10 candidates so far qualified for Huntington Beach City Council race

Ten Huntington Beach City Council candidates have officially qualified for the November election as of Wednesday night, though the list could get longer by the end of the week.

Amory Hanson, Mike Vogler, Oscar Rodriguez, Tony Strickland, Jeffrey Hansler, Brian Burley, Pat Burns, Vera Fair, Kenneth Inoue and Gracey Van Der Mark have each filed for the race and been confirmed, according to the city clerk’s office.

Four of the seven seats on the dais will be up for grabs in the election. Friday is the filing deadline to get on the ballot.

Vogler, an attorney running for City Council for the first time, reported $25,000 of total contributions received for the period from January through June of this year. That money all consisted of a self loan.

Rodriguez, currently a Huntington Beach planning commissioner, placed fifth in the 2020 election with three spots available. His campaign disclosures show $10,187 of total contributions received as well as a $5,000 self loan in the first six months of the year.

Individuals who contributed the maximum amount of $620 to Rodriguez’s campaign include Gina Clayton-Tarvin, the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees president who also has pulled papers to run this year. Delores Clayton and Patricia Smith also contributed the maximum amount, while Rodriguez also received $500 from the Orange County League of Conservation Voters.

Strickland is a former California Assembly member who went on to serve in the state Senate. He reported in the six figures — $100,191 — received in the first half of this year, including just more than $75,000 in monetary contributions and $25,000 in self loans.

Strickland reported a total of 94 individuals, committees or other entities contributing the maximum $620. They included Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson and San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe. Coast Community College Professor Rodney Foster, 2020 Huntington Beach Council candidate Jeff Morin and Chris Mann, president of the Yucaipa Valley Water District, were also among those to donate the maximum amount.

Burley, a business owner who also ran in 2020, reported paying off $8,388 in self loans during the January through June period. He received $140 in monetary contributions, according to records.

Burns, a retired longtime police officer in Long Beach, received $30,632 in contributions as of the end of June. He also had three self loans totaling $10,000.

Van Der Mark, a business owner who finished fourth in the 2020 City Council race, reported receiving $12,915 in total contributions during the first half of the year. Most of that total — $10,000 — was obtained via a loan from E-Mortgage Loans of Seal Beach.

Campaign financial statements were not available for Hanson, a Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board member who placed 15th in the 2020 council race, or Hansler, an organizational development consultant. The financial statements of Fair and Inoue also were not available.

Others who have pulled papers to run, in alphabetical order, include Bobby Britton, Clayton-Tarvin, David Clifford, Jill Hardy, Wesam Jreisat, Casey McKeon, Billy O’Connell, Michael Olsberg, John Piekarski, Robert Reider, Gabrielle Samiy and Angie Soto.

Hardy and O’Connell are former members of the City Council, while McKeon and O’Connell made unsuccessful runs for a seat in 2020.

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