HUNTINGTON BEACH : Robitaille Responds Angrily to Critic

For the second time in two weeks, Councilman Earle Robitaille on Monday angrily lashed out at a resident who criticized him during a City Council meeting.

At this week’s meeting, resident Larry Smith had indirectly chastised Robitaille for a comment he made at the Jan. 21 council meeting. As Smith was leaving the podium, Robitaille snapped, “Up yours and the horse you rode in on, jerk.”

Robitaille, a former Huntington Beach police chief, has been criticized by some residents recently because of a state auditor’s report last month that accused him of improperly inflating his final year’s salary to increase his pension payment. He has strongly denied any wrongdoing on his part.

Both times the issue--dubbed “salary spiking”--has been brought up by a resident during a council meeting, Robitaille has angrily retorted in his own defense.

On Jan. 21, Robitaille berated David Sullivan, president of the citizens’ group Huntington Beach Tomorrow, for criticizing him and calling on city officials to investigate other possible cases of “salary spiking.”

Robitaille called Sullivan “pompous” and a “nincompoop” and referred to a sexual act to describe a meeting of Huntington Beach Tomorrow.

On Monday, Smith quoted the state’s Ralph M. Brown Act, which sets public meeting procedures, to argue that Robitaille--whom he referred to only as “a certain City Council member”--had spoken out of order two weeks earlier.

“I would think the council would not endorse . . . disorderly conduct or a breach of (fiduciary) duty to the citizens of Huntington Beach,” Smith, 23, said during his speech.

Later in the meeting, City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga said his staff will propose a format for council members to respond to public comments.

When allegations against a council member are made, “if you let it pass, people think that there is some validity to it,” Uberuaga said. “But I think you need to (respond) in a respectful way.”

Robitaille said he welcomed the idea of instituting such a format.

“I hate to embarrass the council, but I’ll probably continue to do it every meeting if this continues,” he said.

Smith, who said he is not a member of Huntington Beach Tomorrow, afterward said he considered Robitaille’s comment “undignified” for a public official.

Mayor Jim Silva on Tuesday said he does not plan to take any action or make any formal statement on the matter. He said that Robitaille’s comment this week “is not my style,” but he did not criticize his colleague for making it. “When a person’s integrity and character are challenged, there’s bound to be a backlash,” Silva said.