Huntington Beach‘s councilmembers said there will be an election over two ballot initiatives seeking to counter controversial actions taken by the City Council over the last two years concerning the city libraries, but they did not order a date when that election might occur.

The two questions — whether to repeal a children’s library book review board law and make it harder to privatize the library’s operations — earned enough signatures from registered Huntington Beach voters to force the question to be put up for a vote or adopted.

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The City Council, at its Tuesday, Feb. 20 meeting, was asked whether to adopt the initiatives outright or put them to voters in either a special election or the November 2026 general election.

The council ordered staff to come back with a resolution to call for an election. Deputy City Manager Jennifer Carey asked if that meant for the general election or a special election.

Councilmember Tony Strickland replied, “We are going to come back with that answer. We are going to work with staff in the meantime. But we are going to call the election, and we are going to move with the city attorney staff on whether it’s going to the general election or a special.”

City Attorney Mike Vigliotta asked that it be brought back within 30 days.

The move puzzled proponents behind the library initiatives, who expected the council to have to decide on a date at the meeting. During the City Council meeting, the initiatives’ proponents huddled outside the council chambers to discuss what happened and began reaching out to their attorneys.

“We did have contact with an elections attorney, and we are waiting to see what our options are going forward,” said Cathey Ryder, one of the proponents behind the initiative repealing the children’s book review board.

Volunteers with the two initiatives gathered signatures throughout much of last year. The initiatives were made in response to some of the city’s most contentious issues in recent years.

The first initiative would repeal a city law that allowed the city to create a children’s library book review board, which was approved almost a year ago but still has not been formed.

That board would have 21 members who would have the power to move children’s books in circulation to a restricted section of the library and also block the library from purchasing new books that the board deems inappropriate by majority vote. Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark had been the driving force behind this effort.

The second initiative would make it harder for the city’s public library operations to be privatized. The initiative was a response to the City Council soliciting bids from contractors to operate the libraries last year. The idea drew widespread backlash and ultimately never came to fruition since the sole bidder withdrew its bid.

The City Council in January formally recognized that the initiatives had gathered enough signatures to force a public vote. The initiatives needed signatures from at least 10% of registered voters in Huntington Beach.

The council, at that meeting, ordered city staff to present reports on the cost of placing the initiatives on ballots in either the November 2026 general election or in a special election in the coming months.

Those reports found that the cost would range from about $340,000 to $1.3 million, depending if it was put on the November 2026 general election ballots or held in a costlier special election.

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