Seven reps for five districts a good...

Seven reps for five districts a good plan

My thoughts on how best to solve the debate on district

representation is to divide the city into five districts so that

everyone living here has someone they can go to with their problems.

Five council members is too small for a city our size, so I propose

to have an additional two council members elected at large for a

total of seven elected members.

ERNEST E. ANDRASIK

Huntington Beach

Art center is a great asset to the city

I hope that anyone who wants to criticize the Huntington Beach Art

Center (Mailbag Feb. 6) will first have attended one of its Sunday

afternoon jazz shows, which I think are held quarterly. I have

attended four of these events and each has been terrific. I think the

art center is a great asset to the city.

PAUL HORGAN

Huntington Beach

Attack on Leipzig was way off base

The writer in the Feb. 6 Independent (Mailbag) so critical of Vic

Leipzig is attacking the man, not the issues. He may be

“disappointed,” but he also lacks understanding. I know Vic Leipzig

as man of great character, reason and good will. He was fair, prudent

and responsible as a City Council member and he continues to

demonstrate his concern for the well being of our community.

He is an advocate for alternative sources of clean water. In our

semi-arid circumstances, this is a good thing. The Poseidon project

proposes to build a water desalinization plant on land formerly

occupied by Edison oil tanks. Leipzig also supported the Hyatt

builder’s offer to mitigate the loss of the “Little Shell” wetlands.

The offer would have offset the loss of a seven tenths of an acre of

degraded freshwater wetland bordered by Beach Boulevard near Pacific

Coast Highway in return for a four to one expansion and restoration

of 2.8 acres of freshwater wetlands in Shipley Nature Center at

Central Park.

True, not everybody agreed, but the offer was supported by the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and

Game, the city of Huntington Beach, the California Coastal Commission

and me. He and his wife, Louann Murray, write “Natural Perspectives,”

consistently the best column in this newspaper. Disagree with him if

you like but Vic Leipzig has been an asset to our community since the

day he arrived.

PHIL SMITH

Huntington Beach

A letter in the Independent (Feb. 6) complimented me on what I had

to say about environmental issues when I was elected to the City

Council.

The letter did not mention that I have spent 21 years in this

community backing up my talk with action. Not a week has gone by in

my years in Huntington Beach that I haven’t dedicated some volunteer

hours to one environmental cause or another. From Bolsa Chica to the

Huntington Wetlands, from Central Park to our beaches, I’ve done what

I can to protect and restore our natural resources. And, unlike the

letter writer, I’ve done it by drawing attention to the substantive

issues, not by attacking the integrity of people with whom I

disagree.

VIC LEIPZIG

Huntington Beach

Brockway does a good job for the city

Connie Brockway, elected city clerk of Huntington Beach, has

served her city with great honesty and intelligence. At all times she

always tried to do the right thing. Differences of ways to do a

certain job often occur. This does not mean that one person is right

and the other person is wrong. Connie does her work for the people of

Huntington Beach to the best of her ability. Thanks to Connie for

saving the records of Huntington Beach for future generations.

VI COWDEN

Huntington Beach