The Huntington Beach City Council passed the motion, introduced by Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark, with a split 4-3 vote early Wednesday during a marathon meeting that ended at 2:48 a.m.
The initiative states that previous mandates “unnecessarily limited the freedoms of the citizens of Huntington Beach, even those who were not around anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 or at risk of any exposure.”
The motion requires the city manager to appear at the council’s next regular meeting with a resolution declaring the coastal Southern California town in Orange County a “no mask and no vaccine mandate city.”
“Individuals, whether at City Hall or in the private sector, should have a right to choose whether to wear a mask or get vaccinated or boosted,” it states.
The initiative, which applies to city personnel but not private businesses, was met with comments from proponents and opponents during the extensive deliberation, with one attendee ejected from the proceedings for disrupting Van Der Mark.
The motion exempts people who recently tested positive for the coronavirus, requiring them to mask in certain circumstances.
Councilman Dan Kalmick, who voted against the initiative, described it as a “ridiculous motion.” He added that there is no evidence that mandates were forthcoming despite the increase in cases.
“It was a straw man argument that this is going to happen,” Kalmick said. “No one is talking about universal mask or vaccine mandates.”
Over the past month, all of California’s COVID-19 indicators have shown an upward trajectory. Hospitalization admissions have risen by nearly 80%, jumping from a daily average of 210 to 374, and the state’s test positivity rate from lab tests has reached 14%, compared with 8.4% at the beginning of August.
The positivity rate in Orange County was 18.1% as of Thursday, according to health department data.
Huntington Beach, dubbed “Surf City USA,” does not make its COVID data accessible to the public. In the early days of the pandemic in 2020, thousands of residents defied stay-at-home orders and clustered on the coast, prompting California Gov. Gavin Newsom to order the county’s beaches closed.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said the Huntington Beach City Council’s resolution lacks authority. The city would be unable to override rules set by the state.
The California Department of Public Health told the Chronicle earlier this week that no mandates were forthcoming despite the emergence of new immune-evasive coronavirus variants such as EG.5 and BA.2.86.
While some local schools and businesses have reinstated temporary mask mandates due to late-summer COVID outbreaks, it is far from a universal trend. Health authorities now advocate instead for personal risk evaluation as COVID-19 moves toward becoming an endemic illness.
“The reality is COVID is increasing, but it’s mostly impacting seniors who are immunocompromised and little kids, but we have so many resources available now to residents,” Foley said. “They can go to their local drug store, their own doctor, a community clinic. No matter what city they live in, those resources will continue to be available. If people choose to wear masks, that is their choice.”
Reach Aidin Vaziri: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
