THROUGH MY EYES -- RON DAVIS

I know you’re all tired of hearing about Huntington Beach’s sewers and

the city’s related criminal conviction. I should put this in the

what’s-done-is-done file and be on to other issues, but I can’t. Not

because I want to continue to flog the city for either its failure to

repair the Downtown sewers in a timely fashion or its conviction, but

because of the city’s continuing attitude on the subject.

Frankly, I thought the citizens of Huntington Beach deserved better

all along. I thought the city should have repaired the sewers shortly

after it discovered the leaks.

But, it ignored the leaks for about three years while being told that

there was potential harm to the city’s ground water. It was that attitude

-- that indifference or callousness to a serious safety risk to the

citizens -- that drew the much-deserved attention of the Orange County

district attorney and resulted in criminal convictions. The district

attorney saw a city attitude that stunk as badly as our sewers and filed

criminal charges.

The city’s conviction should have ended the matter. But, it didn’t.

The bad attitude continues because our elected city officials continue to

make light of the conviction.

On the day the City Council publicly announced its plea bargain with

the district attorney and the superior court, I felt our local leaders

owed the citizens of Huntington Beach an apology. The city’s failure to

repair the sewers and its subsequent conviction made prime-time

television and front-page news. It was an public embarrassment for all

us.

When you draw that kind of coverage, it hurts a city’s prestige. It

embarrasses the employees, it affects sales tax revenue, property values

and tourism. Generally when you embarrass someone by your conduct, you

apologize. But, not the city of Huntington Beach.

The failure to repair the sewers and the subsequent criminal

convictions warranted a sincere statement of regret by the city, which

conveyed an appreciation by the City Council that it had erred and

demonstrated to the citizens of this community that the council

appreciated the damage it had done to the city’s wallet and prestige.

Rather than an apology, the City Council continues to publicly make

fun of its conviction, one councilman even jokingly referred to the

council as “sewer criminals.” These comments minimize the seriousness of

the city’s past criminal conduct. Those council members who do not

directly poke fun at the matter, do so indirectly by not publicly

correcting their colleagues.

The Huntington Beach City Council ought to be serving as a role model.

In this instance, its stand-up routine serves to suggest to other

criminal defendants that they too should minimize, explain and forgive

their own conduct, never take responsibility and never treat a criminal

conviction as a serious matter.

While some members of the council continue to believe their criminal

conviction for knowingly discharging raw sewage into our ground for three

years, is a laughing matter, I don’t agree.

And, I suspect that if the city ever violates any term of its existing

criminal probation or repeats the offense, I doubt the district attorney

or the superior court will have the same sense of humor.

I just wonder how the district attorney, who negotiated the plea deal,

and the judge, who accepted the deal and the stipulated sentence, feel

now. I wonder if they get the joke. It’s just a shame that the City

Council didn’t let the district attorney and the judge in on the joke

before it entered its guilty plea, rather than after.

Gosh, I’ll bet it would have thought it was as funny as three years of

leaking raw sewage into our ground. And everyone knows, that’s a real

hoot.

* RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He

can be reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected]