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Jacque Petterson
Currently:
Board Member: S.A.F.E. (Smokefree Air For Everyone)
Member:
Condo Owners For Smokefree Living
Member: APSAC (Alliance for Protection from Secondhand Smoke in Apartments &
Condominiums)
Past experience includes:
Board member Oakridge Pointe HOA
San Antonio, Texas
Member: Task Force For Smoke-free Housing
(Los
Angeles, CA)
Member: Smoke Free Affordable Housing Campaign
(Los Angeles, CA)
Member: Santa Clarita Valley (CA) Sheriff's Station
Community
Advisory Committee
Santa Clarita Valley (CA) Sheriff's Volunteer
Santa Clarita Valley (CA) Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force
(educating parents
about teen drug, alcohol,
and tobacco abuse)
Los Angeles Police Dept.
(CA) Community Advisory Committee
(Secretary-Foothill
Division &
Committee Co-chair
for LAPD City-wide Summit 2000)
Certified Apartment Manager-
National Apartment Association |
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JAY R. PETTERSON
Mr. Petterson has over 30 years experience as an attorney
and is a former U.S. Magistrate Judge from Minnesota.
EDUCATION:
Graduate of Notre Dame University
South Bend, Indiana
BBA, Accounting 1969
Graduate of University of North Dakota Law School
Grand Forks, North Dakota 1972
Juris Doctor
Biography:
Phi Alpha Delta Recipient: Senior Legal Writing Award;
 North Dakota Law Review,
Note Editor, 1971-1972.
Law Clerk to Chief Judge Paul Benson,
U.S. District Court,
District of North Dakota, 1972-1975.
U.S. Magistrate Judge, 6th Judicial Division,
District of Minnesota, 1976-1981.
President, Beltrami County (MN) Bar Association, 1977-1978.
CURRENT MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING:
State Bar of Texas (Bar#24045010)
State Bar of California (Bar#133376)
(Jay assists with legal questions when they arise, with locations of
countries (he is a geography wiz), and has been pro-active in educating
others on the need for smoke-free air in apartments and condos, and even
in child custody suits.) |
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Sadly, smokers and tobacco companies
continue to encourage the myth that secondhand smoke is not harmful. When
I was a child in the '50s smoking was considered safe enough, and secondhand
smoke was not even a consideration. As an adult I began to hear that
secondhand smoke was bad and could make one sick, but the laws did not protect
me in the workplace, nor was the education strong enough to convince me to stop
smokers from smoking around me.
In 1995, I developed a severe reaction to second-hand smoke causing me
to cough and choke, limiting my air intake, sometimes for hours,
depending on how much smoke I inhale. Many nights I have been up coughing and
choking until the early morning hours. It's both painful and scary. I
eventually discovered this was an asthmatic reaction.
I believe this reaction is due to years of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke
as a result of my unsuspecting parents smoking in our home and car when I was a
child, having lived for six years with my first husband, a chain smoker who died
of cancer in 1980, and having worked closely with smokers over the years in
restaurants, hotels, apartment management, retail stores, and most
recently in a small office with a chain smoker from 1989 to 1991.
In 2000 my new husband and I sold our single family home to purchase a condo in
Canyon Country, CA. Unaware that tobacco smoke travels through buildings from
one unit to the others, we purchased our condo based on the fact that there was
no smoke apparent at the time of purchase. Shortly after renovating
and moving in, smoke began to enter our home.
As there is currently no law to protect non-smokers from this situation, our
Homeowners' Association refused to ask our neighbors to stop smoking, my City
Council chose only to set my request for help aside for future reference, and my legislators
said they are sorry about my problem, but will do nothing to change the laws,
therefore protecting the smoker's "right" to pollute my home against my will.
I hope you are working to change the laws in your community. With over 400,000
smoker, and over 50,000 non-smoker deaths each year, we must let our government
officials know that this atrocity must stop.
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