Huntington Beach City Council, claiming library nonprofit misused funds, launches investigation
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Huntington Beach City Councilmember Chad Williams had a Bible verse, Matthew 18:6, attached to his laptop on the dais at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea,” reads the verse.
This imagery perhaps set the stage for an electrically charged meeting in the Central Library’s theater.
The political heat continues to rise in Surf City with the approach of the June 10 special election, when voters will be asked to weigh in on two initiatives related to the local public library. Measure A would repeal a children’s book review board populated by appointees of the council while Measure B would require voter approval before the city outsources the library’s management.
More than 100 people gave public comments Tuesday, two weeks after a political action committee formed by Williams put large signs containing the word “porn” up around town, urging Huntington Beach residents to vote “No” on both measures.
Now, Williams is seeking an investigation into the nonprofit Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library, alleging a possible misuse of funds.
The council unanimously voted 6-0 to pass the agenda item, brought forward by Williams, Mayor Pat Burns and Councilmember Butch Twining, and launch an investigation.
The IRS website states a nonprofit may not make a contribution to a political organization, such as a candidate committee, political party committee or PAC.
Williams’ suspicions concern more than $23,000 total that Friends of the Library gave to the Citizens for Good Governance PAC on four different occasions last year. Citizens for Good Governance then gave $10,000 to the Our Library Matters committee, seeking a “yes” vote on Measures A and B, earlier this year.
The item asks the mayor to work with City Atty. Mike Vigliotta to file complaints on behalf of the City Council with the state Fair Political Practice Commission and the IRS.
In a statement, Martha Elliott, president of Friends of the Library called the allegations “false, misleading and baseless.”
“These false allegations are a political stunt intended to distract from the fact that the overwhelming majority of Huntington Beach residents want our beloved library — one of the finest in the country — to remain public, free of government censorship, and a civic resource available to all city residents and families,” Elliott said. “Since 1971, Friends — a 501(c)(3) organization that is non-partisan and pro-library — has, through our many community members and volunteers, donated millions of dollars to support our Library. Despite the City Council’s unfortunate and false attacks, Friends remains committed to our mission of supporting our library for the benefit of our entire Huntington Beach community.”
Huntington Beach resident Cathey Ryder, a co-founder of Protect Huntington Beach and proponent of the library petition that eventually became Measure A, formed Citizens for Good Governance in 2022 to oppose three earlier ballot measures. Citizens for Good Governance then changed to a general purpose committee.
Ryder said in an interview after Tuesday night’s council meeting that she welcomed the investigation.
“You have to remember that during the time period when there was all of those donations, all of those odd figures, that was when we were printing the ballot petitions,” she said. “Citizens for Good Governance was having everything printed, with the agreement that we would split the printing costs.
“It was actually reimbursement for services. It wasn’t a donation to Citizens for Good Governance ... I think they’re going to discover that there’s been no wrongdoing.”
Burns gave each public speaker Tuesday one minute to speak, telling some of them to address the council as a whole rather than individual members. Slightly more than half of them supported the ballot measures.
Many of the speakers against the ballot measures read from books containing what they considered explicit material, which they said was available in the library. The meeting also contained comments from Karen England, a Tennessee-based conservative activist whose website advertises a toolkit “to successfully find and challenge pornography in your local public schools’ libraries.”
“There is never a justifiable reason to expose children to pornography, erotic materials, or sexually explicit content, especially behind the backs of their parents,” she said. “History is not kind to those who blur the lines between education and exploitation.”
Other public speakers, including Sue Kingman, continued to object to the use of the word “pornography” in the rhetoric.
“I’m asking the council to just leave the library alone,” Kingman said. “Don’t plaster it with a MAGA plaque, don’t sell it to the highest bidder and don’t attempt to undermine the expertise of librarians. And leave Friends of the Library alone, too. If you’re really worried about campaign violations of IRS law, maybe you shouldn’t be peddling your political views as a pastor and telling people how to vote during church.”
Williams is a youth pastor at Calvary Chapel of the Harbour, a church in Huntington Harbour. During Sunday’s service there, Williams, Burns and Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, along with England, discussed the impending special election at length.
Williams said in an interview Wednesday that he saw nothing wrong with that, even as detractors mentioned the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment.
The Johnson Amendment, established in 1954, changed tax code to prohibit nonprofits from participating in campaigns for a candidate for public office, but Republican lawmakers are trying to remove it. In 2017, President Trump signed an executive order seeking to make it easier for churches to participate in politics.
Williams said that a church was never prohibited from lobbying on behalf of a ballot measure.
“Jesus tells us to be the light of the world, but he also reminds us that when you are light, everyone who practices evil hates that light,” he said. “There’s people out there that hate God, they hate the Bible and they hate Christians, period. They’re entitled to their opinion, and Christians are entitled to practice their religion, and that religion is that they have been commissioned to go to all the world and speak the truth.”
Longtime Ocean View School District Board of Trustees member Gina Clayton-Tarvin pushed back against Williams’ agenda item. In an email to city clerk Lisa-Lane Barnes, she alleged that Williams was violating rules himself by running two separate political action committees, “Chad Williams for City Council 2024” and “Protect our Children with Councilman Chad Williams, Vote No on A & B.”
Section 2.07.080 of the city’s municipal code states that a city officer shall have no more than one campaign committee.
“This is a flagrant abuse of power by Mr. Williams and it must not be allowed to continue,” Clayton-Tarvin wrote in an email, which included its own Bible verse, John 8:7: “Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Williams said Wednesday that he had talked to lawyers who told him that “campaign committee” in the code did not apply to his PAC.
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