PUBLIC FORUM NICE JOB.

Re ``Did a lie sway school bond vote?'' (Sept. 22):

Who hires these ``consultants''? Tom Rubin and anyone who had anything to do with his hiring should be fired and brought up on charges. To say that his credibility is in question is a joke. We taxpayers pay for services from elected and appointed officials; then, in order to cover their screw-ups, they in turn hire these overpaid, bloated-salary ``consultants'' like Rubin and Ron Deaton to advise them because the officials we elect can't seem to think for themselves.

The consultants always have golden parachutes to bail out in case something goes wrong. An elected official points to a consultant and says, ``It's his fault, not mine.'' The taxpayer gets stuck with the bill. Nice work if you can get it.

- Jim Rowe 

Chatsworth

Protecting district

Re ``Did a lie sway school bond vote?'' (Sept. 22):

Instead of the selective leaking of inspector general reports, the Los Angeles Unified School District should be required to make all I.G. reports public. The only purpose served by the present policy of covering up reports is to protect favored district-level personnel.

- Phillip Pearson

Agoura Hills

LAUSD spends money

Re ``Did a lie sway school bond vote?'' (Sept. 22):

Los Angeles Unified School District officials spend money as if there were a flowing stream of it. They are currently building or plan to build many new schools. Clearly it would cost less money to remodel and furnish a closed school than to build a new one.

As we all know, public education is going downhill. Have any of the LAUSD ``leaders'' looked hard at the low reading scores? How about spending the LAUSD's money on the three R's - reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic - and not on the three B's: build, building, built.

- Barbara Evans

Canoga Park

Council created problem

Re ``New burglar-alarm penalties OK'd''(Sept. 22):

Even in the 1970s, the Los Angeles Police Department's response time was long in the San Fernando Valley. In the '80s my parents' house was broken into. My parents were older. Out of concern for their safety, they bought an alarm system and service that dispatched a private security guard.

Yes, they have had false alarms over the years. It is an accident that comes sometimes to those with the necessity of having a residential alarm system. The Los Angeles City Council created this problem years ago by not addressing the number of police officers needed per square mile to handle calls. Now they want to penalize residents for compensating for the lack of enough officers to respond.

- Richard Mosier

Simi Valley 

License bill

Re ``Arnold vetoes license bill'' (Sept. 23):

It is an outrage that a single minute is being spent by legislatures on creating benefits for illegal immigrants. It's even more outrageous that citizens in those districts keep people like Gil Cedillo in office. There are two answers to illegal immigration: deportation or assistance in obtaining legal immigrant status. Period.

Nativo Lopez's stance would be laughable if it weren't disgusting. He condemns Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a ``worthless human being'' for supposedly not keeping his word and vetoing the bill, and Lopez thinks he himself is some kind of hero for giving benefits to lawbreakers.

- Sue Antico

Canyon Country

Easy to spot

Re ``Arnold vetoes license bill'' (Sept. 23):

The governor has ``a war, a social war, on his hands with the Latino community,'' Nativo Lopez is quoted as saying about denying driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. That's great, coming from a so-called Latino leader. How can you defend and/or protest for a group of people who have the word ``illegal'' in their title? That should end it there. If they protest, I'll be there along with them, but I'll be easy to spot because I'll have the sign that says only one word: ``Deport.''

- Jim Anderson

Burbank

Mystery shopper

Re ``Hahn deputies criticize audit of city vehicles'' (Sept. 16):

So the mayor's deputies don't like Laura Chick's ``observations.'' Hello. Do the words ``mystery shopper'' mean anything to them?

- Julie Stranges

Chatsworth

Corrupting influence

The Sept. 20 ``King of the roads'' editorial exposed a scary detail about retired members of a California law enforcement agency. If correct, a majority of high-ranking California Highway Patrol officers who retired in the past four years filed questionable workers' compensation claims, then retired with hefty disability pensions.

Some of those injured CHP chiefs wound up working in similar jobs after retirement. A critical question that news raises is: How can the public depend upon a law enforcement agency to protect the public against crime when workers' compensation benefits can corrupt a majority of its top-level officers?

- Victor N. Viereck

Valley Village

Looking ahead

Re ``Vietnam mud - again'' (Editorial, Aug. 25):

The Daily News hit the nail on the head. The Vietnam War is in the past. Who did what and who didn't is not the point in this election. This election has to do with now and the future. Things relevant are the economy, the national debt, the exodus of U.S. jobs to foreign countries, the environment, the Iraq war, the war on terrorism, the high cost of medical care, the dependency on foreign oil, etc. etc.

- Ronald Blake

Woodland Hills

Rebuild Florida instead

Instead of rebuilding Iraq - which got bombed for screwing with us in Kuwait in the first place - let's bring all American military forces and civilian workers to Florida. Have them rebuild Florida instead of Iraq, and then we'll really have something.

- James Hamilton Moore

Burbank

Didn't think twice

What would you give to have a brother, son or uncle who served courageously in Vietnam alive today? Whose life was more important: your loved one's life, or the life of one of the fortunate few, like George W. Bush?

The majority of Americans are not fortunate-few sons. George W. Bush didn't want to serve in Vietnam but doesn't think twice about sending our sons to Iraq (wrong war).

It started with Osama bin Laden. What are we doing in Iraq? According to Bush, this war is over, and he's leading America? Scary.

- Vincent Guerrero

North Hollywood

One of the above

Re ``Couldn't be worse'' (Your Opinions, Sept. 8):

Yes, Sarah Lucas, we must stop voting for the incumbents. We go through this type of thinking at all the elections, but it doesn't work because there are always more than two individuals running for an office seat. An example: There are at least three candidates running against the mayor. These three candidates will split the votes. Such splits usually allow the incumbent to win the election.

It would be nice if we had a Valley think tank free of all political groups, so the Valley voters would vote for one incumbent only. As it stands now, I'll put my money on the current mayor's winning the next election. I'll vote for one of the incumbents.

- Spart Galieti

Northridge