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A legal challenge to Huntington Beach City Attorney candidate Scott Fields’ ballot designation as “City of Huntington Beach Deputy Attorney” was summarily dismissed in Superior Court yesterday.
After hearing Petitioner’s argument, Judge Craig Griffin ruled that the action brought by Michael Hoskinson, a supporter of incumbent City Attorney Michael Gates, was meritless on its face. Hoskinson is a former Huntington Beach planning commissioner who resigned in 2016 after a public outcry when he denigrated Islam in a YouTube video, calling it “not a religion at all.”
Field represented himself at the hearing.
“I felt it was important for me to stand up for myself and not send an attorney to represent me,” said Field. “This just shows, yet again, that filing a lawsuit for political reasons is a waste of money and effort and usually doesn’t end well. It’s a lesson Michael Gates refuses to learn, and it has cost the city during his tenure as City Attorney. We’ll be discussing that more between now and November.”
“The bottom line is that the city deserves better than Mr. Gates and Mr. Hoskinson,” said Field. “I’ve been a municipal law attorney all my life and I’ve never run for anything before. I’m doing this now because I feel I can provide much-needed service to the city and its residents. That’s what the City Attorney position should be all about, not a stepping stone to some other political office.”
The challenge stemmed from Field using the title he held with the city until last October. State law allows a candidate to use a job title from the prior calendar year as a ballot description. Hoskinson contended that the law says that Field had to hold the job in the current year, and the judge noted that simply is not what the law says.
Field was in the City Attorney’s office in Huntington Beach for almost 25 years. After Gates was elected City Attorney, he proceeded to demote and cut the pay of Field and another attorney, to get them to leave. Field and the other attorney sued in 2019 for age discrimination. The City paid $2.5 million in settlement to Field and his co-plaintiff in 2021.
“I’ve now beaten Mr. Gates twice,” noted Field. “On to November!”
