INSIDE SCOOP

Eron Ben-Yehuda, Ellen McCarty and Andrew Wainer

For residents who want to have turkeys as pets rather than as dinner,

Huntington Beach senior planner Mike Strange offers helpful advice to

ensure you comply with city codes.

Residents may keep up to 10 gobblers in their homes as long as the

animals stay 20 feet away from the property line and 50 feet away from

the street, he said.

As far as he knows, no one has taken advantage of this fowl-friendly law,

but 20 years ago he remembers people living in the north end of town

keeping plenty of roosters and chickens.

It’s a boy!

Last week’s Fountain Valley School board meeting turned into a pretty

lopsided event.

At each meeting the board recognizes outstanding students from one of the

district’s schools.

Last week’s meeting was packed with parents holding cameras and video

recorders ready to film their child receiving recognition from Cox

Elementary School teachers.

One after another, from kindergarten to fifth grade, the recipients of

teachers’ accolades were girls.

Finally fourth grader Vance Jones broke the streak, the only male to

receive the award among six recipients.

“Finally, a boy!” one of the parents shouted when he was given the award.

The last breakfast

John Collins held his final Mayor’s Breakfast Nov. 18.

“You’ve all heard of the Last Supper,” he told more than 100 local

residents and public officials. “This is the last breakfast.”

Unfortunately, the mayor’s speech was a bit too slow and dull for his

PowerPoint slide assistant, Fire Chief Bernie Heimos, who constantly had

to backtrack through the slides to find an image that matched what the

mayor was talking about. At one point, the crowd burst into laughter and

Collins said to the mayor pro tem, “What are you laughing at, Carrozzo?

You’re going to be up here next.”

Collins said later that none of the blame should fall on Heimos.

“It was all my fault,” he said. “I thought the slides were in the right

order, and they weren’t.”