Huntington Beach ordered to pay more than $180K in attorney fees in air show case
The city of Huntington Beach must pay more than $180,000 in attorney’s fees after failing to release to the public the full Pacific Airshow settlement when it was reached, a judge has ruled.
The operator of the Pacific Airshow sued the city after the final day of the October 2021 event was canceled due to an oil spill off the coast and the city made a multimillion-dollar settlement with the company. At the time, City Atty. Michael Gates issued a one-page summary document rather than all the details of the full settlement
Gina Clayton-Tarvin, a public school teacher and longtime Ocean View School District Board of Trustees member, submitted a California Public Records Act request for the full settlement between the city and the air show’s operator, and she sued after the city denied her request.
Clayton-Tarvin eventually won her case in May 2024. The full settlement was released in July.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Fish issued a tentative ruling last week that the city must pay Clayton-Tarvin’s three attorneys, Gregory Pleasants, Brett Murdock and Lee Fink, a total of $182,092.50. A hearing scheduled for Monday was canceled, and the tentative ruling will become the final one, after both sides submitted their views on the ruling.
Gates has said he didn’t release the full settlement in 2023 because it could harm future litigation by Huntington Beach against oil pipeline operator Amplify Energy Corp. He announced a $5.25-million settlement with Amplify, reached without litigation, in October.
But Clayton-Tarvin said Monday that the Pacific Airshow settlement has always been a public document.
“Public documents are required to be released under California state law, not just the California Public Records Act, but the California state constitution,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “California law is really clear on that. Michael Gates claims to be an attorney who understands California law, but he clearly doesn’t. Had he understood that, he would have turned it over to me the day I asked for it, over a year ago. This could have been so simple. It would have cost them zero dollars and zero cents had they just followed California law and given me the public document.”
The settlement reached between the city and Pacific Airshow LLC includes $4.9 million in payments to the latter, as well as valuable event fee waivers and parking spaces. It also allows the possible rights for the event operator to maintain control of the show for up to 40 years, though no long-term deal has been reached.
Some, including then-Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr, have said that the city owed nothing to Pacific Airshow LLC. A lawsuit against Carr by the air show was dropped last November.
According to the court ruling, Clayton-Tarvin’s attorneys asked the city for up to $557,945.
The city countered with offers of $35,000 and later $60,000.
Gates said Tuesday that he didn’t regret not releasing the settlement sooner.
“At the time, I made a good judgment call considering all of the factors involved,” he said. “If I had to do it over under those circumstances again, I probably would.”
He added in a statement that the attorney fees were exorbitant, but less than half of what Clayton-Tarvin’s lawyers were originally seeking. He also called her a “highly litigious individual.”
The California Joint Legislative Audit Committee in a bipartisan vote last May approved an audit of the Pacific Airshow settlement. In October, state auditor Grant Parks sued Huntington Beach after he said the city didn’t comply with records requests.
Gates has said the state has no authority to audit the city’s books.
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