Through my eyes

Ron Davis

Our Huntington Beach elected officials are used to mugging for the

camera. So, at last Monday night’s City Council meeting I didn’t give it

a great deal of thought when all seven council members, along with City

Administrator Ray Silver, posed for another Huntington Beach family snap

shot.

At the beginning of virtually every council meeting either the city is

handing out or receiving some sort of award. Maybe it’s because they are

so commonplace, or perhaps because they’re noncontroversial, we

columnists seldom make mention of these awards, preferring instead to

critically comment on other events or issues confronting the city.

While the presentation was being made and the camera was clicking to

the sound of “cheese,” I busied myself looking for some meat in the

council agenda and some backup material.

Somewhat oblivious to the presentation and the ensuing Kodak-moment,

someone poked me and said, “That award to the city is pretty cool, isn’t

it?”

Since I hadn’t been paying strict attention I merely mumbled, “yeah,”

and made it look like I was deep in thought on more serious matters. But,

the comment focused my attention to the issue and I learned my friend was

right. The award to the city is pretty cool, indeed. For the third year

in a row, Huntington Beach was voted “Best City to Live In,” by a local

newspaper survey.

Our city frequently receives recognition for being one of America’s

safest cities. We’re frequently the recipient of other public safety

awards, and awards for efficiency. Awards that this city, city staff and

council members are rightly proud of, but which generally do not receive

much media attention. Issues such as the recently imposed sewer fee are

certainly worthy of attention. Our failure to have repaired our sewers

earlier and our failing infrastructure are also worthy of comment.

Indeed, each and every council meeting presents some significant issue,

which impacts our community and warrants discussion and debate. But,

sometimes we can get too close to the action and too caught up looking

for these issues to the detriment of the bigger picture.

Being recognized as the “best city to live in” out of 34 competing

cities, three years in a row, is quite an accomplishment. Particularly

because the “best city” award involves public safety, recreation, quality

of live and a myriad of other positive considerations and compares them

community to community, to determine that Huntington Beach is the best.

The citizens of this community, city staff and the City Council have

every right to be proud of an award that says that despite the flaws that

haunt all cities, there is but one Orange County “best city to live in,’

and that is Huntington Beach.

Oh, in case I didn’t mention it, during the photo shoot, I noticed

that one of the participants wasn’t smiling as sincerely as I thought

they should. Probably not a big deal, but I’ll take a little closer look

at that issue next week and discuss the serious implications for our

community. * RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington

Beach. He can be reached by e-mail at o7 RDD@socal.rr.com.f7