Legal Update (Clayton-Tarvin v. City of HB)

Santa Ana-Victory occurred today in my case against the City of Huntington Beach and City Attorney Gates in their breach of transparency and CA law. The court ruled entirely in my favor and OVERRULED all of their flimsy motions. They attempted to demurrer, to get my case thrown out, they lost. They also attempted to remove Michael Gates as a defendant, they lost. The original suit was filed to obtain the air show settlement agreement documents after a massive payout of public funds to Kevin Elliot of Code Four Productions. A source at the OC Registrar of Voters reported that at 1:00pm, City Attorney Gates, Van Der Mark, and Burns were down the street from the courthouse. They were filing to run for the GOP Central Committee and didn’t bother to come to represent the City at the hearing at the Central Court at 1:30pm. Their outside counsel attorney Savanah Skelton only appeared via zoom. We appeared in-person. As stated above, even before the hearing started, the judge issued a preliminary ruling and OVERRULED all of their arguments. Once inside the courtroom, he ruled again from the bench against the City and Gates sealing their loss. Justice has prevailed and We The People won today. Next up, a status hearing on Monday, December 4th at 9am to move the case forward to be heard on the merits and to close out this case once and for all. I am convinced that the City will lose ultimately and will have wasted precious taxpayer dollars instead of just producing the document as required under the CA Constitution and the Public Records Act. We will keep fighting for transparency and honesty in government and we will prevail.