Terry Schmid's letter to the editor [July 16, regarding reports of an overwhelming victory by Barbara Nesbet in the Monte Sereno City Council election] shows a lack of knowledge of our city's electoral process. Voters chose the best three of five candidates. As such, only someone ignorant of basic math would claim Barbara Nesbet received less than 30 percent of the vote.

Per official city records, Barbara received 959 votes from 1,478 ballots cast last election. Her 65 percent of ballots cast is a wide margin ahead of the candidate who came in second (me), who received support of only 51 percent of the voters.

It's no lie—Barbara Nesbet won this election by an "overwhelming majority."

—Mark Brodsky, City Councilman, Monte Sereno


Help the library by buying a book, a CD or a DVD

Los Gatos has a library we can all be proud of and that serves us well.

Library use typically increases in bad economic times, and this is probably one cause for the jump in circulation by 25 percent and foot traffic by 13 percent over the fiscal year just ended. About 790 people visit the library each weekday, and 445 on weekend days, when the library is open on a shortened schedule.

Increased use is probably due also to the many improvements the library's staff has made in services, its physical facility and Internet access. The library's website is outstanding and accounted for 25 percent of the town's top pages by access count in May (followed by 15 percent for town employment opportunities). The URL is http://library.town.los-gatos.ca.us, and can also be accessed via the town's website.

Thanks to good management, Los Gatos is escaping the worst of California's economic woes. But we're not getting off unscathed. The town's budget for civic services is reduced, and the cuts impact the public library.

Funds for buying materials—children's books, adult fiction and nonfiction, CDs and DVDs, magazines, databases—have been cut in half, reduced from $200,000 to $100,000. This means that when you go to borrow something from the library that's been published recently, you'll have much less chance of finding it.

But you can help fix this shortage. On the library's home page you will find a link to a "wish list" at Amazon for materials that you can buy and have shipped directly to the library. Your contribution is tax-deductible. The wish list is selected by library staff based on their knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the collection. You can be 100 percent sure that your contribution will be truly useful.

Many of us buy books, CDs and DVDs and just stick them on a shelf when we're through. Wouldn't it be better to buy from the library's wish list to share with our fellow town residents and reduce our household clutter?

—Karl Pearson, Chairman, Library Board, Los Gatos


Light sentence for teenager is shameful

Reasonable Los Gatans must either shake their heads in disbelief or hang their heads in shame at the facts that came out in Linh Tat's July 16 article about the sentencing of the youth responsible for Eric Quesada's death.

It's unbelievable that the juvenile justice system squandered this opportunity to send a message to the community's kids that it is not OK to drink and drive.

I agree with the Wolskis that shame belongs to the juvenile offender's parents for abdicating their responsibilities both as parents and members of this community. They provided their son with a driver's license and a car (read a gun and bullets) despite the fact that he was clearly troubled. Shame also belongs to those who signed the court petition attesting to the good character of the juvenile offender. Can an individual who has (as was stated in the newspaper after the sentencing) been detained by the police five times by the age of 16 be considered a person of good or even so-so character? Did those who signed the petition know that the perpetrator refused to stop and let a terrified Quesada out of the car, despite the latter's reported pleas? I hope not.

A harsher sentence than the one passed wouldn't have returned Eric to his mother; however it might have spared someone, somewhere else, sometime else, a fate similar to his. When the inevitable happens, I've no doubt people will once again shake their heads in disbelief, if not hang their heads in shame.

—Kristin Venuti, Saratoga


Major's article captured Panighetti

Hats off to Mandy Major for a wonderful article on our former postmaster [Jack Panighetti]. She captured him so well I could almost hear Jack pounding at my door! Thanks!

—Kathie Faupel, Postmaster, Los Gatos


Protecting the right to vote is the focus

The possibility of election fraud resulting from the use of electronic voting machines has been a topic of discussion as part of the implementation of the new Help America Vote Act. In an effort to address these concerns, the League of Women Voters has considered expert opinions from all sides of the debate.

The concerns are worrisome because they unnecessarily scare voters and ignore the larger problem: reforming election systems. Although it is important for voting machines to accommodate an individual audit, election reform is about much more.

According to Kay J. Maxwell, national president of the League of Women Voters, "It's about choosing machines that are accessible to all, providing provisional ballots to voters who need them, developing statewide voter registration databases, establishing procedures that protect against erroneous purges, recruiting and training poll workers, and educating voters."

Let's focus on protecting the right to vote and to have that vote counted.

—Patricia M. Weber, President of Southwest Santa Clara Valley, League of Women Voters


Foundation works hard on bandstand

It was with much resistance from Paul and me and an equal amount of insistence from the board members that we agreed to write this letter.

While we enjoyed all the accolades afforded us by the July 16 article titled "Bricks build solid foundation for bandstand" by Mandy Major, we're afraid it's time to set the record straight.

Can't seem to get away with anything these days! Oh well, here goes.

It is true that Paul, as the president of the Los Gatos Community Foundation, is heading the fundraising efforts to sell bricks to offset the construction costs of the bandstand, but the majority of the board have spent long hours selling the hundreds of bricks it will take to circle the bandstand. It's also true that our offices are handling the incoming orders; however, the monies raised are going directly into the foundation coffers, making the donations a tax write-off.

Paul and I haven't been on the board quite 10 years yet, but those members of the foundation who have been have spent more than those 10 years to see the bandstand project come to fruition. In fact, the foundation had its inception when, while serving as parks commissioners, Adu Bagley, Emma Vargo and others raised funds to preserve the Lyndon Carriage House cupola. (For those who haven't visited Oak Meadow park recently, the cupola now sits atop the bandstand edifice, which was architecturally designed to mimic the outlines of the Lyndon Carriage House.)

On Sept. 6, the foundation is inviting everyone to attend the special celebration at the park and witness the foundation as a whole turn the bandstand over to the townspeople for future use.

Needless to say, all of us on the board are proud of our collective efforts as well as our ability to give something of benefit to the people of Los Gatos, and at no cost to them or town government.

—Mary Tomasi-Dubois, Paul Dubois, Los Gatos

CORRECTION

In the July 16 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, Bobbi Mendenhall was misquoted in the Jack Panighetti obituary. She said Panighetti was "outrageous, irascible and noisy."

Also in the July 16 issue, incorrect phone numbers were listed for the new Forbes Mills Steakhouse. The correct phone number is 408.395.6434.