PUBLIC FORUM.

Political table hopping

Re ``Dazzle of Alarcon cuts council field'' (Dec. 12) and ``Uncompetitive edge'' (Our Opinions, Dec. 13):

So the merry-go-round of politics continues. First, it was Alex Padilla who, despite his promises to complete his term on the City Council, abandoned his constituents early for a state Senate job, to keep his political lifeline flowing for several terms. Now it's state Sen. Richard Alarcon, who won an Assembly seat in November but no longer wants it.

He expects us to believe that the mere mention of his name, as well as his supposed desire to serve the local community, resulted in his now having a virtually clear path to his old City Council job, which incidentally carries a much higher salary and more perks than the state Assembly position. It's disheartening that the voters' choice was taken away so easily after the deadline to file for a candidacy had passed. It's time we put an end to this nonsense.

-- David M. Kritzer

Mission Hills

`Scandal' response

Re ``L.A.'s food stamp scandal'' (Dec. 10):

As a former welfare fraud investigator and past head of the welfare fraud investigations section, I know of our county's commitment to combating fraud. The county Department of Public Social Services' 248-person welfare fraud investigative staff, which includes 35 district attorney's investigators, handled more than 60,000 investigations in the past year.

This was the first county in the country to require fingerprinting of cash and food stamp applicants to stop duplicate aid, and our county continues to utilize innovative computer match systems to detect fraud.

It is true that in 2001, Los Angeles County had an unacceptably high food stamp error rate of 23 percent. In recent years, accuracy in the food stamp program has been our highest management priority. Annually, more than 35,000 county and federal audits are conducted on food stamp cases. Last federal fiscal year, our error rate was reduced to 6.27 percent, the lowest in our county's history. If we indeed are encouraging a ``scandal'' of issuing food stamps without verifying eligibility, it certainly is not evidenced by the improved error rate and federal audit findings in Los Angeles County.

-- Bryce Yokomizo

Director

Department of Public Social Services 

Weasel words

Re ``Signature gatherers under fire'' (Dec. 16):

Listen to the kettle calling the frying pan black. A quote from Councilman Bill Rosendahl: ``Truth should not be a casualty in a democracy.'' My, isn't it refreshing to hear a member of our City Council expressing such high ideals? It is positively overwhelming. However, what is not overwhelming is the lack of a single comment from any member of our illustrious City Council relating to the plethora of weasel words used to promote the extension of term limits. Obviously, what is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander.

-- Nellson H. Vels

Tarzana

Best of both

Hmmmm, Hillary or Barack, Clinton or Obama. Why not have both? Clinton for president and Obama for vice president.

-- Mili Lang

Woodland Hills

Fever-dream visions

Re ``Orange Line monorail'' (Your Opinions, Dec. 18):

In promoting a monorail above the Orange Line in his letter to the editor, Robert L. Rosebrock proclaims this would move people ``quickly, quietly and efficiently.''

Sadly he is offering a pipe dream, as monorail actually has none of those attributes. And can you imagine the outcry of the adjacent communities over having elevated structures shadowing them? We need real solutions, not fever-dream visions that most certainly do not make sense.

-- Dana Gabbard

Executive secretary

Southern California Transit Advocates

Why not

Re ``Bush blesses Cheney birth'' (Dec. 16)

If a straight married couple made a gay child, will a gay married couple make a straight child?

-- Phillip Carter

Encino