The Huntington Beach City Council will hold a special meeting on Friday, Nov. 21, to discuss former City Attorney Michael Gates’ employment following news of his firing from the Justice Department.

Gates had announced earlier this month that he had resigned from the Department of Justice and had accepted an offer as chief assistant city attorney starting Nov. 24. 

At the Tuesday, Nov. 18, council meeting, Councilmember Chad Williams requested an immediate closed session discussion on “the status of a current city contract regarding the employment of Michael Gates as chief assistant city attorney and to discuss avoidance of litigation over possible breach.”

A federal employment document, which the Register obtained through a public records request, said Gates had been fired “for cause” after serving 10 months as deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Gates has maintained that he resigned and has said he would pursue legal action against the DOJ division and certain members of that office.

Prior to joining the DOJ in February, Gates had spent more than a decade as the elected city attorney of Huntington Beach. He has said he plans to run for election again next year.

Gates, when reached Wednesday morning, declined to comment.

Williams said Gates’ attorney had sent the City Council “two emails” regarding Gates’ employment with the city ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

He read out a section of the correspondence: “Should there be an adverse employment action that damage done by the false and defamatory statements about our blameless client would be compounded, our client may have no choice but to take formal action that he would prefer to avoid.”

The statement constituted a “very credible threat of litigation” that warranted urgent action, Williams said.

“We can come to a conclusion tonight and resolve this issue, or we can delay and find ourselves served with a lawsuit in the next 24 hours,” he said.

City Attorney Mike Vigliotta said the emails did not “present a need to take immediate action” and told the council it would be more appropriate to call a special meeting for further discussion.

“Because the item was not on the agenda tonight, you have to make additional findings that there is a need to take immediate action,” he said. “That is required by the Brown Act.”

Mayor Pat Burns called for convening the special meeting on Friday at noon, which the council agreed on unanimously.

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