PTA shouldn’t endorse religious club As a...

PTA shouldn’t endorse religious club

As a parent of a child at El Morro Elementary School, I was

appalled that the district has condoned the Christian religious

group, the “Good News Club” to teach a Bible studies class to

elementary-aged children at El Morro during an after-school,

PTA-funded program this fall. This information was given to all

parents by their children in a PTA-distributed handout on the first

day of school.

This is a direct violation of the 1st Amendment’s Establishment

Clause, which forbids school instruction regarding the Bible and/or

religion to elementary-aged children.

I encourage you and all the district’s principals to review all

state education laws on the Internet at https://www.leginfo.ca.gov,

specifically Cal Ed Code 51511; 92150 and 260, pertaining to

religious instruction on school campus.

I would expect the district to immediately send to all parents of

the district a letter of sincere apology regarding this egregious

assault of our Constitution.

Please be aware that last year, I brought to your attention the

fact that Christian-based songs were being taught to the children of

the honors chorus at El Morro. I expect that the district will be

more diligent this year regarding what songs are acceptable to be

taught to our elementary-aged school children, especially those in a

captive audience such as honors chorus.

LISA GENESTA

Laguna Beach

Time to respond to some critics

Here they go again. I was not going to respond to the nasty

letters regarding my presenting the city’s factual financial

information to the Beverly Hills City Council regarding the Montage

Resort, but I’ve been urged by my supporters to do so. Here are the

facts (once again, people -- check your facts before you malign).

1. In agreeing to present the city’s financial income data as it

related to the Montage, I could only do so if I was provided faster,

carpool lane transportation as I was booked up with business meetings

until very late in the day.

2. The Montage offered to pay for transportation. However, I paid

for my share of that transportation -- thereby insuring that it would

not be perceived as a “gift” to me. I have proof of this payment.

I will remind the public that I -- as well as 55% of Lagunans who

voted -- enthusiastically opted for a re-zoning of the Treasure

Island trailer park to a resort so that the city could benefit from a

brand new, accessible park with beach access -- as well as more than

$3 million a year in new revenues from the bed, sales and property

taxes generated by the project. The fact that Laguna Beach now enjoys

a first-class, international image as a result of visibility created

by the resort only serves to benefit all of our hotels, restaurants

and retail businesses.

I will also remind those who continue to obfuscate the facts that

I was not involved in the negotiations of the visitor garage/park

costs.

I am still committed to working on improving parking issues

related to the Montage Resort and hope that the Athens Group’s new

venture into Aliso Creek/Ben Brown’s will give us a huge opportunity

to clean up the water at the Aliso Creek watershed outfall.

ELIZABETH PEARSON

Laguna Beach

city councilwoman

Parking plan makes perfect sense

As the summer draws to a close in Laguna Beach, and we now have

our town back, I think we should all seriously look at what can be

done to improve/increase our parking Downtown.

It seems to me that Mayor Cheryl Kinsman has been trying to get us

to relocate the tacky-looking Corporation Yard out of the heart of

our community in order to build more parking that is close to the

Festival of Arts, playhouse and Downtown businesses.

Why are people having such a difficult time understanding the

value of this?

ROBERT R. MOSIER

Laguna Beach

Sneaky money move made by the mayor

For quite a few years, most all candidates for Laguna Beach City

Council signed a pledge and abided to a $30,000 voluntary limit on

their campaign expenditures. Mayor Cheryl Kinsman was one of the few

who refused to sign and abide by the voluntary limit.

For the 2000 campaign, Kinsman reported campaign revenues of

$53,896 raised, including $20,000 from Kinsman herself. Including

independent expenditures, a $14.06 per vote record was achieved.

Being on the City Council, Kinsman voted on Oct. 7, 2003 “to lower

the voluntary spending limitation for campaigns from $30,000 to

$15,000,” which passed with the minimum three votes.

Many concerned about campaign finance reform stated at that City

Council meeting that such a reduction would eviscerate the provision

and likely no serious candidate would be able to abide to such an

artificially low and unrealistic limit.

Guess what? Previously, almost all candidates signed the voluntary

campaign limit pledge, and this year no candidate did. From almost

all to zero.

Pretty clever of Kinsman. That is, if the voters don’t mind

council members using the power of their office for blatant political

purposes. Politicians should be held accountable.

GENE FELDER

Laguna Beach

A call to roll up

one’s sleeves

Can’t wait to see how many people show up to the California

Coastal Cleanup day from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

We all have differing reasons to love Laguna. Just read any one of

the local papers for as long as I can remember. There’s heated

arguments about lots of very important issues to be sure.

I have attended the last several Surfrider organization beach

cleanups, and I’m sorry to say that I missed a lot of faces I thought

would be ready to have their sleeves rolled up to pitch in for the

most worthy of causes -- keeping our beaches beautiful.

Anyway, the Athens Group is on board, and I hope this is the

biggest turnout ever for a California Coastal Cleanup Day. And hats

off to Roger von Butow, who admittedly can be rather brash, but I

would dare to say has championed more environmental causes than many

millionaire surf-wear companies have endeavored in years.

The cleanup is throughout the entire city, with headquarters at

Main Beach. For more information, call von Butow at (949) 497-4816 or

go to https://www.ocparks.com.

CHRIS WILLIAMS

Laguna Beach

School construction is mind-boggling

Our Laguna Beach schools do not come under the purview of the

city’s design-review ordinance. I don’t know why. Their architects

can therefore design just about anything they like. In at least two

recent projects, the design standards of our town and common-sense

landscaping have been ignored.

First, the new sports structure at Thurston Middle School is an

eyesore and looks like a warehouse. Heavy tree screening could soften

the negative impact.

Second, grass has been planted on the precipitous, terraced slopes

at the high school along Short Street. In our times of shrinking

water supplies, turf grass must be minimized. Additionally, the steep

slopes make the use of mowing equipment very dangerous and a

liability.

Is there ever any communication between the schools and the city

before any new construction?

PETER WEISBROD

Laguna Beach

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