Familiar Face Bids for School Board
Laguna Beach Independent · Marilynn Young
Author
- Published:
- 2016-04-29
- Retrieved:
- 2026-05-23
Marilynn Young's Indy backgrounder on Howard Hills's 2016 first LBUSD run. Earliest substantive press treatment of Hills in the corpus; predates his 2018 withdrawal, 2020 run, and 2024 winning run. Documents that the 2024 "streamline consultants / invest in teachers" plank is unchanged from 2016.
Key points
- Documents Hills's 2016 platform: streamline consultants and redirect funds to teachers; teacher scholarships; child-care at board meetings; "making sure governance is restored."
- Then-Board-President William Landsiedel pushed back on Hills: "personal attacks and voluminous requests for public records," "I cannot remember one time that Howard was right on the law," "I am shocked he is running."
- Hills + Dee Perry credited as the 2016 advocates for live online streaming and video archives of board meetings (launched January 2016) — a 10-year Hills/Perry alignment predating the 2024 majority.
- Surfaces a 2006 Guam grand-jury indictment of Hills tied to the Abramoff matter — all charges dropped 2008-01-24 by Guam AG; court-ordered expungement 2009-02-11 (Judge Michael J. Bordallo).
- Hills biographical detail: age 64 in 2016 (born ~1952); 1970 LBHS class president; CSU Sonoma 1974; California Western Law 1977; Peace Corps; Navy JAG; Reagan-era counsel to NSC + EOP; aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher; led the Laguna Beach Republicans.
- Self-deprecating campaign line: "There's nothing in it for me; it's a civic duty. I should have a campaign that says, 'Please don't vote for me.'"