Residents Speak Out at Emergency City Council Meeting in Rancho

During an emergency City Council meeting Friday, public comments ranged from compliments for a former council member and calls for respectful discussion to accusations of political scheming and charges of yellow journalism.

The Rancho Santa Margarita , one left by the resignation  Thursday of long-time council member Gary Thompson, and the other left by Jesse Petrilla, who is training with the California National Guard in Kentucky until the middle of June.

About 35 residents attended and many spoke during public comments portion of the meeting.

Some speakers praised Thompson for his service to the community.

Don Chadd, president of the board of the Rancho Santa Margarita Landscape and Recreation Corporation—also known as SAMLARC—said he had known Thompson for years.

“Gary had spirit, and I admire his willingness to persevere,” Chadd said.

Richard Reese, the city's master planner, said that Thompson and he had worked together off and on for a quarter of a century and that, outside of his political duties, that Thompson was a deputy submarine repair officer who helped maintain the American Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet in the Pacific.

“That is one heck of a public service to the country,” Reese said, providing contrast to sentiment generated by the Register column that painted council members who voted to replace Petrilla in his absence as unpatriotic.

Other residents also took on the Register columns both before, and after, the council voted 3-1 on Feb. 23 to find a temporary replacement for Petrilla.

Curt Stanley, resident and community activist, said that if any of the city staff or council members had given a reporter misinformation, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

"I love this community, I love you guys up there. What I heard today was sound judgment," Stanley said of the Friday dialogue between Mayor Tony Beall and councilmen Jerry Holloway and Steve Baric. "Community first, politics second."

Stanley was the only person—on the dais of off—whose comments received an ovation.

Larry McCook, who campaigned for city council in 2010, said that he was “incensed” by what had been said in the media that questioned the patriotism of the council members. “It’s approaching yellow journalism,” he said.

Other residents made it clear that they wanted a civil discussion of the issues.

“Every moment we have, we have an opportunity that no one else has, to be respectful, to be kind, considerate, loyal,” said resident Brad McGirr, who is also a planning commissioner. "I haven't seen that much lately, (but) today I have.  I want to commend all three of you for the comments that were made today."

Some speakers said they wanted to make sure council members included Petrilla in future discussions on filling Thompson's vacancy.

“(I ask) that you come up with a way to make sure that council member Petrilla is able to participate in that process as much as possible,” said John Fleischman.

Don Chadd added that he would be the first to donate money to a fund to help Petrilla find a place to teleconference to City Council meetings.

Also at the meeting, resident Donald Mathers criticized the two newest council members saying that Petrilla and Baric “and their political buddy Frank Mickadeit are trying to control RSM politics.”

“The supposed 3-2 split that exists in our council is based on lies and collusion by the new councilmen,” Mathers said.  

Mathers' ex-wife, April Josephson, a resident who until last week covered city council meetings for Rancho Santa Margarita Patch, walked with several of the candidates during their campaigns and said that she was sorry she had supported Baric’s run for office and had heard him "play everyone against each other."

In contrast, Jame Neilson, said that she thought it was inappropriate for speakers to criticize Baric simply because he cast a dissenting vote on the issue of finding Petrilla’s replacement.

“Steve, you have my vote, also,” Neilson said. “I think you’ve done good things for the city.”

Resident DonnaMarie Kline, who spoke after Josephson, said she didn’t think anyone “should be pointing fingers” at city council members.

“Coming here and attacking our city council is not beneficial to our city,” Klein said.