Council member was ‘mugged’

In past years, the office of mayor of Westlake Village was ceremonially passed without incident to the sitting mayor pro tem. Not this year, however.

Instead, the citizens of our city were subjected to the civic mugging of our honorable and hardworking Mayor Pro Tem Jim Bruno.

It seems that the council ostensibly acted to shield the electorate from a potential mayoral candidate whose past record of civil service was somehow deemed so egregious that his elevation to mayor had to be circumvented.

And Mayor Pro Tem Bruno’s transgressions?

In the course of a spirited debate for and against Lowe’s, Bruno demonstrated that he had actually read the proposal and accompanying environmental report, and further, he had some questions and some very serious concerns about the project as it was proposed.

In her “State of the City” speech a few weeks ago, Mayor McSweeney called for unity within a city that has been conspicuously divided by the enmity on both sides caused by the referendum. This chimerical unity was invoked more than once as the council majority voted the reorganization. The result was anything but unifying. Alfred Pinnaro Westlake Village