PUBLIC FORUM.

False gods

Re ``Council ponders hiring a pro'' Aug. 9):

The Los Angeles City Council giveth themselves another four years and taketh away our free speech; blessed is the name of the ... oops, wrong deity. What's all the fuss; nothing's changed. Twenty years ago the council president, John Ferraro, was close to falling asleep during public comment; he seemed unaware that Councilman Marv Braude was running in and out of the meeting. Nor did he object to Councilman Joel Wachs reading the newspaper during the same period. What about Councilman Hal Bernson on the telephone during public input and the vote?

How about Councilwoman Joy Picus ignoring the public while in deep conversation with Jim Dawson, her planning deputy or Councilwoman Ruth Galanter visiting with friends? We don't count; they ignore us all the time ... maybe they are deities.

-- Henry J. Magid

Reseda

Another stupid idea

Re ``Council ponders hiring a pro'' Aug. 9):

So Dennis Zine has come up with another stupid idea (the first was the day-laborer lounge at the Canoga Park Home Depot). The answer to all of the council's problems is to create another job for some overpaid political hack and staff.

Instead of a professional listener, how about paying attention at the public meetings? First you arrive on time. The cell phones are shut off. You stay in your seats. And the business at hand is listening and hearing from us and basing your decisions on our input. The reason there are gadflies and the like is because you ignore us. The only time we have your attention is at election time. Perhaps you should set aside one evening a week, say from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. just to hear from us, your employers. Or are we just a nuisance?

-- Darene Sutherland

Reseda

Save L.A.

Re ``Garcettis take heat over plan'' (Aug. 9):

We don't need term limits. Fire our elected officials every election and replace them with someone new. Most of these people (Dennis Zine excluded) were never successful in the real life where you and I live, so why should we keep re-electing them as though they are accomplishing something worthwhile for us as politicians? These people spend their life on glorified welfare, accountable to no one for their pathetic performance.

Every minute this city gets worse in most every way. Obviously the Garcettis and their compadres aren't doing the job. How much money and time are they spending trying to overturn term limits? What a sham. Get rid of them and save L.A.

-- Patrick Weir

Chatsworth

A housing social crisis

Re ``Band-Aid ban'' (Our Opinions, Aug. 9):

In reference to Councilmen Alex Padilla's and Bill Rosendahl's proposal that the city place a moratorium on condominium conversions, the Daily News may have it right in criticizing ``the city's lack of planning.'' The editorial called the proposed moratorium ``the wrong response.''

However, because of the escalation of housing prices, builders and investors have found a gold mine in rehabilitating or demolishing apartment buildings and replacing them with expensive condominiums. The result is the eviction of low-income tenants at an unprecedented rate and a growing scarcity of affordable housing. Thousands are being evicted and faced with no acceptable price-range housing available. Such wholesale evictions present a frightful social crisis. The editorial ignored these facts. Padilla and Rosendahl should continue to press for the moratorium.

-- Clifford Kenny

Sylmar

Making us criminals

Re ``L.A. panel backs reporting law on missing guns'' (Aug. 8):

The proposed ordinance to make criminals out of anyone who does not report a stolen gun within 48 hours is unnecessary and will make instant criminals out of hundreds of innocent people who don't realize a gun was stolen from them within the 48-hour limit.

Most thefts happen when people are not home and as anyone who has been robbed can tell you, the process of discovering what has been stolen is rarely over in 48 hours. When guns are stolen by someone who knows where they are kept, the theft might easily go unnoticed for a year or longer just as often happens with other valuables like coin collections.

-- Scott Yollis

Granada Hills

Berman's next

Re ``Lieberman loses primary race'' (Aug. 9):

Now that Americans have fired one pro-Iraq-war Democrat in Joe Lieberman, will the voters of the San Fernando Valley now dispose or theirs? In March 2003, our very own Rep. Howard Berman banged his war drum at the UCLA International Institute. ``Do not kid yourself about whether or not (Saddam) has weapons of mass destruction. He has chemical and biological weapons in large quantities.''

Once Berman was proven dead wrong, he could have saved face by voting for a timetable for troop withdrawal in June, but he, like Lieberman, refused. Meanwhile, American taxpayers continue to pay for a miserable war in Iraq that is nothing less than a quagmire. On Nov. 7, Valley voters should send him a message and send him packing.

-- Shawn Colvin

Sherman Oaks

Time to act

Re ``Cool down, Arnold, on warming'' (Viewpoint, Aug. 6):

Jill Stewart must have been musing from an icy cold office space when she wrote her recent opinion piece ``Green governor needs to cool it.'' How else during record high heat could she suggest that there is no consensus on global-warming science, blame China for California's smog and advise to go slow on solutions to global warming?

Sure, global warming and air pollution are not confined to geopolitical borders. But in the absence of federal action, California must lead on global warming as we have done on air pollution. Stewart cites the law of unintended consequences as rationale for nitpicking with historic legislation to curb our greenhouse-gas emissions in California. Fortunately, the same Public Policy Institute of California poll that she cites shows that two-thirds of Californians want state action on global warming. It's time for a little less conversation and a lot more action on global warming by passing AB 32 and SB 1368 this summer.

-- Virgil Welch

Environmental Defense

-- Ann Notthoff

Natural Resources Defense Council 

Politically left concert

Re ``Over-the-hill hippies'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 7):

After waiting some 30 years to see a Santana concert and $180 for tickets we walked out in the middle of the show because of the political rhetoric being spewed about, not only by Santana himself but also our illustrious mayor of Los Angeles.

If I wanted to hear this kind of rhetoric I would live in Berkeley. I didn't want to hear it in the '70s, nor do I want to hear it now when I am paying for concert tickets that cost me half a week's wages. Thank you, Jeff Clarke.

-- Rhonda Bartulski

West Hills

Boohoo for animals

Fact: In just three years, two young elephants and one chimp dead from negligence. And for this, taxpayers are going to reward the L.A. Zoo with a lot of money for an elephant exhibit ``updo''? Take the money, buy up the golf courses surrounding the zoo and turn them into reserve-like land that's elephant-foot friendly, so children can see them living healthy, close-to-normal lives in captivity.

Better yet, retire the poor elephants to sanctuary, and use the money to hire up-to-date, young, competent, animal professionals. Boohoo for the animals at the L.A. Zoo.

-- Dyan Kane

Santa Monica