MAILBAG - Oct. 15, 1999

What’s new about due process rights for employees being trampled on

by the Newport-Mesa School District (“Grading performance of teachers not

easy,” Sept. 16)? Ask a teacher in Newport-Mesa or elsewhere and they can

relate their own horror stories about how district and school

administration have routinely disregarded employee contractual rights and

manipulated personnel practices and evaluation procedures to meet their

own agenda. And they’ve spent plenty of our taxpayer dollars doing it,

too.

As far as the Brown Act and public meeting laws are concerned, there are

still some of us in the community waiting for the Daily Pilot to inform

readers of the outcome of the investigation into the last reported

violations made by the Newport-Mesa School District some time ago. These

district office and school board bullies really should be ashamed of the

way they have treated Ms. Wood, who has given 30 years of her life to

education. Is this what our kinder and gentler superintendent is all

about?

KENT S. MOORE Corona del Mar

Dunes hotel conference space needed

As a long time Dover Shores resident, I was very pleased to read the

story about the Newport Dunes plans for a hotel (“Dunes builders give

highlights of resort project,” Sept. 24). It is the perfect place for a

total family destination resort.

The additional conference and meeting space is something Newport Beach

needs very badly. As a founder of the Speak Up Newport Mayor’s Dinner, I

can tell you that we have had to limit our dinner capacity to about 600

for the last several years -- because that is the largest any of our

Newport hotels can handle. And we did not want to have the Newport Beach

mayor’s dinner in Anaheim or Irvine!

I think the Chamber of Commerce and Hoag Hospital must feel the same way

about the limitations on their events and programs.

Over the years, the Quinns (owners and operators of the Dunes) have been

wonderful neighbors. Just last week, in support of Clean Estuary Day,

which I chaired, the Dunes was not only a major financial contributor,

but gave us total access to the resort, including their boat launch

facilities, their parking area, and even prizes for the volunteers. We

could not have been successful without them.

They participate continuously in the community, working with the Girl

Scouts, the Junior Blind, the Upper Bay Naturalists and many other

organizations. The hotel will be one more resource they will use in

making Newport a wonderful place to live.

V.L. DEBBIE GRAY

Newport Beach

Cox is right on El Toro compromise

I congratulate Rep. Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach) who has taken a

common-sense approach to the El Toro Airport issue by stating he will do

everything possible to secure restrictions, thereby making it a more

friendly neighbor to the community. Orange County needs an additional

airport, even though some cities object! Cox offers the solution that

should be agreeable to everyone. Work toward a smaller El Toro, secure a

curfew so there will be no late-night flights and mitigate restrictions

on noise, number of flights and types of aircraft. Now why didn’t

Supervisor [Tom] Wilson think of that?

A. GALLAGHER

Costa Mesa

Lobster pain is not a gain

Please allow me to respond to Peter Buffa’s column about the police

officers in Irvine who temporarily pulled the plug on Sumo Sushi

restaurant’s Lobster Zone crane game (“A lobster tale the size of

Irvine,” Aug. 6). As Officer Dennis Ruvolo points out, this game subjects

lobsters “to unnecessary, inhumane treatment.”

Well guess what: so does cooking these crustaceans in your own kitchen.

There is little doubt anymore that lobsters, like all animals, can feel

pain. Most scientists agree that the nervous systems of lobsters are

quite sophisticated. For example, according to neurobiologist Tom Abrams,

lobsters have “a full array of senses.” Jelle Atema, a marine biologist

at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. -- and,

according to The New York Times, “one of the nation’s leading experts on

lobsters” -- says, “I personally believe they do feel pain.”

Indeed, anyone who has ever boiled a lobster alive can attest that, when

dropped into scalding water, lobsters whip their bodies wildly and scrape

the sides of the pot in a desperate attempt to escape. In the journal

Science, researcher Gordon Gunter described this method of killing

lobsters as “unnecessary torture.”

As they begin to understand these fascinating animals, more and more

people are deciding lobsters should be left in open waters, not placed in

a cooking pot. At the very least, surely we can all agree that turning a

sentient being’s death into a game has no place in a compassionate

society.

PAULA MOORE

Staff Writer, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

Norfolk, Va.

What’s an influential list without Joe Bell?

I just saw your list of the 103 “most important people” on the coast. I

understand the meaning and limitations of such lists. I also understand

the limitations on apparent “self-praise” and the absence of any of your

columnists from that list. That being said, does the Pilot appreciate

what a treasure it has in Joe Bell?

My wife and I have followed his column since his days at the Times. We

were disappointed when he was replaced with a “pleasant mediocrity” and

elated when he surfaced with the Pilot. His column is in the classic

tradition of thoughtful and candid comment on topics which are too often

today banished by “political correctness.”

Keep his nose to the grindstone for as long as you can keep him working.

JOE A. DICKERSON Costa Mesa