Tito Ortiz files for unemployment despite still receiving city compensation

Ortiz, a retired celebrity mixed martial artist and owner of two businesses, filed an unemployment claim and a falsified pay cut regarding his position as a city council member. From left to right: Dan Kalmick, Mike Posey, Tito Ortiz, Kim Carr, Natalie Moser, Erik Peterson, Barbara Delgleize. Photo credit: Huntington Beach City Council

Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Jacob “Tito” Ortiz is under scrutiny for filing an unemployment claim against the city Feb. 20 while still receiving compensation from his council position, in addition to owning two businesses.

In his claim, Ortiz listed Feb. 9 as his last day of work due to reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He wrote he is still working part-time despite not having his hours cut. However, Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr told NBC Los Angeles that Ortiz had not stopped being paid.

Ortiz, who owns a $4 million home and is an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, did not respond to The Panther’s request for comment. Chapman University professor Fred Smoller, an expert in local government and California politics, believes this issue poses a political problem for Ortiz and paints him as a hypocrite. 

“(Ortiz) is a ‘Trumpster’ who believes bailouts and all the things we should do to help people are wrong,” Smoller said. “Fair enough, but then we find out that he’s cutting unemployment (while) he’s a city council member getting paid for those duties.”

The unemployment claim Ortiz filed against the city is ineligible under Section 1279 of California’s Unemployment Insurance Code, which excludes compensation made by a city to an elected official. The California Employment Development Department has refrained from commenting on this case, citing confidentiality laws.

Although Ortiz’s unemployment claim is ineligible as a member of the city council, the issue raises questions regarding whether compensation from city council validates the associated workload and is enough to live on. Huntington Beach city council members receive approximately $1,512 per month, which amounts to a rough annual salary of $18,144. This is in contrast to the $95,046 median household income in the area as of 2019.

The low compensation inclines most city council members to hold an additional full-time job in order to make ends meet.

As a result, fellow Huntington Beach councilman Dan Kalmick told The Panther that council members are often either retirees, very wealthy or self-employed, as Ortiz is. Since Huntington Beach is the 23rd-most populated city in California, the job of city councilmembers is demanding, Kalmick said. 

“(Working in the city council) is a lot of work, but it’s definitely still considered a volunteer position at this point,” Kalmick told The Panther. “For what the job is and at the high level some people operate at, it’s not a whole lot of money. (The low compensation) really stops folks from being able to run for city council that are working people.”

As a colleague of Ortiz, however, Kalmick believes the former is not operating at the “high level” he mentioned. 

“I don’t think (Ortiz) knows what he’s doing,” Kalmick said. “(He was) elected by the people of Huntington Beach, so I respect his position as a city council member, but he’s made no effort to learn the job, understand what being mayor would be (or learn) how to run a meeting.”

Although Smoller declined to explicitly speculate on the potentially fraudulent nature of Ortiz’s claim, he is wary of the councilman’s integrity. 

“People’s antennae should be up about this guy,” Smoller told The Panther. “He doesn’t seem like a straight shooter. I think he emulates Donald Trump in more than one way and ethics may be part of that.”

Those parallels include a “celebrity-turned-politician” nature shared by Ortiz and the former president. Ortiz ran for city council in 2020 as a retired mixed martial artist (MMA) star on a campaign slogan of “Make Huntington Beach Safe Again,” inspired by former reality TV star Trump’s famous “Make America Great Again” campaign. Trump’s career has been marked by tax avoidance and write-offs, opening up a new parallel between the two if Ortiz’s claim is determined to be fraudulent.

Kalmick further explained that Ortiz’s stance on the pandemic and related social media posts about the efficacy of masks are “ignorant” and “divisive.” He said this perspective is reminiscent of Trump’s comparison of COVID-19 to the flu.

Ortiz refused to wear a mask to in-person city council meetings, conduct that led a no-confidence vote to strip him of his title as Mayor Pro Tem on Feb. 1. The vote did not result in any change to Ortiz’s status, but Kalmick believes that the councilman needs to improve his behavior moving forward. 

“(Ortiz’s stance on COVID-19) is willfully ignorant and he needs to do better,” Kalmick told The Panther. “He needs to step it up and he’s really not showing me he’s interested in stepping it up yet.”