It has come to this.
“A shared set of facts is paramount for any discussion of the issues facing Huntington Beach,” a very frustrated City Councilmember Dan Kalmick wrote. “Being that this Council struggles to find common ground on even the most basic of issues, I believe that it has come time for this Council to reaffirm that water is indeed wet and that the sky is blue.”
We have long maintained that local government is the best theater around. Item No. 20 on the Huntington Beach city council agenda for Tuesday, June 4, takes deadly aim at the item that comes after it:
“Affirmation of the Huntington Beach City Council’s Commitment to the United States Constitution and Special Recognition that Huntington Beach is a 1st and 2nd Amendment Friendly City,” says the agenda item submitted by Mayor Pro Tem Pat Burns that some might label as pro-God, guns and Trump.
One may wonder if this is where a city that’s faced lawsuits from the state of California over its resistance to building more housing, and over its insistence that people show identification to vote, and over its refusal to turn over a multi-million dollar legal settlement to the public that’s paying for it, and arguing over library books, while facing budget difficulties, should be spending its energy.
‘Commitment’
“This affirmation of the City of Huntington Beach City Council is to show our commitment and respect for the Constitution of the United States of America,” Burns wrote.
“The Constitution and its Amendments are the foundation of our Republic securing each person the rights to live and work freely without government overreach or unreasonable restriction from any entity. These freedoms have rarely been challenged in our county as they have been recently and called into question. From a presidential candidate defending himself from unreasonable charges in court to a city council candidate being attacked by an incumbent through ‘lawfare’ for speaking out.”
(We’ll explain this in a minute, but first more from Burns.)
“Then there is the constant attack on our 2nd Amendment by our state that ignores our federal laws and claims to be a sanctuary state….”
It continues.
“Laws are being made to weaken the laws that protect those of law-abiding citizens and businesses (2nd Amendment laws or Covid 19 restrictions) while other laws are either being ignored by prosecutors or weakened on behalf of enabling criminals to be even more brazen or violent. With open borders enabled by our federal government or illegal immigration encouraged by our Governor at the taxpayers’ expense, the laws are not being enforced by our government equally or rationally – all the while those that speakout often get attacked for or suppressed from speaking out freely. This is barely scratching the surface of the infringements being committed against the citizens of our state and country. This is a warning of a gross deterioration of our Republic and of our beloved freedoms.”
You’ll be relieved to know that neither item is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act or will result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. Whew!
The climate change inside the council chamber, however, is certain to be extremely hot.
Messier, uglier
“It’s going to be another circus of a meeting,” Kalmick said.
Huntington Beach’s crusading conservative majority has created chaos and is unable to govern, he charged. The water-is-wet item is satire, but deadly serious, as satire tends to be.
“These are distractions from the conversations we need to have,” he said. “It’s not what local government should be doing. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. We all took an oath to the Constitution — the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution — when we joined the council. Has Pat Burns done something so he needs to affirm that again?”
We asked Burns to weigh in on all this, by phone and email, but didn’t hear back by deadline.
It gets messier, and uglier, though. The library book battle. Assertions of pedophilia.
Burns’ reference to “a city council candidate being attacked by an incumbent through ‘lawfare’ for speaking out” refers to Chad Williams, an outspoken conservative city council candidate, and Kalmick, and the book “The Big Bath House.“
“The Big Bath House” is “a joyful celebration of Japanese cultural traditions and body positivity as a young girl visits a bath house with her grandmother and aunties,” its promo material says. We’ll note that the onsen, as these communal baths are known in Japan, have been a mainstay for hundreds of years. Only women are allowed in the women’s onsen. Only men are allowed in the men’s onsen.
Williams attacked the book as “normalizing adults bathing nude with children” and “a pedophile’s dream,” and having it in a library shows the need to privatize operations because “city staff can’t stop showing adult privates to our children.”
In Kalmick’s telling, Williams then implied that Kalmick is a pedophile for reading the book to his daughter.
Kalmick’s private lawyer then sent Williams a cease-and-desist letter, asking Williams to stop saying untrue and defamatory things about Kalmick.
So, if you’re still following, Burns is coming down on the side of Williams in the First/Second Amendment agenda item. Kalmick said that’s campaigning from the podium, and notes the irony of lionizing gun rights while purporting to protect children. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently found that firearm fatalities among children under 18 surged by 87% between 2011 and 2021. Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children and teens.
We’re doubtful there will be unanimity on Kalmick’s recommended action: “Reaffirm by minute action that water is wet and the sky is blue.” Sky does look a little gray sometimes. Black, even. And have you ever heard of dry ice?
Yes, it’s going to be a nasty campaign this fall, at all levels of government.