Huntington Beach City Council plans to launch a vote of no confidence at Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz.
Tito Ortiz, who was elected to a Huntington Beach city council seat in November, is currently serving as that city’s Mayor Pro Tem. However, some of his fellow city councillors want to see him ousted from that position.
Today councilman Dan Kalmick will officially introduce a proposal calling for a vote of no confidence in Ortiz. If that vote succeeds, Ortiz may be removed from the Mayor Pro Tem position. Kalmick said he was introducing this vote because Ortiz has showed “little commitment to serving in the role with honor and dignity” (per LAmag).
Since news of a pending no confidence vote against Ortiz, city council members have received dozens of emails regarding the issue. Recently, 199 pages of emails from constituents were presented to the city council and uploaded to that body’s website.
They can be read, in full, here.
One emailer wrote that Ortiz should be removed from “any leadership roles’ in the city because is a “prominent Q supporter” and that “he clearly does not care” for the welfare of people in the city.
This email (like many others) references Ortiz’s unabashed support of, and efforts to profit off of, Qanon—a baseless conspiracy cult that casts former U.S President Donald Trump as a messiah figure in a war against political and Hollywood elites; whom believers accuse of crimes against children.
Another emailer, who wants Ortiz out as Mayor Pro Tem, wrote that “failing to wear a mask is a deal breaker”, referring to Ortiz’s insistence on not wearing a mask on city property. Since early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Ortiz has regurgitated baseless conspiracy theories about the virus. Sometimes he expresses the belief it does not exist and other times he claims it is a ‘plandemic’ designed for population control and combating civil unrest.
That emailer continued to say they were dismayed that Ortiz claimed rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 7 were members of anti-fascist group ANTIFA. This claim has been parroted by far-right agitators despite there being zero evidence that those rioters were anything other than Trump supporters.
Among the other emails are claims Ortiz made “threatening” and “disrespectful” remarks to residents and that he is a source “an embarrassment to himself” and the city that elected him.
Not all emails were in support of finding no confidence in Ortiz, though. One resident wrote that he “strongly objects” to this agenda item and that they encourage city council to focus on the “homeless epidemic” and helping small businesses.
Another Ortiz supporter wrote to their councilperson to call the no confidence vote “slimy and disgusting”. That writer also threatened that he “won’t forget next time you need my vote.”
Though there were a number of emails supporting Ortiz, the majority of the emails included in that 199 page bundle were arguing in favour of the no confidence vote.
Before he became an extremely polarizing figure in the world of politics, Ortiz was most known for his UFC Hall of Fame MMA career. He fought in the Octagon from 1997 to 2012 and, during that tenure, held the UFC light heavyweight championship.
Ortiz joined Bellator in 2014 and went 3-1 in that promotion, beating Alexander Shlemenko, Stephan Bonnar and Chael Sonnen. In 2018 he beat Chuck Liddell by KO in a Golden Boy promoted show. His last pro fight was in December 2019, when he submitted former WWE wrestler Alberto El Patron.