The Brief

A local political kingmaker got a street named after him in Huntington Beach — by the same people whose political careers have benefitted from his tens of thousands of dollars in contributions. The honoree, Ed Laird, was feted last Friday in a ceremony held in front of his business Laird Coatings, with campaign signs for many of his beneficiaries flanking the podium.

Commerce Lane, a block-long street in an industrial part of the beach town is now also Honorary Laird Lane.

The ceremony was staffed by the city, and the speakers were a veritable who's who of conservative Orange County politics, including U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel and state Assemblymember Diane Dixon, both of whom are up for reelection. Laird has donated at least $5,500 to Dixon's campaign this election cycle, and at least $3,300 to Steel's current campaign, according to state and federal campaign finance data.

Huntington Beach's conservative City Council block — four out of seven members — all took to the podium, including Councilmember Tony Strickland, the former state senator and assemblyman who's again running for a state Senate seat in 2026. Laird donated $5,500 to Strickland's campaign in June, records show, and he donated to all four council members' campaigns in 2022.

Former Huntington Beach Congressman Dana Rohrabacher showed up — all the way from his home in Maine — with a guitar and a song he wrote. Rohrabacher represented coastal north O.C. for 30 years until he lost reelection to a Democrat in 2018.

"God bless the folks, like Ed Laird, who built this great country," he sang while strumming, "and God bless our rights to speak and to pray."

Huntington Beach Councilmember Dan Kalmick, a Democrat, called the event "an unfortunate use of taxpayer resources."

The honoree

Laird's nearly 50-year-old family business, Laird Coatings, makes specialized paints and coatings for the aviation and plastics industries. He recently handed over the reigns of the company to one of his sons. In a video last year, Laird said the firm does about $30 million in business annually and has 50 employees.

Laird has been active in civic affairs and local nonprofit groups for decades, including serving on the board of the local Boy Scouts of America chapter (a scout camp in Irvine is named after him), and on the board of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, an environmental group. The list of awards he's accumulated throughout the years is long, including recognitions from the American Cancer Society, Kiwanis, and the Lincoln Club, a powerful conservative donor group in O.C.

At the ceremony, Councilmember Strickland said Laird is "like the Bob Hope of Huntington Beach. You never turn down a charity." Councilmember Casey McKeon called him "very kind, very generous, very caring with his time, with his resources, with his investment in the community through his business."

Along with his philanthropy, Laird has had his hands in conservative politics for decades, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to local, state and federal candidates and causes. McKeon said when he started to get involved in local politics, he was told Laird was a "kingmaker."

Asked later whether he thought "kingmaker" was an accurate description, Laird told LAist: "I think it's overdone. I just like to support good people and I support conservative people."

Nonetheless, at the street-naming ceremony, many of the speakers thanked Laird for helping them launch their political careers. Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark seemed on the verge of tears while talking about how Laird promised to stand by her during a tough time in her campaign.

"His words of support were all I needed to continue on this fight, and now I stand here as a Mayor of Huntington Beach," Van Der Mark said.

Campaign finance records show Laird donated at least $5,500 to Van Der Mark's 2022 City Council campaign, as well as to her 2018 school board campaign.

Laird is also, apparently, deeply involved in city affairs. When he took the podium at the street-naming event, Laird said he had been "right in the middle" of negotiations between City Attorney Michael Gates and the operator of the city's annual airshow, Kevin Elliott, which ended in a controversial settlement in which the city agreed to pay Elliott's firm up to $7 million.

"I sat in my driveway at home, my wife thought I came home for dinner," Laird told the crowd of close to 100 people, "and for four hours I was talking between Michael and Kevin and the deal was struck that was fair to the city."

Ed Laird gets a hug from Rep. Michelle Steel at his honorary street-naming event.

(

Jill Replogle

/

LAist

)

Laird and local PACs

Much larger than his individual contributions are the sums Laird has poured into political action committees (PACs) over the years. Unlike direct donations to candidates, which have limits, PACs can independently spend as much as they want to support or oppose ballot measures and candidates.

Laird is the principal donor to the Huntington Beach People's Action Committee — whose address is the same as Laird's business on Commerce Lane, now also called "Honorary Laird Lane." Laird gave $23,500 to the committee during the first half of 2024, according to the most recently available campaign finance disclosure form.

The committee spent more than $20,000 to promote three measures on the Huntington Beach ballot in March, including one requiring voter ID at polling places, and another limiting the types of flags that can be displayed on city property.

For the upcoming November election, the committee has spent more than $17,000 on postcards opposing Gina Clayton-Tarvin, an outspoken, liberal school board trustee who's running for reelection. It has spent at least another $9,000 to support two of her opponents.

The committee has also funded mailers opposing the re-election of Huntington Beach City Councilmember Kalmick, who frequently spars with the conservative council majority. Laird also helped bankroll an effort to recall Kalmick and another six members of the City Council in 2021 for not putting up enough of a fight against state mandates to make room for more housing. (Among those he tried to recall was former Councilmember Mike Posey, whose previous campaigns Laird had supported financially.)

"They really wanted to turn Huntington Beach into a San Francisco, you know, with high rises all over," Laird told LAist. "We're a little beach town and we welcome new people and there's some infill that can be done, but to take homes and make it into four apartments isn't our lifestyle here in Huntington Beach."

The recall was unsuccessful.

Kalmick, Clayton-Tarvin and some of Laird's other political foes have filed multiple complaints with the state Fair Political Practices Committee (FPPC) against Laird and the Huntington Beach People's Action Committee. They allege, among other things, that the committee repeatedly missed state deadlines for disclosing their donors and campaign spending. The FPPC opened an investigation into the committee in 2022, which now encompasses at least 12 of those complaints. The investigation is ongoing, according to the FPPC's website.

Laird told LAist he didn't know about the FPPC investigation, and he said the committee's treasurer might not be caught up on the latest campaign disclosure rules. He called the complaints by Kalmick and others "inconsequential" and "harassment."

'Shady gray area'

Kalmick, who made a brief appearance at the Laird street-naming ceremony, called it "absolutely a political event."

"I think that this was an unfortunate use of taxpayer resources to help support a campaign donor to these people," he said.

Tracy Westen, a government ethics expert with the nonprofit Common Cause, said he didn't think the street-naming or the ceremony violated any state election or ethics laws, but it could "raise eyebrows."

"It's a shady gray area," he said. "It may raise in the minds of some that this is favoritism in exchange for contributions. It creates a little bit of that appearance."

Van Der Mark, the mayor, called Laird a "pillar in our community" in an interview with LAist after the ceremony. She said Laird, through his work with the local Boys and Girls Club and Boy Scouts of America, had "given thousands of kids opportunities" for activities like camping that they might not have had otherwise.

Asked whether she was concerned that the street-naming could be perceived as payback for his political contributions, Van Der Mark said, "No."

"Just because he endorses, supports people who he has faith in doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve recognition just like everybody else that gives back to their community," she said.

Initial street-naming backlash

The City Council initially discussed officially renaming Commerce Lane as "Ed Laird Lane" in May. But other businesses on the street protested — one business owner told LAist they calculated the address change would have cost them $200,000 to $300,000 each, for things like printing new advertising and changing their address on business licenses.

In the end, Laird himself asked the city not to inconvenience his neighbors with the name change. The council majority voted to put up the ceremonial signs instead.

Laird later told LAist that he appreciated the recognition, which he said the City Council majority insisted upon. "But I don't like being in the limelight," he said.

The nonprofits that run the Los Angeles region's federally funded homeless shelters, outreach teams and housing services will soon be overseen by a different government agency, under a deal a federal judge says he plans to approve next week.

If approved, the shift will mark the biggest change in the control of federal homeless dollars in L.A. in decades.

The proposed settlement would shift federal grants and duties from the troubled L.A. Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to the county government in stages, starting next month. LAHSA’s management of federal dollars for homeless services would end in June. The deal between LAHSA and the Trump administration keeps the region's request for roughly $240 million in new annual federal funding on track and adds tighter checks on how that money is spent.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said at a Friday hearing he would likely sign it Monday, ending LAHSA's lawsuit over the Trump administration’s June suspension of the agency.

“This has been an absolute past dereliction of duty by the federal government” and local governments, Carter said, referring to what he called decades of failure to properly oversee homelessness dollars.

“I choose now to turn this back to the proper governing bodies,” Carter said. "But please, this can never happen again."

Citing past audits and reports, Carter said “HUD’s been on notice since 2007” of LAHSA’s oversight failures and “abandoned” its own oversight role.

“I termed it a partnership in failure,” he added. “Local government turned an absolute blind eye to the distribution of these funds and transparency and accountability for these funds.”

“And what is so sad and disappointing is, these funds were meant to serve the absolute most vulnerable in our society,” the judge added.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, left, shown in West L.A. on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024.

(

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

/

Los Angeles Times

)

LAHSA has faced major problems in recent years. Last year, an LAist investigation found the signature of LAHSA’s then-CEO, Va Lecia Adams Kellum, finalized a $2.1 million contract with the nonprofit where her husband was working in senior leadership, despite previously telling LAist she was “completely recused.”

LAist also found the agency kept awarding millions in contract renewals to another nonprofit even after LAHSA’s own compliance team labeled it “high-risk” for, among other things, billing for services while reporting no enrolled participants. That group’s leader, Alex Soofer, recently pleaded guilty to diverting $2 million. Another nonprofit operator contracted with LAHSA, Michael Young, was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors with misappropriating millions of tax dollars, including allegedly siphoning $1 million into a high-end nightclub.

Additionally, a 2024 L.A. County audit found LAHSA had mismanaged hundreds of millions in contracts for homeless services, often paying service providers late and failing to track whether services were provided.

Under the deal, Carter would receive quarterly reports on progress and could intervene if one of the parties asks him to resolve a dispute.

When control would shift

The deal, on its own, does not change which nonprofits provide shelter, outreach and housing. It instead changes which government agency pays them and ensures they’re serving people as required.

Here’s what the timeline will be if Carter follows through on approving the deal:

• Within two weeks of this year's federal awards: Most new grants awarded to LAHSA will instead be managed by the county, not LAHSA.
• Starting Dec. 1: Grants for programs that begin on or after that date move to the county before they start.
• January 2027: LAHSA, which has overseen the homeless counts since 2005, runs the annual homeless count one last time. The county runs it after that.
• By March 1, 2027: The county is approved to take over as the agency that applies for federal homelessness money for the whole region going forward, instead of LAHSA.
• By April 1, 2027: The county takes over management from LAHSA of many federal grants for programs already underway that continue past June 2027.
• By June 30, 2027: LAHSA finishes administering federal grants that end by this date.
• By Dec. 31, 2027: The county takes over the region’s federally required database, known as HMIS, that tracks which homeless services each person receives. The county also takes over another system, known as CES, that matches people with taxpayer-funded housing. With that, LAHSA's last remaining federal roles end.
• January 2028: The county conducts the annual homeless count, taking over that role from LAHSA.

What the deal would mean for services

The federal government’s attorneys said the goal is to have stronger oversight over homelessness spending, after many years of documented failures by LAHSA. Attorneys who struck the proposed settlement said in court Friday that the timeline was structured to ensure a smooth transition that doesn’t disrupt homeless services.

The HMIS database and matching system, which caseworkers use to track clients and place them in homes, will switch over last to avoid disrupting services, said Shayla Myers, the lead attorney for the L.A. Continuum of Care, the body that coordinates federal homelessness funding and joined LAHSA in the lawsuit.

For taxpayers, the deal adds safeguards on spending Carter has demanded for years. LAHSA must send invoices and spending records to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) before drawing grant money, and submit receipts afterward. A HUD contractor, Guidehouse, will review its books, and the county must follow the same rules for older grants it inherits. The parties will report to Carter every three months, until LAHSA no longer has any federal roles overseen by HUD.

Bill Essayli is the first assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California.

(

Allen J. Schaben

/

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

)

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, whose office represents HUD, told LAist after the hearing that the county is probably the best equipped to take over, and scrutiny will be crucial.

“Do I have amazing confidence in the county? No,” he said, noting that LAHSA is a joint city-county agency.

“But we're going to verify that they are going to be good stewards of the tax money.” With LAHSA gone, he added, “The buck's going to stop at the county.”

Under the proposed deal, LAHSA agrees to cooperate fully with HUD's investigations. A LAHSA attorney told the judge on Friday the agency is cooperating fully with criminal investigations, adding that it was critical that HUD agreed not to reinstate LAHSA’s suspension, so that it can continue to manage federal dollars until they’re handed off.

Judge wanted more 'teeth' for the court

Carter spent much of the hearing asking attorneys for the parties what power he would have to enforce the deal after signing. The proposed settlement lets him settle disputes and receive reports, but he said that left him looking over shoulders without the authority to actually enforce it.

“I have no jurisdiction. I have no teeth,” he said.

He read aloud from 2024 hearings in a related lawsuit, known as L.A. Alliance, where he warned that bills without supporting documents should not be paid. Essayli said that the proposed settlement would be binding “and we'll vigorously enforce it.”

Myers said the deal gives the court oversight to ensure that the problems federal authorities flagged “don’t exist.”

Carter asked to have the ability to hire an expert, at about $150 an hour paid by HUD, to help him understand the quarterly reports on implementing the deal that transfers federal roles from LAHSA to the county. Essayli agreed.

How the case got here

HUD suspended LAHSA from federal funds on June 11, citing alleged failures in the agency’s financial management and conflict-of-interest safeguards. The move put roughly $240 million in expected federal homelessness funding for the region in limbo and held up federal funding HUD had already awarded.

LAHSA, which is overseen by the city and county’s elected officials, sued.

In August, Carter blocked the suspension, writing that LAHSA and HUD had been in “a joint partnership in failure,” and ordering a competition for LAHSA's federal roles. He deferred the selection to the continuum of care — the body designated by federal law to make that choice.

In October, the continuum chose the county for all four, over objections from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and several City Council members who wanted the city to share control. The city then reached a tentative side deal giving it access to data on unhoused residents and a role placing people in city-funded housing.

What happens next

Carter said he expects to sign the proposed settlement on Monday.

Myers said the deal lets the region “build a peaceful transition of power.”

Left-leaning candidates running in three school board contests flagged by EdSource as races to watch are each leading comfortably in unofficial election results more than a week after a so-called “blue tsunami” swept the country.

Unofficial results also show progressive candidates ahead in some races in the Inland Empire, a conservative stronghold where several far-right school board candidates ran on issues such as gender identity and parents’ rights. Counties have until Dec. 3 to certify election results.

In the Orange Unified School District, four moderate incumbents are far ahead of conservative challengers in separate races. One of them, board President Stephen Glass, defeated challenger Jack Chang, and has declared victory. The conservative candidates ran largely on parents’ rights and fiscal responsibility.

“We won,” Glass said on social media. “We’ll keep putting students first and supporting every teacher, every classified professional and every family.”

All four incumbents are up by double-digit percentage points, Orange County election results show. The election follows last year’s recall of two conservative school board members.

In a race for the Davis Unified school board, an anti-transgender candidate who once stripped down to a bikini at a school board meeting, lost decisively, according to unofficial election results. Beth Bourne, president of the Yolo County chapter of Moms For Liberty, trails incumbent Elizabeth Moon by 89 percentage points, results show.

In Palo Alto — where issues over academics dominated the race — newcomers Avery Wang and Linda Henigin are ahead in unofficial results for two seats. John Craig, who ran in tandem with Wang, conceded on election night. Wang ran primarily on retaining academic rigor, especially in math. “It’s the beginning of a movement,” Wang told Palo Alto Online.

Henigin ran on a platform of improving student well-being following a recent spate of student suicides.

Elsewhere in the state, school board candidates in conservative strongholds such as Chino Valley and Temecula fared poorly in local school board races.

In Temecula, school board President Joseph Komrosky trails challenger David Sola by 10 percentage points, results show. Sola has declared victory. Komrosky had voted to ban critical race theory in district schools and attempted to ban teaching materials that mentioned slain gay rights icon Harvey Milk, drawing a sharp rebuke from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Komrosky’s apparent defeat was part of what The Press-Enterprise reported as “a seismic shift in local governance given recent elections that gave power to the Christian right.”

In Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County, two conservative school board candidates are trailing far behind, results show. Chris Shaw, the husband of State Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Sonja Shaw, trails Frank Gerdine by nearly 17 percentage points, while Meagan Lichthart is ahead of Shaun Smith, backed by Shaw, by 15 percentage points.

This story was originally published by EdSource.

Major service cuts to Metrolink are on hold for now thanks to a $20 million grant from California’s State Transportation Agency. The Metrolink board of directors approved the agency’s $420 million budget on Friday.

The previous budget proposal included slashing a third of weekday trains and 40% of weekend trains.

“Thankfully, our customers were spared the disappointment and frustration of losing the service they rely on to travel the region for business and pleasure,” Tom Schamber, chief financial officer at Metrolink, said at the board meeting.

How did we get here? 

The Metrolink budget had been approved quarterly since June as staff worked out the annual budget.

Metrolink staff have worked on this year’s budget since last September. The agency has pointed to slowing fare revenue, rising costs due to inflation and low ridership numbers for its budget troubles.

“Fare box revenue ended the year $14 million under budget. This was sobering, and we realized that not only was fiscal [20]26 off, but our ridership expectations for fiscal year [20]27 would need to be recalibrated to this new baseline,” Schamber said.

A majority of Metrolink’s budget is funded by Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties’ transportation agencies. For more than a year, Metrolink officials have been building a budget that member agencies, like the Orange County Transportation Authority and L.A. Metro, would approve.

L.A. Metro and OCTA cut their subsidies to Metrolink by 3% and 10%, respectively.

“The challenges ahead of us were becoming more evident,” Schamber said at Friday’s board meeting. “In addition to disappointing fare revenue and funding limitations, we must absorb inevitable cost increases in several of our largest contracts.”

What we know about the grant

The $20 million grant from the state comes with the expectation that Metrolink will retain the same service levels provided today, Schamber added.

Metrolink CEO Darren M. Kettle said another expectation is that the agency must plan to maintain its services for the upcoming year.

“We don't have a plan. We're working on a plan to make sure we have the funding to deliver the same level of service at a minimum,” Kettle said. “With respect to these conditions, based on what we know now, as of last evening, our staff is confident that Metrolink will be able to meet these conditions.”

What’s next? 

Kettle said staff got a head start on next fiscal year’s budget through the state grant application. Officials said the rail agency is also gearing up for the 2028 Olympic Games.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon because of communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.

The FAA notice said the ground stop was being imposed “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there is a communications issue affecting the 22 regional air traffic control centers that direct planes en route between airports nationwide. He said FAA technicians are investigating. This is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned. Before that the last time had been after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication yet that “this was a nefarious attack against us. It’s just a telecommunications outage.”

“Everybody’s safe. There’s no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying,” Mullin said.

There is no timeline for restarting flights. Mullin said investigators will look at whether there is any link to the FAA’s nationwide rollout of a new artificial intelligence system to help identify problems and reroute planes. But that system operates out of one location near Washington, D.C., and just sends recommendations to the air traffic control centers.

The government has been working to overhaul the outdated technology that air traffic controllers rely on since Congress approved $12.5 billion for the project last year. Miles of old copper wires have been replaced with fiber optic lines and old radio systems are gradually being replaced at airports across the country.

But much work remains. Duffy has said that another $30 billion will be needed to complete the work, and the White House has begun lobbying Congress to approve it.

The problem appeared similar to a regional air traffic control communication outage in September that snarled hundreds of flights across the Northeast, aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said, except this time on a nationwide scale. It may be linked to the outdated technology used by air traffic controllers.

“If you don’t have that ability, whether it’s because the old wires that they have are just run down or for whatever reason, you’ve got to stop airplanes on the ground,” said Arroyo, who is a former United Airlines pilot. “And not put them in the air where you’re going to risk not being able to communicate with them.”

Friday’s ground stop was different than the one after Sept. 11 because planes were not being told to land immediately and pilots likely were able to communicate with ground controllers at airports, Arroyo said.

___

AP writer Mead Gruver contributed to this report from Fort Collins, Colorado.

This is a developing story and will be updated.