Mailbag: A note to H.B. residents unhappy with their council

Not to despair, citizens of Huntington Beach. Here in Costa Mesa we also had a conservative takeover a little more than a decade ago, and while they were a bit more tame in their attempts to upset the apple cart, so to speak (but just barely), they were nonetheless their own wrecking crew. Term limits, good centrist candidates and good old-fashioned angry voters got rid of them. What is it with conservatives that they seemingly always have to be so radical? It’s glaringly obvious today’s conservatives certainly are a different bunch since the political ascent of you-know-who. Or maybe they’ve always been this way? I don’t know. But I do know that instead of anger-inducing Daily Pilot articles, today Costa Mesa seems to mostly be humming along with occasional articles about what’s happening at City Hall for the good of citizens instead of unpopular and divisive changes to things that are mostly working well. But while things are quiescent here in Mesa, I do wish more citizens would vote in our elections. Turnout here is typically in the 30% of registered voters, and I’m always dismayed by that. The vote of the people is the most powerful tool a representative democracy has, and too many take it for granted and don’t participate. We fail to exercise this right at our own peril.

Mike Aguilar
Costa Mesa

An ill wind is about to blow through Huntington Beach, and it will have nothing to do with hurricanes and tornadoes. It has everything to do with the City Charter changes being proposed by the conservative City Council majority. It will be an EF-3 or greater civic crisis. While we can’t do much to stave off an actual wind event, we can and should be prepared to stave off this civic catastrophe. The citizenry must be warned.

In April 1775, British troops were ordered to arrest colonial leaders and then seize arms and provisions. When the plot was discovered, Paul Revere and William Dawes set off on their “midnight rides” to warn the principals and the citizenry that “the ‘regulars’ (erroneously reported by some as the ‘redcoats’) are coming!” Luckily, the warnings worked, leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams escaped, and the arsenal in Concord was alerted. I will be happy to play a role that many will share in alerting the citizenry that “the ‘reactionaries’ are coming (erroneously reported by some as the ‘right-wingers’)!”

In order for any ballot initiatives to appear on the March 2024 primary ballot, they must be finalized by Dec. 8, 2023. Many of the 11 proposed charter amendments would give more power to the council majority and less power to the community and its voices. One of the most obnoxious and dangerous proposals (by Casey McKeon) is to make it clear that the city attorney is the city’s exclusive legal counsel. This would not only vest the current city attorney with more power but make it more difficult to challenge his legal opinions as previous councils have thought about doing. It would hinder future council majorities from getting independent second opinions on questionable (and potentially harmful) decisions rendered by a rogue city attorney. Other amendments would have the exact opposite effect of giving voters “greater confidence” in the outcome of local elections. It would lead to “confidence fraud,” a con game, where the suckers are innocent members of the Surf City electorate. These authoritarian amendments were opposed by powerless council minority members and many community leaders.

We should not sanction this power grab by enshrining its predations in our City Charter. Like Paul Revere and others, many of us must be prepared to put ourselves on the line and go to every corner of the city to cry “the reactionaries are coming!” We must pay close attention to what plots the ‘reactionaries’ are hatching and work to thwart them. I don’t know if it will take a revolution to rid ourselves of the right-wing tyranny that is seeking to dominate us, but we can adopt one of their slogans that says it all, “Don’t tread on me!”

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach