Well, I got about 3 minutes into the video of the Tustin City Council meeting Tuesday night before the first zinger came along.

It seems that it is not just Hizzoner, Jerry Amante, is the only one concerned over the many absences of Councilmember Deborah Gavello. As you know, Jerry has blasted Deborah for being a frequent absentee from city council meetings. He has taken time as Mayor as well as his comments at the end of nearly every meeting that Gavello has been absent to make sure everyone in the room knows she is gone. Gavello fire back a few times but, the Gang of Three on the right side of the dais have always made sure Jerry gets the last word in.

Now, it seems, even the citizens of Tustin are ganging up on Gavello. The first speaker out of the box was Tustinite, Pam Gooderham, who proudly stated she has been a resident for 12 years. Ms. Gooderham took a moment to tell the councilmembers that she understood how difficult it is to sit on the council and still be able to manage a life. She then proceeded to call out Gavello saying that, according to her calculations, she has been absent from city council meetings a total of 17 times. She thought that couldn’t be right so she re-checked her figures and it came out the same. She then went on to say how Councilmember Amante, who is the longest serving councilmember, has only been absent 3 times. She went on to say that, since 2008, all the sitting councilmembers combined did not have as many absences as Gavello. “So, that would put it into some kind of perspective for you”, said she. “Now, the reason doesn’t matter. When you’ve been absent 17 times compared to 8 by all the councilmembers combined, you should have stepped down a long time before if you can’t cope with the demands of the job.”

She went on to say how the other councilmembers have had to take on extra duties due to Gavello’s absences and that her being gone so much was a clear dereliction of duty. She also commented that a refund of salary should be due.

Wow, that was damning, huh?

OK, I will let you in on the secret. Pam Gooderham and Councilmember Jerry Amante appear to be good friends. Remember the Amante Recall? A pro-Amante site went up, apparently to combat those evil people who would recall Hizzoner? When we researched the site, it came up registered to Pam Gooderham. Gooderham was also named “Woman of the Year” by former Assemblymember and Amante Crony, Chuck Devore. Here is a piece from The Liberal OC, which printed an email from Pam Gooderham that also shows what a great cheerleader she is for Jerry.

From: Pamela Gooderham <email redacted>
Subject: Urgent
Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 9:37 AM
 

It appears that the Recall folks are have a couple of mini rallys and are going door to door in Columbus Square in the Legacy. The overall development site is bordered by Edinger Avenue to the north, Kensington Park Drive to the east, Valencia Avenue to the south, and Severyns Road to the west.  

The two rallys are being held Wed evening (July 13th) and on this Saturday at the main Park/Courtyard in Columbus Square. 

Where there is no aspect of any malfeasance, as a club we are against the effort to remove a Republican Mayor, especially as Forbes has named Tustin as one of the top 25 places to live well and, unlike our neighbors, The City of Tustin has reserves and is in the black.

It is in our best interests to counter this effort. If you can help and team up with a buddy and get down to these rallys with counter signs it would be fantastic. All I did was to follow them and interject when they stopped someone and I respectfully asked the would-be signee to check out the facts before they signed as they will find that the accusations within the recall are false.

The people collecting the signatures should have the recall accusations AND the rebuttal from the person accused in the recall. If they do not have this ask them for their name, take a note of the date and time, and we can put in an objection. Also, people collecting the signatures have to reside in the city.

Ask they signature collectors where they live – take a photo of them with your cell phone. If someone not residing in the city has signed a page of signatures validating them and they do not reside in the city they do so on penalty of perjury.

If the balance of power changes in the City of Tustin from Republican to Democrat – we’re ALL going to suffer. They want to spend those fiscal reserves
and they will stop at nothing. The recall is false, and if they don’t have Mayor Amante’s rebuttal or the signature gathers don’t live within the city they are
cheating too.

We HAVE to stop this at all costs. Please would you form teams and help? Any questions call Pam on 949 XXX-XXXX.

So, we have here a woman who would stop at nothing to make sure those evil Democrats don’t get the majority. I would say this she did not come to the podium with clean hands or heart. In fact, the question must be asked, did Jerry Amante put Gooderham up to this? It is entirely possible that Amante is using allies like this to wage guerrilla warfare to ensure Gavello either loses the November election or better, chooses not to run at all. Don’t forget, Amante has two horses in the upcoming race, former Mayor, Chuck Puckett and Amante’s neighbor and supporter, Alan Bernstein. I am sure that Amante would like to push Deborah off the dais. However, this latest shenanigan only shows just how childish Amante has gotten with his disagreement with Gavello.

To her credit, Gavello showed restraint and did not say anything concerning Gooderham’s dissertation either then or after, during councilmember comments. We have a long time until elections in November. I have to wonder how many more of these antics the citizens of Tustin will have to suffer. Oh, and Pam, reasons for absences do make a difference. Perhaps you should ask Jerry.