Los Gatos Weekly-Times Letters Thanks for the vote of confidence Open letter to the community: Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your trust and confidence in electing me to our Town Council. It is exciting to be given the opportunity to serve you for the next four years in this new capacity. As you have so clearly indicated throughout the course of this campaign, the preservation of our town's character and quality of life is your most important mandate to the Town Council. Given the fact that there are many difficult and significant issues immediately facing us as a community, it is not without anxiety that I take on the tasks of councilmember. I know from my experience on the Planning Commission that few decisions in land use and development are simple, easy, or unanimously supported by all involved parties. However, I also know that by keeping the values of town character and quality in the forefront of decisions, we have the best chance to arrive at conclusions that bring the greatest benefit to our community. The Town Council stands as the last opportunity our citizens have to express their perceptions of our community's needs when facing issues that may negatively affect our quality of life. I promise you I will regard every voice in our community as worthy of attention, and every neighborhood in our community as significant to the character of our town. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your concerns as we work together to make Los Gatos an even better place to live. Joe Pirzynski Los Gatos Heintze humor in noble tradition I just finished reading Carl Heintze's column, "Evil Spirits are Haunting the Giant Hardware Store," which ran in the Nov. 4 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. Bravo, bravo, bravo, kudos, kudos and more kudos. In the grand tradition of journalistic humor spawned and nurtured by Jack Smith, Mike Royko, Herb Caen and Hal Boyle, marvelous stuff Mr. Heintze. Thank you! Alan Caras Los Gatos Vacuum & Sewing County should rethink priorities I understand that the county can no longer afford to repair storm damaged roads in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Trees and brush once retarded runoff and erosion was not a problem. With civilization, runoff time has decreased and erosion is severe. When a canyon bottom erodes, the roadway on the canyon wall loses width one-and-one-half-times the depth of erosion. At one time the county corrected for erosion by backfilling with broken concrete and heavy rock. This practice was halted by administrative fiat in answer to complaints about aesthetics. Maintenance cannot be deferred, the problem will get worse and the cost of repair will increase with inflation. I am advised that the county cost of maintenance is loaded with overheads. Why can we no longer make repairs? Overheads are the cost of administration. Administration lacking knowledge of the work turns to consultants whose fee is based on the cost of the work. Contract projects reduce county forces that were once available for emergency repair. An audit of county procedures seems to be in order. We may be hiring too few laborers and too many office workers. Why not find out? E.C. Steffani Monte Sereno Admiral Inglis would be appalled at what's happening I was delighted by your front-page coverage of the City Council race in Monte Sereno. We did indeed have a tight and exciting race; one that forced our candidates to become increasingly knowledgeable about the issues as the race progressed. This was healthy for the city and for the candidates. I must say, however, that as a former candidate myself, I was more than a little amused by the purported "shock" and "dismay" that the winning candidates portrayed regarding the "negative climate" of the campaign. Literally, from the moment I met Jack Lucas and Suzanne Jackson this year, they felt obligated to assassinate the characters of their two fellow councilmembers, Gordon Knight and Joel Gambord, slinging mud liberally at their voting records and their behavior. Ms. Nesbet made opposition to Knight and Gambord a fundamental theme of her campaign. Add this to the Jackson/Lucas/Nesbet placement of signs on property without permission, their denial of their own voting records, their misleading statements regarding city purchase of open space and home ownership, their hypocrisy regarding term limits, their distribution of Mr. Lucas' own mud-slinging flier about Gambord and Knight, and their sleazy gratuitous behavior toward you and your news staff, and you know what you have--good, old-fashioned American politics, that's what. The reason the incumbents have "never seen anything like this [negative campaign] in Monte Sereno" is because, from approximately 1976 to 1996, there was never a campaign at all in Monte Sereno. In fact, Mr. Lucas and Ms. Jackson were both previously placed on our council with no opposition whatsoever! Our founder, Admiral Inglis, would be appalled. Now there's a gentleman who knew how to sling mud in the face of Los Gatos for what he believed in, ultimately leading to our secession in 1957. The admiral knew that, just as in war, the first casualty in politics is truth. He fought hard to preserve truth for our citizenry by constantly reporting the public agendas and voting record of the Los Gatos Council, mud included. I hope that Monte Sereno's new council realizes that, like our beloved admiral, I will be watching them closely in coming years, and I will feel free to openly discuss their public agendas, positions and voting records in order to preserve truth and health for our beautiful city. And finally, in case you thought you and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times could escape the mud, let me add that you, Madam Editor, are an ultra-liberal, biased, subjective, ad-manipulating, Los Gatos-loving cowardess who won't return my calls. I look forward to shmoozing you for the next election. Erin Garner Former and Future Monte Sereno City Council Candidate Long shifts for cops are as long as they sound As a town resident, as well as an 18-year veteran police officer, I was troubled to read about the current staffing shortage at our police department. I was also troubled by some of the comments made by the town manager regarding 12.5-hour shifts not being as long as they sound, and that a lot of other officers in the Bay Area are working 12-hour shifts. After 18 years on the job, I can tell you that a 12.5-hour patrol shift is every bit as long as it sounds, especially when it involves working nights, weekends and holidays. It is especially difficult for those officers who are trying to raise a family or maintain a healthy lifestyle away from the job. Regarding the comment about many other officers working 12-hour shifts, one would be hard-pressed to find an agency within Santa Clara County that routinely requires officers to work 12-hour street patrol shifts. Perhaps if our town officials were a little more understanding and appreciative of our police officers, it might be easier to hire new officers and retain the qualified officers we have now. I thank all of our dedicated and hardworking officers who help keep our town a wonderful and safe place to live. I encourage our town officials and police administration to keep up their efforts to bring staffing levels back up to par. As for the rest of us, a simple smile or occasional thank-you might help keep our current officers' morale up during these difficult times. Bruce Fisher Los Gatos Teachers want support for salary parity Los Gatos is a beautiful place to live: the climate, people, schools and all the amenities one would want are located here or very nearby for your enjoyment. Why then do I write? Well, I've been putting off this letter for weeks, in hopes we really wouldn't have to bring the community into our negotiations. I find it is time to let the parents know that we, the teachers of the Los Gatos Union School District, have been doing a superb job working with their children and working with the administration, which has had extreme problems and changes over the past 312 years. We have now had elections for a new school board and we, the teachers, are hoping to get down to serious negotiations for a substantial salary increase. The salary scale for Los Gatos elementary schools is showing a substantial difference from our surrounding districts. We have let ourselves fall far behind our peers, and we have asked our board to take a good look at the neighboring districts and bring equity so that Los Gatos can become the first choice district for teachers and a respectful place to teach. We feel it is time the board take the interests of teachers and the needs of the students [seriously] and commit to spending the time necessary to meet our needs. Teachers today have duties far different and much more demanding than in past years. I have been involved in this district as a student, parent and teacher. We ask the community to support us in our efforts to [ensure that] our salaries [meet] those of the neighboring school districts. Your help is greatly appreciated in our quest for equality in the form of letters, emails or response to this letter to local school board members and district personnel. Kay Mason Duff Teacher, Lead Negotiator Los Gatos Elementary School DeCinzo contributes to low morale in police dept. As a resident of Los Gatos, I am writing to express my unhappiness with the constant carping of the cartoonist Steven DeCinzo about the police chief. No wonder morale in the department is so low. Stupid little blurbs about police activity plus DeCinzo's malicious cartoons equal low morale and difficulty hiring. Is this good for Los Gatos? What starts out as humorous becomes malicious when it is done, done and overdone. I am a firm believer in free speech; but there is a difference between the exercise of free speech and responsible journalism. I hope somebody will intervene before your paper does more irreparable harm to the town and its police department. John Pendergast Los Gatos Did residents cast an informed vote in school district? Were Los Gatos voters knowledgeable enough about the candidates running for the Los Gatos Union School District board to cast an "educated vote" on Nov. 3? Among the coffeehouses, carpools for children, the halls within our children's schools, there was a wave of shock and disbelief as individuals learned that an Andrew Fanelli had won a seat on the school board when no one had read a statement from him in a newspaper or ballot pamphlet; nor heard from him regarding his absence at a October 19 candidates forum evening. However, those of us who were so surprised to learn that Barry Bakken had lost a seat on the board were better able to understand how incumbents won even though these are the same board members that have not been able to keep one person in the superintendent position for more than a couple of years in the past several years. An incumbent getting voted back in is a little bit easier to understand, but it is far more difficult to understand how one young man who most people knew very little about can be elected to a position as important as a school board member in a community that prides itself for being reputed as having one of the best school districts in Santa Clara County. Those of us who had the experience of listening to Barry Bakken and feeling heard by Barry Bakken as we voiced our concerns can hardly believe it. Barry Bakken radiated a sense of optimism. He addressed the concern that comes up again and again by parents and teachers about the overwhelming numbers of students currently in our elementary schools, including the highest student enrollment ever at Fisher Middle School, a California State Distinguished School of Excellence. At the candidates forum, Barry Bakken was confident we could do a better job of communicating between the community of parents, the community of school staff and the school board, and he was willing to work hard to make that happen. This candidate, Barry Bakken, not only attended every event he was asked to attend to help educate people about who he was and what it meant to be a school board member, he also acknowledged those individuals who have worked hard in the schools and within the community to help Los Gatos continue to enjoy the reputation of being a community with one of the best districts in the county. It is hard to believe that when my fellow community members went to the polls that they actually made an informed, educated choice as they punched the ballot card to vote for three school board members for the next four years. Because this is so hard to understand, I believe in the possibility that my well-meaning neighbors went to the polls and marked the box on the ballot by the name of Mr. Fanelli without knowing anything about him except that along with his name, the word "teacher" was printed on the ballot. There was no statement from Mr. Fanelli in the voter pamphlet; there was no statement from Mr. Fanelli when he did not appear at the candidates evening, October 19. The only written word about Mr. Fanelli is that he believed some teachers give out too much homework, printed in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times several weeks ago. Is it possible that the word "teacher" on the ballot box led far too many people to believe he was the kind of teacher that held a California state teaching credential, which is not the case. The Weekly-Times informed us of the fact that he was a "teacher of martial arts" one day after the election; unfortunately, one day too late. How could we, the citizens of Los Gatos, have voted for someone we knew hardly anything about, especially when we believe in being educated? Now, who will hold our new school board member accountable for the kind of job he does for "us" in the next four years? Ann Murphy Parent and resident The Oct. 7 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times reported that Fanelli is a martial arts instructor.--Editor Story failed to mention cost of housing The informative article by Jeff Kearns in your Oct. 4 edition on the police officer shortage and reasons for same neglected to mention a major problem for attracting new recruits: The very high cost of housing in Los Gatos and surrounding communities. The average patrolman's salary, especially if he or she has a family, cannot support a house payment in this region--the stark alternative being a crushing commute from outlying areas. Mr. Kearns' other points were quite valid, but as usual, DeCinzo was way off the mark in his latest slap at Chief Larry Todd and the LG-MSPD. This clown must be the beneficiary of some sort of nepotism at Metro Newspapers; otherwise I see no logical reason to keep him (and his moronic ideas) on staff. Gary Flint Los Gatos [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 18, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.