PUBLIC FORUM SHOULD FORGO RAISES.

Re ``Leaders struggle with raises'' (Nov. 1):

Councilmen Bernard Parks and Tony Cardenas are dead wrong. Their pay raises in a time of fiscal crisis are not a private matter; they are of public concern. The taxpayer bears the expense of their salaries and their perks, and for years taxpayers have not received their money's worth. If salaries in the $90,000 range are not enough for these councilmen, they are doing something wrong.

Every time they get a car, it is a raise of $5,700 a year, estimating the cost of a car payment at $350 a month plus $125 a month for insurance. Multiply that by 15 council members, and that comes to $85,500 a year. And no giving the raises to charity. Our tax money should not be spent on charities of their choice. They should forgo their raises until the city is run with fiscal efficiency.

- Sandy J. Sand

West Hills

Elected spendthrifts

Let me get this straight. Bernard C. Parks receives a pension of $19,000 a month, about $240,000 a year, and he gets $140,000 a year as a city councilman, and he needs to discuss, with his family, whether to accept an additional $4,000-a-year raise? Tony Cardenas and Tom LaBonge are worried about supporting their families and being able to pay their mortgages without accepting the increase? All I can say is how dare they even say such a thing when the rest of us struggle to keep ourselves out of debt?

That makes me furious. If they cannot pay their personal bills with that kind of money, they should be fired from their positions. We don't need those spendthrifts in charge of our tax dollars.

- Elaine Neff

Mission Hills

Character defining

Sharing the pain and forgoing a pay raise does not mean you get to choose how that money is spent, and that includes turning it into a charitable - tax deductible? - contribution of your choice that will benefit you politically.

No others in the position of having a pay decrease thrust upon them have this luxury. Giving up a pay increase simply means giving up the pay increase - and without equivocation. The only good thing to come of this is that this indecisive, greedy behavior has clearly defined each of you, in character, for all to see. Councilman Parks takes the prize as the greediest wimp of them all. Go ahead and check with your family, because it's got to be tough getting by on only $30,000 a month.

- Michael McNamara 

Sylmar

Academic champions

I don't know if Aca Deca is a nonprofit, but the kids certainly deserve a banquet. If the City Council members are looking for worthy causes deserving of their money, perhaps one or two of them might be willing to chip in, given that these kids' grueling efforts bring prestige to their schools and to the Los Angeles Unified School District: 11 state championships, six national titles.

- Lisa Concoff

Canoga Park

Canadian help

In horror, we in Canada have watched the fires that have devastated your beautiful state. Talking with other Canadians, we all asked the same question: Why were Canadian water bombers not requested by the powers that be in California? We have an army of water bombers across Canada and very experienced firefighters who are not doing anything at this time of year.

Someone failed the people of California. Our men and equipment were on standby; yet, the call did not come. Even if one life had been saved, it would have been worth it. Firefighters and equipment were on standby in British Columbia and Ontario, but your government did not ask for assistance.

- Brian Greene 

Hamilton, Canada

Sad commentary

Regarding the California wildfires: I watched, with pitying bemusement, the fellow who vowed to stay despite the flames licking at his property because he said, along with his house, his `whole life is here.''

It is indeed a sad commentary on the arrogance of the wealthy that somehow they believe they are exempt from nature's wrath, even though they have chosen to deface the landscape with their million-dollar homes, in order to look down on the rest of us while they enjoy their fantastic views. It would be sadder still to lose yet another brave firefighter whose job it is to try to save yet another idiot from himself.

- Dorothy Thomas

Long Beach

Union and the companies

In regards to the supermarket strike: I just went into a Ralphs market without a picket line. The store was not properly stocked, and I felt that I could not trust the ``fresh'' foods that were there.

I think what the union and the companies are forgetting is that we, the consumers, are the ones who are paying everyone's paycheck. We at least deserve stores that are well-stocked and clean.

- Theresa Gassler

Northridge

What vote?

Scam, joke or for real? On Nov. 1, we received an ``assessment notice'' dated Oct. 17, 2003, from some ``Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority.'' It requested payment of $562.75 by Nov. 29, 2003, for work in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was unsigned. It claimed the assessment was ``approved'' by a mail balloting last year in which ballots were ``weighted'' by some kind of undisclosed guidelines. We do not recall any such ballot. No real numbers were disclosed.

The Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority ``confirmed'' a fixed lien assessment against our property and a ``maintenance assessment'' of undisclosed future charges. They think we live in the Santa Monica Mountains. We live in the San Fernando Valley. It sounds like government at its worst.

- Gene Young

Tarzana

Clear-cut damage

Re ``Hope they're happy'' (Your Opinions, Nov. 2):

The writer blames the small and occasional victories of such groups as the Sierra Club, Green Peace and Earth First for the devastation wreaked by the recent wildfires. Statistically, giving the logging industry a free hand in our wilderness has not ever been shown to decrease wildfires. Further, these corporate monsters will go into the forest and take down ancient trees that have been here since before California was a state, and then only sometimes plant saplings that will takes centuries to reach the grandeur of the trees they replaced. Because of this practice, not only do we lose these ancient-growth trees, but when it rains, there is subsequent runoff, and there are mudslides, causing even more damage to the environment.

- Craig Lennon Kysar

Sherman Oaks

Cavalier counting

Gee, thanks, John Aherne of Panorama City, for your Nov. 2 letter to the editor comparing the body count in Iraq with the death toll every day in the United States by car crashes, suicides and other means. You say bear in mind that the total loss in Iraq since the conflict began ``does not equal our normal losses.''

Well. I'm sure that the 16 mothers who lost their sons or daughters Sunday in the shot-down Chinook helicopter and the thousands of other mothers and loved ones of killed and maimed soldiers will find comfort in your words. I hope someone will never speak so cavalierly if your child is blown apart.

- Chuck Heinold

West Hills

Surprisingly quiet

Re ``Guerrilla warfare'' (Your Opinions, Nov. 2):

Vietnam guerrillas had their greatest impact before the Tet Offensive in 1968. After that, the war was increasingly waged against the regular North Vietnamese Army. Afghanistan guerrillas weren't very effective against the USSR's armies until the USA gave them Stinger missiles.

Guerrilla seizure is not the only form of coup d'etat. It can also arise from political or military leaders seizing control of the government. Iraq is surprisingly quiet for a country that wasn't utterly destroyed, as Japan and Germany were in World War II. It will only become like Vietnam if we get leaders as stupid as Gen. William Westmoreland and Robert MacNamara.

- John Sax

Glendale