Nonprofits providing services using Huntington Beach facilities, such as public parks, may soon be required to enter formal agreements with the city.
On Tuesday, council members unanimously voted to establish a special committee looking to get signed contracts with nonprofits using city properties.
Mayor Pat Burns, Councilman Casey McKeon and Councilwoman Gracey Van Der Mark will be the three council members in charge of overseeing nonprofits and facilitating formal contracts.
McKeon said the main purpose of the committee is to address potential liability issues.
“This will ensure each group that works with the city has proper, formal contracts in place in order to protect the city and taxpayers from liability exposure as well as defined roles and responsibilities,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Some residents objected to the proposal and argued it was meant to target specific groups.
Resident Chris Kluwe said the city council’s goal is to punish organizations that do not align with their political ideologies.
“This is a blatant power grab by the city council and an attempt to bring political retribution against groups that they do not politically agree with,” Kluwe said at the meeting.
Resident Chris Rini also opposed the committee supervising nonprofits and argued that the new policy intends to intimidate volunteers.
“For a group that wants to limit government,” Rini said at the meeting. “Why are you expanding government overreach?”
Councilman Butch Twining said the effort was simply to create structure.
“I find it amazing, not surprising that this item has been brought up as controversial,” Twining said at the meeting. “This initiative doesn’t represent some sinister effort to promote government control.”
Twining also suggested the city create a volunteer resource pool that would provide essential items like tools, safety vests, first aid kits, gloves and water.
“The point is, we want to be good partners with our volunteer groups,” Twining said.
John Scandura, president of the Shipley Nature Center — one of the organizations mentioned specifically in the staff report — said the nonprofit has had a longstanding written agreement with the city for 22 years.
“The impact on us would be minimal,” Scandura said in a phone interview.
Scandura said he supported the initiative as it would help define the roles and responsibilities of all parties, citing the current agreement the Shipley Nature Center has with the city.
“We’re responsible for maintaining all the plants that are inside of the nature center and making sure that they don’t properly go out of control,” Scandura said. “The city is responsible for maintaining the fence that goes around the property.”
Scandura pointed out that the new contract requirement might pose different challenges for other organizations.
“Every organization has a different function, so what works well at Shipley may not work with the Friends of the Library,” Scandura said. “To put it succinctly, we do work in the outdoors, they do work in the indoors.”
Councilman Don Kennedy said the committee would work with all organizations to identify their function and the suitable agreement framework.
“This is not a one solution fits all volunteers,” Kennedy said at the meeting.
McKeon said another important aspect of the committee is to streamline communication with the groups citing issues in the past where volunteer groups reached out to multiple city staff or officials with the same requests.
“We’d also like to develop better lines of communication with our volunteer groups to ensure they receive what they need in a timely fashion,” Mckeon said at the meeting.
Burns said the idea was for all parties to function in a business manner.
“There’s got to be some kind of chain of command just to organize everything,” Burns said at the meeting.
Scandura said insurance coverage is a benefit for most organizations, but for some presents a new challenge.
“The benefit, of course, is insurance coverage and in the event of a lawsuit,” Scandura said in a phone interview. “But the big problem is that these insurance policies can be expensive to get.”
Kluwe criticized the city for its expected 8 million budget deficit next fiscal year, raising concerns about the entanglement of government with groups providing free services.
“They’re volunteering their efforts to help us out during a budget crisis,” Kluwe said at the meeting.
Resident and former Huntington Beach Councilmember Natalie Moser said the initiative is an attempt to attack certain nonprofits.
“Had you spent the two years working with our community partners, you could have built something lasting,” Moser said at the meeting. “Instead, you’ve sown division, injected partisanship and targeted organizations who speak up.”
Van Der Mark said that when she was first elected, she raised concerns with her colleagues about unclear responsibilities among nonprofits and a lack of communication.
“This is nothing new. We just haven’t gotten around to it,” she said.
McKeon said the committee will audit all groups and volunteers that provide services on behalf of the city or work alongside the city and will report back in 6 months with recommendations on improving coordination and whether formal agreements are needed.
“This actually benefits everybody.”
Isabel Torres is a Voice of OC intern. You can contact her at isabtorres@chapman.edu