Mailbag: One way or another, council members will determine H.B.’s future

“You’ve got to be carefully taught.” Sung by Lt. Cable in “South Pacific,” I believe this song contains the kernel of the problem with the current City Council majority. The carefully crafted lessons the majority had for this city began right out of the gate. On the night of Dec. 7, 2022 (a night which will live in infamy), the delirious MAGA crowd mocked Rabbi Stephen Einstein with a raucous antisemitic undercurrent. Since then, at every opportunity, this majority has step by step encroached on the decency which used to characterize this city. In each case, the majority has taken careful measures to signal the people who can properly be hated from the podium and in the official acts of the city. They came one by one for each. They vilified the unhoused working families of this city (accounting for over 1,000 children). They canceled the Greater Interfaith Council of Huntington Beach. They rewrote the statement of welcome and value in the Declaration on Human Dignity, signaling that it is A-OK to nurture a climate of selective hatred toward the LGBTQ+ community. They turned the Main Library into a culture-war no-man’s land. They gave city resources by the decade and by the millions as a gift to a political backer and tried to hide it. And then, they tried to claim that it was mere “lawfare” to beg a judge for the details of those gifts — all the while engaging in frivolous, wasteful and unsuccessful litigation against everybody. Then-Mayor Tony Strickland claimed to have “saved the air show” — but they seem to have lost the Olympics for good.

There is a word for this process of incremental violation of norms and boundaries. The City Council majority has been “grooming” this city.

Galen Pickett
Huntington Beach

Now that the televised national political conventions have washed through Huntington Beach, and the state races have yet to heat up, there is increasing focus on the local City Council scene and who among the eight candidates will best serve the citizenry for the three seats up in November. The choice is surprisingly simple. The council majority has endorsed its slate of like-minded would-be amateur authoritarians (Chad Williams, Butch Twining, Don Kennedy). The three have followed the path of their backers in bashing the incumbents and exhibiting zero leadership qualities to solve problems or address needs. Just MAGA moaning and bluster. The three incumbents (Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser, Rhonda Bolton) have always been the adults on the dais with intelligent and thoughtful decision-making which has been routinely stifled by the majority members. Perennial offbeat candidate Amory Hanson has run in several elections, even finishing ahead of Don Kennedy in 2018 (when Kennedy came in next to last). First-timer Marissa Jackson presents herself as a “conservative option” with family values.

Who will serve the community better? Ultimately, the electorate will probably go with one of the two major trios. There, the decision seems clear. Either voters will choose more of the same in pushing the unproductive confrontational style of the council majority or they will realize that we need to go down a more responsible path of leadership to get things done. Surf City can either ride the wave of progress and prosperity or drown in the wake of failed performance.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

H.B. needs a no-kill animal shelter

While Huntington’s City Council is deliberating about library books, children’s gender reveal, and the settlement over the noise- and air-polluting air show’s law suit, innocent dogs, cats and kittens are being killed daily in the O.C. Animal Care shelter in Tustin where Huntington Beach contracts for an exorbitant annual fee.

Coastal cities from Seal Beach to San Clemente, including Costa Mesa, Irvine, Mission Viejo and Westminster have their own shelter. What is Huntington Beach’s excuse?

OCAC cannot service 15 cities and unincorporated areas efficiently from Brea down to Huntington Beach, and it’s useless to stem the out-of-control breeding and suffering of kittens on the streets of inland O.C.

Lynn Copeland
Huntington Beach