A split Huntington Beach City Council opted to hold off on any pay increases for law enforcement amid concerns on whether the budget can afford an 18% wage hike over the next three years.
Instead of moving forward with the raise for Huntington Beach police as normal at Tuesday’s council meeting, council members asked their finance commission to study the issue more before the final vote in September.
While several council members and the elected city treasurer shared concerns the city could enter bankruptcy as soon as 2030, one called the review “procedural sabotage” and highlighted the city’s police officers were now operating without a union contract for at least another month.
“I don’t think this is prudence, this is procedural sabotage,” said Councilman Chad Williams. “The opportunity to kick this back was many months ago.”
The proposed deal, which would replace the city’s existing memorandum of understanding that expired at the end of June, set up annual raises for officers over the next three years, with an 8% raise for this year, followed by a 4% raise, followed by a 5% raise for the final year.
The Huntington Beach Police Department already makes up about 30% of the city’s general fund expenses, and other unions like the firefighters union and general employees union have not yet struck contracts with city leaders.
Councilman Don Kennedy flagged concerns about what the raises would do to the city’s already strained budget, one of many in Orange County, which city leaders voted to approve earlier this year while acknowledging they had to dip into $15 million in reserves where revenues fell short.
[Read: How Rocky Are Orange County’s Municipal Budgets?]
“I fully support our public safety, unequivocally,” Kennedy said at the meeting. “But I also believe that my job, my fiduciary responsibility, is to our taxpayers … respect doesn’t have to be paid for.”
Kennedy specifically flagged concerns with the large amounts of overtime taken by some of the department’s upper level managers, highlighting that at least 20 police department employees made more than the city manager last year.
He also said that all their raises would do is encourage other cities to raise their own wages to compete, putting them back in the same spot.
“When you raise your wage, so does everybody else, even cities facing real financial problems,” Kennedy said. “Retention risk is a myth; we already vastly out-pay peers.”
Councilmen Andrew Gruel and Chad Williams disagreed, saying the raises would help fill their vacant Huntington Beach police officer positions and drive down the overtime.
“We’re competing for qualified officers,” Gruel said. “It’s a balancing act we have to take.”
Williams repeatedly said that Kennedy’s push to have the numbers reviewed by the finance commission was a bid to “sabotage” the negotiations at the last minute and called Kennedy’s numbers “suspect.”
“This is 10 months of good faith negotiation we’ve been going over,” Williams said. “Our professionals have sat across from their professionals and come to an agreement.”
The entire city council also debated just how bad their financial position really is, with city treasurer Jason Schmitt, who was appointed in 2025, claiming that without changes they could be facing bankruptcy by 2030.
“If these numbers are remotely true … my read as a lawyer, as the city treasurer independent of this council, is if this were to play out given our current reserve levels, this would require us to declare a fiscal emergency and potentially file for Chapter Nine bankruptcy,” Schmitt said.
Gruel and Williams questioned how accurate the numbers are, highlighting that the projections assume they wouldn’t cut any of the nearly 100 vacant, fully funded positions within the budget by 2030.
“I’d like to see a chart that projects the reality,” Williams said. “We do have the money … it’s just a matter of how that money is allocated.”
Councilman Pat Burns, a retired Long Beach police officer, raised concerns about the amount of overtime and cost to have officers continually overworked.
“There’s a cost that is immeasurable in working that much overtime,” Burns said. “That could bite us in the behind big.”
Ultimately, Kennedy and Burns along with Mayor Casey McKeon and Councilman Butch Twining voted to have the finance commission review the issue before a September vote on the contract, with Gruel, Williams and Councilwoman Gracey Van Der Mark voting against the review.
“We have time,” McKeon said. “Thats just sound, prudent financial planning.”
In a statement after the meeting, Gruel, whose campaign also received a $5,900 donation from the police officers association the day after the meeting, questioned why the city council majority was so concerned about police spending when they’ve rolled out a series of other spending proposals.
“It’s not budget concerns when the same people who oppose this contract were just pushing for excessive spending on other areas like the sports complex, consulting deals. Heck if we are in such a precarious situation why are we funding a plaque, why are we fighting the airshow audit?” Gruel said.
[Read: How Much is a Sports Complex Worth to Huntington Beach?]
“It’s important we always act prudently with any city spending,” he continued. “My priorities are always going to be public safety, parks and infrastructure – those are mandatory. The rest should always be on the chopping block based on projections and cash flow, not budgeting which is ‘ideal’ but not actual.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
