Supporters of a new initiative aimed at making it more challenging to privatize operations of Huntington Beach public libraries submitted over 17,000 signatures on Monday, November 25th. This move comes in reaction to a city proposal that was initially considered but ultimately abandoned, which sought to contract out library management to save approximately $1 million annually.
This petition marks the second effort concerning the city libraries that has reached the stage of collecting signatures, with results set to be reviewed by the City Council. An earlier petition delivered in October calls for overturning a law that would enable the establishment of a children’s book review board however, this board has not yet been instituted.
Supported by Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library, the latest petition seeks to enact a law mandating that any decision to privatize public library management or ownership requires majority approval from both the City Council and the city’s voters.
The initial city directive for staff to seek proposals from potential contractors met significant community resistance. The plans were shelved after Library Systems & Services, a company based in Maryland, withdrew its interest.
As of Monday, the City Clerk’s Office verified that 17,773 signatures were collected for the initiative regarding library privatization. The OC Registrar of Voters will now authenticate these signatures, as shared by City Clerk Robin Estanislau. The initiative requires backing from 10% of Huntington Beach’s registered voters to proceed.
The registrar’s office is tasked with verifying signatures by December 12th for the first petition and January 13th for the second. During the December 17th City Council meeting, options for handling the first petition will be discussed, and these could include adopting it directly, requesting a detailed report, or putting it on the ballot for the next general election in November 2026.
However, Estanislau noted that it’s too late to include these petitions in a special election scheduled for March 4th, which seeks to replace Sen. Janet Nguyen, pending official results of her election to the OC Board of Supervisors.
The city has requested comprehensive verification of all signatures to address any electoral process concerns.
Carol Daus, one of the petition’s backers, expressed her belief that the newly elected conservative City Council might bring this privatization issue to voters in the 2026 elections, though it remains to be seen how they will move forward.
