I don’t really know Rancho Santa Margarita City Councilman Jesse Petrilla. Yet I think every single person that reads this blog should stand with him against the majority on his City Council.
See related Jim Lacy post here.
In 2003 I was the Vice-Mayor of Woodland and was called to active duty in the Marine Corps. When I left we had no idea how long I would be gone. Could have been months or even years. We really did not know.
The people on the City Council chose not to replace me but since my term of deployment was not clear I would have understood if they did. Petrilla will be gone for just three months.
Here is the problem for the service member that is publicly reported to be deployed. To most people in the public it says "military service is an honorable thing". To some it says that "the family of the service member is vulnerable". Not cool. I am sure that Councilman Petrilla is happy to do this training but has concerns about his wife. These are the same feeling I had in 2003.
My view is that the Council should be supporting Petrilla but that is just my view as a former service member.
My view as a local elected official is that the majority is a pathetic bunch. First of all they have the majority so they will be able to pass what they need to. Further, there have been plenty of times in my local government service when a member is absent that I have cast a courtesy vote for a colleague. That is when someone was not able to be at the meeting but it will clear how they would have voted to make a majority I would vote in favor of the item for administrative efficiency.
The only time this would not happen would be if something was just so bad that i would never add my name to such an item. Anything like that happening in the next three months in RSM? I doubt it.
Generally I like to give great deference to my fellow local elected officials. In this case however, I find the action being considered by the majority of the Council to be appalling.
Join me in contacting the majority and demand that they reconsider their position. Their e-mails are below.
Mayor Anthony Beall tonybeall@cox.net
Councilman Jerry Holloway hollowayinv@aol.com
Mayor Pro Tempore Gary Thompson gsthompson@cox.net
Then send an e-mail to Councilman Steve Baric to thank him for his efforts in supporting Petrilla – stevebaric@yahoo.com
Then fire off an e-mail to Jesse Petrilla to thank him for his service — jesse@joinjesse.com
I consider it important to what Republican believe to support Councilman Petrilla and prevent the majority from replacing him. It sends the wrong message to those people that are in military service. It also tells us a lot about the people that would even consider taking this action.
I will be calling veteran organizations all over the state later today asking them to support Petrilla. Let me know if you want to help. matt@rexroad.com
Rancho Santa Margarita is about to stand out for all the wrong reasons.