MICHAEL GATES, Huntington Beach City Attorney (OC Tribune photo).

Michael Gates, Huntington Beach’s city attorney, will be leaving Surf City and going to work for the United States Department of Justice.

Gates, 49, first elected to the city attorney’s post in 2014, has been an outspoken challenger of state policies and the author of several legal efforts to resist mandates from Sacramento on housing and other issues.

He’s also been able to fend off campaigns to require Huntington Beach to switch its at-large voting for city council seats to a by-district model.

Much of his efforts to battle state government have come from his theory that Huntington Beach – as a charter – rather than a common law – city, is exempt from certain mandates. The courts have not always agreed.

Gates announced on Monday he would become a deputy assistant attorney general in the civil rights division.

“The voters put [Donald] Trump in office to restore a lot of what has been damaged across the country,” Gates told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m glad to take that role as being a part of that restoration – that we need to put America back to where it was … a nation of laws.”

In a press release, Gates recommended that the city council appoint Mike Viglitotta – who has\d been chief assistant city attorney under Gates before leaving to become city attorney in Orange in 2023 – as his replacement. Gates’ term runs until 2026.