MAILBAG - Oct. 27, 2006

Keep spending limits intact

Regarding the question about campaign spending limits, I offer the following: Though I am a firm believer in freedom of speech, I believe that $15,000 is more than enough money to conduct a campaign in a city of only 25,000 people, with 15,000 voters or fewer — maybe $20,000 for nonincumbent candidates to make up for all the free publicity incumbents get. Who needs multiple mailers and zillions of yard signs everywhere? A limit of 50 or 100 yard signs is more than enough.

DAVE CONNELL

Laguna Beach

School district needs large reserve

Vote “no” on Kelly Cornwell for school board. Cornwell will vote to spend reserves set aside for Laguna Beach schools. He wonders why our schools need a larger reserve than the city, but he does not explain the difference in how the schools receive revenue versus the city.

When Cornwell can guarantee that our tax revenue to the schools will never be modified or reduced, then maybe we can spend our savings for a sports program.

Vote “yes” for Ketta Brown, who wants us to see financial data via a current website. Beware of any candidate who wants to spend before he/she is in office.

KAREN CHAMP

Laguna Beach

Vote down nasty election tactics

Unfortunately, it looks like 2006 will be no different from any other election year. As the local election campaigns wind down, the personal attacks on City Council candidates and nasty tricks are starting to pick up, as evidenced by recent letters to the editor. Isn’t it possible to debate the issues vigorously without all the negativity?

All four City Council candidates pledged to reject negative campaigning. Apparently, not all their supporters are listening to them.

I call on Laguna’s voters to take the candidates at their word and reject those candidates whose supporters resort to nasty letters to the editor or send attack messages by mail or phone. Also, watch out for phony messages or mailers, supposedly in support of a candidate, which indicate nonsensical or obnoxious positions on the issues. It’s already been done this year in an attempt to smear two candidates. Recognize these nasty tactics for what they are and reject them.

Let’s keep Laguna clean!

JOHN MONAHAN

Laguna Beach

Council needs caring members

Toni Iseman and Verna Rollinger know that it takes more than charming cottages and a cozy downtown to make a village. They understand the connectors that make a village strong: thriving businesses, safe and attractive neighborhoods, a concern for children as well as seniors, and respect for all individuals in the community.

Iseman and Rollinger have both demonstrated in their years of public service that each Laguna resident they serve will be heard, whether it be a business owner, residential property owner or a representative of a community group. They have shown that they make decisions based on what is legal, fair and in the best interests of the community. When a compromise can be reached, Iseman and Rollinger will work toward it and support it.

As a 30-year resident of Laguna Beach, I have watched and worked with both of these candidates. Laguna Beach has the best chance of remaining the village I love — one with a diversity of opinion that is not only respected but encouraged, nestled in an environment of unequaled beauty — with Iseman and Rollinger on the City Council.

BARBARA DRESEL

Laguna Beach

Letter to editor not his idea of ‘fun’

Thank you for being upright and honest in informing your readers (“How a phony letter got into print,” Oct. 20) about unwittingly publishing a sham letter to the editor (“Council ‘trinity’ could halt church projects,” Oct. 6).

I, too, was deceived by it and took the opportunity to immediately express my own opposition to church expansions in a responding letter, “Letter gets his approval,” published two weeks later on Oct. 20.

At the end of your explanatory article, mention was made of a presentation hosted by the local library called “Writing Letters to the Editor Can Be Fun.” I presented that presentation with a “catchy” (wrong!) name hoping to attract local citizens and offer them information on how to share their thoughts with readers of the three local weekly newspapers. One person attended. I was underwhelmed!

You mentioned that the “prankster” letter writer was possibly having a bit of fun. No doubt she/he was, but to dispel any unintended misunderstanding, inference or implication, I’d like your readers to know that the prankster’s idea of fun and my idea of fun are totally unrelated and different. It’s not the way my New York mama “brung” me up.

NIKO THERIS

Laguna Beach

Pastor stands behind school project

During the past 40 years as a Roman Catholic priest, I have served in many different communities in Los Angeles and Orange County. During the past six years, I have come to appreciate the wealth of educational opportunity in Laguna Beach.

I arrive at this conviction through the privilege of being a part of a daily conversation with parents and students who represent public, private and parochial education. The depth of this conversation brings joy to my days and is a true tribute to those who form our young people.

The educator is the bridge to sustain the larger and ancient oral traditions that serve us to impart our knowledge, values and sense of global citizenship to future generations.

For the past 50 years, Saint Catherine of Siena School has been a part of this communal tradition, and I am honored to be a part of its history. I wish to reassure those who are a part of this tradition; it is my privilege to be a part of this sacred trust in the challenging years ahead.

FATHER EAMON O’GORMAN

New council could aid environment

City and state laws give the city of Laguna Beach the obligation to ensure, wherever possible, that developments do not adversely affect local natural resources. However, all members of the environmental community who I know agree wholeheartedly that the city is a poor steward of this obligation.

As examples, under the California Environmental Quality Act the city must evaluate the potential impacts of a project independently and in light of the whole record. However, it is routine for the city to use the developer’s environmental documentation and ignore other documents, such as the biological resources inventory commissioned by the city in the 1990s.

Rather than supporting the environmental community’s effort to establish our rights of appeal to the California Coastal Commission, the city has attempted unsuccessfully to thwart this effort. Open-space funds are used to buy properties that may cause liability to the city rather than properties of highest biological, visual or recreational value.

And just recently, when a variety of concerned agencies (fish and game department, California Coastal Commission, Native Plant Society, County of Orange) wrote comment letters to the water district on a project that may strongly impact the hillsides of South Laguna and the county wilderness, noticeably absent is a letter from the City of Laguna Beach.

We just don’t expect help from that quarter, sad as this may be. While certain individuals in the city staff are concerned and helpful, the general climate and leadership of the city is not protective of natural resources.

A new City Council majority could change all that. Toni Iseman has been a councilwoman for eight years and she understands the situation completely. She is an invaluable friend to the environmental community and we must reelect her.

Verna Rollinger was the city clerk for 30 years. This is an elected position, not under the direction of the city manager. She observed 30 years’ worth of council meetings and goings-on at city hall. We are extremely fortunate to have such a candidate.

Whereas most council members have a tendency to accept whatever staff may say, I believe that Rollinger will take the time to get the facts straight and ask critical questions. Iseman and Rollinger share the values of protecting hillsides, beaches and small-town character.

We need them to find a new city manager when the current one retires, to give direction to the planning department to protect our environment as is required by law, to help plan the development and restoration at Aliso Creek, and for hundreds of other important decisions.

Please vote on Nov. 7. If you care for the environment, vote for Toni Iseman and Verna Rollinger.

LISA MARKS

Laguna Beach