City blew it with sports complex I...

City blew it with sports complex

I don’t understand why Huntington Beach, a city this size, cannot

figure out how to hire contractors that aren’t being sued by other

entities. This is just horrendous. That whole sports complex was way

over the cost basis, and it should’ve never been built. People wanted

a small little softball field, or something, and here we’ve got this

how-many-million-dollar ridiculous situation that we can’t even

finish now. The city is out almost a million dollars that they’ve

paid to this guy. This is just nonsense. The whole City Council

should be totally tarred and feathered for this. And anybody that is

involved in this -- I don’t know: the city attorney. They should all

be just blamed for throwing away our money. This is ridiculous.

PAMELA BUROS

Huntington Beach

City should get our money back

The city should work diligently on reclaiming the money spent for

the sports complex that the developer apparently has embezzled. We

should spend all the effort possible and have his personal assets

seized and so-forth: That money belongs to us. And on future dealings

with these types of contractors, there’s hardly a case where city

governments are unable, or unwilling or do not pay contractors, so

therefore, it makes no sense to pay any advance fees and we should

work with organizations that have sufficient capital to order the

supplies and needed materials so that they don’t need to be paid

until the job is completed.

DAVID PLANTE

Huntington Beach

Weigh in on Bolsa at school board meeting

The Ocean View School District Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday

to consider a piece of unused property the district has owned since

1966. The state Wildlife Conservation Board has indicated to district

officials that they can soon expect an offer for the 15-acre

property, located on the Bolsa Chica mesa. The district bought the

land at a time when thousands of houses, a hotel and marina were

proposed. Those plans have long since been scaled back due to the

efforts of environmentalists.

But there’s a major step the district must take before they can

sell.

In order to sell the property, the district must first declare it

surplus. The vote to make it surplus must be a super-majority of at

least four out of five votes, rather than a simple majority of three

votes. Local residents are concerned that some trustees seem hesitant

about declaring it surplus, even though it is costing the district

annual fees to keep the land.

That’s right -- the district must pay an ownership fee to the

state for a vacant piece of property, property that has been vacant

for 38 years.

The district has 15 school sites for educating students. An

additional six sites are leased out and generate revenue. The unused

school site, in contrast, is neither educating students nor

generating revenue. It’s just sitting there, using up valuable

resources. Residents of the Ocean View School District need to make

their feelings known about whether they want to see their tax dollars

used for books or empty land. Public comments will be accepted at the

Tuesday meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at the district headquarters,

17200 Pinehurst Lane.

JULIE BIXBY

Huntington Beach

Let’s save the open space we still have

I have lived in Huntington Beach for 33 years and I have watched

our open space gradually change from acres of beauty to areas of

asphalt, cement and structures. We have very little area left that we

can call open space. Wildlife need the open space and humans enjoy

the open areas. I urge you to support the proposed sale of 103 acres

of the Bolsa Chica mesa to the state of California.

CORRINE RAMIREZ

Huntington Beach

City should go after complex contractor

The most important issue the City Council should be speaking on

and concerned with is putting “public servant” their top priority.

This is their job description and, from what I’ve seen in the seven

years I have lived here, the council doesn’t serve the public. If

they did they wouldn’t have gone after the wrong people in the condo

conversion snafu.

That brings up last week’s question of how the city should try to

get back the money for the uncompleted sports arena. They should work

as hard, if not more so, in going after the right people, the

lawyers, as they did in going after the wrong people as they did with

the condo conversion scandal.

PAUL MOSCARITOLO

Costa Mesa

Candidates must prove leadership

While a key quality of City Council candidates needs to

increasingly be personal and professional integrity, the most

important issue candidates should speak on during the election is

their leadership ability.

I don’t want to hear opinions and positions from candidates

without knowing if they have the qualifications and commitment to

improve the decision-making process.

Being a city council member is more than just pushing buttons up

on the dais, especially in running a coastal city of about 200,000.

In campaign literature, candidate forums and in public

appearances, I want candidates to spell out their leadership

abilities and qualifications if they want me to take their views

seriously.

While there are many issues that municipal government must

address, and many pressing local concerns, it is the leadership

exhibited by our council members that will make all the difference in

the kind of progress we achieve. That’s what I want to hear talked

about by the people who would seek to govern us.

TIM GEDDES

Huntington Beach

Slope improvements benefit neighborhood

This is in regards to your article in the July 15 edition,

entitled “Teeming Expansion.” As you correctly point out, the City

Council is considering an ordinance that would prevent owners of

through-lots from building on their own slopes. Those behind this

movement are trying to pressure our city government to interfere in

the private property rights of others by creating an unfair law for

their personal benefit.

To start with, their premises are flawed. The term

“mansionization” is a gross overstatement. How many

10,000-square-foot mansions do you see up the slopes as you drive on

Roundhill or around Gilbert Island? How many of those homes ever come

close to 3,000 square feet?

Huntington Harbour homeowner Carole Garrett states in the story

“these homeowners are trying to increase the value of their

individual properties, but are causing the devaluation of the rest of

the neighborhood.” Wrong. The improvements we’re proposing do not

decrease surrounding property values, they increase them. “These

homeowners” are merely exercising their right to use the property

which they purchased, and for which they continue to pay taxes on, in

a reasonable manner.

Another homeowner Randy Fuhrman talked about the need for “ ...

development standards to protect this easement.” Wrong again. Our

back yards are not easements. If they were, it would be written into

our deeds. There would be a property owners’ association to whom all

members would pay dues, which the association would use to maintain

the slopes. We would not have paid full price for our properties, nor

would we pay taxes on that potion of the property which would be

considered an easement.

This dispute is not about mansions, or easements or devaluation of

surrounding property. This is about a law that would deprive property

owners for the full use of the land their homes are on, land which

they own. This is about a law which would give one group the ability

to dictate to homeowners what the homeowners must plant in their own

backyards, at their own expense, just to satisfy that group’s

gardening fantasies. This is about property rights guaranteed by the

Constitution.

MIKE PALIKAN

Huntington Beach