LETTERS D.A. MUST TAKE MEASURE O STAND.

Community Memorial Hospital and the Ventura County Board of Supervisors are involved in a major battle over Measure O and the tobacco money that has been awarded to Ventura County. There is a possibility that this may become a legal dispute between these parties.

Although Michael Bakst, the executive director of Community Memorial Hospital, is generally given credit for Measure O, he is only an employee of CMH. The authority for Measure O and this dispute rests with the board of directors of Community Memorial Hospital. This is the group with whom the County of Ventura is doing battle.

One member of the board of directors of CMH is Michael Bradbury, the district attorney of Ventura County, the county's top legal expert. In essence, Ventura County is fighting its own district attorney.

It is time, Mr. Bradbury, to take a stand. If you believe that Community Memorial's board of directors is correct in what it is doing, then stay on the board and support your fellow board members. If you have any loyalty to the Board of Supervisors and Ventura County, your employer, then resign from the board of directors of CMH.

Diane L. Fresh

Port Hueneme 

Settlement money intended for public

Can 38,000 voters signing a petition about the tobacco settlement money be wrong? Can that many people be misled and deceived? You bet.

All it takes is for a bunch of unscrupulous lawyers and political rip-off artists to get together with a certain hospital executive director (did someone say Bakst?) who sees it as OK to spend a million or two of his nonprofit hospital's money to get his hands on $260 million of the taxpayer's money.

The tobacco settlement funds were secured solely at public expense to recover public funds spent on behalf of public programs to provide health services to those who were treated for tobacco-related illnesses at public expense.

So now we're supposed to give that $260 million to private hospitals and doctors so they can ``safeguard'' the money? Right!

C. Jane True

Port Hueneme

Big boxes will harm town's rural quality

Allowing two ``big boxes'' to be built in Agoura Hills would be a colossal mistake. The impact on existing business and the traffic they would generate would be unbearable.

The addition of these big box stores would destroy many of the existing small businesses that have been in the city for 20 to 30 years. They have pumped tax dollars into the city coffers and employed local residents. Why doesn't the city support them by encouraging the developer to bring businesses to this center that the city needs and that don't already exist here? Then you would indeed be bringing in ``new'' tax dollars.

Have our city officials done their homework? Have they asked the residents if they even want this type of project? No, they haven't! If we allow this type of development we will soon look just like the San Fernando Valley. We need to preserve our rural feel. Once it's gone, it's gone forever.

Joseph Windsor

Agoura Hills

Act now to protect parks, open spaces

The time has come for all of us to take some type of action to protect the enjoyment, maintenance, and the preservation of our parklands and open spaces. For years such land for recreational purposes has been seriously threatened by a loss in revenue by the powers that be in Sacramento.

Of the $4.8 million allocated to our city to staff the appropriate number of employees to provide the best quality of service in maintaining the district both internally and externally - which includes programs, events, and other services - an average of $850,000 a year has been shifted away from Conejo Recreation and Parks Department and earmarked for other purposes, most specifically education.

In looking at this issue, some might argue that education ought to take precedence over many other issues of the day, considering the need for improvement in our educational system. However, these funds, which are part of the property taxes that the CRPD pays each year, were never intended for education by either then-Gov. Pete Wilson or our current Gov. Gray Davis. These funds were intended for recreational and park purposes only! Not to help balance the budget, not to help build a surplus, and most certainly not for education - which is what has become of the funds intended for the CRPD at the outset.

In conclusion, it only takes one caring ear to help repeal this unjustified revenue shift. It could be an assemblyman or assemblywoman, or even the governor himself, who as you might remember, is for the environment.

Help us keep the Conejo Valley the reason for why you moved here!

Thomas Larson

Thousand Oaks