Women’s conference was job well done Congratulations...

Women’s conference was job well done

Congratulations to Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle

for the success of the Orange County Conference for Women. It was a

well-planned event with interesting and accomplished speakers. The

Balboa Bay Club was a wonderful location, and it was fun to see the

new mix of attendees, including some new faces I haven’t had the

opportunity to meet at our other city events in recent years.

The best was Libby Pataki. She was timely, experienced and

eloquent on her subject of the New York City history of Sept. 11,

2001. I am grateful that Orange County Republican Party Chairman

Scott Baugh was able to assist Daigle in getting our head speaker.

I, too, am proud of all our Orange County women, who have

accomplished much in their business careers and came to share some of

their life and business history.

It was also great to see all the many special attendees at the

luncheon event for our main speaker -- such as our complete City

Council, our city manager and staff, plus politically-involved men

and women.

Congratulations. Thank you so much for spear heading this

inaugural event.

DIANE COLTRANE

Corona Del Mar

Gutsy suggestions for school district

That was a gutsy letter that Jennifer Penjoyan wrote in the Sept.

15 Mailbag. As someone who had been an up-close witness to some of

the discrepancies of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District,

Penjoyan chose to counsel its leadership to use the

multi-million-dollar federal grant money wisely.

The word “wisely” does not, by itself, conjure anything special or

of great importance or meaning, but when it’s backed up with a number

of recommendations based on her experience as a school counselor,

they deserve careful consideration.

I’m sure that her suggestion that involvement with the “problem

with attendance and low parental involvement” are probably high on

the administration’s list of priorities. However, if there is “a

sense of apathy among district administrators toward our at-risk

students,” then Penjoyan’s advice “not to turn your backs on these

students” is worth not only considering but taking action on.

Additional solid advice is also found in her last paragraph, where

she urges the leadership that “once funds run out in the three years,

there is a district plan to continue the program’s effort.”

In closing, I cannot help wondering how large a federal grant was

granted so readily to our school district. Was the justification that

“things are so bad, that we must be given these sums, lest things go

from bad to worse?”

LEFTY LAVRAKAS

Costa Mesa

Partitions cost less than $250,000

I just read the Sunday “Watchdog” column by Dolores Otting,

regarding expenses for remodeling and building Newport Beach fire

stations. I also learned a new phrase -- “gender modifications.” For

all of you uninformed, this means we must spend $250,000 to remodel

Station No. 6 on Irvine Avenue to accommodate a woman firefighter --

just No. 6, not the other stations in Newport that need “gender

modifications.”

Having worked at Station No. 6 many moons ago, it seems to me that

this is quite an expense, when a partition in the bunk room and

another shower stall and bathroom can do the job.

MILT MEEHAN

Newport Beach

Time to stream council meeting

For the past couple years I’ve written about activities at City

Council and commission meetings in Costa Mesa, providing my

interpretation of the events and opinions about them. Frequently, I

suggested that readers not just take my opinion, but do their own

homework by attending meetings or watching them live or replayed on

our cable Channel 24. That required the readers to either have the

time and inclination to attend the meetings or be a subscriber of

Comcast Cable.

Things just got a whole lot easier for those of you interested in

following the proceedings on your own. The city of Costa Mesa

recently began making most important meetings available via streaming

video to anyone with a computer and a broadband connection. All you

have to do is go to the city website at

o7https://www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us/f7, then click on the Costa Mesa

TV link and select the meeting you wish to view.

This is a very slick system, which, in many cases, allows you to

jump around the presentation to quickly move to a subject of

particular interest to you. It also allows you to hear, verbatim,

what your elected representatives and those who speak before them

have to say on subjects important to all of us.

You’ll also be able to watch -- and replay over and over ad

nauseam -- the comments of some of your neighbors as they take our

leaders to task for real or perceived inadequacies. It made for good

television and now makes for fun video.

And, even better, you can do your viewing at a time that works

best for you. Although the meetings are available live, they can be

viewed later, too. You no longer have to remember to program your VCR

to tape an event live or during one of the many replays. This will be

good news for those of you still stymied by the blinking “12:00” on

your VCR.

For those of you interested, but still using a dial-up service for

internet access, now is the time to change to a faster service. Many

providers now offer DSL or cable modem service for rates less than

many of the premium dial-up services. This is just one more good

reason for switching.

So, please join me in congratulating the staff and elected leaders

of Costa Mesa for this progressive move to provide a broader

distribution of important information.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa

Sea Base needs leaders to steer ship

The situation with Knowlton Shore at the Newport Sea Base seems to

be a repeat of previous management problems there. Longtime director

Bill Mountford left with the same situation and same distaste and

feeling that he was not being supported. Sounds to me like we need to

get someone like the retired rear admiral David James, who’s on the

base’s board, to get involved from a management standpoint and get it

straightened out. They have a brand new facility, one that’s state of

the art, and they need to get state-of-the-art management in place

there. To lose Bill Mountford and now Knowlton Shore is a great

disservice to the community and to the facility itself.

BILL PIERPOINT

Balboa Island