Sal Guarriello

Salvatore Joseph Guarriello (March 2, 1919 – April 16, 2009) was a member of the City Council of the City of West Hollywood, California.

Salvatore Joseph Guarriello, son of Generoso Guarriello and Virginia (D'Argenio) Guarriello, was born March 2, 1919, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York state.

Sal Guarriello was the fifth of six siblings; he had one sister who was the eldest, and four brothers.

He was born into a Catholic, Italian family originally from Avellino; a city near Naples in southwest Italy.

At age eighteen, Guarriello began working as a guard with the United States Marshal Service transporting prisoners to federal penitentiaries from New York City to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and Atlanta, Georgia.

At nineteen, Guarriello became a lifeguard securing and overseeing the Island Park Beach, also known as Casino Beach.

At age twenty he was recruited by a larger establishment known as Sperry Gyroscope (Sperry Corporation), a company which manufactured gauges and instruments for U.S. fighter planes.

While working for Sperry Gyroscope, he met Rita Gionta, an inspector who represented the Navy's division.

Gionta was the inspector who overlooked Guarriello's quality control department.

Guarriello and Rita were married on November 21, 1943.

His career in the manufacturing industry was short-lived because in January 1944, two months before his twenty-fifth birthday, Guarriello was drafted into the US Military service in the Second World War.

Upon being drafted into the service, Guarriello was transported to Florida to receive training as a sniper.

After six months of training, he was deployed to Anzio, Italy, where the heaviest beach combats took place.

Due to the high bloodshed, and the lack of medical personnel, Guarriello was appointed as a combat medic.

Ironically, he was given this responsibility because of his experience as a lifeguard during his adolescence.

On April 19, 1945, Guarriello was wounded during an effort to save another comrade's life.

During a heavy mortar and machine gun battle, a soldier from Guarriello's company lost his leg from a mortar explosion.

As the company was retreating from the battlefield, Guarriello went back into the field to rescue the soldier.

While he was showing medical attention to the wounded soldier, a mortar exploded behind Guarriello piercing him with shrapnel in his left arm and upper back.

On April 26, 1945, while recovering in a hospital in Florence, the Brigadier General awarded Guarriello a Purple Heart for being wounded in the line of duty.

After coming home from the war, Guarriello purchased a house in Long Island, New York and founded a State Farm Insurance Agency franchise.

He later decided to expand his business ventures by moving out to the West Coast in 1964.

Los Angeles, California, was of particular interest to Guarriello because of the large residential and automobile market.

As a resident of West Hollywood and longtime fixture on the Sunset Strip with his friend, the legendary Dean Martin, Guarriello joined the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES), the leading renters' rights organization in 1983.

Guarriello established his Farmers Insurance Company agency franchise there and it continued to be a successful operation until he retired in December 1986, at the age of sixty-seven.

He joined CES's Steering Committee in 1986.

In 1986, Guarriello became a member of the Board of Directors of the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (WHCHC), a non-profit corporation which rehabilitates run-down housing and builds new apartment buildings to increase the supply of affordable housing in West Hollywood.

He was soon selected by his fellow Board members to serve as Treasurer of the organization.

Guarriello was also featured in an A&E Television biography of the Sunset Strip.

The work of the WHCHC has been so successful that West Hollywood is replacing apartments lost to demolition with more than three times as many new affordable apartments.

In 1988, Guarriello was appointed to the Rent Stabilization Commission.

As a Commissioner, he helped develop policy on rent control matters and sat as judge on appeals of decisions made by Rent Stabilization Hearing Examiners.

While striving to be fair and impartial, Guarriello worked hard to protect West Hollywood tenants and the City's strong rent control law.

Guarriello also served on the City's Banking and Reinvestment Task Force in 1988, where he worked with local banks to improve low-cost services to seniors and small businesses.

He was elected to the City Council in 1990, and reelected four times.

He served four one-year terms as mayor.

He was an advocate for West Hollywood residents, protected tenants of low-income housing, promoted West Hollywood's businesses, and upheld public safety.

In April 1990, with seven years of experience serving the West Hollywood community, Guarriello was elected as a member of the West Hollywood City Council.

By January 1999, 141 low- and moderate-income housing units had been built in West Hollywood.

He was reelected to the West Hollywood City Council four times: in April 1994, March 1999, March 2003, and March 2007.