Former Surf City mayor, planning commissioner file to stop city from paying millions to Pacific Airshow

A former Huntington Beach mayor and planning commissioner have joined forces to try to stop the city from paying out millions of dollars to the Pacific Airshow.

Connie Boardman, who served on City Council for eight years and was Surf City’s mayor in 2003 and 2013, has been critical of the new conservative council majority since it was elected last fall. She and Mark Bixby, who runs the Surf City Sentinel local government page on Facebook, filed in court on Thursday.

They are asking the court for permission to intervene instead of Huntington Beach paying out what could amount to more than $7 million to Airshow operator Code Four, after the final day of the 2021 show was canceled due to an oil spill off the coast.

Lee Fink, the lawyer for Boardman and Bixby, said Thursday that he is asking for permission from the court to file their intervention request as part of the Airshow’s original lawsuit against the city of Huntington Beach, rather than start up another separate case. The hearing is expected to be held Friday at 8:30 a.m. in Department C-32 of the Orange County Superior Court, before Judge Walter Schwarm.

“The cancellation of the Airshow was the result of the oil spill, not the city’s doing,” Fink said. “The city doesn’t have any liability ... A public agency can’t give $7 million to settle a claim that’s wholly without merit. There’s no basis for actually bringing that claim, and to do so is an unlawful gift of public funds. My clients are simply seeking to stop the city from giving that money away.”

Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates announced the settlement with Code Four on May 9. It pays the operator a total of $4,999,000 over the next six years, with other privileges guaranteed. It also potentially gives the Pacific Airshow up to $2 million, after attorney fees and costs, of Huntington Beach’s recovery in its own pending oil spill lawsuit against Amplify Energy.

Gates said Thursday that he’s read some of the paperwork filed on behalf of Boardman and Bixby.

Former Huntington Beach Mayor Connie Boardman speaks during public comments at the City Council meeting on May 16.

(Screencap by Matt Szabo)

“To me, this is another frivolous and coordinated attempt to stop the Airshow,” he said. “This is an effort by the same small group of people, who didn’t want the Airshow in the first place and didn’t like the new City Council majority negotiating to resolve the lawsuit.”

Gates said Code Four CEO Kevin Elliott had resolved not to come back to Huntington Beach, before the new council majority stepped in and negotiated with him.

“This was a very difficult negotiation with the Pacific Airshow that went on for months, and the City Council was kept apprised every step of the way,” he said. “The negotiations were done at arm’s length, and they were so difficult at times that the negotiations actually broke off. There was no easy path forward. No one could ever call this a sweetheart deal, or what they’re alleging as a gift of public funds.”

A separate lawsuit, demanding that Gates release the full settlement with Code Four, was filed earlier this month by Ocean View School District Board of Trustees vice-president Gina Clayton-Tarvin. Gates has only released an executive summary of the terms, which he said is because of pending litigation.

Clayton-Tarvin’s lawsuit remains pending.

Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland said Thursday that one of his proudest moments of being mayor was saving the air show.

“The economic impacts of the Airshow for Huntington Beach are astronomical,” Strickland said. “The fact of the matter is, if you want a budget hole, have the Airshow not be here ... My whole goal of trying to get this settlement done was to make sure we have an air show here in perpetuity. It’s the largest air show in the United States, and its numbers of economic development were off the charts.”

But Bixby, in a statement, said the settlement was the most outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars in more than 20 years of paying close attention to City Hall.

“The city could have easily defended against the Airshow operator’s lawsuit over cancellation due to the oil spill, but instead chose to settle without a fight by paying millions of dollars to a close political supporter of the City Council majority and the city attorney,” Bixby stated. “This cannot be allowed to stand.”

Boardman has routinely appeared for public comments at council meetings in recent months.

“In the eight years I served on the Huntington Beach City Council, I never saw a case where the city settled before the Judge even ruled on the city’s motion to dismiss,” she said in a statement. “It is particularly egregious here, where it is clear that the city is not responsible for canceling the Airshow; the oil spill caused the cancellation. The city should not be paying for this outrageous and secret settlement.”

This year’s Pacific Airshow is scheduled for Sept. 29 through Oct. 1.