Budget is a disgrace, cuts not...

Budget is a disgrace, cuts not necessary

The budget the city just passed was a sad commentary of government

at its worst. City Administrator Ray Silver led the City Council by

the nose from beginning to end. He set a tone of desperation from the

get-go by proposing to eliminate the Shipley Nature Center, the Drug

Abuse Resistance Education and the self-sufficiency program. Not once

did any of the council members look at some obvious places to cut the

budget such as information systems, outside consulting or

administration services. The budget for all these areas increased --

information systems more than 150%. I would have liked to hear

someone on the council suggest employees take a cut or even a freeze

on their salary increases and benefits. Instead, the council set out

to increase fees and wasted even more of our money paying an outside

consultant to do a fee study. Hopefully, with four new faces on the

council we might get someone that questions the staff’s agenda, which

seems to be city employees first, nature second and taxpayers last.

CLEM DOMINGUEZ

Huntington Beach

DARE proven to waste taxpayer money

The Independent has on several occasions reported about the

Huntington Beach City Council saving core funding for the Drug Abuse

Resistance Education program. Did the City Council stop to evaluate

if DARE works? Study after study, with test and control groups across

the country, has come to the same conclusion: DARE has no appreciable

impact on drug use or drug abstinence.

The well-meaning Celia Jaffe discusses in her letter to the

Independent (Mailbag, Sept. 26) what a wonderful thing the City

Council did by maintaining DARE funding. DARE is an expensive

feel-good program and a marketing tool for local police. Beyond its

pull on our heart-strings, DARE is proven to have no sustained impact

on children’s choices about drugs. Peer groups, preferences and

family are what matters in the choices a child makes.

The only identifiable impact of DARE is that it succeeds in taking

highly trained peace officers off the street-beat and into schools

and it diverts student attention from academics to DARE pep-rallies.

When drug use in our community is down, DARE takes credit. But when

drug use is up, the folks at DARE are strangely silent. Its time we

set aside our emotions and made informed choices about the

discretionary programs the City Council supports.

Drugs are a scourge on many societies, but red ribbons and cute

assemblies are an ineffective means of addressing the issue. Why

don’t we substitute a proven program for DARE ... parenting.

ROBERT SMYTHE

Huntington Beach

Council did a good job trimming budget

I work in Huntington Beach and I have two of my sons that live in

Huntington Beach and I’d like to say that I’m very proud that the

City Council was able to trim the budget. I think that it shows a

high level of responsibility to the residents of Huntington Beach. My

private industry, when you don’t have the revenue, you have to make

tough decision. In our case we laid off people, some people that had

14 years of seniority. You have to make those decisions. Make no

mistake, I am sorry that some of the programs like Drug Abuse

Resistance Education program and the Shipley Nature Center are not

going to be funded the way we’d like, but I am very proud of the City

Council and the fact that they stood up and made some very, very hard

decisions.

ROBIN GLEDHILL

Shocking images on trucks gone too far

This morning I was on my way to work on Goldenwest Street and

Edinger Avenue. I was at the light contemplating my day. I am

shocked, I am outraged, I am ticked off. On two trucks roaming around

Surf City are pictures of people being “Fried in an oven during the

war, an aborted fetus and Hiroshima.” This has gone way too far. What

are you supposed to say to very young children that are in your car?

I understand free speech, I understand the issue with the banners.

I understand pro-choice and pro-life. I am outraged because

whoever is promoting these horrible acts is putting parents in the

position to explain issues that maybe their children aren’t ready to

understand just yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if companies are going

to plaster on the side of the trucks murder scenes regarding gun

safety. There are many situations that could be on the sides of these

trucks, but shoving them down our throats is not the way to get your

point across.

I contacted the HRH and the response was that it is a statement

issue. Hiding behind the 1st Amendment is chicken. If you want to

protest, there are ways to silent protest without getting into

people’s faces and upsetting their children.

So to this company that has these trucks -- thanks for telling me

how to raise my children. Thanks for giving me insight to teach my

children values and morals. I didn’t know you didn’t trust my

judgment. Thanks for putting me in a position that maybe my children

weren’t ready to see.

I didn’t know I was raising my children with you. I don’t remember

you supporting me emotionally and financially all these years that

you had a say in what my children can see shoved in their faces.

DENYSE SCARBERRY

Huntington Beach

Voters should pass Proposition 50

Definitely, we need to save a little bit of the land that’s around

Huntington Beach and definitely the wetlands -- all of them. We have

enough development in town now. We’re overdeveloped and the schools

are overcrowded.

CAROLYN BEAL

Huntington Beach

I just think that if there’s any possibility that there would be

money for the Bolsa Chica Mesa to be bought it would have long term

benefits for the people, the wildlife -- everybody. People that don’t

even live here would be benefited by that.

JUNE NYE

Huntington Beach

How could we not pass Proposition 50? Preserving the mesa is just

vital, not only for our immediate Huntington Beach area but for all

of California. School children go there to learn biological history

of this whole area. It would be just terrible to have homes up there.

MARGE ALLEN

Huntington Beach

Proposition 50 smells fishy to me

Let me get this straight. Lucy Dunn of Hearthside Homes wants to

build homes on the Bolsa Chica Mesa (county land), but the Bolsa

Chica Land Trust and associates do not want Dunn to do this. They

want to purchase this land and create an artificial wetland so they

can pursue their bird-watching hobby. The bird-watchers do not have

the money to satisfy the amount this land is worth and Dunn cannot

build because the bird-watchers have a strong lobby that has control

of the California Coastal Commission’s appointees, who will not

approve any building on this county land.

Ergo, we have an impasse, so Dunn and the bird-watchers say, “Hey,

why not make the taxpayers buy this land at the asking price and Dunn

can go to the bank and we can have our artificial wetland and watch

the birds”. Both parties jump with glee and compose an initiative,

Proposition 50, to put on the ballot. Their thoughts are, “Surely the

voters will not vote against the birds. We all like birds, and

Proposition 50 will slide right on to a victorious conclusion.”

Do you get the feeling that the Artful Dodger and Fagan have been

resurrected and have our wallets as a target? How can these two

parties of a collusion put this Proposition 50 on the ballot and keep

from laughing? From now on I am going to resort to the old adage of

“voting the old rascals out before voting the new rascals in.”

Remember, the state cannot buy anything. The only money the state

has to purchase land is our tax money. I do not think Proposition 50

has a clean skirt. One more sour note, this artificial wetland is to

be the recipient of flood control waters from the Garden Grove area

and is conceded even by the bird-watchers to contain bacteria, heavy

metals and other pollution. Do our schemers intend for this pollution

to percolate into our aquifers? If not, is it intended to allow the

polluted water to find its way to our shore through their man-made

channel? What happens to the birds that find this polluted water

attractive? As long as the birds have the Bolsa Chica groupies as

friends, they sure do not need any enemies. The same goes for those

of us that depend on our fresh water aquifers to remain clean, our

well water drinkable and our beaches free from polluted urban runoff.

Are these special interest groups going to hoist this farce on the

people of California, or will the majority rule at the voting booth?

BOB POLKOW

Huntington Beach

McGrath carrying on legacy would be good

In answer to Dean Albright’s letter “McGrath would carry on Hutton

loss legacy,” Albright does not even seem “half-bright” on this

issue. The voters of this city continuously elected Gail Hutton as

our city attorney. That means that “we the people” are satisfied with

her direction. Now that she has retired, we have the responsibility

to find someone who will continue to represent our community. The

reason that this position is elected and not governed by the City

Council or city staff is to protect the citizens of this community.

McGrath has had the opportunity to practice municipal law as it

pertains to our cities needs. True, the law does not always give us

what we want, but we have to maintain the ability to interpret it

consistently, and not bend it to our will.

I think we would do well to maintain experience in the City

Attorney’s Office and not an unproven litigator that has to hire the

“big guns” of Scott Baugh to fight the word “for” on a candidates

signs. The McGrath signs are no different from any other candidate

that is currently running for local or state government. I am sure

that had McGrath known this would have been a problem she would have

avoided the situation and her signs would have read “Jennifer McGrath

for City Attorney.”

DAWN STANTON

Huntington Beach

Let’s support the Strand project

As a retailer I support the project. The prime area Downtown is a

wasteland until we develop it. Parking for employees should be

defined and then all systems should be ready to go. As soon as

possible.

MAUREEN SLOAN JAMES

Huntington Beach

Strand would kill the charm of Surf City

I am completely and totally against the Strand. Our city is

completely and totally overdeveloped and the last thing we need is

another hotel. You can’t fill up the Waterfront Hilton; how are you

going to fill up the Hyatt with 500 rooms and another hotel. We are

not Long Beach. We are a small surf city. It had its charm at one

time and it certainly doesn’t anymore because the development in this

city is rampant. They’re not going to be happy until every single

open space has something on it. Goldenwest Street has become a

residential Beach Boulevard because there’s so much traffic. The

quality of life in this city has gone down the tubes, in the last

five years in particular. I am just so unhappy with what has gone on

in this city and I am a long-time resident. I used to come down here

as a kid in the 1930s on the old Pacific Electric Red Car, so I know

a lot about Huntington Beach. I am completely and totally against the

Strand and I hope we keep our city the way it is.

CONNIE TUTTLE

Huntington Beach

I would say don’t approve this Strand project. It’s 400-some

parking spaces short. Maybe you could give or take a few, but not

that many, and guess whose neighborhoods they park in. They never

allow employees to park in their parking lot. Why would anybody

approve a project that’s penciling failure for a project to have no

parking.

LORETTA WOLFE

Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach: a noisy place to live

V. Barrett needs to know there are many of us B.F. Schnel whiners

in Huntington Beach who prefer a quieter environment. You incorrectly

state, “These helicopters are responding to some emergency.” For 10

hours a day and five night hours they are solely patrolling. Add an

emergency and if they’re not already patrolling, up they go again --

usually one, occasionally two. I respect the Police Department’s

mission and would rather a quieter less invasive form of delivery. If

one helicopter was used solely for emergencies, terrific. They’re a

big expense and an accident waiting to happen as patrol vehicles.

Fountain Valley calls itself a nice place to live. Huntington Beach

should call itself a noisy place to live. We can make decisions to

the contrary starting with eliminating helicopter patrol.

SUE DOMINGUEZ

Huntington Beach

Airplane advertising ban a waste of time

I think it’s absolutely stupid of the City Council to spend time

voting on something like this when there’s more important things to

do. What does it bother anybody to see a sign in the sky. I think

they’re just wasting time on frivolous things and they should be

taking care of more important things.

MAUREEN NEWMAN

Huntington Beach

Ban of planes a good call for City Council

I support the City Council’s right to ban planes towing ads from

flying over our city. I would just like to express my extreme,

extreme displeasure over these airplanes that fly over my house

constantly disturbing the peace that I so much long for in Huntington

Beach. I happen to be a private pilot myself and I think that this

gentleman who runs this company, Mr. Dobry, and the FAA should fall

in line with the citizens’ request to stop the noise pollution. Every

single neighbor and surfing buddy of mine and retailer in the area,

along with our local residents, are fed up with the noise pollution.

Fed up. So if I could do anything to support the City Council’s

decision and stop the noise pollution I would be glad to participate

on any level.

JOHN PARONE

Huntington Beach