US Official Resigns After Drinking Beer, Throwing Cat During Zoom Meeting

A city official in Vallejo, California, has resigned after drinking beer, using derogatory language and tossing his cat into the air during a Zoom meeting. On April 20, the city's planning commission met via video conference to discuss a local project, reports CNN. During the Zoom meeting, Vallejo planning commissioner Chris Platzer was asked if he had any comments.

"Yes, if I'm allowed to make them," Mr Platzer said, while his cat was heard meowing in the background. On being told that he could make the comments, the planning commissioner lifted his cat up to the camera to "introduce" it and then tossed it into the air. The cat can be heard landing with a thud off-camera in a video of the meeting that was recorded to be viewed by the public. 

You can watch the moment below:

Mr Platzer was also seen drinking beer during the meeting. After the call ended and everyone else had left, he was also heard using foul language. "I'm going to call b******t on you little b*****s," he was heard saying. 

His behaviour has been heavily criticised on social media. "Wow! Drinking on the job! The nerve of this guy!" wrote one person in the comments section on YouTube. "He resigned and I am hoping strongly the cat gets appropriately rehomed to a loving one!" said another.

"The City does not condone the behavior that Vallejo Planning Commissioner Chris Platzer exhibited during the April 20th Planning Commission meeting," a statement from the City of Vallejo spokeswoman Christina Lee said.

According to the Vallejo Times-Herald, Chris Platzer apologised for his actions in an email to the newspaper and said that he had stepped down from. 

"I did not conduct myself in the Zoom meeting in a manner befitting of a planning commissioner and apologize for any harm I may have inflicted," he wrote. "I serve at the pleasure of the council and no longer have that trust and backing. I extend my gratitude to those who have supported me during my tenure. I have always felt that serving Vallejo in a voluntary position is honorable because Vallejo is worth serving. We are all living in uncertain times and I certainly, like many of you, am adjusting to a new normalcy."