Mailbag:

I think Tim Geddes is a bit off base and, in his own most often used word, “disingenuous” in his comments based on his assumptions and his past stances and letters on the City Council (“Elected position brings concerns,” Jan. 7).

It appears he assumes that the aptitude of the electorate to select a viable representative as mayor is nil, as with the city providing a new charter amendment to the electorate to address issues that he is doing a Chicken Little dance on.

I think it would be wise to see the proposal for charter amendments prior to trying to make vague assumptions and correlations with Anaheim.

Granted, he has some valid questions, but let’s see what is presented before we create a doomsday mentality on what could be a good change of direction for the city. Long Beach, as with Anaheim, have been quite fiscally prosperous under an elected mayor structure, so why not Huntington Beach?

In some of his five “points,” there are what appear to be some real misconceptions, especially in Item 4, where he says, “Whatever benefits [of] directly electing the mayor may appear enticing on paper would be more than offset by the office being hijacked by free-spending outside special interests. Community-based candidates for mayor would be at a tremendous disadvantage.”

Do you not think that some of our current (community-based) incumbents have alleged interests to outside developers? So how would that change? It is reality and could be a plus.

Do you not think that outside forces do not already have a hand in the city, based on the potential gains with the structure as it is? How naive.

As for his comments on campaign finance limits, go see the paper trail where donations are made and under whose names — there are some interesting listings now, so don’t say that electing a mayor will open the flood gates.

It is, in my terms, called “creative finance” and is a reality as long as it is legally executed.

In addition, he professes in Item 5, “It is unfortunate that incumbents enjoy an almost ironclad certainty of being reelected in Huntington Beach, no matter how incompetent or bumbling they happen to be,” which is nothing more than saying that people do not get out and vote if they do not like something or someone’s performance on the dais.

That is not an issue of the incumbents being ironclad; it is a lack of voter education and action.

In closure, it appears that his whole premise is based on seeing the voters/constituents as feebleminded and not able to motivate to address issues that affect our city, which I disagree with. My suggestion: Run for office, Geddes, and make a change.

Project is just a bridge to nowhere

As a card-carrying member of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, it hard for me to believe that we really persisted in building a very expensive bridge across the Bolsa Chica channel when we already had a walkway on Warner Avenue — which I traveled on as a cyclist and as a pedestrian — that seemed to me to have an adequate amount of room for the few people who might want access to the wetlands.

Five hundred thousand dollars for a bridge that may very well lose it footings due to tidal surges that occur every day is a very big price to pay for yet another ambitious project.

Gee whiz, you’d think we have better things to do with our precious dollars.