Politics & Government

Petrilla Gives Council Go-Ahead to Go On Without Him

Petrilla tells his colleagues to vote without him because of his unavailability and the cost of a special election is unnecessary.

Jesse Petrilla, who is unavailable to participate in Rancho Santa Margarita City Council meetings through May 2—the deadline for naming a replacement for Gary Thompson’s seat before the matter goes to a costly special election—announce April 23 that he is withdrawing from the vote.

Council members had indicated previously that they wanted all four councilmen to select their new colleague, but 2nd Lt. Petrilla has had difficulty finding time to meet. He is currently training in Fort Knox, KY, in Army Armor School as part of the California National Guard.

On Saturday afternoon Petrilla sent a press release titled "A Time to Come Together" in the form of  "An open letter to all my friends and colleagues on the Rancho Santa Margarita City Council." He gave his blessing to Mayor Tony Beall, Jerry Holloway and Steve Baric to make the decision without him:

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“A special election would cost the city over $100,000 of taxpayers’ dollars if a decision cannot be reached by the council … I believe this cost to the taxpayers is unnecessary.

“However, I would like to state publicly my strong faith in my colleagues to make the decision on an appointment without me, as we all have the best interest of the city at heart. While I have stated my top three candidate choices at the special meeting last week via teleconference, I would also like to state my belief that all twelve applicants being considered are highly qualified and will serve our city well.

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“We can all look forward to putting this behind us, and moving on with city business. I look forward to working with whoever my colleagues appoint at the City Council Meeting on April 27th when I return home in June.”

On Thursday, a Patch editorial called for Petrilla to find the time availability to meet with his colleagues or find an excuse to remove himself from the voting process. His decision relieves his colleagues from the dilemma of choosing or not choosing a candidate after insisting all four should vote on the candidate.

Now needing only two votes to form a consensus for selection, the way is paved for Carol Gamble, who was elected to the first city council in the 1999 election and served as RSM's second mayor in 2001. She was the first choice of Beall and Holloway. The only hitch would be if Baric, a masterful litigator, is able to sway one of them to Michael Safranski, who was the second choice of both Baric, Holloway and Petrilla. Safranski is the board president of the Trabuco Canyon Water District. Baric's first choice was his own appointment to the planning commission, Peter Whittingham.

Petrilla reported to his military training on Feb. 22 and will remain through June 17. A lot has happened in his absence. The four councilmen—Thompson included—voted to replace him during his almost four-month absence, primarily because there was no assurance that the military would provide him the access or the means to teleconference into council and budget meetings and they felt a fifth opinion could be important in establishing budget for the next fiscal year. That set off criticism in some media and with supporters of Petrilla and the military who thought it was either politically motivated or in some way unpatriotic.

Then Thompson resigned, and the notion of replacing Petrilla was put on the backburner. 

Petrilla returned home on a four-day pass and during a special meeting on April 7 participated in interviews of six of the 12 candidates for Thompson’s position; the special meeting was called even though the mayor was out of town. Petrilla viewed interviews of the second set of candidates via DVD, and teleconferenced into a special meeting on April 17 that accommodated his schedule but was the only window—apart from this Easter holiday weekend—that he was available.

Petrilla’s credibility seemed to take a hit at that meeting when he wanted to submit only one candidate when he and his colleagues had just agreed to rank their top three choices for the purpose of determining a consensus list. It took 30 minutes of the 4 hour 40 minute meeting to convince Petrilla to list three candidates.

The 27-year-old councilman, in his first year of elected office, also commented that he didn’t want to name names unless they appeared on other lists, a comment that called into question the integrity of his choices.

His top choice was Kenny Hrabik, owner of the Dove Canyon Courtyard, followed by Safranski and Whittingham. Those selections appeared on Baric’s list but in reverse order; Safranski and Hrabik were the second and third choices of Jerry Holloway.

In addition to Gamble, the other choices were Brad McGirr and Curt Stanley, who were the second and third choices on Beall’s ballot. McGirr is a planning commissioner and Stanley is a businessman with a long history of emceeing various RSM events.


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