Huntington Beach will have a special election on June 10 for voters to decide two ballot initiatives created in response to the City Council’s controversial pushes to consider privatizing the city library’s operations and to make a children’s book review board.
The City Council on Tuesday, March 4, unanimously approved placing the measures before voters in a special election versus the next available general election and did not discuss them any further. The election will test the popularity of the conservative council’s library policies, which have brought some of the strongest reactions of outrage from residents.
The initiatives qualified for a ballot after their proponents gathered enough signatures in support from at least 10% of registered voters in the city to force the public decision.
The first initiative would repeal a children’s library book review board law that the City Council created in 2023.
That 21-member board, which has yet to be formed, would have the power to have children’s books the library already owns moved to restricted shelves and prevent them from being checked out by children without guardian permission. The board would also have the power to block the library from purchasing new books it deems inappropriate by a majority vote. Its members would be appointed by the City Council.
The second initiative would make it harder for the library’s operations to be privatized, by requiring approval first from the City Council and then a majority of voters in an election for such a change. That initiative comes after the City Council explored having a private company manage the library system last year. The city ended those discussions when the sole bidder dropped out.
The election will cost the city more than $1 million to hold. The council also had the option to put the initiatives before voters in the November 2026 election.
Mayor Pat Burns and councilmembers Gracey Van Der Mark and Casey McKeon will write arguments against the initiatives.
The City Council’s conservative majority found itself at odds with some residents beginning in 2023 when Van Der Mark first began her push on the subject of children’s books. Ultimately, the city began moving children’s books with sexual content to restricted shelves in the library.
Last week, Huntington Beach was sued by a group of residents and a nonprofit for moving books and its book review board law. The lawsuit looks to get those city measures overturned on the basis that they violate the California Constitution and the state’s newly enacted Freedom to Read Act.
Both initiatives will need a majority of votes to pass in the June special election.
