At a time when Huntington Beach faces a growing structural deficit estimated at roughly $15 million, the City Council is refusing to accept an $825,000 donation for public library books and materials.
The donor is not an outside political group or special interest organization. It is the Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library — a 55-year-old volunteer nonprofit that has long supported the city’s library system through fundraising, advocacy, and community service.
Across the country, Friends of the Library organizations help fill critical funding gaps for books, programming, and educational resources. In Huntington Beach, Friends has done exactly that for decades, contributing approximately $250,000 annually for books and materials across the city’s five-library system. These donations are made possible through the hard work of volunteers who staff the Friends Gift Shop and Used Book Store at Central Library, two popular community destinations whose proceeds directly support library collections.
Financial bequests and other planned gifts from families have also contributed to the Friends fund, which further ensures that substantial annual donations can be made to the library during good times and bad.
In many years, Friends funding covered the majority of the library’s new book purchases. Previous city councils celebrated this partnership. Friends board members were routinely invited to council meetings each fall for a formal check presentation of their contribution.
That relationship has changed dramatically under the current City Council.
Council members have publicly questioned the Friends organization, criticized its activities, and refused to accept its pending $825,000 donation covering nearly three years of funding for library book acquisitions, including new fiction and nonfiction books and e-books.
So why refuse the money?
The conflict emerged after the City Council’s unsuccessful efforts to advance library censorship policies and privatization proposals that voters overwhelmingly rejected in a June 2025 special election. The city also lost a high-profile lawsuit over library book restrictions and was later ordered to pay nearly $1 million in attorneys’ fees.
Two months before that election, the council voted to require formal agreements with city volunteer groups because of what some members described as their “quasi-agency” relationship with the city. While several nonprofit groups reached agreements with Huntington Beach, Friends has still not finalized a memorandum of understanding (MOU) tied to its library space and donations.
The proposed Friends MOU only requires that the nonprofit maintain access to library spaces for sales, meetings, and events.
Unfortunately, the current city council feels they are owed Friends’ funds in an unrestricted pass-through, allowing the city to use the funds for other expenses. Yet the Friends organization is legally required to support its charitable mission, which is to fund the book collection, not city infrastructure or other services. But it’s important to note that Friends leaders have offered to join other city fundraising efforts to support capital improvements to the library building and its fountains.
Many residents now believe Friends is being punished for opposing the city council’s library policies.
That is unfortunate — and shortsighted.
The Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library is one of the city’s oldest and most respected volunteer organizations. Founded in the early 1970s before the Central Library opened, the group was created by residents who wanted to help build a first-class public library system for future generations.
Over the decades, volunteers established the library gift shop, organized fundraising events, and built one of the region’s most successful used bookstores inside Central Library.
These volunteers are not political operatives. They are retirees, parents, educators, readers, and longtime residents who care deeply about public libraries and literacy.
At a moment when Huntington Beach faces mounting financial pressures and aging infrastructure needs, rejecting nearly $1 million for library materials sends the wrong message to residents, donors, and volunteers alike.
Public libraries remain one of the few institutions that serve everyone equally — children, seniors, students, job seekers, families, and lifelong learners. They deserve support, not political warfare.
The City Council should put aside ideological battles, finalize an agreement with Friends, and accept this substantial donation for the benefit of the community.
Carol Daus is a Huntington Beach resident and former board member of the Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library.
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