PUBLIC FORUM.

Plugging the leaks

Re ``Thanks a million! New City Hall roof leaks'' (Jan. 7):

Please note that Ron Deaton, that prospective new jewel to shine at the Department of Water and Power, was the same man who let the contract for $800,000 originally to that firm that finds itself finishing the job it left uncompleted when it collected its final funds.

One pauses to ponder whether or not we could expect more of these problems when Deaton assumes that new office (also connected with running water). Then will the overruns keep occurring? Keep us current, Ron.

- Ron Hall

Sun Valley

Only average

There is no ``normal rainfall'' - there is average rainfall. Since I started tracking rainfall in the El Nio season of 1997-98, the annual totals varied from 48.30 inches (the El Nio year) to a low of 4.5 inches in the 2001-02 season.

As of Saturday, 22.7 inches has fallen in my back yard. I am using a rain gauge purchased at Fry's and mounted on a post with no overhead leaves or wires that could impact the measurements. Many of my measurements are almost identical to those taken at the Pierce College weather station.

- Don Evans

Canoga Park

Driving while wet

The Monday question is whether Californians are good drivers in the rain. The answer is, after about three days, they are. The problem is they don't show proper caution before then, even though the oil and tire residue that accumulates during dry weather makes the roads most treacherous when the rain begins.

- Thomas E. Locke

North Hollywood

The real winners

Re ``Revisiting Prop. 13'' (Editorial, Jan. 5):

Reading the editorial and all the letters, one would think that this system of selectively preserving now-token 25-year-old assessments applies only to owner-occupied residential property. The crown jewel of Prop. 13's utter absurdity is that it also applies to income-producing property.

Any landlord of residential or commercial property would not hesitate to characterize market rents of 1973 as token by today's standard. What possible justification, then, is there to preserve the nominal assessments of three decades ago for property owners who are completely free to produce an income stream in line with market conditions of the new millennium? If anything, it is the developers of new property who need a special privilege.

- Gary R. White

Studio City

More like Caruso

Re ``Former Hahn aide running police-tax campaign'' (Jan. 5):

We should all be congratulating Rick Caruso and his employee for their efforts in trying to find the money to hire police officers. Caruso is a successful businessman and volunteers his time as a police commissioner. He cares about this city and LAPD. For decades the LAPD has lagged behind other major cities such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia in having fewer police officers per capita.

Caruso is one of the few who has put his words into action, and I applaud his efforts. We should be so lucky as to have more businessmen like him in this city. It seems the other mayoral candidates have nothing better to do than criticize anyone who comes up with a strategy to hire more officers.

- Monica Harmon

Los Angeles 

Tarred and feathered

Re ``Former Hahn aide running police-tax campaign'' (Jan. 5):

Why is it no surprise that one of our City Council members would try to get around the law and the intention of the people to increase taxes. So many of the people who are sworn to represent us think they need to cheat on that oath of office. Makes one long for the old days when they tarred and feathered and rode them out on a rail. One more thing - I voted for the half-percent tax for more police when it was put on the ballot in the proper way.

- Alonzo Minard

Sun Valley

Violates the spirit

The voters fail to pass the one-half percent sales-tax increase for more police. It needed a two-thirds vote to pass since this a tax hike. Now Alex Padilla wants to put it on the May ballot so that it only needs a simple majority because the money raised (might go for more police).

And then, to top it off, this nitwit has the gall to say it would not violate the spirit of the law that Proposition 218 states two-thirds is needed to pass a tax hike.

- George Timko

West Hills

Pale concerns

Re ``What's so great about the right'' (Viewpoint, Jan. 9):

Gerald Plessner's concerns about the conservative right pale in comparison with such blunders as Woodrow Wilson's progressive government, which set in motion the monstrous government bureaucracy that we have now and the overburdening income tax system to support it.

His worries certainly pale against Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam War, which took the lives of 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese only to witness this illustrious Democrat president throw his hands up in despair and literally walk away from the horror he had created. His concerns pale in comparison with the impeachment of a liberal Democrat president for lying to a grand jury and then being disbarred in his home state. I must say, where was Gerald Plessner's criticism when we really needed it?

- Gary Lowe

Toluca Lake

Menacing slander

Re ``Rooting for Iraqi insurgents is disloyal to U.S.'' (Viewpoint, Jan. 9):

The bombast of Bill O'Reilly raises its divisive and ugly head again in this piece that paints patriotic opposition to a bad war as disloyalty to the nation. This has been the menacing slander of all who have pursued bad wars throughout time - from the war leaders of both sides in World War I, to the fascists in World War II, to those who wanted to nuke North Vietnam as the last act of hateful vengeance.

O'Reilly should remember Edmund Burke, that brave British patriot who opposed armed British repression of the American desire to be independent as wrong and destined for failure. Edmund Burke also was decried as disloyal by the O'Reillys of his time. The war on a phony threat from Iraq was a bad idea to begin with.

- Martin Kotowski

Sherman Oaks

And the innocent?

Re ``What goes around'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 6):

The diatribe by Lawrence A. Calabro of Northridge is filled with disdain for those who believe we should be helping the Indonesian victims of the tsunami. Calabro says they deserve what they got because ``what goes around comes around'' and some of the bad ones celebrated the 9-11 attack.

Since one-third of the victims were children and foreigners, do you think that they too got what they deserved? America must be a moral leader as well as an economic and militarily one because, if we are not, there will be even more bin Ladens and their supporters.

- Chuck Heinold

West Hills

Giving us aid

Re ``Come to our aid?'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 31):

I agree that the United States is the most generous country in the world. But Jean O'Connell is mistaken in her belief that no one has ever come to our aid. The people of Berlin donated money to Los Angeles after the Northridge Earthquake of 1994.

I worked at a school in the San Fernando Valley that received a very generous amount to help replace some expensive equipment that had been destroyed in the earthquake. There are kind and generous people in all parts of the world.

- Emy Lenoir Blackwell

Granada Hills

Pretexts

Re ``World War II analogy'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 7):

Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, on the pretext that Poland had attacked the radio station in the German town of Gleiwitz on the night of Aug. 31, 1939. In fact, the attack was staged and a prisoner from a German concentration camp was shot, dressed in a Polish uniform and left at the scene as evidence of the attack.

Our country invaded Iraq on the pretext that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, was a threat to our national security and was somehow involved with the attack on 9-11.

- Paul Hutchinson

Calabasas