Letters to the editor

The Salinas Californian
Posted on April 16, 2007


Vote 'no' on Measure A

My family has lived in Monterey County for over 80 years. We have been farmers, teachers, construction workers and business owners. We have all made a good living here and it has been a great place to live.

Though GPU4 (Measure B) is not perfect, I am deeply concerned about LandWatch's General Plan Initiative (Measure A). Most of you who read this forum have read the rhetoric. One thing that eats at me is, if the initiative passes, new development outside designated areas will be subject to public vote.


However, if the project is in the Salinas Valley all county voters have a vote. On some projects on the Monterey Peninsula, the valley has no vote. A part of the Peninsula is exempt from this requirement. Does LandWatch think Peninsula residents are somehow superior to valley residents? Do they know what's best for us in the valley?

I don't think so! It seems like an elitist attitude.
How could this be fair or good for our county? Along with the Initiative's many other flaws, Salinas Valley residents should be outraged by it. Vote "no" on Measure A.

Rick Della-Mora

Salinas

Supervisors should represent the people

The Board of Supervisors keeps trying to foist on us big traffic-congesting, water-gulping expensive subdivisions like Rancho San Juan and September Ranch that we neither want nor need.

It is doubly troubling that to do so they and their managers have gone to great lengths to hide from us the records on the projects. This has forced lawsuits against them to gain access to information that already belongs to the public.

Once again the supervisors were forced by a court to disgorge documents that rightfully belong to the public and to pay the legal costs (The Salinas Californian, Wednesday, April 4). But the money to pay those costs, as well as the costs of hiding the records, is paid by us, the people of the county.

The supervisors and their managers repeatedly have behaved as if they represent developers when their job is to represent the people who have been forced to pay not only their salaries but their legal fees when they break the law for the benefit of developers. This must stop!

Jane Sanders

Carmel


LandWatch abandoned public process

Winston Churchill once remarked: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

His quote sums up my feeling toward our county government. It's a democracy and we have to work within that process, which means public meetings, debates and compromises.

So why has LandWatch abandoned that process? They're trying to run the county with their lawsuits and now three of the four measures on the June ballot. Can't they participate in the public process like the rest of us?

Why did they abandon the Refinement Group and hire out-of-town lawyers to write a phony "Community"
General Plan Initiative? Of course, when a public official or staff supports their Measure A, Landwatch doesn't yell and scream. However, if another county person finds fault with Measure A, they cry lack of objectivity or conflict of interest! Why doesn't LandWatch get on board? This is America!

Chris Bunn Sr.

Salinas