I’m running to be your City Attorney because like you I love my city and, strange as it may sound to some, I also love the law. The 27 years I’ve already spent as Deputy and Assistant City Attorney in Huntington Beach have been a blessing and source of pride for me and, I believe, good for the city as well.

I received my law degree from UCLA. I moved to Huntington Beach with my wife and two children in 1989. Before going to work in the HB City Attorney’s office in 1995, I served as City Attorney for Temecula and Mission Viejo. I hired on here as a Deputy City Attorney and was promoted in 1999 to Assistant City Attorney.

I said I believe my work here has been good for the city. Here are just a few of the reasons why:

• I set up a program of property tax refunds to HB homeowners in 2003-2004.
• I stopped cell phone companies from building a huge network of unsightly and dangerous aerial wires in the city, forcing them instead to put the wires underground.
• I again reined in the cell phone companies by stopping them from building antenna towers in the city’s parks. This case actually gave not just Huntington Beach but cities and counties throughout the United States the right to decide where cell towers can be placed.
• I won a case that ensured that affordable housing stays affordable, by eliminating profiteering that threatened to destroy that promise.

On a personal note, when I’m not in the office working for the people of Huntington Beach I enjoy my time with my family, hiking in the local mountains, and cheering on UCLA sports teams and the L.A. Dodgers (we miss you, Vin!).

19 October 2022

Having spent more that 2 decades in HB City Hall, I'm experienced and ready to serve #SurfCity as the next City Attorney. So, please vote this November for #ScottField4HB, a City Attorney who will work with the City Council in the best interest of Huntington Beach.#GOTV pic.twitter.com/dBk0ATPNGD

— Scott Field For HB (@ScottFieldForHB) October 17, 2022

18 October 2022

Thank you U.S. Congresswoman Katie Porter for your endorsement!

22 September 2022

Thank you Council Member Rhonda Bolton for your endorsement!

3 September 2022

Honored to receive endorsement from the Democratic Party of Orange County!

1 September 2022

JUDGE TOSSES CHALLENGE TO H.B. CITY ATTORNEY CANDIDATE’S BALLOT DESCRIPTION

A legal challenge to Huntington Beach City Attorney candidate Scott Field’s ballot designation as “City of Huntington Beach Deputy Attorney” was summarily dismissed in Superior Court yesterday.

After hearing Petitioner’s argument, Judge Craig Griffin ruled that the action brought by Michael Hoskinson, a supporter of incumbent City Attorney Michael Gates, was meritless on its face. Hoskinson is a former Huntington Beach planning commissioner who resigned in 2016 after a public outcry when he denigrated Islam in a YouTube video, calling it “not a religion at all.”

Field represented himself at the hearing.

“I felt it was important for me to stand up for myself and not send an attorney to represent me,” said Field. “This just shows, yet again, that filing a lawsuit for political reasons is a waste of money and effort and usually doesn’t end well. It’s a lesson Michael Gates refuses to learn, and it has cost the city during his tenure as City Attorney. We’ll be discussing that more between now and November.”

“The bottom line is that the city deserves better than Mr. Gates and Mr. Hoskinson,” said Field. “I’ve been a municipal law attorney all my life and I’ve never run for anything before. I’m doing this now because I feel I can provide much-needed service to the city and its residents. That’s what the City Attorney position should be all about, not a stepping stone to some other political office.”

The challenge stemmed from Field using the title he held with the city until last October. State law allows a candidate to use a job title from the prior calendar year as a ballot description. Hoskinson contended that the law says that Field had to hold the job in the current year, and the judge noted that simply is not what the law says.

Field was in the City Attorney’s office in Huntington Beach for almost 25 years. After Gates was elected City Attorney, he proceeded to demote and cut the pay of Field and another attorney, to get them to leave. Field and the other attorney sued in 2019 for age discrimination. The City paid $2.5 million in settlement to Field and his co-plaintiff in 2021.

“I’ve now beaten Mr. Gates twice,” noted Field. “On to November!”

27 August 2022

A big thank you to Orange Coast Huddle and the Orange County Labor Federation for endorsing me!

23 August 2022

A doctor has a relationship with that patient, and that’s sacred. Frankly, attorneys are the same way. We have a relationship with our client. Our job is not to do what we want, it’s to help the client achieve his or her goals.

Read more in this LA Times piece featuring an interview with me.

11 August 2022

I have the experience to bring the office back to what it should be.

Get my take on some of the issues surrounding the election in this week’s story from the OC Register.

I believe there is important background information that Huntington Beach voters should know about my opponent in this race.

Gates is a loser who cost the city $7.5 million last year alone

In 2021, Gates lost two cases, costing the city some $7.5 million.

First, after several years of litigation, the non-profit Kennedy Commission was successful in forcing the city to permit more affordable housing, as required by state law. As a result, the Commission was awarded more than $3.5 million in attorney fees.

Just a month earlier, the City had to agree to pay $2.5 million to settle the Moore/Field age discrimination lawsuit against Gates, stemming from his mismanagement of the City Attorney’s Office and creation of a hostile work environment. In addition to the remarkably large settlement, the fees the city paid an outside law firm to handle the case were an astonishing $1.5 million, for a total cost of $4 million.

Gates is a political hack who created an ethical swamp

After these costly mistakes by Gates, the City Council hired a respected independent outside law firm, RWG, to evaluate Gates’ handling of the Moore/Field lawsuit. The resulting RWG report found that both Gates and his former deputy, Brian Williams, had committed serious legal and ethical lapses.

First, the ethics rules governing attorneys in California required Gates to remove himself from involvement in the Moore/Field lawsuit, as he was a defendant. Hiring the outside firm of Greenberg Gross to handle the case ostensibly allowed Gates to say he was not involved, but documentary evidence, including Greenberg Gross’ own invoices to the City, show that Gates continued to monitor and supervise the firm’s work – resisting earlier and less expensive settlements while hoping instead for a win in court to protect his reputation and ego.

Worse, in what gave the appearance of a sweetheart deal to beat all sweetheart deals, Gates allowed Williams, who had recommended Greenberg Gross for the contract, to leave his post in the City Attorney’s Office and jump to the private firm. There, Williams worked on the Moore/Field lawsuit just as he would have if he’d stayed with the City, while being paid double or more what he would have cost the City as a staff attorney.

At this moment, the state Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating the Greenberg Gross deal, and it is my hope and belief that the California Bar Association will also look into the scandal and sanction Gates and Williams.

Gates is an awful manager and no one at City Hall trusts their attorney

Under Gates, there has been a complete breakdown between the City Attorney’s Office and the City Council, his client. The dysfunction is out of control, and it needs to stop. Today we have a City Attorney who thinks he can mask his incompetent and unethical behavior by appointing cronies to key positions, ranting about “us versus them” whenever he’s called out, and whipping up extremist partisan followers on social media. It’s embarrassing as well as harmful to the City, but perhaps it should have been expected from someone who flaunts his endorsement by the disgraced former District Attorney of Orange County.

Huntington Beach deserves better

That’s why I’m running for City Attorney. I have the experience, knowledge and decency to properly represent Huntington Beach in legal matters, restore professionalism and efficiency to the City Attorney’s Office, and rebuild healthy working relationships at City Hall that are crucial to getting things done for the citizens of Huntington Beach.