From: Fikes, Cathy
To: Agenda Alerts
Subject: Pacific Airshow HB future events
Date: Thursday, August 1, 2024 11:48:51 AM
-----Original Message-----
From: Michelle Larsson <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2024 6:53 PM
To: CITY COUNCIL (INCL. CMO STAFF) <[email protected]> Subject: Pacific Airshow HB future events
Dear Council Members,
I applaud the agreement between the City of HB & the operators of the Pacific Airshow.
I
agree that this spectacular event should be celebrated for the next 40 years In our family oriented beach setting! To those who seem to oppose this, please resign from our City Council & move to LA or somewhere
other than this
beautiful town in which most residents support this great city.
Thank you,
City resident for almost 50 years,
Homeowner
VOTER
8/6/2024
31 (24-547)
From: Carol Daus
To: [email protected]; CITY COUNCIL (INCL. CMO STAFF) Subject: In Favor of #31 (24-547) and In Opposition of #30 (24-541) Date: Thursday, August 1, 2024 1:24:30 PM
Dear Council Members,
As a longtime resident and taxpayer of Huntington Beach, I continue to wait for the transparency that you four majority council members campaigned on. After being elected, Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark told the OC Register that she was excited about being part of a team that is "engaged and transparent with a 100% accessibility." This was a false campaign promise because since taking office, you four have been completely non-transparent about policies. The Pacific Airshow settlement is the most egregious example of your secretive style of government. That's why I applaud the 3 minority members who propose an objective, third- party audit to review the settlement costs and value, as well as provide a metric-driven report that succinctly reveals the net direct economic benefit to the City. I enjoy the airshow, but not when sketchy deals with the operator are kept hidden from the people. If everything was conducted ethically and legally, the majority council members and our city attorney should welcome this proposal. YES on 24-547: Determine Total Cost of Pacific Airshow Settlement!
And while I'm on the subject of transparency (since this also seems to be a theme in another agenda item), please provide the public with information on:
1) The status of the City Manager/Police Chief dual position. Is the City Council actively recruiting for a new city manager? If not, is this permanent? How is the compensation handled?
2) When will the library Parent/Guardian Review Board be announced? Members have applied and are waiting for an announcement.
3) When will the new library cards be released? (It was announced that they would be released last March????)
(If the library required an overhaul--which the majority believed was needed last summer to remove what they deemed was pornographic material--why have they done absolutely nothing about it?)
I am strongly opposed to #24-541, just another culture war antic on the part of the council majority. Enforcing this type of action on teachers in the state of California is unlawful. Teens and children have rights too. Only a handful of states, such as Idaho and Alabama, have passed legislation that resembles Gracey's politically-charged and hateful policy. Since this could never be enacted in HB, it's 100% performative and would only result in costly lawsuits if it moved forward. What's next? Attacking HB women over their reproductive rights? Please stop the culture war nonsense! You may get on Fox News by announcing these wedge issues, but you're not helping residents. You're only creating a more polarized community. No on 24- 541!
Thank you,
Carol Daus
Huntington Beach resident
From: Estanislau, Robin
To: Moore, Tania
Subject: FW: Supplemental communication for City Council Meeting Date: Friday, August 2, 2024 1:12:05 PM
From: pacj <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 2, 2024 1:04 PM
To: Estanislau, Robin <[email protected]>; CITY COUNCIL (INCL. CMO STAFF) <[email protected]>
Subject: Supplemental communication for City Council Meeting
Robin,
Can you please forward this to the appropriate party? Thank you.
Council members:
There are two items on the agenda regarding transparency. One is on the air show settlement and one is on City Tax Sharing.
I suggest not moving forward with either study.
The State Auditor is conducting a study on the air show settlement. Staff should be prepping for that effort.
I do believe in transparency and financial responsibility and request that the entirety of the council comment on the recruitment of a City Manager. The CM in essence is our City's CEO. It's a critical post.
Our former CM left in November 2023. When I wrote to the council and asked about the recruitment process I was told by a staff member there was none and that "we are exploring our options." When I asked about the options there was no response. We currently have the Chief of Police acting as Interim CM. Is the council planning on keeping our chief as interim cm indefinitely? Are you recruiting for a new Chief of Police?
Lastly, I am confused by the City's official facebook Government Page. There are important updates regarding vector control, city employee awards and community events. There are also commentaries which appear political in nature. I was advised that historically the Govt Page is the Mayor's page and that past mayors have used it to deliver their opinions some of which were political in nature. In the spirit of One HB, perhaps it would be better to keep the neutral Government page and add an additional page for the HB Mayor.
Thank you,
Pat Quintana
From: Michele Burgess
To: [email protected]; CITY COUNCIL (INCL. CMO STAFF) Subject: August 6, 2024 City Council Meeting, Agenda Item 31, File 24-547 Date: Friday, August 2, 2024 3:34:39 PM
Little did unsuspecting Huntington Beach residents know they’d be participating, after the 2022 election, in a new game show produced by and starring some unsavory actors — “Let’s Make a Very Bad Deal.” Behind door number one, a ban on “pornographic and obscene” books in the children’s and teen sections of the library. Behind door number two, a back-door plan to outsource management of the public library to a for- profit company. Behind door number three, a secret multi-million-dollar settlement with Pacific Airshow to give away a multitude of benefits, paid by for taxpayers, for up to 40 years. There are many other slightly less deplorable “prizes” as well.
City Attorney Gates and the MAGA conservative majority are the headliners in this show. Instead of doing what’s best for all our citizens, Van Der Mark, Burns, Strickland, and McKeon have sidelined the minority, voting as a block to pass controversial agenda items and resolutions on votes of 4-3 or 4-0-3. Conversely, agenda items proposed by the minority always fail 3-4.
The continual gaslighting is astounding. When Mayor Gracey announced that the details of the secret settlement with Pacific Airshow were released, she failed to mention it’s only because Gina Clayton-Tarvin sued and prevailed under the California Public Records Act. Gracey also touted a highly questionable, unverifiable annual $100 million financial benefit to Huntington Beach and surrounding cities, due to the 3-day air show, as one of the reasons this costly settlement was such a great idea.
The deal stinks to high heaven. Locking us in for up to 40 years, giving away the farm (thousands of parking spaces, fee waivers, environmental impact reports, no charge for public safety employees), settling for breach of contract when there was no contract, $5 million for one canceled day without any accounting of actual expenses, the list goes on and on. Gates continually boasts that he’s a fighter, so why did he roll over and play dead for his friend Kevin Elliott? At taxpayer expense. Not to mention constantly ignoring letters from the California Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission regarding limiting access to and monetizing public lands and violating the terms of the lease. The cozy relationship between the MAGA majority, Gates, and Elliott is highly suspicious and needs to be investigated. Pacific Airshow is already selling tickets for this year; have they even pulled a permit yet? And is the City fully insured against liability due to the Airshow?
When Kalmick, Moser, and Bolton issued a statement regarding the abhorrent settlement details, Mayor Gracey posted (unethically) on the city’s official Facebook page to accuse them of political gamesmanship, casting aspersions on the integrity of the City Council, and using the settlement as a means of campaigning for reelection. Is this the same Gracey who, at a recent meeting, sternly lectured us on polarization in the community and called for cohesion? Posting this political blather on the city’s official page resulted in hundreds of rancorous comments from supporters and dissenters, a really bad look for our official page. Does the public really need to be involved in this? It’s like watching your parents fight — very uncomfortable.
City Attorney Michael Gates posted on his personal Facebook page a while back: “As I learned a long time ago, politics is a game of timing and patience. A day of reckoning is coming and things in Huntington Beach will be made right again, again. People can jump up and down all they want about lawsuit wins and losses. While certain folks are currently gushing about the small wins in the short-term, they are focused (read: distracted) on the wrong things and sounding foolish. I remain focused on the long game. Patience. Trust. Keep the faith. The day will come.” I myself hope the day of reckoning will come sooner, rather than later, when California’s attorney general, the state auditor, FPPC, FBI, ACLU, California Bar Association, Pro Publica, and other investigative journalists shine a light on the corruption, and those who have damaged our city begin paying for what they’ve done. It’s well past time for this atrocious game show to be canceled and the bad actors fired, fined, disbarred, and/or incarcerated.
In the meantime, I wholeheartedly support the agenda item submitted by City Council members Kalmick, Moser, and Bolton demanding full financial transparency regarding the Pacific Airshow settlement. Huntington Beach taxpayers have the right to know!!!!!
Michele Burgess
Huntington Beach since 1961