Alternative plan for El Morro? No way...

Alternative plan for El Morro? No way

I have lived in Laguna Beach for 40 years and am a retired school

teacher who taught in the Laguna Beach Unified School District.

The “Alternative Plan for the El Morro Village Trailer Park” that

Steve Dicterow intends to put on the City Council agenda leaves me

gasping in incredulity.

California taxpayers bought the land for Crystal Cove State Park

from the Irvine Company in 1979 for $30 million. The trailer park is

on state-leased land, which the trailer owners have always known. Now

the state has bond funds and plans to at last transform that area

into a campground for all the world to use.

The trailer folks have come up with a list of absurd and

unrealistic proposals, but one of the most egregious is the

implication that anyone in a recreational vehicle is a predator of

some sort. This is scare/fear propaganda. Hitler and Goebbels

convinced the Germans in 1935 that Jews were evil and should be

eradicated. Hence the Holocaust! An extreme example certainly, but

fear and innuendo are powerful forces. Don’t be duped by fear

tactics. The Concordia Elementary School in San Clemente has existed

next to a state campground for 38 years. There have been zero

incidents!

It costs big dollars now to stay near the ocean in Laguna Beach. A

room at the Montage is $550 per night. A night at the El Morro

Campground would cost $24.

It’s time for the renters to leave after 23 years and open the

park to, not only Californians, but citizens everywhere.

PAM STRAYER

Laguna Beach

I am appalled that our City Council is even considering to put the

trailer park’s latest plan on the agenda!

For more than 25 years, the residents have lived on state owned

property, paying a small fraction of the rent. How can they possibly

be serious about building senior- or low-cost housing on state

property? How can they think that the greenbelt would think of

accepting any money from them?

The public has been waiting for that land to be returned to them

for too long. It is time at last to let the Park Service fulfill its

obligation to the citizens of California. The relocation benefit

given to the residents 20 years ago is over. This was given to them

in lieu of any cash payment mandated by the state and they opted for

the 20 years.

For how long should California citizens be cheated? Their

contention that a campsite near a school is dangerous has been proven

wrong by the example of the campground next to the elementary school

in San Clemente. Interestingly, the low-cost housing near the school

has been the entity that has caused some recent troubles!

CAROL MAXWELL

Laguna Beach

In councilwoman’s own defense ...

At a recent City Council meeting, Mayor Toni Iseman chose to

distribute a document to the audience, including the media -- and to

give a PowerPoint presentation, which was viewed by Laguna TV viewers

-- depicting that I had received a campaign contribution in the last

City Council election that exceeded what is allowed by law in Laguna

Beach. (The maximum contribution a candidate can receive from any

individual or entity is $250.)

After personally reviewing my campaign reports -- and having the

city clerk, the keeper of the records of our city, do the same -- it

was re-verified that I had not taken more than $250 from any

individual or entity -- and that I had not broken the city’s campaign

laws in the last City Council election.

I whole-heartedly support full disclosure re: our campaign laws,

contributors and political action committees -- and am in no way

ashamed of anyone, any entity or any PAC that contributed to my

campaigns. Anyone who knows me well knows I have a mind of my own and

that my vote cannot be “bought” -- and I believe that all the other

Laguna Beach City Council members have that same strength of

character.

However, I took this particular charge from the mayor as an attack

on my integrity. This letter should clear the record for the public

and put the matter to rest.

ELIZABETH PEARSON

City Councilwoman

Laguna Beach

More details about campaign spending

State law requires the filing of Form 460 with various schedules

for candidates to disclose political campaign contributions and

expenditures.

The idea is that the voter should know who is financially

supporting a candidate.

Many feel that campaign spending is out of control with George W.

Bush and Al Gore spending about $300 million in the last presidential

election.

However, between them they received about 100-million votes so

they paid about $3 per vote. It’s quite something that Bush and Gore

are pikers compared to the spending recently used to get elected to

the Laguna Beach City Council!

I am kind of involved in local politics, but I did not know that

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman, elected three years ago in 2000,

contributed $20,000 of her own money to her campaign. I am still

unable to process this information, not knowing whether to be

appalled or impressed.

While many candidates pledged to limit their campaigns to $30,000,

the Kinsman campaign, including the $20,000 of her own money totaled

$53,896.

An additional $10,925 was spent on her behalf, independent

expenditures, resulting in a total of $64,821 being spent. Receiving

4,253 votes, this is spending $14.06 per vote.

Analysis of Cheryl Kinsman’s legally required disclosure statement

shows that 33.4% of her contributions came from outside of the city

of Laguna Beach and that small donations, that is less than $100,

amounted to only 12.8% of the total.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson ran both in 2000 and in 2002

spending a total of $79,074. Receiving a total of 8,126 votes in the two elections, this is spending $9.73 per vote.

Analysis of Elizabeth Pearson’s legally required 2002 disclosure

statement shows that 33% of her contributions came from outside of

the city of Laguna Beach and that small donations, that is less than

$100, amounted to only 8.9% of the total.

Perhaps there should be no limit on campaign contributions and

spending, but, in the information age, the campaign disclosures

should occur promptly and before the election. The city should

purchase such a computer program and require its use. In addition,

contributors should have to disclose their relationship with the

city, and if they directly or indirectly have any financial interest.

GENE FELDER

Laguna Beach

City Council watchers cry ‘Uncle!’

Re: Laguna Beach May 6 City Council meeting.

“Politics is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and

schizophrenia.” George Orwell

“Uncle!” OK, Laguna Beach City Council, we give up.

We, the public, must be abusing your valuable hours and we beg

forgiveness. You be the unscrupulous bobbleheads and we’ll try to not

confuse or clog your meetings with our proletarian concerns or

issues. We are not worthy, oh wise ones. You are gods and we are just

working-class slobs with mundane jobs beneath your dignity to

acknowledge. Funny, we thought you were the servants when we voted

you into office. Confess: All of that campaign trail seduction about

citizen empowerment was hollow rhetoric, now wasn’t it?

Realistically, maybe we should promise to never come back to your

council meetings to have our time wasted by self-centered elected

officials. It’s obvious that personal political agendas are being

placed upon the formal hearing dockets so these twits can vengefully

play Laguna’s version of the “Hatfields versus McCoys.”

Agendizing political action committee and campaign financing was

bad enough. Placing them in the first thirdof the lengthy calendar

beginning at 6 p.m. assured attendees and live TV watchers that the

words “interminable” and “ad nauseum” would be redefined.

While the council flailed away at each other and public speakers

in a veritable vacuum of intelligent dialogue, the clock kept ticking

for the remaining 11 agenda items. Selfishly inconsiderate they

staggered to the finish line, which took place at around 2:45 a.m.

Wednesday for those insomniacs still awake and not driven to insanity

or a comatose state.

Political action committees and campaign financing came up during

prime time, from 9 to 11 p.m., specially reserved for the Four Horse

people of the Apocalypse (Wayne Baglin, Cheryl Kinsman, Elizabeth

Pearson and Toni Iseman) to display complete ineptitude and remove

voter’s respect. Anyone who remembers Dustin Hoffman having holes

drilled in his teeth without anesthetic by Lawrence Olivier in the

movie “Marathon Man” could relate.

While most raised around $30,000 or more, we did learn that

Kinsman took in almost $65,000 ( 1/3 from out-of-towners) during her

campaign in 2000. Observing her snide remarks and Gestapo-like

mannerisms Tuesday evening, most was probably spent on rubber hoses

and Sodium Pentothal to pry the truth out of the likes of Village

Laguna elderly board members. But let’s not quibble, there was enough

shame and disgrace there for all four to gleefully share as they

arrogantly eschewed the people who entrusted them.

While running, these same angels swore off negative campaigning,

no dirty fighting or smear tactics allowed. Now seated, we’re

watching a version of fear and loathing in Laguna Beach. More than

250 years ago, King Frederick II of Prussia said: “Politics and

villainy are synonymous terms.” So start thinking of 2004 --

Collecting $30,000 to $65,000 shouldn’t be very difficult in a city

where everything, including dignified and responsive government,

seems priced for sale.

ROGER VON BUTOW

Clean Water Now! Coalition

Laguna Beach

Plenty of accolades to go around

We are much indebted to Harry Lawrence and the Laguna Beach

Chamber of Commerce Beautification Committee for the many

accomplishments they have achieved over the last 50 years, but not

all the accomplishments mentioned in Harry’s letter to the editor can

be accredited to this committee. Much on that list was spearheaded by

Village Laguna and there were other vital accomplishments not

mentioned such as the creation of the Laguna Greenbelt. However,

there should be ample recognition and congratulations to go around.

The point of my previous letter to the editor was that the city

government failed to participate in a significant way in having a

vision for Laguna Beach. The vision came from individual citizens who

banded together in different groups, grass-roots and otherwise. Some

of these groups had different views but nonetheless, and sometimes in

spite of, Laguna has been able to preserve and maintain its unique

character into the 21st Century.

We are all looking toward the current City Council to provide the

leadership to support and effectively move forward the recent

visioning process, where hundreds of Lagunans have already donated

thousands of hours. I hope the City Council does not squander all the

wonderful volunteer effort.

JOHANNA FELDER

Laguna Beach

There seems to be a lot of controversy these days about some of

Laguna’s history and who did what and when. Harry Lawrence’s recent

piece shed some light on some significant parts of that history and

his effort should be applauded. Having been personally involved in a

fair amount of Laguna’s history over the past 45years I thought I

might be of help to clarify a few of those instances.

For years, during the 1950s and 60s, many in Laguna wanted to

clean up the mess that was what is now the Main Beach Park but two

attempts to pass bond issues to fund the effort failed to win

citizens approval. Finally in the late 60s I rallied most of Laguna’s

civic, business and political groups to support a final effort and

the heads of most of the organizations all came to a City Council

meeting to demand some action by the city.

Bill Martin was mayor at the time and was strongly opposed to city

involvement in the project. Confronted with overwhelming evidence

that Laguna’s citizen leadership wanted action, Martin finally said

he would support such an action to the extent of making the city’s

bonding capacity available so we could have a modest interest rate

but the city would put no cash in the pot

The council then appointed a committee of five including Bill

Wilcoxen, Bernie Syfan, Merrill Johnson, me and one other, to

determine how we could fund the land purchase. Wilcoxen and I finally

met with the Festival of Arts Board and asked if they would guarantee

the $133,000 annual bond payment over 30 years. (At that time the

city had not yet negotiated confiscatory leases with the Festival).

The Festival Board agreed to our proposal, which made creation of our

“Window to the Sea” possible. (The Main Beach bond was paid in full

several years ago).

Our next task was to negotiate a purchase deal with the landowner

who unfortunately had a passionate dislike for our city government.

It took a year to get over that hurdle after which we appointed a

select committee of qualified local citizens, particularly Harry

Lawrence who already had years of City Beautification experience, to

design the Main Beach Park.

This was before Village Laguna was in full operation. I do not in

any way, want to denigrate the years of good work Village Laguna has

done for our city. I simply wanted to clarify that particular

misunderstanding.

We hear much these days about Laguna’s Vision Committee. That

large cross section of Laguna’s citizens put in an incredible amount

of time and effort resulting in an exciting plan for Laguna’s

long-range future. I only hope this plan has a better chance of being

implemented than the long-range plan created by another group of

citizen volunteers over 30 years ago.

This committee was an offshoot of the Laguna Chamber of Commerce

although most of the committee’s membership were not members of the

chamber. I was privileged to serve as chairman of the committee which

included such community stalwarts as John Weld, Pete Ostrander, Harry

Lawrence and Muriel Reynolds among others. We met for more than a

year when the city, which had never done any such long-range

planning, expressed an interest in participating in the effort. We

readily agreed and the city appointed Jim Dilley, Bill Wilcoxen and a

number of other top flight community leaders to join our committee.

We first spent time and effort defining just what was the essence

and soul of Laguna that we wanted to preserve. I remember only too

well warning our group that if we did not plan carefully to preserve

our precious diversity we could well become ultimately “Beverly Hills

by the Sea.”

Another facet of our plan involved the “Village Entrance.” We all

agreed the ugly Corporation Yard in the heart of our city was a

disgrace and had to go.

We envisioned a significant four story parking structure against

the steep hillside at the back of the property. The plan called for a

completely landscaped roof incorporating a restaurant similar to

Tivoli Terrace in appearance. The front facade of the structure would

have planters all across the front of each floor with vine type

plants such as Bougainvillea which would totally camouflage the front

face of the structure and create a striking backdrop for the

significant heavily-landscaped cultural center planned to cover the

balance of the property.

What an exciting new heart of Laguna’s Downtown we would now enjoy

if that part of our plan had been implemented. Let us hope for the

best this time around.

VERN SPITALERI

Laguna Beach

One man’s glory is another’s bane

In referring to Harry Lawrence’s letter which appeared last week,

I’d like to make a couple of points.

He refers to the toll road as being an accomplishment. In fact, it

is a colossal flop because so few people use it. So there it sits, an

ugly concrete scar on the greenbelt and other open space.

Also, he states that he was working with Police Chief Bratten to

clean up Laguna. What was accomplished on Main Beach was to get rid

of a jazz club and then gay bar.

In the “beatnik” era that jazz club was a joyous center, which I

will always fondly remember in the late 1950s and sometimes had

concerts by the greats of that time.

I also would like to point out that it was a mistake to have

removed the old houses on the south end of the beach, which could

have been making a lot of money for the city all these years, and

there was a boardwalk then and plenty of beach for all to swim and

sun. What has been accomplished is a big water wasting lawn. However,

I do appreciate the basketball courts, which always seem to be in

use.

By the way, I’m surprised that you didn’t take credit for getting

rid of the “hippies,” or were you no longer working the chief of that

era?

ANDY WING

Laguna Beach

Canyon Courts players put cards on the table

At this week’s council meeting a contingent of Laguna residents

who regularly enjoy the tennis facilities at the courts adjacent to

the Festival grounds presented a petition signed by more than 500

year-round Laguna Beach residents and more than 200 signers who are

nonresident users of the courts, many of whom are summer residents

and regular visitors from all around the world.

The petition asked the city to consider preserving the facility in

the interest of environmental concerns and local Laguna heritage.

Many letters to the editor have appeared previously in the local

papers making the case from both perspectives and need not be

reiterated.

What does need to be addressed, however, is the rebuttal to the

petition put forward by Arts’ Commissioner Pat Kollenda.

Kollenda first of all found it objectionable that there were so

many non-Lagunans among the tennis players. Apparently she thinks

that our parks, recreational facilities and presumably our beaches

should be reserved primarily for locals only. One wonders why this

same philosophy did not guide her decision in encouraging the

awarding of grant money for the “Art in Public Places” campaign in

connection with Treasure Island Park. Over the strenuous objection of

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman, Kollenda oversaw the granting of the

lion’s share of the appropriation to non-Laguna resident artists.

The second point Kollenda made was that the courts are the

exclusive domain of a small elite group and that she hasn’t been able

to get on there. In no one’s recollection did anyone present at the

council meeting have any knowledge of Kollenda ever being at the

tennis courts. If she indeed had been, she no doubt would have

received the warm welcome that all players who come there and abide

by the rules of play are accorded.

Her last point was particularly puzzling to me. Kollenda advocated

a multi-purpose building dedicated to the fine arts and crafts at the

site where the courts presently stand. Such an undertaking would

consume vast financial resources well beyond those readily available

in these times of nearly empty public coffers. What is more, the

viability of such a project is dubious at best. Laguna very nearly

lost its world-class museum because of lack of genuine support from

the local community. The museum continues to struggle as evidenced by

the poorly attended masquerade fund-raiser this past weekend. I

attended it in support of Laguna Arts as did other tennis players.

But I don’t think I saw Kollenda there.

TED CALDWELL

Laguna Beach

RUFF says thanks for Easter Brunch

RUFF (Rescuing Unwanted Furry Friends) would like to thank all

those businesses and individuals who supported our 2003 Easter Brunch

at Tivoli Too.

We are delighted that proceeds were up more than 20% from the

previous year because the economic downturn has led to increasing

demand for our services as pets are abandoned or neglected by owners

with financial difficulties.

Special thanks go to June Neptune and Bobby Fader of Tivoli Too;

their staff and the many RUFF volunteers who make the event so

enjoyable.

We are grateful also to American Mobile Music for donating their

services; the many businesses and individuals who contributed items

for auction or supplies for the buffet; and all the attendees who

donated generously in support of needy animals.

Thanks, too, to your newspaper for helping publicize this event.

MARION ANDERSON

RUFF President

Laguna Beach

Tennis tournament was a pleasant success

Having just completed the 46th annual city of Laguna Beach Tennis

Tournament I would like to thank all those who helped me put it on

with barely a hitch.

Thanks to all the players who participated, win or lose

participating is what our game is all about.

The Laguna Beach Recreation Department has been tremendously

helpful in promoting tennis in this community, and particularly this

tournament. A special thanks to Patty Slowsky at the front desk and

Ron Lutz, Recreation Supervisor. Thanks to Gary Glaub for laying out

the entry forms and all the other coaches in town who encouraged

their players to compete. A big thanks to Rick Conkey at the Pacific

Coast Tennis Foundation for extra publicity. Thanks to my husband,

John, for covering for me on the home front.

I look forward to seeing all of you return next year and extend an

open invitation to all players here and in neighboring cities to come

next year to play and enjoy some competitive tennis.

JULIE HEUSSENSTAMM

USPTA Tournament Director

Laguna Beach

Arts education in city is invaluable

Ask anyone what makes Laguna Beach magical and almost always the

community’s support of art, artists and art education is mentioned

first off.

My children are junior members of the Festival of Arts and what a

treasure! Monica Dunham and Mada Leach inspire local children weekly

through creative, hands-on involvement with innovative techniques in

ceramics and mixed media classes. Classes are offered during the year

because these two artists relish in sharing their enthusiasm and

talent with aspiring minds. The Festival of Arts grounds, a Laguna

Beach park, has welcomed the activities as well as Lang Park. This

generosity from the Festival of Arts is greatly appreciated.

Arts education has value in so many areas, aside from the beauty

it creates. Art education teaches people skills, creative thinking,

an awareness of one’s surroundings and others, mediums of expression,

adds enrichment to life and has also been shown to improve test

scores, too.

Thank you Monica, Mada, and the Festival of Arts for providing art

education that truly makes the Laguna Beach community magical for our

family and so many others.

LAURA WELLSFRY

Laguna Beach

Officer should find something better to do

Members of the Laguna Beach Police Department must enjoy a very

exciting existence if they take pride in patrolling the Top of the

Word neighborhood at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday writing parking tickets

for local residents whose vehicles are parked on the wrong side of

very quiet streets.

Most civilized countries allow parking on either side of

residential streets thus allowing for drivers to exit in the

direction that they wish to go without the hassle of making a

three-point turn.

Congratulations on a job well done. I just hope there were no

rapes, burglaries, drunk drivers or spouse beatings occurring at the

same time in other parts of town, while you were cruising Bern Drive

at 5:30 a.m. with pen and pad in hand.

Any future donations to telemarketers supposedly representing the

Laguna Beach Police Department will be politely informed that all

excess funds are placed in “Vehicle violation account” just in case.

If this letter is published I would expect even more surveillance

on the corner of Bern Drive and Park Avenue from the Laguna Beach

Police Department looking for additional opportunities to generate

funds for the city .

DAVID R.M. WARD

Laguna Beach

The Coastline Pilot is eager to run your letters. If your letter

does not appear, it may be because of space restrictions, and the

letter will likely appear next week. If you would like to submit a

letter, write to us at P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA 92652; fax us

at 494-8979; or send e-mail to [email protected]. Please

give your name and include your hometown and phone number, for

verification purposes only.