'MAGA' anniversary plaque at California library gets approval from city commission

Michael Slaten, The Orange County Register on Feb 13, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — A Huntington Beach city commission approved a plaque that will go outside the city’s central library with an acronym that spells out “MAGA.”

The city’s Community and Library Services Commission approved the plaque’s design on Tuesday with a 6-0 vote. It still needs approval from the City Council next week before it can get installed.

The plaque features the names of the current City Council and Community and Library Services Commission members. In its center, the words “Magical.” “Alluring,” “Galvanizing,” and “Adventurous” are stacked on top of each other to spell out the acronym “MAGA.”

It also features the phrase “Celebrating 50 years of being a beacon of education, a catalyst for dreams, and a sanctuary for children to feel safe, valued, and free to grow.”

“MAGA” has become mainstream as the acronym for President Donald Trump‘s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

All seven members of the City Council at its December meeting stood up and posed for photos wearing red MAGA-inspired “Make Huntington Beach Great Again” hats. The commission members are appointed by the councilmembers.

The plaque, estimated to cost $7,000, is meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary this year of the Huntington Beach Central Library’s opening. The bronze plaque, once fully approved, would be installed outside the library and would later come with a dedication ceremony, according to a city staff report that recommended its approval.

Residents opposed to the plaque largely characterized it as politicizing the library, saying it should have no home there.

Taryn Palumbo, a former member of the Community and Library Services Commission, said the library is one of the most valued institutions in Huntington Beach and it was an inappropriate move for the commission to approve a plaque with a political acronym.

“And certainly the recognition of something as substantial as 50 years in our community should not be tied to the political winds of right now,” Palumbo said.

Palumbo said the commission was intended to assist in the naming of parks, supporting library programs, and reviewing the revitalization of play structures. The political plaque is outside of the realm of what it should be focused on, she said.

“It is not meant to be a political commission at all,” she said.

Jeanne Paris, a current commission member, said the plaque is something the City Council put together. “MAGA” shouldn’t be offensive to anyone, she said.

“It just gets so twisted and turned around,” Paris said. “There’s nothing wrong with trying to make America great again.”

Paris said she’s been told the city is aiming to have it installed by May. The plaque will be paid for by private donations, she said, and they almost have enough to cover the expected cost of around $7,000.

Another resident in a letter to the commission said the library should remain “a place of learning, inclusion, and unity — not a symbol of partisan politics.”

“The proposed plaque, incorporating a ‘MAGA’ acrostic, risks politicizing a cherished public space,” the letter said. “Regardless of intent, its message inevitably aligns with a movement that has become deeply polarizing.”

The plaque is the latest in a series of issues over which city leadership and residents have divided since 2023.

Residents have gathered enough signatures for two ballot initiatives to qualify that would seek to counter some of the decisions made by the City Council over the last few years, including overturning a law that allows the city to create a children’s library book review board. The City Council is expected to be presented with reports at its Feb. 18 meeting on those two ballot initiatives.

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