An Irate Resident told Palm Desert Mayor Karina Quintanilla to Resign or be Recalled at the Aug. 22 City Council Meeting
PALM DESERT — Palm Desert Mayor Karina Quintanilla, who is the midst of a re-election campaign, was called “careless,” “stupid,” “self-serving,” “disrespectful,” and “pathetic” during public comments at the City Council meeting on Thursday. That was before she was told to resign or be recalled.
More than a dozen people condemned Quintanilla’s Facebook post in which she, identified in the post as Mayor Karina Quintanilla, denounced a feature story, the writer and publication of an article about the Patriot Store appearing in the El Paseo catalogue.
As the speakers continued verbally pelting her, one man criticized her for not looking at her while he spoke.
“It would be nice to look up once in a while, OK? he said. “Do you realize the police department has to come there three times a day now? They have to check in on the store because of your inflammatory post. Take the post down, apologize to the women, your fellow women. You represent everybody in this desert, and you should respect them. I call for your resignation.”
One speaker asked that Quintanilla be provided an assistant to help her with grammar and composition based on what he read in the posts.
“Anyhow, as a Hispanic man, first and foremost as an American and a member of law enforcement, I am very, very offended and I’m trying to contain myself because of my outrage (at) this pathetic, quote, unquote mayor’s comments and the offensive nature of those comments,” he said, “It is insane that she, in her position, thinks it is logical to even contemplate posting such pathetic inflammatory and offensive language and to offend a good number of the community that she supposedly serves….Resign or you will be recalled. You’re pathetic. And you’re offense to any other Hispanic that lives in this community.”
Another speaker said, “With this abuse of her position, we cannot afford or allow to let Karina continue serving in the Palm Desert City Council. Her ignorance and misguided beliefs are dangerous to the people of Palm Desert, the businesses on El Paseo and especially to the Patriot Store.”
Some demanded her to take down the post. As of Friday morning, she had not done either.
“She did not even think of apologizing,” Joy Miedecke, president of East Valley Republican Women Patriots. “That’s not there at all and all she said was I should’ve written it on my regular page and not my mayors page. What does that mean? She remains a bitter woman, hating all that do not agree with her. I’m very sad for the City of Palm Desert to have this kind of representation. I hope that the rest of the Council will rally and make sure that Palm Desert goes back to the city that I knew. It is a sad time for America.”
