will be substituting for me as I’ll be out of town. I expect to be back here with you on May 14.
The fight’s getting dirty between the proponents and opponents to a couple of ballot measures that will be decided by Huntington Beach voters in a special election on June 10. If approved at the ballot box, the first, Measure A, would repeal a planned City Council-appointed children’s book review board of up to 21 members whose duties would include having final approval of children’s library books brought into circulation rather than trust the choices made by librarians educated to do that very job. The second initiative, Measure B, would require voter approval for any future efforts by the city to outsource operations of the public library.
At an April 8 press conference in favor of both measures, parents decried the City Council’s stance against them.
“My role as a parent is to review what [my daughter’s] reading, and make sure I answer appropriate questions,” said one mother in favor of Measure A, according to the Daily Pilot report on that event. “No one should take that right away from me. These council members should not be able to do that.”
Librarians were first instructed to start moving books that featured “sexual content” early last year, after the City Council passed a resolution requiring it. The librarians took them from the children’s section to an adult area on the fourth floor of the Central Library. According to The Pilot reporting then, the grand total of books deemed necessary to be moved was just eight, the majority of them dealing with puberty, like the two copies of “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health,” as well as two copies of “Will Puberty Last My Whole Life: Real Answers to Real Questions from Preteens About Body Changes, Sex, and Other Growing-Up Stuff.”
Of course there are parents on both sides of this ongoing national disagreement over what materials are appropriate for a library’s children’s section. But action undertaken this week by Huntington Beach Councilman Chad Williams, who formed his own political action committee to do it, disturbed even some who might be planning to vote with him, against Measure A.
Parents driving their little kids to school on Monday found large campaign signs declaring in bright red letters “Protect our Kids FROM PORN,” underneath which was the message “No on A&B.” The signs were posted near several elementary school campuses.
A sample of the reaction from parents can be found in my colleague Matt Szabo’s reporting on this latest volley between the sides. “We haven’t even had the sex talk yet,” one mother said, after dropping her young daughter off at school. “I was waiting until like 10 or 11. How can I explain ‘porn’ without having to go through all of that? ...I feel like that’s my responsibility to inform my child. But she’s 9 years old. She’s a very innocent child to share this information with, but now the council, Chad Williams, has blatantly put these signs in her face.”
Another mom said, “Conversation is healthy, but this is just nothing that was on a parent’s bingo card this morning. The most important part of a parent’s job is to keep their children safe, and I think that with this short-sighted stunt, Chad Williams put our kids’ safety at risk.”
A man who voted for Williams and said he shares the councilman’s conservative values, also took issue with the signs. Jason Teter, said in a video posted to social media he was responsible for cutting the word “porn” out of 12 of the signs, returning that part of the signs to City Hall. He also wrote an email to Williams that he shared with the Daily Pilot, stating that the election signs may be legal but he didn’t believe it was right to put the word “porn” in clear sight of children. He also told the councilman the signs read “more like a tactic to provoke than a message grounded in conservative values, and that’s something I believe we should rise above.”
School board member Gina Clayton-Tarvin, an outspoken proponent of the two measures who has long been a thorn in the side of the current City Council, has thrown a new twist into the debate, according to The Pilot’s story, and seems to be calling the city’s bluff about pornographic materials being on any shelves in the city’s library. She said she’s asked Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer to investigate to determine once and for all if that’s really the case.
“They’re the governing board of the city,” Clayton-Tarvin said of the members of the City Council. “If the books in the library are pornography, as they say, then they are purveyors of pornography. It’s as simple as that. It doesn’t matter what their opinions are. Is it pornography? This is what the D.A. is going to look into, are these pornographic materials? And if it comes back that it’s not pornographic materials, then I guess we have our answers, don’t we?”
Williams, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who’s a youth pastor and public speaker, defended the signs and use of the word “porn” in an interview Monday.
“I’m shedding light on the darkness that’s happening,” he told The Pilot. “It’s been said, ‘All that’s required for evil to triumph is for good men to stand back and do nothing.’ There are those that would like to put their heads in the sand and look the other way, pretend it’s not there and not deal with it. Then there are those that are willing to take that stand and address it. I’m asking all of the responsible adults in the room, as it were, to take a stand and expose these works of darkness with the truth, with light.”
And so, the countdown to the special election begins. We have just eight more weeks, at least when it comes to this particular Huntington Beach battle. Few would be surprised if there are more are on the horizon.
MORE NEWS
• Santa Ana’s city attorney is poised to take legal action against the trio of East 1st Street businesses they have described as “drug dens,” according to this TimesOC story. Specifically, the city will seek to board up and shut down for up to a year Royal Grand Inn, Royal Roman Motel and El Tapatio restaurant. The properties, which are near each other and are owned by Kyong Su Kim and Myong Kim, have been the subject of more than 1,400 calls for service to the Santa Ana Police Department over the past three years.
• After a “summer of discontent” for Laguna Beach residents last year, the city held a town hall last week to talk about a new plan of action, measures that have been taken to mitigate the negative affects of tourism. “We were probably not as prepared as we would have liked to have been for the visitors last year,” the city manager told the crowd that gathered for the meeting.
• Although he’s a resident of Atherton in NorCal, conservative commentator Steve Hilton and his campaign managers chose to make an announcement Tuesday of his run for governor at Pier Plaza in Huntington Beach, a day after he made the same announcement online. Why H.B.? He said it’s because he admires the work of its city council.
• In September 2015 as many as 1,000 Orange County Catholics were reportedly among the throng of Californians who traveled to the East Coast to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis, who was making his historic visit to our country. Many faithful waited for seven months to get tickets to one of the pope’s U.S. appearances, one of which was for the canonization Mass of missionary Junipero Serra at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the first time a canonization had been held on U.S. soil. The pope died of a stroke Monday at the age of 88.
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• The 45-year-old motorcyclist fatally shot by Newport Beach police in a traffic stop at 9:15 p.m. last Thursday was the brother of “Real Housewives of Orange County” alum Lydia McLaughlin, who acknowledged she was mourning the loss of her brother, Geoffrey Stirling. Police said Stirling assaulted the officer who pulled him over and managed to take a taser from their belt. The motorcyclist tried to use the taser before police shot him. Police and the California Department of Justice are investigating the incident.
• Jurors yesterday found veteran Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his wife on Aug. 3, 2023 in their Anaheim Hills home. It was a retrial of the case after his first trial ended last month with a jury deadlocked, 11-1. “Ferguson, who presided over a courtroom in Fullerton before his arrest, had been free on $2-million bail and drawing his annual salary of more than $220,000 during his legal proceedings but not hearing cases,” the L.A. Times reported. In custody now, he faces a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.
• A man accused of killing his 25-year-old girlfriend in Huntington Beach after she had him evicted from the apartment they’d briefly shared in the summer of 2020 is standing trial this week. Craig Charron’s defense attorneys told jurors the woman’s death by stabbing — while she was on a conference call with her mother and her best friend, who both heard the victim screaming for him to stop — occurred in the heat of passion and in self defense.
• A man faces charges of pouring lighter fluid on a relative and attempting to set her on fire, as well as threatening another woman with a screwdriver, in an Anaheim motel room late Saturday afternoon. No one was injured, police said.
• KTLA reported that Orange County authorities were searching for three suspects who tried to burglarize the Louis Vuitton store at Fashion Island mall before 4 a.m. Monday.
• Two people died in separate Huntington Beach incidents last Wednesday morning, a fatal collision involving a pedestrian near Beach Boulevard at Talbert Avenue and an apparent suicide north of the pier.
• A recent sting operation found and cited two Newport Beach businesses for selling alcohol to decoy minors, out of eight businesses targeted in the operation. Those who sell alcoholic beverages to minors may face a fine up to $1,000 and/or 24 to 32 hours of community service for the first violation.
SPORTS
• The weather forecast is looking good for the 77th annual Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race, according to Pete Bretschger, spokesman for the event’s organizer, the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn. Winds should be favorable when the competition kicks off on Friday, the Daily Pilot reported. If all goes smoothly for them, the quickest yachts should cross the finish line in Mexico at around 9 or 10 a.m. Saturday.
• The Ducks fired coach Greg Cronin Saturday. General manager Pat Verbeek said “his team needs a new voice to achieve significant results from its lengthy rebuilding process,” the Associated Press reported in a story picked up by The Times. Instead of confirming the team’s 35-37-10 record in their seventh consecutive non-playoff season that caused the firing, Verbeek did not give any concrete reason, according to the report. “There was other reasons, and I shared those with Greg, and they were private conversations that I want to remain private as to why,” Verbeek told the press.
• Marina High student athletes Trevor Nguyen and David Tran earned the top seed in the CIF doubles division at the 123rd annual Ojai Tennis Tournament, which begins tomorrow. Other local high school doubles teams slated to compete at Ojai include Roger Geng and Brody Jao of Corona del Mar, Dylan Trinh and Kai Stolaruk of Edison, Caleb Goodman and Andrew Beasley of Huntington Beach, Jasper Hine and Matthew Leonard of Newport Harbor and Alex Croitoru and Alexander Park of Sage Hill. Local singles participants include Ivan Pflueger (CdM), Tane Rice (Laguna Beach), Alejandro Hill (Marina) and Ryan Honary (Newport Harbor).
LIFE & LEISURE
• Heidi Zuckerman — who oversaw the transition of the Orange County Museum of Art from a regional exhibition space to a capstone institution in Costa Mesa — announced last week she will step down as its chief executive in December. Daily Pilot reporter Sara Cardine interviewed the Laguna Beach resident and learned of her future plans.
• Fans of Porto’s Cuban bakery will be glad to know it will be opening a store in Downtown Disney in a new building to be constructed where the Earl of Sandwich now stands, Hannah Fry with The Times reported. The site is near the entrance to Disney California Adventure and Disneyland, where, according to a study cited by Fry, at least 27 million visitors passed through in 2023.
• Segerstrom Center for the Arts announced it will offer by subscription a six-night series that provides patrons a specially created dinner at a local restaurant, followed by a show. Dubbed Taste of the Arts, the series beings on July 24 and concludes in April 2026 The subscription series is on sale now, with tickets priced at $1,350. Visit scfta.org for show and menu details.
• Fountain Valley, which since 2021 has encouraged artists to create art for vinyl wraps to be installed on drab utility boxes, recently decided to also allow hand-painted art installations on them. The Daily Pilot interviewed Katy Wright, who is the only participant to date in the Art-on-a-Box program run by the Fountain Valley Community Foundation. “I have gotten up at several meetings, and I have talked about that I’m the inaugural artist, and I want to see more art out there by more people, more variety,” Wright said. “The sky’s the limit as far as what could be on those boxes.” Priority is given to artists who live and work in Fountain Valley, but it is also open to those who support or have an affiliation with the city. The Foundation will work with selected artists to find sponsors to pay for the installation.
CALENDAR THIS
• South County Pet Expo returns for its eighth year on Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lake Forest Sports Park & Recreation Center, 28000 Rancho Pkwy. It’s free to enter and has a “hippie” theme this year of “All They Need is Love.” Parking is also free, but is limited at the park, so guests can park across the street in the Saddleback Church parking lot. Event highlights include animals for adoption, vendors, and HEART 4 Pets’ low-cost mobile vet clinic for dogs and cats needing vaccinations or microchips. Dogs, cats, birds, rodents and other small animals will be available to adopt. There will be a carnival area, an Earth Day section with crafts, live music and more.
• The 52nd Newport Beach International Boat Show at the Lido Marina Village begins Thursday, May 1 and runs through Sunday, May 4. Guests can take a look at more than 200 vessels and visit the booths of 150 exhibitors showing off the latest and greatest boating gear. General admission is $30 each day, or $80 for a weekend pass. That includes access to the Mercury Racing Garden, a pop-up space where visitors can find snacks, beers and a soft turf play area for kids.
• Heroes Hall Speaker Series at the OC Fair & Event Center: From 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30, Marine Corps veterans and married couple Norman and Alice Marshall will speak on their careers during the Vietnam War, from flights of terror to rescuing Vietnamese following the fall of Saigon. Admission and parking are free; wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVPs can be made here, or call (714) 708-1613.
I’ll check in with you again on Wednesday, May 14. Until then, be well!
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.
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