When Huntington Beach voters elected a Republican city council majority in 2022, they came in with one top mandate – battle Sacramento for local control, especially in court.
“What happens when we get that majority? We signed a contract, right here. The first thing we do is unleash Michael Gates,” said Tony Strickland at the majority’s final meet and greet before the 2022 election, referencing the then-city attorney who was campaigning alongside them.
“We have a winnable lawsuit. All we need to do is have a majority of the city council say ‘Michael, go fight this.’”
But nearly three years later, they’ve lost most of the fights they swore they could win on issues like housing, voter ID, and immigration, with judges repeatedly telling them to follow state law.
It comes as many of those same council members and Michael Gates are getting ready to run for reelection or higher office.
Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon argues they haven’t lost the fight yet, and that their lawsuits have put off the impact of state mandates for years.
“We’ve won in terms of buying time,” McKeon said in an interview. “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees … this is a matter of legal interpretation and we have to fight for it.”
Now, it’s an open question on how much money Surf City taxpayers could be on the hook for in legal fees and penalties.
The Promise to Fight for Charter City Rights
In 2022, the majority of Huntington Beach’s city council were Democrats, and after a brief attempt to overturn the state’s housing laws in 2019 ended in a settlement, the city had largely stayed out of filing any major lawsuits.
But in November, Strickland was sworn in as mayor alongside Councilmembers Casey McKeon, Gracey Van Der Mark and Pat Burns, and by March 2023 they’d ordered Michael Gates to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom for the first time as he simultaneously sued the city – both lawsuits were centered on who had the final say to control local zoning.
[Read: California’s Battle With Huntington Beach Over Housing Goals Heads To Court]
It was the first of many legal battles over the next three years, all centered around the same central idea that charter cities are outside the realm of some state law.
It’s a legal theory championed by Gates, who argued that the city’s charter meant they were allowed to control local issues like law enforcement, land use and elections because the state didn’t have a compelling interest to step in.
“When we assert our charter city authority we’re not saying we’re an island or we’re our own state,” Gates said in a Dec. 2024 interview. “We’re just trying to exercise the rights we have on local matters as defined by the California Constitution.”
[Read: Will Huntington Beach’s Legal Argument of Limited Independence Hold up in Court?]
Gates did not respond to requests for comment on this article, but in the past said the rulings against the city are undermining the city’s powers in the state Constitution.
“It renders the Constitution meaningless,” Gates said. “What is the point of the Constitution if it doesn’t set forth rights that can be protected and not eroded by threats or conflicts?”
State and Federal Courts Rule Against the City
So far, city leaders have lost almost every case they’ve filed arguing their status as a charter city grants them greater local control, with their few victories they’ve gained being overturned on appeal.
Their highest profile loss came earlier this month, when a judge gave them 120 days to come up with a new housing plan after the California Supreme Court refused to hear their arguments in court that charter cities could ignore state housing mandates.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal also stipulated in her ruling that until they have a state approved housing plan, they have to greenlight most developer projects and can’t try to rezone the properties or drive down the number of housing units.
“The City shall not enforce its planning and zoning laws to disapprove or reduce the density of any proposed housing development meeting the minimum densities … on the sites identified by the City to satisfy its obligation to accommodate its regional housing needs allocation,” Bacal wrote.
Read: Judge Orders Huntington Beach to Adopt Housing Plan
The cases haven’t made it to the United States Supreme Court, but city leaders have vowed for years to take them there if it becomes necessary even as multiple federal judges have said they don’t have the right to sue their own state in federal court.
It’s the same argument Judge Sunshine Sykes made earlier this month in dismissing the city’s lawsuit arguing the state, arguing that sanctuary state laws preventing cities from fully cooperating with federal immigration officials was unconstitutional.
[Read: Huntington Beach Sues California Over Sanctuary Laws]
“The Ninth Circuit has consistently held that political subdivisions—such as a city, airport authority, health district, or school district—lack standing to challenge state law on constitutional grounds in federal court,” Sykes wrote in her order dismissing the case.
McKeon said he wants to see the Supreme Court weigh in on the issue, arguing that the federal courts have to hear their case because it’s an uphill battle in state court.
“No one thought this path was going to be easy. You’re fighting the state in a state court with a state judge,” McKeon said. “If the state is misbehaving, what recourse does a city have?”
He also highlighted the fact that the city has a housing plan on the shelves from 2022, and that if they ultimately lose in court they can send it up to the state for approval immediately.
“There’s always going to be a chance to cure,” McKeon said.
The city’s also appealing a court decision that found their rules to create voter IDs violated state law after voters overwhelmingly supported the program in a local ballot initiative.
[Read: Huntington Beach’s Voter ID Law Struck Down by State Appeals Court]
How Much Have Lawsuits Cost the City?
It’s unclear how much taxpayers have spent on legal fees in those fights, but their city attorney’s office budget has grown from $2.5 million in the 2021/22 fiscal year to over $4.3 million this year in a city that’s grappling with a budget shortfall.
Last year, it was nearly $4 million, and it remains unclear how large the gap could be this year.
[Read: Huntington Beach Uses Reserves to Close Budget Gap]
But the city could soon be facing court ordered penalties in at least one case, with a panel of judges from the state court of appeals pitching the possibility of removing the city’s power to zone and potentially issuing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
[Read: How Much is Huntington Beach’s Housing Fight Going to Cost Taxpayers?]
Elections Around the Corner
In the 2024 election, the Republican majority greatly expanded – which now makes up all seven seats on the dais.
Strickland left Surf City to become a state Senator in a special election earlier this year, completing a return to the statehouse nearly two decades in the making.
[Read: How State Senator Tony Strickland Became Orange County’s Political Lazarus]
Van Der Mark is now running for state assembly, looking to represent the 72nd district that includes cities like Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest and Seal Beach.
Mayor Casey McKeon and Councilman Pat Burns are running for reelection alongside Councilman Andrew Gruel, who was appointed to the council in March after Strickland left his seat behind.
[Read: Huntington Beach Appoints Andrew Gruel to City Council]
Gates is running for city attorney, a position he left earlier this year to go work in the federal Department of Justice before quitting and returning home to Huntington Beach.
McKeon said that the voters he’s spoken with understand their fight, and that under the contract they signed with the voters in 2022, they can’t give up now.
“We signed a contract with our voters that we’d fight the state,” McKeon said. “We’ve just got to continue to fight.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.