Huntington Beach councilmembers chose Casey McKeon to serve the next year as the city’s mayor, with Butch Twining as mayor pro temp.
The two councilmembers took their new seats on the dais Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the end of a meeting that briefly turned cantankerous as Twining and Councilmember Chad Williams vied for mayor pro tem.
Outgoing Mayor Pat Burns handed McKeon the mayor’s gavel and delivered a concise farewell speech.
“It’s been a good year, thank you for letting me serve,” he said.
McKeon is the last of the slate of four conservative councilmembers elected to the City Council in 2022 to be appointed mayor, following Burns, Gracey Van Der Mark and Tony Strickland.
“I never thought as a kid in Huntington Beach that I would ever be mayor, nor did I want to,” McKeon said. “I’m really honored, it’s a great privilege and an amazing city.”
McKeon, a third-generation Surf City resident, also thanked his wife, Josephine, and young son, Liam, during his speech.
The mayor and mayor pro tem serve one-year terms and are chosen by the councilmembers. The largely ceremonial posts have been generally chosen based on seniority and the number of votes a councilmember receives during the most recent election.
In his first move as mayor, McKeon made a motion to override a 1991 resolution establishing that the mayor pro tem post should be assumed by the councilmember who received the most votes when they were first elected — so long as they have not served as mayor in the past four years.
The motion passed in a 6-1 vote, and Councilmember Don Kennedy swiftly nominated Twining for the role.
Williams, who received the most votes among the three councilmembers eligible to serve as mayor pro tem, engaged in a testy exchange with McKeon as he accused the new mayor of bypassing protocols. Williams argued McKeon did not place a discussion of the resolution on the agenda ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, and therefore violated the Brown Act, which requires that items for discussion and action be announced at least 72 hours in advance.
“Going against the will of the people, lack of transparency is not a good start to your mayorship,” Williams told McKeon.
McKeon said the city attorney confirmed he was not in violation of the Brown Act and he was following council policy for raising the motion.
He added that the resolution has been bypassed multiple times in recent years, including when Strickland, Van Der Mark and Burns were elected mayors.
“The people elect you to the council, and then your colleagues up here on the dais decide who should be the mayor and mayor pro tem,” McKeon said.
Williams reminded councilmembers of the 52,000 votes he won in the 2024 election, he said.
“I’d be happy to discuss, if you guys are up to it, why you decided to pass me up for mayor pro tem,” he said to loud cheers from the crowd.
“If you grow and you show contrition, next year you’ll be the mayor pro tem,” Kennedy told Williams. “It’s as simple as that. This has zero to do with me, this has everything to do with you.”
The council installed Twining as mayor pro tem in a 6-1 vote.