WESTMINSTER City Council meeting.

By Jim Tortolano/Orange County Tribune

With a moment of high drama toward the end, the Westminster City Council voted on Friday to place a measure on the March 5, 2024 ballot for a 1/2 cent sales tax. But it almost didn’t happen.

After more than two hours of discussion, presentations and digressions, the council voted 4-0 – with Vice Mayor Namquan  Nguyen absent for the second meeting in a row – to put the measure before voters, with no “sunset clause.” However, included was a requirement that in the eighth year of the tax the scity staff conduct a survey on whether the tax should continue.

But moments before, the same motion failed when Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen voted “no.”  Four “yes” votes were needed to pass.

His “no vote” followed the failure of his motion to approve putting the measure on the ballot with a sunset clause of nine years to get a second. Throughout the meeting, the mayor was vocal in his defense of the need for the half-cent sales tax, so his vote came as a surprise.

After a pause, he said, “For the sake of the city, I change my vote to yes.”

The sales tax increase is intended to head off a financial crisis. City staff reported to the council that the city was running an annual deficit and drawing on reserves. Those reserves were said to run out in 2027-28.