PUBLIC FORUM OFFICER WAS A HERO.

What is a routine traffic stop? Has Maxine Flam (``Don't throw around the word `hero' loosely,'' Their Opinions, Dec. 4) ever been a police officer? Has she ever walked up on the unknown?

Burbank Police Officer Matthew Pavelka responded to a call for an officer asking for additional help. During this so-called ``routine'' stop in November, a subject in the vehicle started shooting.

Pavelka went to the aid of his fellow officer, who was on the ground - shot. The gunbattle continued, with Pavelka protecting the other officer against two armed subjects. Pavelka gave the ultimate sacrifice when he gave his life protecting his fellow officer.

Pavelka is a hero to the officer whose life he saved, and to every one of us who pins on a badge every day, knowing it could be our last.

- Kitty McDonald

Burbank Police Department 

A different kind of war

Maxine Flam is right to praise her father but wrong to put down Officer Matthew Pavelka.

Sgt. Flam fought a war against a known enemy; he knew the color of his skin, the language he spoke, the clothes he wore, the vehicles he drove and usually where he was. This knowledge was important to survival.

Police officers are fighting another kind of war where they don't always know who the enemy is, where or when they might encounter him or what routine traffic stop might be their last. Someone who faces this fits Webster's definition as ``a person of courage and accomplishment.''

Officer Pavelka was a hero.

- Phil Kornstein

Northridge

Adelphia gives - and takes

I guess the Los Angeles City Council is too busy to note that Adelphia has raised its rates for some cable customers as much as $240 a year. After action by the council, Adelphia reduced their rate about $1.90 a month or $13.80 a year.

But as of Dec. 2, they shifted the charge for HBO from Satellite Service, where it was included in the $14.80 charge for the past several years, to a renamed Channel 961.

To receive Channel 961, one must pay an additional $5 per set per month, plus $12.95 monthly for HBO. If you have four sets, as I do, the resulting rate boost is $240 a year in addition to the HBO charge.

I hope the council takes these actions into consideration when deciding whether to renew Adelphia's franchise.

- Martin Roberts

Sherman Oaks

Raises should be on merit

I would like to thank my Councilwoman Wendy Greuel and the other five City Council members who rejected the pay raise increase of $4,000. The others with their cheap, lame excuses of accepting the raise but giving it to charity showed their real character - cheap politicians.

There are no words for Councilmen Bernard Parks and Antonio Villaraigosa who decided to accept the raise. Parks, with his $19,000-per-month pension plus the $140,000-per-year salary, shows the greed in these people.

It's time we rescind the law that gives council members an automatic pay raise with the Superior Court judges. We have to return this to the people, where we vote on the pay raise based on merit.

- Johnny Rotella

Van Nuys

A $60 pain reliever?

We know the government pays $600 for toilet seats on its military airplanes. Now that the drug companies are ``in'' with the new Medicare bill, how long before taxpayers are paying $60 for an aspirin tablet for seniors?

Just another failing government program that guarantees obscene payouts to big corporations. Thanks, George.

- Laurien DuTremble

Northridge

An amusing excuse

Re ``Villaraigosa responds,'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 7):

With amusement, I read Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa's response to being AWOL the day before Thanksgiving - because he was visiting the Los Angeles Mission on Skid Row and assisting in the distribution of meals to the needy families of Los Angeles.

Who are you kidding, Antonio? You, like many other politicians, couldn't pass up a photo op like that for anything in the world. However, you're conducting volunteer work on my dime, and I resent it. You were elected to represent your constituents, meaning you attend the meetings that you were hired to attend.

If there's time left over at the end of the day, be our guest: Wander down to Skid Row and hand out food till the cows come home, but make sure it's on your time and not the taxpayers'.

- Barbara Woltz

Encino

It's the Football Matrix

Even if you are not a USC football fan, you must concede that this year's Trojan squad has finally presented enough problems to give immediate reconsideration to the BCS. Let's be honest: The BCS has failed NCAA football fans everywhere. Welcome to the Matrix, everyone. We've reached a point where the human world has been overrun by the computer world.

With the No. 1 ranked team in both human polls being ranked No. 3 with the computers, the BCS has made little progress since it began. Unfortunately, we still have two more seasons of frustration due to the contract that the BCS has with the NCAA. It is possible to involve the four major bowls in a four- or eight-team playoff system that would offer a clear national champion without making the season too long. Either way, fight on, SC!

- Patrick McMenamin

Reseda

Corrupt system

Re ``Foster care cash cow'' (Dec. 7):

I wanted to commend Troy Anderson for his article on the county's foster care system. He has obviously done his homework and fearlessly trod where few reporters will go.

For all of us parents who have had our children ripped off by the government, we want to thank Troy for his bravery and the editor of the Daily News for the support in telling the truth of this corrupt system. Good job!

- Debra Hamilton

Fair Oaks 

Secret toilet code?

Re ``Flushing out school problems'' (Dec. 3):

No wonder the cost of government is so high. Our city attorney puts forth a plan to have health inspectors inspect school bathrooms. The City Council has to discuss it and the school district has to position themselves. Does it really take all this bureaucracy to accomplish such a simple task?

Rocky Delgadillo says five schools can be inspected in as little as three weeks, but the code enforcement department says it will take two months to research the standards. Are the standards in a secret code?

It doesn't require an engineer to report toilets that don't flush, faucets that won't work, broken doors and peeling paint. Does the school system not have a building maintenance department? How many taxpayer dollars have been spent in all this rhetoric and grandstanding? Just go fix the problem.

- Richard Fisk 

Granada Hills

A turn on the dime

We need a law that no former president shall have anything named after him until he's been dead for 100 years and history has had a chance to prove his worth with an unjaundiced eye.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., wants Congress to waste millions putting Ronald Reagan's face on the Roosevelt dime. This, for a man who already has an airport and freeway named after him, and who raised taxes several times under the guise of code names.

What a cruel, ironic joke to play on the American public. Lest we forget, because Roosevelt suffered from polio, the March of Dimes was initiated, polio eradicated and Roosevelt immortalized on the dime. I'm sure most taxpayers would like to have a roll of dimes sent to them rather than wasting millions on reminting the coin.

- Sandy Sand

West Hills