Garlich the better man to endorse The...

Garlich the better

man to endorse

The Pilot’s recent review of Costa Mesa City Council candidates

compliments Bruce Garlich but falls short of endorsing him for this

election (“Opportunity for consensus building in Costa Mesa,”

Saturday). No one fits your stated criterion, “consensus building,”

better than Bruce Garlich, who as a member and now the chairman of

the Planning Commission, has built an enviable record of guiding our

city’s growth and resolving critical development issues.

The three candidates you have endorsed all have something in

common: They have either run for council office before and won or

have lost. Those efforts should certainly be commended, but our city

needs leadership, not just participation. In the two recent candidate

forums, Garlich demonstrated superior knowledge of the issues

confronting the city, unequaled communication skills and qualities of

leadership and mature judgment unmatched by any other candidate. We

have a rare opportunity to capture these attributes for the benefit

of Costa Mesa now, and we can’t afford to keep him waiting on the

sidelines for a future election. I hope the Daily Pilot will continue

to review this important race for Costa Mesa City Council and find

the opportunity to add Garlich to the list of endorsed candidates.

DAVID C. WENSLEY

Costa Mesa

Know the candidates, especially fresh faces

I’d like to congratulate Steve Smith on his oh-so diplomatic

handling of an oh-so-not diplomatic letter from Wilfred Knight

(“Making schools separate but equal,” Saturday). However, I think

Knight’s letter quite nicely illustrates the neighborly attitude held

by so many in Newport Beach (“Newport ought to take care of its own,”

Sept. 23). Knight objected to the inclusion of “those who live and

breed” in Costa Mesa in the same school district with the children of

Newport Beach.

The message all Costa Mesans should take away from his letter is

that we are perceived, by at least a segment of Newport’s population,

as a community for the impoverished who consume more in social

services than we contribute to society. I suppose those of us with

million-dollar homes must all be on the dole.

Costa Mesans wake up! Use your vote for change. Elect some new

blood to the City Council -- professionals who will work to improve

our image and command respect from neighboring Newport Beach and

Irvine. Cast your vote for change, not status quo bureaucrats who for

months on end dwell on the trivia of parking regulations and codes.

I urge all of you to get to know the candidates -- especially the

fresh faces -- and make an informed choice.

JEANNE TARAZEVITS

Costa Mesa

Bound to find way to get columns into book

Along with many others, I really miss Judge Robert Gardner’s

column, “The Verdict,” since I was one of those party guys back 45

years ago in Corona del Mar. I would see the judge there.

Why can’t the Daily Pilot take all of those stories and make a

book out of them, like the one I bought years ago that Judge Gardner

wrote? Or maybe his family could do it. I’d help, if it was

necessary. I just thought that those stories should be put into a

book, and I’m very sad to see he isn’t up to making those Tuesday

stories that I enjoyed so much. Hopefully we can get a book.

FRED BOCKMILLER, SR.

Costa Mesa

Rape drug not relevant to three teens’ retrial

Regarding the Orange County district attorney’s dropping of the

date rape drug testimony from the trial of Greg Haidl and two other

teens (“D.A. to rid gang-rape argument of drugs,” Sept. 24), I think

it was a moot point whether they even introduced the drug situation

because the girl in this instance is a child. She’s under 18. She

doesn’t have the consent to sexuality at that age, and the whole

argument -- the idea of these guys being able to coax her with

alcohol or drugs -- it’s a moot point. They can’t do that. That’s the

whole point of being under the age of consent. She can’t consent.

She’s not old enough. It surprises me the guys aren’t all in jail. It

should be a slam dunk for the prosecutors.

I can’t believe it was a hung jury during the first trial. I hope

those boys get what I think they deserve, despite the fact the son of

a sheriff gets a lot of easy breaks.

ALAN SCHWARZ

Newport Beach