PUBLIC FORUM.

Not fiscal restraint

Re ``Fiscal restraint'' (Our opinions, May 16):

If the L.A. City Council was exercising any fiscal restraint, it would not be voting to raise the trash fee for funds supposedly to be spent on more police but in reality to reimburse the city coffers for the almost $5 million that is doled out to neighborhood councils annually and so not available for police services. The $50,000 each neighborhood council receives annually would buy a police car and the gas to run it for a year.

My community council has operated successfully for more than 30 years without taking a penny from the city. It can do so because the community it serves supports it with donations, and any neighborhood council can do the same if its members are willing to make it work.

-- Jack Allen 

Pacific Palisades 

Rate hike equals tax

Re ``Fiscal restraint'' (Our opinions, May 16):

I am outraged that the Los Angeles City Council members can tax me through a loophole labeled a ``rate hike.'' They unanimously raised the residential trash fee to up to $28 per month. Why don't we, the homeowners, have a vote on this increase?

My understanding of the difference between a tax increase and a rate increase is that taxes can't be raised without a majority vote. How convenient of them to call it a fee rate hike. I would totally understand if the increase was to fund additional trash services, but there is no secret here. The additional funds will go to hire additional police officers. My new opinion of our mayor can't be printed here.

-- Scott Waters 

West Hills

Trash (wink, wink) fee

Re ``Council unanimously passes trash fee hike'' (May 17):

Watch for the City Council to OK the next generous pay raises for the city workers over the next year. Though council members say this trash fee increase is mainly for an increase in police officers, it also will be spent on fattening the wallets of the work force whose services rendered will continue to decrease in all respects.

I'm usually optimistic -- just not in regards to our leaders -- but I've not seen any original or clever decisions from our leaders to control expenses yet, only deceptive ways to further tax the citizens of Los Angeles. What about merit increases to those who deserve them and not to those who should have been fired long ago?

-- Mark Armer

Chatsworth

DWP jobs

Re ``Five arrested at DWP headquarters'' (May 17):

So much for the feeble excuse that illegal aliens only take jobs that Americans refuse to do.

I seriously doubt those arrested were working for substandard wages. I also believe this will be whitewashed over as an error in judgment.

-- Robert Gilbert 

Van Nuys

Never enforced

The Daily News, in its editorial ``Second chance'' on May 15, contends that some 12 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S. despite sealing off the border in the past. I have a question for the Daily News: What past sealing of the border? The truth is that the border has never been sealed. Nor has there been employer workplace enforcement.

-- Hal Netkin

North Hollywood

No absolute right

With all the publicity given ``The Da Vinci Code,'' Catholics and Christian absolutists are in an uproar. I also don't believe the author's wild theories, but the recent findings of the Gospel of Thomas will be tainted by this.

In Thomas, only the words of Jesus are quoted, with no mention of his death or resurrection. Here the logic of the wisdom of Christ in your lifestyle is more important than absolutist faith. All good people of different faiths can be reunited with the Creator, as I don't have an absolute right to make my faith the law.

-- Denis F. Cremins

Simi Valley 

White House first

Re ``Defense contractors to play big role along border'' (May 18):

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have two weeks to submit bids to build a ``virtual fence'' along the nation's borders.

Let's put a virtual fence around the White House first; if it works, then we can spend billions on the borders.

-- Sandy Sand

West Hills

Lost, found and lost

Re ``PR execs guilty on all counts'' (May 17):

Found: Let's say I am a guy who found out that the coffee shop was overcharging me 50 cents every morning for my coffee. I find out about it, and the store gives me $50 to settle the dispute. I found $50; now I can fill up my car at the local station.

Lost: The Department of Water and Power is overcharged -- who knows by how much? -- and a settlement is put forth in the amount of around $6 million. One would think the city would rush out and hire a whole bunch of cops or maybe hold the line on trash collection. But, no, it would appear that $6 million got lost.

-- Bill Merriman

Tujunga

How to seal a border

National Guard units will spend their summer deployment near the Mexican border for the next year. President George W. Bush wants immediate legalization for untold tens of millions illegal aliens from all over the world, not just from Mexico. There will be a fancy new ID cards for guest workers. There will be a token increase in border guards, from 9,000 to 12,000, but there is no timetable for those actions.

This is not comprehensive reform. It is not a compromise. It is a sellout. Securing the border is not complicated. Send 30,000 to 40,000 National Guard troops there and build an 800- mile fence in the critical crossing areas. Start it by Memorial Day; be done by the Fourth of July. Bingo: The Republican Party keeps its majorities in Congress by October.

-- Carlo Basail

Agua Dulce

Financial nightmare

Re ``Bush unveils plan to improve security of 4 western states'' (May 16):

President Bush, in his televised message to the nation, used the familiar phrase that has become so common among our politicians. ``We are a nation of immigrants.'' How true, but this is not a correct parallel, since the immigrants who came over here to find a better life in America so many years ago did not have all the ``benefits'' that are being provided to the latest immigrants.

These benefits are becoming a heavy burden on the entire United States. We cannot provide all the new immigrants free medical care, free educations, clean water, clean air, subsidized housing, etc., etc. This burden on our society is quickly becoming a financial nightmare. It is time for all the politicians to stop using catch phrases, stop pandering to different segments of our society and take some immediate action to change the direction of our immigration policies.

-- Bob Bergstrom

Hidden Hills

Proxy terrorism

Your paper reports the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group is stockpiling weapons in Jordan while using the Popular Resistance Committees to mount terror by proxy against Israel. In addition, Israeli media report that the Israeli navy has thwarted two recent attempts to smuggle arms from Egypt into the Gaza Strip by sea.

Concurrently, Iranian President Ahmadinejad continued his inflammatory diatribe against Israel and the United States while meeting in Damascus with leaders of the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Clearly the Arab and Muslim world is dominated by tyranny, fascism and anti- Semitism -- hardly a world we should want to see expanded by proxy terrorism or by any other way!

-- Gary Curtis

Van Nuys

Stopping the influx

Agree or disagree with him; one thing is for certain: President George W. Bush has done more to stop the influx of illegal immigrants to the United States of America than any other president in history.

-- Bobbi Leigh Zito

Porter Ranch