Huntington Beach City Council to deliberate on new member Monday night

The Huntington Beach City Council hopes to appoint a new member during a special meeting on Monday, filling the vacancy caused when Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz resigned on June 1.

The Council called the special 6 p.m. meeting after listening to more than 100 applicants for the vacant position on July 9 and 10. Each applicant made a statement of up to five minutes, on why he or she would be a good choice for the position.

Council members have agreed on parameters for Monday’s meeting. Each will be able to nominate up to three candidate names to consider. Voting rounds will start from there, until and if one candidate receives the support of at least four Council members.

The agreed upon candidate then would be sworn in at Tuesday’s regular City Council meeting.

Alternatively, if no candidate is finalized by July 31, then a special election would be required.

Ortiz, a former professional mixed martial arts fighter, made an abrupt exit from the council at its first meeting in June. He issued a statement after the public comments portion of the meeting, saying that in his brief time on the panel he’d been met with “hostility and judgment” and subject to character assassination through the media. “To put it simply, this job isn’t working for me,” he said.

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