Government representation discussed at Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force summit

A past mayor of Huntington Beach traded ideas with perhaps a future Surf City leader Thursday night during an online forum hosted by the Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force.

Former Mayor Shirley Dettloff and recent Huntington Beach High School graduate Chanel Nejad were two of four panelists for the community summit, the third in a five-part series. The topic Thursday was representation in local government.

Local pastor and actor Daniel Kelly, as well as Girls Inc. of Orange County executive board member Janet Michels, also gave their thoughts during the 90-minute panel hosted by Sunny Lee-Goodman.

The forum began with a few poll questions and a “scrapbook” of recent events in Huntington Beach, which included local newspaper pages. After the participants were shown the scrapbook, 45% of them said they felt “concerned” with recent events that have happened in their town, more than any other response.

Following community responses to questions that were read by spoken word artist Joandrea Reynolds, panel discussion was wide-ranging. Kelly talked about growing up in a household where his mother was a Democrat and his father a Republican, and how that shaped his views going forward.

Nejad, who is going to UCLA to pursue a degree in political science, answered a question about how she experienced polarization in the past few years. She described a memorial at Huntington Beach High’s outdoor amphitheater following the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in 2018, where a group of students who brought a flag that said, “Don’t tread on me.”

“I was taken aback,” Nejad said. “I thought as a student body, we could all just come together and honor these innocent lives that had been taken away. But after the 17 seconds [of silence], there was an argument ... It was a moment for those students, and it was saddening to see it become a political thing. I mean, everything has become politicized in the recent years and months.”

Dettloff, who served on the City Council from 1994-2000 and was Huntington Beach’s mayor in 1997, spoke candidly about views of the city as associated with white supremacist groups among other things.

“We’re a wealthy city ... and we’re a very conservative city,” Dettloff said. “We’re also a city that thinks highly of itself among the cities of Orange County. We have a wonderful beach, we have Huntington Harbour, and we’re a wealthy community. I’ve always felt that we’ve tried to set ourselves apart. But there was within our community a group of kids that were not being accepted in their high school situations. When the recruiters came in, they were kids who responded.”

The community summit continues Friday with an forum for high school students only on xenophobia and racism. The fifth and final forum discussion is Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, on diversity and inclusion.

Registration is required at hbsummit.eventbrite.com, and closes at 10 a.m. Friday for the last forum discussion.

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