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“I can’t take on THIS three-headed hydra!”
Strap in, kids, this is gonna be a wild ride!
Mayor Kim Carr and Councilmembers Dan Kalmick and Mike Posey have introduced the above item to this week’s city council meeting agenda, and some of Current Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz’s fans are understandably upset. Not only are they struggling to understand why their newest political hero is facing these consequences, they are also struggling to understand what those consequences actually are.
According to self-identified City Hall Watcher Mark Bixby, “This would not have made it onto the agenda unless approval was near-certain.” So, in preparation for this city council meeting, I’d like to take this moment to fact check the Huntington Beach Community Forum, and answer some of the HBCF denizens’ questions:
“WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON!!! This makes my skin boil! SOCIALISM AT IT’S FINEST! HELL NO!”
It’s not a hostile socialist takeover, it’s just a motion to replace the current Mayor Pro Tem with someone who doesn’t spend their Sunday afternoon yelling at teenage cashiers. Creative mixing of colloquialisms, though, haven’t heard of boiling skin before.
“The citizens of HB have a voice and have made they’re decision, why can’t you just accept that?”
The Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are selected by members of the city council, not by the general public, and the positions are rotated among members of the council. City Council does not have the power to eject one of its members; only an official recall can remove a duly elected council member from office. Carr, Kalmick, and Posey are perfectly within their right to put this item on the agenda (and I think they got significant public pressure to do so).
“How do WE THE PEOPLE censor THEM … ?”
Perhaps we… don’t bother? Your only real recourse is to start an official recall petition… actually, three recall petitions. Maybe more if Delgleize, Moser, and Peterson join them in voting yes on this item. That seems like too much work for a bunch of people who have tried and failed for two years to recall Gavin “Newsome,” but good luck I guess.
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if these libs spent 4 years mindlessly ignoring the idea that they have jobs to do while aimlessly spending that time going after Tito?”
No, it wouldn’t. And that’s all the more reason to support the no confidence vote; hopefully removing him from this higher-profile position will mean fewer distractions, and more focus on local governance. It’s supposed to be boring, folks!
“I thought in this country if your voted in and do your job, thats enough. Why the hypocrisy against democracy?”
“Hypocrisy against democracy” is a phrase that doesn’t actually mean anything. I agree it should be enough for any elected official to show up and do their job. However, I haven’t seen any evidence that Tito has done that. Have you?
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Listen, children, the job of a city council member isn’t just showing up at a community event, or handing out turkeys at Christmas, or sitting on a dais and voting yay or nay. There’s also listening, reading, writing… and legislating. Kalmick and Moser show up with at least one agenda item every meeting (and usually more). Where has Tito been?
If Mayor Pro Tem Ortiz were truly showing up and doing the work, I would be firmly against the no confidence vote. I just don’t think that’s the case.
Where can we get phone numbers to call? Will it help?
I agree with Bixby that this item is almost certain to pass. A phone call might not help Tito Ortiz keep his title of Mayor Pro Tem, but it will help your elected representatives hear you. They sincerely want you to call them about this and everything else going on around town, I promise.
The City Council’s Administrative Assistant can be reached at 714-536-5553, and you can send an email to all of the council members at City.Council@surfcity-hb.org. If you’d like to speak at the meeting, it will be livestreamed here at 6pm on Monday, February 1.
I’ll be watching with popcorn and a bottle of wine. Cheers.
Not too uncommon to lose your Mayor Pro-Tem position when you repeatedly piss off the rest of the Council.
I remember Lorri Galloway getting stripped of Pro-Tem back in 2012 by the klepto majority of Kris Murray, Gail Eastman, and Harry Sidhu – and it was for the nasty little person actually doing GOOD things: launching a “Let The People Vote” initiative to combat their hotel subsidies, and fighting for district elections.
In the meantime, the FBI is raiding the HB apartments and arresting other Tito-like hate-filled radicalized MAGAts who trekked to DC for 1/6. Some of these same clowns have taken the stage with Tito this past year at various MAGAt rallies. This underbelly of Surf City is bad for business and bad for home values! It’s a stain on Huntington Beach and Orange County for sure.
Completely agree.
This completely makes my day. He is a joke, blocking HB citizens on social media when he is the one who is supposed to represent us? Most importantly – his QAnon agenda and anti mask insanity is not good for our community. #recalltito
Orange Juice on Channel 9 AND a US prosecutor case — congrats!
City Hall has a mask policy. Every time he enters City Hall, an employee has to ask him to wear a mask. Every single time he ignores that person.
Completely disrespectful and entitled. He says he wants to “protect HB” but he keeps working against it. Even if he thinks the policy is wrong, it’s still the policy and he is not exempt. Horrible role model.
Haven’t his voters realized he’ll sell them out yet for a buck yet? He proved it with his first vote. He has them conned that he has money. Why do they think he keeps taking fights? Their golden boy is broke.
Epic Fail.
Clairvoyance is a talent I unfortunately do not possess. My wine and popcorn were the best part of the night.
https://voiceofoc.org/2021/02/huntington-beach-city-council-grants-tito-ortiz-a-second-chance-as-mayor-pro-tem/
What the hell? Why give him a second chance when he is completely committed to not wearing a mask and thus endangering his colleagues?
Did Moser refuse to support the motion? Do we really need Delglieze?
And he played the “they just hate me because I’m Latino” card? *Really*?
My guess is that many of his outspoken supporters thought that he was being removed from the Council rather than just from being “second-in-command.” It would be interesting to know who was clear about that, who was unclear — and who was affirmatively misleading.
The silver lining to me is hopefully we’ll be able to watch Tito run a meeting, if Carr ever travels or gets sick. I would watch that.
Tito Watch has just sent me a post-mortem story on the whole ordeal, which I’ll get up later today. Meanwhile Gina put up her Council speech onto Youtube and sent it to me, so I’m guessing she wants me to share it here: