Shelter director enters council race

William “Billy” O’Connell, the co-founder and executive director of a Huntington Beach nonprofit for homeless women and children, has entered the race for City Council.

O’Connell, who launched Colette’s Children’s Home with two others in 1998, is the 13th candidate to date. A native New Yorker who spent his childhood in Ireland, he has lived in Huntington Beach for nearly two decades and serves on the city’s Public Works Commission.

His candidacy for the council, he said, was motivated by a desire to serve the city beyond the scope of his nonprofit.

“I’ve always believed in giving back to the community,” O’Connell said. “I believe in making us a stronger and better community, and I believe I can play an important role in the city of Huntington Beach.”

Colette’s offers emergency and transitional housing for women and children and helps them find jobs and permanent homes. To date, the nonprofit has taken more than 1,000 people off the streets. O’Connell also worked as a deputy sheriff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department from 1990 to 1998.

As a candidate, he favors reducing taxes and government spending and supports the senior center in Huntington Central Park, which he said was mandated by voters.

“I see the challenges our seniors are faced with on fixed income, and I believe, in the last years of their lives, they should have a little respect and dignity,” he said. “I also feel the citizens of the city voted, and basically, we should follow what the people voted for.”

O’Connell is the latest contender in an already packed race for the council, which has four seats open this fall. Mayor Cathy Green and council members Jill Hardy and Gil Coerper will be termed out, while Councilman Joe Carchio is up for reelection.

Also running are small businessmen Dan Kalmick, Gregg DeLong, Bill Rorick and Erik Peterson, longtime Commissioner Joe Shaw, Ocean View School District Board of Trustees President Norm Westwell, former city Municipal Employees Assn. President John Von Holle, Planning Commissioners Barbara Delgleize, Blair Farley and Fred Speaker, Realtor Bruce Brandt, and after-school instructor Heather Grow.

Candidates have until Aug. 6 to file statements of intention and may pull papers to run for council between July 12 and Aug. 6, with the general election to take place Nov. 2.

Jade Smith, a case manager at Colette’s, said O’Connell would be a natural on the council.

“I think Billy is an excellent leader,” she said. “I’ve seen the change that he implements in the women’s lives on a day-to-day basis with our shelter, and I think he has a great ability to carry that on as a City Council member.

“He is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in to be right. He approaches situations in a loving manner, at the same time. He is very hands-on with our shelter and hands-on with our families here. He doesn’t just sit behind a desk. He makes himself a part of the program.”