Several current and former Huntington Beach leaders are on the hook for a few hundred dollars in fines after state regulators from the Fair Political Practices Commission found they didn’t disclose free tickets to the Pacific Airshow.
That lack of disclosure comes as the airshow is already facing a state audit amid questions on whether the same city leaders who received tickets gave the airshow’s operator a controversial deal to stay in town that doesn’t carry much benefit for the city.
Read: Huntington Beach Signs 25-Year Airshow Deal Despite Questions on Benefits
State commissioners fined Mayor Casey McKeon, along with Councilmembers Gracey Van Der Mark and Pat Burns, former city Attorney Michael Gates and former Councilman Erik Peterson for not disclosing they received free tickets to the airshow in 2022.
Gates opposed the fine in a Monday interview, saying “the whole thing is ridiculous,” and that he’d only been granted a pass to meet with a visiting delegation from Australia for two hours and had nothing to eat or drink, calling the fine a “hoodwink.”
“It’s a little unfair to say you have to disclose an amount when there is no amount,” Gates said. “They slapped this fine on later, way after the fact, almost like a ‘gotcha, you admitted you need to amend your disclosure.’ As I sit here today, I do not believe I needed to disclose.”
McKeon, who received one of the largest fines at $700, said he was just following the existing city rules around disclosure and that they’ve since been updated to ensure airshow tickets are shown, noting that his role at the event was to be an “ambassador for the city.”
“It’s just fluid. You’re there meeting people, walking in and out. You meet sponsors, meet delegations, other elected officials here and there,” McKeon said in a Monday interview. “This is standard procedure … I don’t know why we were singled out.”
Burns, who also received a $700 fine, did not respond to requests for comment.
Peterson, who received a $600 fine, did not respond to requests for comment.
Van Der Mark, who received a $100 fine, did not respond to requests for comment.
Every one of the people fined are running for office except Peterson.
McKeon and Burns are running again for city council while Van Der Mark runs for state assembly and Gates eyes the state Attorney General’s office.
The Huntington Beach City Council members and Gates have been facing questions on their connections to the airshow since 2022.
McKeon, Van Der Mark, Burns, Gates and former Councilman, now State Senator, Tony Strickland campaigned on saving the airshow, and had many of their campaign signs and events created by Code Four, the company behind putting on the airshow.
A couple months into their term, they signed off on a settlement with the airshow operators agreeing to pay out a max of $7 million after they were forced to shutter the show during an oil spill.
[Read: How Did a Huntington Beach Air Show Become Embroiled in Controversy and Politics?]
But other details of that settlement were hidden for over a year until several residents successfully sued the city, forcing city leaders to reveal they’d promised the airshow’s operators a series of other bonuses like parking revenue in the settlement.
[Read: HB Leaders Give Up Thousands of Public Parking Spots to Airshow Operators, Settlement Shows]
To read a copy of the settlement, click here.
While city leaders insisted at the time that the settlement agreement didn’t limit their ability to negotiate deal points, they later publicly contradicted that.
In Aug. 2024 at a city council meeting, McKeon insisted the city had no deal with the airshow.
“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 last September, when 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.”
Gates, who received a $600 fine, insisted that the fine was not needed because the tickets they were given had no value, and that regulators didn’t tell him he’d be fined until after he amended his disclosures.
“You have to disclose a known value, and I wouldn’t know if it was $25, $55, $85, and after asking Code Four they wouldn’t put a price on it either,” Gates said.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.