Huntington Beach City Council members told residents this month they’re locked into a contract with the Pacific Airshow operators without any wiggle room despite mounting questions focused on how much tax revenue the annual show generates.
It’s a stark contrast from last year, when the city council majority publicly insisted no contracts existed with the airshow operators, ridiculing dissenting council members for questioning a settlement agreement.
Yet this month, the same elected officials seemingly argued the opposite – now saying the settlement holds the power of a 40-year contract.
The settlement was negotiated behind closed doors after Code Four, the primary company that runs the airshow, sued the city for shutting down the airshow for one day in 2021 during an oil spill off the coast.
City leaders and Code Four CEO Kevin Elliott held a news conference praising the settlement in May 2023, but the details of the deal weren’t released until July 2024 after local school board member Gina Clayton-Tarvin sued the city and forced them to make it public.
[Read: HB Leaders Give Up Thousands of Public Parking Spots to Airshow Operators, Settlement Shows]
“Included within the full Settlement Agreement are potential terms and conditions intended for the City Council’s negotiations with Pacific Airshow LLC for future Huntington Beach Airshows on a longer-term basis,” city leaders wrote in their 2024 press release disclosing the settlement. “No commitment has been made by either party.”
At the time, Councilman Casey McKeon, one of the city’s most outspoken proponents of the deal, accused other city council members of “politicizing” the settlement at their Aug. 6, 2024 council meeting, arguing that the airshow’s operators would still have to negotiate a contract with them later.
“To repeat, we do not have a long term contract with the airshow,” McKeon said. “A long term contract for the airshow would have to be brought back to council, negotiated, costed, reviewed, presented to the public so the public can review, scrutinize, provide comments before a contract can be approved.”
But at a city council meeting earlier this month, on Sept. 2, where council members approved a 25-year long contract with the airshow, McKeon shot down a proposal from Councilman Chad Williams to renegotiate the contract and figure out how much money the city would be making.
“You can’t go and like renegotiate on the fly,” McKeon said. “If we don’t pass this tonight, he could enforce the previous settlement contract.”
Under the deal, the airshow’s operators are guaranteed a right to a “boat-race around Catalina Island, on-sand entertainment, music, and other entertainment,” along with a “multiday music festival,” every year for 25 years.
They also receive all the public parking spots along the coast between Seventh Street and Beach Boulevard, along with the Main Street parking garage, Pier Plaza and amphitheater parking for the first five years, after which they have to pay the city $10 a spot.
City leaders also agreed to pay all the costs of police, fire and public works staff at the event, along with other mitigating fees.
[Read: How Much Will Huntington Beach Subsidize the Pacific Airshow?]
City Leaders Now Say Settlement is Contract Foundation
McKeon said he stood by both his statements in a Thursday interview, pointing out that while there technically wasn’t a contract in 2023, Elliott did have the power to sue to enforce those terms going into the contract city council members just signed.
“He could sue to enforce that,” McKeon said. “But like I said several times, I was optimistic we could negotiate better terms.”
While the city did drop the deal’s length from 40 years to 25 and got back some of its parking spaces, the vast majority of the contract is identical to the settlement agreement provisions, and McKeon acknowledged the deal only improved because Elliott offered it to them.
“He didn’t have to,” McKeon said.
McKeon wasn’t the only city council member to praise Elliott for offering them a better deal.
“As tough as it is to swallow, the negotiation has already been transacted,” said Councilman Don Kennedy, who was elected to the city council in 2024, at an August council meeting. “There’s an agreement that’s already been agreed upon … we could be compelled to honor the 40 year deal.”
Kennedy then praised Code Four CEO Kevin Elliott for giving up some of what he’d been promised in the settlement agreement, like cutting the contract from 40 years to 25.
“He could enforce that contract. He could say ‘I want the 40 years, I’m not giving you any parking, but he didn’t do that,” Kennedy said. “Let’s hope for success.”
How Much Money Does the Airshow Make?
City council members repeated another discussion from their Aug. 2024 meeting earlier this month – a debate over how much money the airshow brings in.
While city leaders often point to a study that claimed the airshow brought in over $120 million of economic impact in 2023, the report’s authors weren’t able to answer questions on how they got that number.
[Read: How Much Money Does the Pacific Airshow Bring to Huntington Beach?]
The authors were also hired by Visit Huntington Beach, the city’s tourism bureau which at the time included Elliott on its board.
Elliott did not respond to questions on how much of a profit the airshow makes each year for this article.
In August 2024, former Councilmembers Natalie Moser, Dan Kalmick and Rhonda Bolton asked their council colleagues to order an audit of the city’s books to find out how much money the airshow was making for the city.
“At least for budget purposes, we need to understand what the airshow is now going to cost us annually,” Kalmick said at the council’s Aug. 6, 2024 meeting. “I have a lot of concerns about what the airshow actually generates for the city.”
But the council’s majority and then-City Attorney Michael Gates shot down their proposal, pointing back to the tourism report and arguing that it was impossible to estimate the value of a future project.
“An audit over a future hypothetical contract is a waste of time and taxpayer money cause it’s not finalized,” McKeon said at the time. “If and when a future long term contract comes to the city, that will be the appropriate time to do any costing exercises.”
Many of those same questions surfaced again this month from Councilman Chad Williams, a former Navy Seal who ran with McKeon and other council members’ endorsement and has frequently voted with them.
“I hate to say it, but I just don’t see it,” Williams said, pointing to the old report at the meeting. “I seriously love the airshow. I’m sad I won’t be able to show my face on the beach at the airshow after pointing these things out … but we will be paying for it, our kids will be paying for it, our kids’ kids will be paying for it.”
While Williams pitched delaying a final decision on the contract and studying the economics of the airshow, the rest of the city council disagreed with him, with McKeon at one point shouting over him and calling for council members to vote on the deal.
Other council members raised concerns about the deal already being locked in place.
“Is my understanding correct that Kevin and Code Four already has a signed 40 year contract?” Councilman Butch Twining asked.
City Manager Travis Hopkins acknowledged the city has a settlement that “contemplates the 40-year term,” but didn’t say one way or the other if that was a contract.
When asked if he thought the city should double check the math in a Thursday interview, McKeon said it was “absurd to think the air show doesn’t bring economic benefit to the city.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary to spend extra money (on a study) when we just know it’s a proven success,” McKeon said. “If they’re honest with themselves, everyone knows it’s an economic benefit to the city. It’s our biggest event of the year.”
Former Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland, who’s now a state senator, said his biggest accomplishment as mayor was saving the airshow, and that if the deal doesn’t turn out for the city, residents should hold him and the city council accountable at the council’s August 2024 meeting.
“You have to look at the whole picture of what the cost and revenue is for the city of Huntington Beach. This is a net positive positive positive,” Strickland said. “Please hold me accountable.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.