Huntington Beach’s Republican City Council fractured Tuesday night over a contentious vote to decide the next deputy mayor, with council members passing over expected pick Councilman Chad Williams for Councilman Butch Twining.
The mayor pro tem, also known as deputy mayor, is a largely ceremonial title and means the person runs the meetings in the mayor’s absence – the position typically puts that person next in line for the mayor’s seat.
Tuesday’s vote marked a major split for a city council that’s been largely in lockstep publicly since last year, after campaigning together and achieving a 7-0 majority on the city council, completely sweeping two city council elections in a row.
Williams, the lone dissenting vote, accused newly named Mayor Casey McKeon – former mayor pro tem – of breaking the state’s chief transparency law.
McKeon and other city council members called on Williams to show “contrition” for unnamed past actions that took place behind closed doors.
Williams claimed his council colleagues repeatedly violated the Brown Act, California’s chief public meetings law that requires most debates to happen in public, to handpick Twining as the next mayor pro tem.
“Your councilman right next to you,” Williams said, pointing to Councilman Don Kennedy and Twining sitting next to him. “He (Twining) told me that Casey was going to nominate him and that you told him you have to accept it so that when you become mayor, you can make me mayor, otherwise I’ll never become mayor.”
“That’s straight from Butch’s mouth to me.”
“Sure it is Chad,” Kennedy replied.
“Hey Butch?” Williams asked, “God as your witness?”
Twining didn’t respond to Williams’ claim, saying he didn’t campaign for the position, but that when McKeon asked him to step in he felt he was the best fit.
“This isn’t a popularity contest,” Twining said. “This is the second most important job in all of the city, and I’m ready to take over all that.”
He also said city staff were “afraid,” to take meetings with Williams, while he was “generous to everybody to a fault.”
Accusations of Retribution
Williams said he’s being punished for his comments during a Nov. 21 special meeting behind closed doors, when the council considered rehiring former City Attorney Michael Gates, who recently resigned from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The OC Register published a story claiming Gates had been fired “for cause” – a claim Gates disputes.
“Reality check. I called Casey a coward one day when he needed to hear it. He needed to step up and straighten out,” Williams publicly said at Tuesday’s meeting. “When we’re about to betray somebody else, you call them out on it.”
Before he left the city for Washington DC, Gates had been a vocal ally of the city council majority and campaigned alongside them in 2022, but it’s still unclear whether or not he was rehired.
A city spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment to clarify what Gates’ current employment status is with the city.
After publication, spokesperson Jessica Cuchilla confirmed that Gates is employed as an Assistant City Attorney.
The rest of the council didn’t acknowledge William’s claims, with McKeon limiting council members to two minutes each to speak and barring Williams from using a slideshow.
“We had a phone conversation before and you basically said you wouldn’t do this,” Williams said at the meeting.
“You didn’t talk about putting up a slideshow,” McKeon said.
“No, push through,” Williams said. “Do what you came to do.”
The rest of the city council supported the decision to cut down comment time and block the slideshow over a chorus of boos from the audience, except for Williams.
“Going against the will of the people, a lack of transparency, is not a very good start to your mayorship,” Williams said.
People in the chambers also repeatedly shouted over council members criticizing Williams, booing and calling council members cowards as McKeon repeatedly slammed his gavel to quiet the room.
“This is not like a WWE wrestling match,” McKeon said. “It’s not a game show!”
Council Again Disregards its Own Policy
Under the city’s existing rules, Williams was set to automatically become the next mayor pro tem because he won the most votes in the 2024 election.
That policy has been repeatedly brushed aside in the past by council members looking to pick who becomes mayor, a move that City Attorney Mike Vigliotta defended as legal – despite it not appearing on the city council’s agenda on Tuesday night.
In the days leading up to the meeting, Williams announced that he heard there was a concerted effort to keep him out of the seat, getting up on stage at Calvary Chapel of the Harbour where he works as a young adults pastor to encourage people to support him.
“Somebody came up to me after church last week and said ‘Hey Chad, I don’t know if you heard, but they’re plotting against you behind the scenes,’” Williams said on Sunday. “I never felt so betrayed in my entire life … they were going to humiliate me in front of all my family and friends.”
Many of the public commenters on Tuesday night called on council members to leave Williams as the next in line.
“Deep down you know that it’s right,” said Joe Pedick, senior pastor at Calvary Chapel of the Harbour, who’s invited city council members up on stage to speak at his church repeatedly. “Just do what’s right here.”
Other supporters encouraged the council not to break up their long running work together, including Kevin Elliott, the primary operator of the Pacific Airshow who brokered a deal with city leaders that left taxpayers covering many of the costs.
[Read: Huntington Beach Signs 25-Year Airshow Deal Despite Questions on Benefits]
“We’ve heard a lot of reasonable people tonight, and also this council has worked really hard to get to a place where our city has sanity,” Elliott said. “Lets try to keep the team together and I trust in your judgement.”
Despite limiting discussion to only two minutes, council members then spent the next 20 minutes debating the issue after both Williams and Twining were nominated to be the next mayor pro tem, with McKeon repeatedly calling for the discussion to end unsuccessfully.
Councilman Kennedy, one of Williams’ running mates, said the vote against Williams wasn’t an effort to claim the mayoral seat for himself.
“This is not about any desire for me to be mayor,” Kennedy said. “If you grow, and you show contrition, next year you will be the mayor pro tem.”
Twining ended the meeting by noting he’s the best person for the job, adding his time as a retiree made him a better fit as mayor pro tem.
“I’m the villain in this room. Is that correct? Let me tell you something. I didn’t campaign for this position, this nomination. I didn’t make one phone call. Not one,” Twining said.
He also took aim at Williams’ Sunday speech to his fellow churchgoers.
“I didn’t stand on the pulpit of my Catholic Church, oh that’s right, they wouldn’t let me do that, and tell people that I am getting screwed.”
Twining also said he could be changing his mind about being a close ally of Williams, noting the raucous crowd on Tuesday night.
“I love Chad Williams,” he continued. “You guys are really changing my mind right now. He’s showing who he really is.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.