HUNTINGTON BEACH CITY COUNCIL WRAP-UP

Here are some items the council considered at its Monday meeting.

HISTORIANThe Council voted 5-2 to accept recommendations from the city Historic Resources Board on how to choose a new city historian. Applicants will have to be 5-year residents of Huntington Beach, show their knowledge of local history in an essay, and pass an evaluation in archiving, writing, research and customer service. The appointment will last four years, renewable by the City Council.

WHAT IT MEANS

The city has been without a historian since November, when the last person in the position, former City Clerk Alicia Wentworth, died of heart failure. She had done the job for 17 years.

A volunteer had picked up some of the slack until last week when she quit, said City Clerk Joan Flynn.

Council members Cathy Green and Joe Carchio said they were frustrated with the slow pace of finding a replacement and called for an interim appointment until a permanent historian was found; they voted against the recommendations.

EMINENT DOMAINThe council voted 7-0 in two separate votes to codify its existing guidelines on use of eminent domain into law, which a staff report said was necessary to bring it into compliance with new state legislation. No changes to those guidelines were made.

WHAT IT MEANS

New state legislation requires cities to put their redevelopment agencies’ eminent domain policies into city ordinances, which means that any change to those policies would require the City Council’s approval.

Huntington Beach restricts its allowable eminent domain to certain small areas found to be economically blighted, and only allows the taking of certain kinds of property in such a zone.

LEGISLATIVE ENDORSEMENTSThe council passed a resolution endorsing the use of $1 billion in infrastructure money from the state bond measure Proposition 1-B. It also came out in favor of HR 2447, which would use existing fees collected from oil companies to fund local grants for energy efficiency projects.

WHAT IT MEANS

The city will communicate its position, and sometimes lobby, on behalf of these measures to county, state and federal governments.