Mailbag: Commissioner should not criticize police hiring practices

Re. “Commentary: Costa Mesa can easily attract police recruits,” (Oct. 12): Less than a month after Costa Mesa Police Chief Tom Gazsi is ordered to meet every Thursday afternoon with Mayor Jim Righeimer to discuss hiring Costa Mesa’s much-needed police officers, the chief is called out by Planning Commissioner Tim Sesler, who was nominated by the mayor.

It seems that in Costa Mesa, planning commissioners have a history of strong opinions regarding police activities, such as DUI checkpoints, and now their hiring procedures. Perhaps Sesler should stick to plan amendments and environmental impact reports (EIRs) and allow Chief Gazsi to perform his duties without having to be criticized by a possible future council candidate with no background in law enforcement.

Joe Nedza

Newport Beach

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Rohrabacher on the shutdown

This is all the business community needs to know about one of our congressmen.

Asked by the Associated Press if he had heard business groups express alarm about the economic impact of a government shutdown, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) replied, “No. And it wouldn’t make any difference if I did.”

It is time to vote this out-of-touch ideologue out of office.

Walter Sebring

Corona del Mar

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Homeless issues require fresh ideas

Costa Mesa City Hall continues to recognize and regurgitate some of the many problems plaguing the city. Most in the community are aware of the problems of homelessness and related issues, such as public-safety resources, problematic motels and others.

This is obviously a very delicate and difficult combination of issues needing attention. Not so long go, I recall hearing ideas to gradually and properly “restore” and “convert” these business to low- and no-cost living quarters for our law-abiding and established citizens. Qualified candidates could be prioritized, and implementation-phasing would be sensitive but doable.

Why are there no published plans to initiate this concept? Stop whining as if it were too tough to tackle. Establishing a criteria and priority-phasing schedule would reflect the can-do attitude the city so desperately expects from our elected officials.

Many residents are qualified and willing to work with the city to prepare a plan of action. History has demonstrated that our current way of doing business is unsuccessful, and some fresh ideas may be worth the chance.

James H. Bridges

Costa Mesa

The writer co-founded the former Citizens’ Bureau of Investigation.

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Send government rebate check

I would like to hear a response from my fellow U.S. citizens if they think we should get a rebate check from our government for all the time it was shut down.

We, the taxpayers, pay taxes each day and week, yet we continually see fewer returns on our contributions. Yet all the legislative hacks, Democrat and Republican, still draw salaries at our expense with no net value.

Enough is enough, and in the words of Peter Finch in the movie “Network,” “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.” The American people have been fleeced for long enough by local, state and federal political spin doctors and deserve better.

Funny how the polls show one trend across the board, yet our so-called elected folks go against the grain.

We pay yet get nothing more than lip service, and we are chastised by politicians who think we don’t understand. I think we do understand, and we need accountability by our elected officials, at all levels.

Drew Kovacs

Huntington Beach