His experience in politics, the private sector and the military place him in good stead to assume a position on the city council, LaPlante said. “My government career spans over 20 years in service with the U.S. Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs. I am an experienced small business owner, and have another two decades of volunteering for the community at large and as a voter registration committee chairman.”
LaPlante said, “I am running for Victorville City Council because our city is in grave need of major change. Egos and special interests have taken over the People’s Council and We the People need to represent the City of Victorville. As a longtime Victorville resident, I know what our neighborhoods and our people need.”
With him, LaPlante said, what the voters see is exactly what they will get.
“I am vetted in the community and have their trust and faith because they know I am committed to their interests. I am a law abiding citizen and am committed to public safety.”
LaPlante is in a heavily-contested race. He is one of 21 candidates in this year’s city council race in which three seats are up. Those candidates include two incumbents, current Mayor Gloria Garcia and Councilwoman Blanca Gomez, as well as LaPlante, Lionel Dew, Terrance Stone, Robert Bowen, Frank Kelly, Elizabeth Becerra, Lizet Angulo, Adam Verduzco Jr., Craig Timchak, Webster Thomas, Ashiko Newman, Paul Marsh, Mike Stevens, Kimberly Mesen, Eric Negrete, Kareema Abdul, Ryan McEachron, Valentin Godina and Jerry Laws.
For him or anyone that is elected in this year’s election, LaPlante said, “The shutdown of a major portion of Victorville’s economy is the #1 priority.” LaPlante said he also sees “public safety and homelessness as significant issues” in the longer term.
A major issue facing the community at this time, LaPlante said, is “the city’s fiscal responsibility to its residents.”
Upon being elected, he said he will push for “a review of all city operations and swift changes by the council and staff to fully commit to save jobs for the working families of Victorville.”
LaPlante said he believes he can be a prime mover in ‘bringing about systemic and fiscally sound structural change at City Hall.”
His 35 years working in and around U.S. governmental operations gives him, La Plante said, if not a unique, then an uncommon, insight into how government work is carried out down the chain of command, which he said could be useful in gauging how directions should emanate from the decision-making level. Of his 30 years in California, “fifteen of those were spent in Victorville or the Victorville area,” he said. “I know my way around. I am a fiscal conservative who is against raising taxes.”
Proper management of the city, he said, “will pay for residents’ shared benefit by bringing in new pioneering businesses.”
Formerly a longtime member of the San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee, LaPlante was the executive board representative to the California Democratic Party for the party’s delegates in the 33rd Assembly District and was the San Bernardino County Democratic Party’s voter registration committee chairman.
He is easily distinguished from some of the council incumbents, LaPlante said, by not being in a position to profit personally from being a city official.
LaPlante called for “the reduction of overpaid administration salaries.”
He said “The residents of Victorville need new pragmatic leadership in order to reform our local government so it can work better for the residents and not the special interest groups.”
A graduate of Northwest High School in Indiana, LaPlante told the Sentinel, “I used my GI Bill benefits to earn an A.S. degree from Victor Valley College, in automotive engineering. I also attended the University of Maryland, Central Texas Collage and Barstow College. I have an A.A degree in history and political science.”
LaPlante has a 29-year-old son, Jeffrey, and daughter-in-law, Diana. “I am widowed,” he said, simply. “I lost my son’s mama in 2007.”
Now retired from the U. S. Army, he is a member of Victorville’s Homelessness Task Force. “We have a new wellness center with 300 more beds coming soon,” he said.
“I come from a proud family that has been involved in public service since World War II, when my father served the United States in the South Pacific with the U.S. Navy,” LaPlante said. “I was also a combat veteran of the 1st Inf Div Big Red 1 Iraq in 1991. In 1985 I served in the NATO European Theater of Operations in the Cold War.”
More can be gleaned about LaPlante and his candidacy at his website, rlaplante.com, and on Facebook.
LaPlante said that no matter the outcome of the November 3 election, “I am thankful for the opportunity to be considered by the voters for the honor of serving on the city council.”
-M.G.