Students and KOCE employees not at odds...

Students and KOCE employees not at odds

We are KOCE-TV employees responding to Orange Coast College

Professor Michael Glover, who recently questioned whether the 400

people at recent Coast district board meetings regarding the sale of

the public station were “friends and relatives of the people employed

at the station.”

We can assure you that most of the people were not our friends or

relatives.

We were gratified that there was a huge outpouring of support for

KOCE from people we didn’t know, but who cared deeply about public

television of Orange County.

This is not a students-versus- public-television issue. Community

college budgets have been cut all over the state. KOCE is not to

blame for this, nor is it the reason the district needs money.

Everyone in attendance at the meeting heard the trustees explain that

new accounting procedures have negatively affected the district

employee retirement funds. In addition, the district approved a 1.5%

pay increase for all employees at that same meeting.

This debate is really about larger financial issues, not KOCE.

Please, learn for yourself what the issues are.

ED MISKEVICH

Huntington Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Miskevich speaks on behalf of 23 other employees

who also signed the letter submitted to the Pilot.

Costa Mesa should control

the predators, not our pets

My neighborhood and my pet have also been victimized by coyotes.

Make no mistake about these animals; they are indeed wild and

carnivorous. The more that is done to remove their food supply, the

greater becomes their threat of other new targets. While presently,

they feed and attack four-legged pets, what will be the outcry when

two-legged animals become a target?

Logical control of a growing menace should be reducing their

numbers by birth control. It is humane and effective. We voluntarily

do this with our pets to control their numbers. Trapping and

sterilizing a known percentage will control their numbers. We need to

stop wringing our hands with this inappropriate growth of wild

predators and take control.

DAN WORTHINGTON

Costa Mesa

County commission

plans to leash kennels

We understand that the Orange County Planning Commission, which

governs the areas in Newport Mesa that are still unincorporated, is

scheduling a public workshop to discuss commercial dog kennel

operations. We would like to speak to the kennel on Riverside Drive

in Santa Ana Heights.

We have been taking our Lhasa apsos to the Coast Canine Country

Club for at least 20 years. Not only do we appreciate the loving care

they receive, but we want our “kids” to have the indoor-outdoor

experience that they have at home. We go on two or three two-week

trips per year. If it wasn’t for Coast Canine Country Club and the

comfort level we have there, we would probably cancel our trips.

We live only a couple miles from Riverside Drive, and we’re very

pleased that the county has allowed the 12 kennels on the street to

operate, under controls that seem to get tighter year by year, for

the past 50 years.

Please do not try to legislate the Riverside Drive indoor-outdoor

kennels out of business. If barking dogs are a problem, we would

suggest that you try to mitigate alleviate the noise from the airport

or stop the steady development of office and industrial properties

working their way to the Back Bay.

These kennel operators have put their hearts, souls and money into

a needed service business. Please see that they conform to existing

ordinances, but other than that, let them operate their businesses in

peace.

DOLORES AND GENE KERMIN

Newport Beach

Waterfront voter wants harbor columnist on city council

I would like to nominate a person for the Newport Beach council

seat left vacant by former Councilman Gary Proctor. I nominate a

person who does a lot for this community and harbor and never asks

for anything in return. I request you appoint Mike Whitehead to the

council seat. Why is he not on the Harbor Commission? I think the

community will support this candidate -- or at least all of us who

use the harbor.

DAVE BECKNER

Newport Beach

City mismanagement let Scheer issue go too far

I had to laugh when I read your editorial, “Lawsuit will haunt

Costa Mesa Council,” regarding the legal issues between the city and

City Atty. Jerry Scheer. As someone who worked for the city of Costa

Mesa, in City Hall, I found the sentence “Perhaps Costa Mesa’s city

manager can work for a feat of magic and find a solution to this

great problem” particularly amusing. And the line “that is asking a

great deal of even a great city manager” was downright hilarious.

If the city manager had been on the ball, Scheer’s personnel

problem would never have gotten as far as it did and never would have

made it to the City Council. It would have been handled internally

and resolved without incident. It is clearly the bumbling of the

city’s administration and personnel department that allowed this to

get this out of hand.

Now, the city will do exactly what Scheer knows very well that it

does when it gets sued -- settle out of court.

But keep writing those editorials, Daily Pilot, and keep the

laughs coming.

BENTLEY LITTLE

Fullerton