Sounding Off

Unfortunately for Cindy Cross, the indignation she spewed in her

Sounding Off article (“Bauer’s alternate proposal is a fraud”, June 6)

was largely a wasted effort in terms of characterizing Council member

Ralph Bauer’s good government committee.

I attended the initial gathering of this group and an alternate

districting proposal never came up. Every one of the many dozens present

at the meeting was solidly opposed to any type of districting plan for

our city, least of all the Trojan Horse initiative rolled up to our doors

by Scott Baugh. This included Bauer’s.

If Cross is such an ardent fan of districting, let her answer the

following three questions in her column for that other local newspaper.

Why would you take away my ability to vote for all council members

other than my district representative when all council members vote on

citywide issues?

Why wouldn’t outside special interests (e.g. development, corporate,

political) pour just as many dollars into district races (thus

financially drowning out the grass-roots candidates in the various

districts) in order to get their way in shaping the City Council?

Why would I trade the ability of appealing my concerns to seven

council members (my elected officials) for one council member who may or

may not listen to or agree with me?

As a resident of Southeast Huntington Beach with no council resident

in my half of proposed District 1, I currently feel well represented by

more than one council member.

Until she can provide compelling responses to these obvious weaknesses

of any districting plan, Cross should not criticize either those who

point them out or those who call attention to the admitted motivation of

the “initiators.”

And, perhaps she should quit sounding off on this issue.

*TIM GEDDES is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to Sounding

Off fax us at (714) 965-7174 or e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com.