PUBLIC FORUM.

More at stake

Re "Listen to the boss," (Our opinions, Feb. 23):

The long-term consequences of the California Transportation Commission not funding 405 Freeway projects go much deeper than just missing a rare opportunity to relieve congestion on the nation's busiest corridor.

If the CTC does not fund this project, it may well mean that federal transportation officials will interpret that as a sign that California is unwilling to match federal resources for the fixes we need most. Should the CTC not fund the 405 projects, it will be more difficult to secure the federal funds we will need for extensions to the Orange Line, Red Line and Alameda Corridor.

-- Brendan L. Huffman

President, Valley Industry & Commerce Association

Wedge awards

With premier acting Academy Awards going to deserving African-Americans Forrest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson, can we finally do away with segregationist awards shows like the BET and Latin Grammys? These types of shows made sense in the days of Jim Crow but they are now simply wedges in the hope of a truly homogenous colorblind society.

-- Chuck Heinold

West Hills

The real culprit

"A fuel-saving downside" (Feb. 22) provided totally misleading information. California highways have been deteriorating for the past 20 years. Sales of hybrids and recent increases in sales of smaller, fuel-efficient cars have occurred for only the past two years. I know of no one who traded in their SUV or other high-fuel-consumption vehicle because of operation costs.

I have read that taxes collected from fuel consumption have been directed to other uses rather than maintenance of highways and public transportation. Isn't that the real reason our roads are in poor condition?

-- Don Evans

Canoga Park

Oil for roads

We should make the oil companies use some of their windfall profits to help rebuild the roads; after all, they are profiting most from the miles driven.

-- Joe Futterer

Topanga

DONE's done

Re "Making like a tree" (Our opinions, Feb. 22):

Lisa Sarno, the extremely capable and bright general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, cannot be replaced. The entire system has to be.

Sarno followed Greg Nelson, who had more than 10 years' experience running DONE and could not handle it. The neighborhood councils themselves are like battlefields within their own districts. DONE is done. Start over.

-- Tom Gibbons 

Member of the board,

Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council

Like a train wreck 

Lisa Sarno was a train wreck. In any corporation she would have been terminated, but Los Angeles city government marches to a different drumbeat. After almost destroying the fine work of all the neighborhood councils, what happens? Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa rewards Sarno by appointing her head of the Million Trees initiative. At least the trees cannot protest her work, and we will not hear from her again.

-- Frank Jacobs

Sylmar

This is justice?

Re: "A vote for Jessica's Law is a vote for kids" (Their opinions, Feb. 25):

Bill O'Reilly opines that the various "Jessica's Laws," which have been passed in many states, are solutions to child-sex crimes. He is not taking into consideration how these laws do not differentiate among levels or types of sex crimes. The ghastly predator to whom he refers in his column deserves the most severe punishment.

However, under many states' versions of Jessica's Law, the same punishments must also apply to a hypothetical female schoolteacher in her 20s who has consensual sex with a 210-pound, 17-year-old nonvirgin high school football player.

How is this justice?

-- Charles L. Murray

Moorpark