MAYOR PAT BURNS (File photo).

By Jim Tortolano
Orange County Tribune

A subdued Huntington Beach City Council on Tuesday night acted — without comment – to agree with a demand letter from the American Civil Liberties Union to not repeat alleged violations of a state open meetings law.

At the conclusion of an unusually short council meeting – done by 7:15 p.m. – the council voted in favor of abandoning certain rules and policies of council meetings, including prohibiting speakers in the public comments portion of the session from addressing individual members and instead directing all comments to the mayor.

The vote was 6-0 with Councilmember Andrew Gruel absent.

WENDY RINCON

The wording read: “Without admitting any violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act, the City of Huntington Beach hereby unconditionally commits that it will cease, desist from, and not repeat the challenged past action as described in the letter from the ACLU dated May 22, 2025, and analysis section of this staff report.”

While the council was silent on the matter, Wendy Rincon, the initiator of the complaint, was not.

“Mayor Pat Burns violated my First Amendment rights and the Brown Act when he shut me down during public comments simply because he didn’t like me directing comments to [Councilmembers] Chad Williams and Don Kennedy in my speech,” she said.

“Let me be clear: it is not illegal to criticize elected officials. What is illegal is silencing dissent, violating open meeting laws and suppressing speech in a public forum.”