Long-serving city commissioner and coach Justine Petretti and award-winning water polo coach and teacher Mike Mulligan were both nominated for the City of Malibu’s 2018 Jake Kuredjian Citizenship Award.
The award is bestowed annually by the city to citizens who “have demonstrated a commitment to and involvement in recreation in Malibu.”
The two were recommended for the honor by the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission and join the ranks of 21 past recipients, including last year’s posthumous winner, former Parks and Recreation Director Bob Stallings.
“They have given so much of their time and effort and energy to our community over the years,” Council Member Laura Rosenthal said during the nomination on Monday. She added her enthusiasm for the nomination of Petretti. “I did want to say that I was really heartened to see that Justine was on it, a woman was on it, because in all those years, we’ve given this award to 17 men and three women.”
Both Mulligan and Petretti are past recipients of the Malibu Dolphin Award, Petretti in 2010 and Mulligan in 2016.
The citizenship award was established in 2002 in honor of Deputy Hagop “Jake” Kuredjian, who was killed in the line of duty in 2001 after 17 years of service to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
