Shelter director enters council race

William “Billy” O’Connell, the co-founder and executive director of a Huntington Beach nonprofit for homeless women and children, has entered the race for City Council.

O’Connell, who launched Colette’s Children’s Home with two other people in 1998, is the 13th candidate in the council race to date. A native New Yorker who spent his childhood in Ireland, he has lived in Huntington Beach for nearly two decades and serves on the city’s Public Works Commission.

His candidacy for the council, he said, was motivated by a desire to serve the city beyond the scope of his nonprofit.

“I’ve always believed in giving back to the community,” O’Connell said. “I believe in making us a stronger and better community, and I believe I can play an important role in the city of Huntington Beach.”

Colette’s offers emergency and transitional housing for women and children and helps them find jobs and permanent homes. To date, the nonprofit has taken more than 1,000 people off the streets. O’Connell also worked as a deputy sheriff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department from 1990 to 1998.

As a candidate, he favors reducing taxes and government spending and supports the senior center in Huntington Central Park, which he said was mandated by voters.

“I see the challenges our seniors are faced with on fixed income, and I believe, in the last years of their lives, they should have a little respect and dignity,” he said. “I also feel the citizens of the city voted, and basically, we should follow what the people voted for.”