Huntington Beach city attorney candidate can use former deputy attorney job title on ballot

Former Huntington Beach Deputy City Atty. Scott Field will be able to list that deputy attorney job designation on the ballot as he runs for city attorney this fall, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Craig Griffin denied a petition for writ of mandate filed by former Huntington Beach planning commissioner Michael Hoskinson.

Hoskinson had filed suit against Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page on Aug. 19, requesting that he remove any reference to Field’s prior title from his ballot designation. He claimed that Field listing himself as deputy city attorney, despite being retired for several months, violated the spirit of the election rules.

But Griffin disagreed in a brief virtual hearing.

“Because [Field] held the position of city of Huntington Beach deputy attorney at some point during the time period from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2021, he was entitled to use that title on his ballot designation,” Griffin wrote in his ruling.

Hoskinson’s lawyer, Matt Price, had argued that Field last served as deputy attorney in May 2021, around the time that Field and former deputy attorney Neal Moore settled a $2.5-million age discrimination case against Gates and the city. This time frame was outside of the context of the “calendar year immediately preceding the filing of nomination documents,” and thus Field should not be listed as such, Price argued.

But Griffin noted the Cambridge Dictionary definition of “calendar year” as a period of 365 or 366 days, starting on Jan. 1 and ending on Dec. 31.

Hoskinson, a local real estate broker, has been a supporter of incumbent City Atty. Michael Gates, who seeks a third term and is running for reelection against Field.

Hoskinson himself resigned as planning commissioner in 2016, after public criticism over a YouTube video of him giving a lecture on political correctness.

In the video, Hoskinson criticizes Islam, a group of Jewish intellectuals from the 1920s and “leftists” in general.

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