Not so much
Nothing pleased us more this week than the political demise of Huntington Beach Council incumbents Connie Boardman and Joe Shaw. Their removal of these nannies repudiates the left-wing, extraordinarily stupid agenda they’d brought to Surf City for a number of years now.
Said the OC Register on Wednesday (it’s finally showing up again), in part,
Huntington Beach perhaps saw the greatest overhaul of its government. Four council seats were up for grabs, and all four were picked up by newcomers; in the process, two incumbents appeared defeated. Incumbents Joe Shaw and Connie Boardman looked to be out, and Barbara Delgleize, Mike Posey, Bill O’Connell and Erik Peterson appeared to be in.
The HB Independent (spawn of the Left Angeles Times) covered it here: Incumbents voted out in H.B. council, city attorney elections. For three of the four new council members, it was their third time trying for office. We’re especially pleased for Billy O’Connell who’s a very likable person and a supporter of HB Assemblyman Travis Allen.
DUI Awardee and incumbent City Attorney Jennifer McGrath lost her elected position to a private attorney, Michael Gates. This office needs to be term-limited.
The new City Council also needs to have one single and loud voice to protect their beach fire rings from the State’s AQMD and CARB bureaucrats.
We’d like to see all four of these new members, as well as the others make it clear to the OCTA and Caltrans that NO toll lanes will be tolerated on the 405 freeway that runs a number of miles thru HB’s north end. Assemblyman-elect Matthew Harper will be leaving the Council and OCTA Board for Sacramento, and it would be to the city’s advantage that one of their Council replace him (this process is more political than competitive — Jim Righeimer would be a good choice as well). Harper was anti-tolling. OCTA Board members should really be elected, but now is the time to start lobbying for membership as changes will be made early next year. Gary Miller of Seal Beach is the other District Two Board member and is strongly anti-tolling. Supervisor-elect Michelle Steel will also join this Board, and while her position against the toll lanes was made late in her campaign, and somewhat tepidly compared to her opponent who actually lived in the County, the three District Two Board members need to present a united front.
We’d also like see the city’s practice of allowing each council member an appointment to its planning commission to stop as this leads to too much cronyism and idiots like Janis Mantini. Mantini, a hyper-growth Boeing and Chamber of Commerce robot, also failed in her campaign for HB Union High School District Board. Planning Commissioners should be selected from volunteers via interviews and voting by the entire seven-member Council. This process works well in Fountain Valley.
We hope our confidence in the new City Council is well placed. Let’s have NO more plastic bag, styrofoam and fireworks bans — no more touchy-feely liberal BS and nonsense. Let’s respect peoples’ property, like the owners of the mobile homes and the owners of the parks they sit on. This Board has the potential of being much more professional than the last, and to act like adults. That needs to happen.