Anaheim resident Lisa Lewis showed up at last night’s Anaheim City Council meeting last night to ask Mayor Tom Tait — to his face — why he failed to do his homework when Tait asked his neighbor Doug Pettibone to run for Anaheim City Council.
You can watch the video of last night’s council meeting here. Simply go to the 1:23 mark of the video when Lisa Lewis comes to the microphone.
Lewis reviews her letter to Tait that outed the charges against Pettibone in 1998. She also read the Mayor’s terse and short reply that Pettibone’s letter “speaks for itself.” For Lewis, no it didn’t. “How did you know know?” Lewis — a victim of domestic abuse herself — demanded of Tait and she referenced a comment made by Pastor Stephanie Steiler on this blog that the Tait campaign knew about the charges for it least two weeks before Pettibone dropped out.
When her time was done, Lewis thanked the council and Tait did something unusual. He stopped Lewis and asked her a few questions. Now when Council member Jordan Brandman was called a “sick faggot” and the three women on the council were called “Disney whores” by Denis Fitzgerald, the Mayor might have a brief expression of distaste. When the F-bomb meeting happened and speakers shouted “f&ck the police” over and over, Tait just held the gavel. But Tait remarkably came to life in defense of his neighbor and friend and went into great detail about Pettibone’s life — being a hospice pastor, a good father and someone Tait went surfing with. Tait went on to say “this is why people don’t get into politics” is if to defend his choice in Pettibone.
Some observations:
- Lewis wasn’t asking about Pettibone; she was asking Tait what he knew and when he knew it and Lewis questioned Tait’s honesty and integrity in doing so. Tait never answered that question. His answers were all about Pettibone.
- Tait didn’t know that Pastor Stieler was a member of his campaign team; he went as far to say there was no pastor on his team. Perhaps his campaign manager Tim Whitacre can give the Mayor a copy of the nice letter sent to Stieler when she left.
- OJ blogger and Tait’s unofficial photographer Greg Diamond continues to insist that Pettibone has a clean record. Form the OJ blog: Forces associated with the Pringle Ring obtained an erroneous history of his arrest (NOT a conviction, people!) for — I am not kidding — yelling at his then-wife during his custody dispute. No guilty plea ever went into effect, and the whole unfortunate matter had been purged from public view after spurious battery charges had been dropped and he completed counseling — which was ordered not by a criminal court but by the family law judge handling the custody dispute. The records were destroyed and not available online, until some anonymous person with big contacts and influence managed to get an erroneous (and possibly forged) version of the report reinstated — at which point they pretended that it had always been there. (They weren’t. Pettibone had others had looked for them.) Pettibone’s bottom-feeding critics then used the fact of his arrest (not conviction) for a crime not involving a physical attack to literally link him in the public mind to wife-beating NFL player Ray Rice. Pettibone decided, to protect his current wife and son (and ex-wife too), that he had had enough of this $%^& — and given that there were already two other candidates in the Council race who would support Tait’s positions (those being Vanderbilt and Dr. Moreno), he didn’t have to take it — so he dropped out.
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Pettibone’s court records PC 240 means: 240. An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.
- PC415(2) means: Any person who maliciously and willfully disturbs another person by loud and unreasonable noise.
- This was years ago say Pettibone defenders Cynthia Ward and Greg Diamond; and Lorri Galloway’s husband was sued in 1984 as Ward continues to remind everyone and every opportunity; so what’s the statute of limitations on that one? Here’s Cynthia defending Pettibone and called Lewis a BITCH in a comment on OJ: The former Mrs. Pettibone clearly had a bad time of it during the divorce, I won’t diminish what Mr. Pettibone may or may not have done, because Doug himself is clearly remorseful for having done or said something 16 years ago that is not indicative of the man many of us know him to be today, and I needn’t know the details to respect his stand on this subject.But despite the ready acknowledgement that the former Mrs. Pettibone had a frightening time in the past, it is clear that she is not now cowering in fear of her ex-husband finding and harming her, indeed she put her home address on the Nomination Papers she signed to enable her ex-husband to run for Anaheim City Council. The former Mrs. Pettibone has not only forgiven the transgressions of the past, she has requested as an Anaheim voter that her former husband represent her at City Hall! There is NO JUSTIFIABLE COMPARISON of this current relationship in the Pettibone family with the genuine evil that engulfs too many women in today’s society, and it is exploitative, and-I will say it-indicative of the lowest form of BITCH for Lewis and/or her favored candidates to use the fear that our battered sisters endure as a prop for their own political gain!\
- In reviewing Diamond’s and Ward’s attack on Lewis, I can’t help but to think of the Right Wing’s attacks on Anita Hill, a reluctant witness against Clarence Thomas who was savaged for telling the truth. I’m still waiting for proof from Diamond that Pettibone’s records were somehow altered. Like I have said before, some people are better at finding things on the Internet than others.
So all this said, Tait still hasn’t answered the question. What did he know and when did he know it? Why is a long time transgression from his hand picked slate mate to be forgiven, but ancient transgressions by his political opponents remain fair game? And more curious, why did Tait choose Lewis comments to actually address a citizen’s concerns when he’s allowed so much to slip by in public comments while he wields the gavel?
Happy Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Anaheim; we’re learning more things all the time.
Who would have thunk that it would be Miguel Pulido of all people to demonstrate decorum to “statesman” like Tait.
Say what you will, right or wrong, Pulido shut offensive speech down.
DV – You call canceling a meeting at which the people’s business is conducted a demonstration of “decorum”?? Apparently you have a completely different definition of decorum than I do.
Dan, It might be helpful, in promoting the only Democrat in the Anaheim Mayor’s race, to write some positive stuff about Ms. Galloway’s vision for Anaheim and its future. This would be far more helpful than only attacking ONE of her opponents for that position.
Just saying.
As usual, Chris provides the best critique of Dan’s loutish “reporting”…
let me know when we should start tracking the OC Weekly Death Watch? How many “Best of” winners won because they bought an ad?
Galloway’s record on helping victims of domestic abuse is well documented; its something she works with every single day of her life. I have asked her to comment on the Pettibone case and she has declined.
Chris, it is much easier to offend and attack an opponent. May be there are no positive points to bring up so the best defense is a good offense. Domestic Violence comes in all different forms including abuse of a partner. In this case, Lorri is attacking an ex-partner by using a hired gun in the form of a writer. Well documented? where and how?
It’s become abundantly clear that Lorri’s strategy is to hopefully slip into office without taking a position on a single burning issue facing her town, and leaves her old ally to fight off the jackals and thieves all on his own. I really don’t know what she stands for any more. It is so disappointing. So, as I said for the first time yesterday (believe it or not) I am one more Democrat for Tait.
By the way, it sure gets quiet around here when the good people don’t come over to kick you around.
You are not a registered a Democrat Vern. At last check, you were DTS. You don’t know Lorri’s positions? That’s too bad. I do
So you know Lorri’s positions on the Angels deal, the Convention Center expansion, the Ball Basin controversy, the toothless “public safety commission,” police body cameras, blanketing Anaheim in one big gang injunction, Bruno idolatry, a Disney gate tax, a living wage?
Please, let the rest of us know. Voters are counting on you!
Yes I do. But Lori has been walking neighborhoods for weeks talking directly to voters. The voters don’t need to hear from me when they can hear it straight from the source. She’s handled this smartly. So why won’t Tait explain himself on Pettibone? And why did he go after a victim of domestic abuse who dared ask him a question? Perhaps he was expecting one of those hugs Cynthia keeps talking about.
Explain what? Why he didn’t know something that had happened with his neighbor 16 years ago, that had been sealed, that his neighbor didn’t see fit to mention? Go jump in a lake. Voters want to know people’s positions on things like I just mentioned above.
You mean like, “when battering a woman, do you prefer an open hand or a closed fist?” Pettibone attempted to hide this detail. tait still hasn’t answered the question about whether he did his homework.
This detail being domestic abuse. And what about the second marriage. There was a restraining order but it’s unclear which Pettibone got obe and why. Strike two….
And – not that I’m interested in any discussion with you about it, but I can’t let so many lies stay up here unanswered: Never having been to an Anaheim council meeting before, you wouldn’t know that Tait has several times chewed out Fitzgerald for his distasteful speech, including on “sick faggot” day. Also, James Robert Reade as well, who I’m sure you think is just some swell fellow because he comments on Matty’s blog and joins you two in attacking Tait. It figures his comparison of Anaheim’s latinos to “bonobo monkeys” would bother you less than Latinos’ “f the police” chanting which was a reaction to his being allowed to say such things.
Vern, the city graciously provides videos of every council meeting. I have watched almost every one. Saying to Fitz, “I wish you weren’t such a jerk” isn’t chewing anyone out. and James Robert Reade is just as contemptible.
That all said, when will Tait address his (lack of) due diligence in selecting Pettibone?
As you say you watch all council meetings Mr. C.,I assume you watched me speak after Mayor Tait was finished with Ms. Lewis, to tell her that she was a failure at doing research as she repeated Mrs. Stieler’s lie about having some inside knowledge about the Tait campaign. She got that information from the same article where I commented that Stieler lied about it. Lewis chose to repeat the lie because she is a friend of a couple of Tait’s opponents. You choose to try to keep the lie going for the same reason. I also said at the council meeting that Mrs. Steiler was no pastor in the normal sense of that word, since she bought her credential from the internet. She never called herself “pastor” in the brief time she was in the campaign office so nobody knew about that, including Mayor Tait. I assume now, that it is because she had not yet paid her $49.95 to collect her credential from the Church of Ralph.
Yes Mary, I watched you get up there and speak. I’ll note that everything you said was contradicted by Tait’s campaign manager Tim Whitacre in his letter acknowledging the pastor’s resignation. So if she was such an awful person, why was she allowed to be on Tait’s campaign for as long as she was. And I’ll point out, she’s not the only person who has the sort of flexibility to volunteer while maintaining a business and that she’s not alone in conducting business while doing campaign work. There’s nothing illegal or unethical about that. The Pastor’s credentials were perfectly fine for the Tait campaign until she jumped ship.
Sure, just about anyone’s allowed to sit around and volunteer for a campaign. It’s YOU who made a fool of yourself (and Lorri) with your hyperbole when she jumped ship, what was it:
“Pastor Stieler is the president and director of the First Light International Foundation in Anaheim. She’s an accomplished speaker and author. She has a law degree and a PhD in Psychology and Theology…. Now you have to ask yourself why such a principled person of faith would leave the Tait clown car for Lorri Galloway? … Pastor Stieler’s credentials and personal character are going to be hard to attack” Read more here…. https://theliberaloc.com/2014/09/18/a-moment-of-truth-tait-campaign-field-operative-resigns-and-joins-galloway-for-mayor-campaign/
Hilarious. One of your masterworks! And Whitacre tried to warn you, and got trashed for it in response. No good deed…
I’ve actually never said who tried to warn me; only that it was someone from the Tait campaign
I’ll note the fun you and the rest of the clown car had with the pastor’s writing ability and will note that English is her second language. Afrikaans is her native language which is descended from Dutch. If you made that much ridicule of a Spanish speaker writing in English, you’d be called a racist.
Like I said before, the pastor’s help was fine and welcome when she worked for Tait. The minute she jumped ship, the personal attacks by his campaign and his minions (with his approval?) was easy to predict.
Has Pettibone ever explained that restraining order as the result of his second marriage Vern?
Shut up with the “I never said who tried to warn me,” I already told you dense oaf that Whitacre called me the next day to tell me the whole story. He already knew that YOU were a jackass, but he was very disappointed in his old friends Lorri and Joanne when they took his “word of warning” to be some sort of vengeful slander. I guess, basically, you’re just all really dumb.
You deserve each other.
Vern, I know what you wrote, but I never said who. The person who contacted me asked for confidentiality (which you can’t really do in an email because it requires agreement before sharing), but I offered confidentiality anyway.
But since you’re here, clear something up; I read a comment on Anaheim Blog written by you saying you are DTS. Diamond insists you’re a Democrat. Cynthia says you registered Republican to get into some sort of Anaheim conservative club meeting…which is it Vern.
HAHA, none of your business, big guy. Let’s just say I stay as independent as I wanna be, but I get into the places I wanna get into.
Have it your way Vern. My dance card is always full for multiple candidate events but my family obligations always take priority.
But let’s return to the basic theme here. Tait has not adequately addresses his vetting of Pettibone. He has not explained how thoroughly he checked Pettibone’s background. So either Tait didn’t do his homework or Pettibone sought to conceal his past from voters. Or maybe Pettibone did disclose and Tait knew about it and just let it slide anyway. Which is it?
Who gives a damn? Your only impulse is to rub people’s nose in things, but we are not dogs, and this is not dog shit.
Oh but yes it is Vern. Its a big heaping steaming pile
Well, yours and Lisa’s and someone else’s we’ll find out about soon.
For what, reporting that Pettibone dropped out after he dropped out. For Lewis, because she asked a question? Is it the plan of the Tait bots to sue anyone that dares question their anointed leader? Spare me Vern.https://theliberaloc.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-form
You have no idea what a monumental ass you are making of yourself, Dan. Keep at it, the anti-Galloway camp could not buy better hit pieces against her as a candidate than you provide free of charge.
The NUMBER ONE response I hear when I talk to people about the election, especially the Mayor’s race, is that the hit pieces work FOR him. Mayor Tait has been at the helm through four of Anaheim’s most contentious years. He took over from a guy who slunk out of office under the cloud of Incompatible Offices ruling from the AG, faced a massive structural deficit, which has since been corrected and reserves rebuilt, faced numerous court scandals (created by his colleagues) 12 Police shootings in one year, rioting, a highly publicized lawsuit aided by the ACLU, and the ONLY thing his enemies can find on him is that he may or may not want the Angels to leave, based on out of context remarks that actually don’t track to reality? How stupid does one have to be to believe ANY Mayor looking to be reelected WANTS the Angels to leave? You could hate Arte Moreno’s guts for running off with your wife AND daughter and STILL not want him to take the team, because that is a political nightmare. The entire premise is ridiculous and reveals how desperate enemies are to hang ANYTHING around Tait’s neck.
I won’t speak to the Lisa Lewis issue anymore since it certainly appears to be a legal entanglement you may find highly interesting later, and when things get this dicey you leave it for court. But I will speak to Stephanie Stieler and say that she was a volunteer envelope stuffer with nearly no direct contact with the candidates, she was clearly a toxic personality from minute one who spent her time running down anyone not in the room and attempting to create dissent. I suspect Whitaker may have kept her buffered from the candidates for their own protection, so there was no reason for Tait to even know about someone stuck in a back room sharpening pencils trying to keep her from stirring up trouble until she got bored and left the campaign, which she did when she failed to get the implosion she worked so very hard for. Whitaker’s letter was the standard, “we will be just fine without you,” stuff you expect from a professional who understands there is no benefit in slamming the door behind her if she was leaving on her own, although there was RELIEF expressed by all as she presented her backside to the campaign office.
Seriously, the woman would tell me three versions of a story in ONE sitting, why on earth would you find her credible other than because you want to hear about the poo she is flinging out the doors of the monkey house?
Dan, please, if you can’t show any self-respect at least show some respect for the intelligence of those who come here to read Prevatt’s stuff.
“I won’t speak to the Lisa Lewis issue anymore since it certainly appears to be a legal entanglement you may find highly interesting later, and when things get this dicey you leave it for court.”
Any reporting we did on Pettibone leaving came after he had stepped down. I hate to break it to you Cynthia, but people send me stuff. If it’s credible, we report it. I am not obligated to reveal sources. But perhaps you ought to stop with the conspiracy theories. Tell me Cynthia, why is it that what happened with Pettibone 16 years ago is ancient history but lawsuits against Galloway’s husband Mike from 1984 is perfectly OK?
But since you’re here Cynthia, the CATER lawsuit cost taxpayers $100K and the city can recover costs from CATER for the cost of litigation. Are you prepared to lose your house? And why is it no one from the outside can stick their nose into Anaheim, yet CATER has joined a lawsuit in San Diego to prevent the expansion of that convention center?
And learn to spell Tim Whitacre’s last name correctly.
wait, “pastor stietler” got her credential online?!
Duh, brother. You saw her writing. And her thinking.
English is not her first language Vern; can we cut the woman some slack for that?
I said “and her thinking.”
Oh, is she now claiming that all those law and psychology and theology degrees came from Capetown?
well vern lots of “pastors” who actually have theology degrees are just as ignorant as stietler I just didn’t know she bought hers online. years ago a friend of mine bought a few of us those degrees online as a joke I framed mine and have it proudly displayed in my man cave so im every bit a “pastor” as she is only im not using my degree to get at peoples money.
Yeah I remember some punk rockers doing that up in SF in the 80s, and then officiating at ridiculous parody weddings and funerals etc.
(well not via internet of course, but mail)
By and by Cynthia, you and the Tait clown car have done a merry little job of defaming Lisa Lewis, a private citizen who has never contributed a dime to any candidate. She is not a public figure. Don’t be shocked if and when you’re served with a defamation lawsuit.
And at the end of the day, even you cannot defend Tait’s lack of response about what he did to look into Pettibone’s background before offering him a spot on the ticket. If this 1998 incident is so blown out of proportion, a stronger candidate and a stronger mayor would have explained it and they would have stood united. Instead, Pettibone folded like a cheap napkin. It’s making me dig deeper. Who knows what I will find.