Ethics, Shmethics -- City Attorney Michael Gates Has None
Gates had no problem with thousands of dollars of free services from Code Four just weeks after the city was sued over cancellation of the last day of the 2021 airshow.
Living under MAGA municipal rule in Huntington Beach can resemble bad sitcom TV, with each new episode more over the top than the last, and set to a cackling laugh track of the far-right extremists who lap it all up.
But not all of the episodes are funny.
One of my informed sources recently told me a tale about the 2022 Huntington Harbour Boat Parade, a longstanding annual tradition here in HB. I’m pretty jaded about HB politics after a quarter-century of community activism, but my jaw dropped after hearing about this because it’s just so brazen.
City Attorney Michael Gates was the grand marshal for that year’s parade. That didn’t raise any eyebrows for me back in 2022, because it’s fairly common for the grand marshal to be a local politician in search of community exposure.
In October 2022, the airshow roared into town as usual, and political candidates including Gates took advantage of free VIP passes offered by Code Four CEO Kevin Elliott. Those passes are the subject of a still-pending FPPC investigation in response to my complaint.
Then on October 28th, 2022, Code Four served the city with a lawsuit over the October 2021 cancellation of the last day of the airshow due to an oil spill.
Lawsuits are by definition an adversarial process, which might be expected to put a damper on the relationship between the plaintiff and the respondent. But not so between Code Four and city officials.
My source tells me that just a mere handful of weeks after suing the city, Code Four donated several thousand dollars worth of services and some goods to decorate the boat that would be carrying Grand Marshal Gates in the boat parade. I’m told that Gates and his wife Kelly purchased most of the lights at Home Depot, and then a Code Four lighting designer and crew guy spent a couple of days installing them, along with some additional lighting plus the banner, and then another day for removal after the parade.
No ethical attorney would ever knowingly participate in a gratuity from a plaintiff suing the attorney’s client. Ethics, shmethics — I’m sure he’ll fit in just fine in his new role with the Trump administration.
Never assume that the HB closet is empty of airshow skeletons. If you know of more, please reach out to me. Protecting my confidential sources is my highest priority.
