MAILBAG - Nov. 24, 2006

How to end the ‘MTV effect’

Everyone agrees we need to put the controversial link between the MTV show and Laguna Beach High School behind us — none more than those who opposed the deal in the first place.

This year’s school board candidates helped bring some closure by taking a clear stand before the election, assuring voters the community will not be ambushed again by secret projects with high impact on students and families.

In her irrepressibly authentic voice, newly elected school board member Ketta Brown hit the bull’s-eye, aptly calling the initial approval of the MTV-LBHS linkage by the school board and school officials a “stupid, boneheaded move.”

That should have been the last word on the subject, but then along comes former Assistant Superintendent Steven Keller, who lamely tried to have his own last word in disingenuous letters to local papers. Keller’s attempt to justify his “bonehead move” negotiating in secret to bring the culture of MTV onto a public high school campus is pathetically contrived.

Keller wants us to forget that he personally signed the recommendation the school board relied on in approving the MTV deal, on controversial terms very different from those he now claims to have negotiated.

Apparently he did not bother to read the minutes of the school board’s actions on the MTV contract or the transcript of the emergency meeting at which the initial approval and authorization for the superintendent to sign the MTV contract was rescinded.

Although space allotted here does not permit a thorough exposition of the official record that refutes Keller’s version of events, anyone interested in knowing what the actual school board documents reveal is welcome to request background materials available at [email protected].

Meanwhile, we are moving on, and what really matters is that parents and some of the members of the new school board have already been discussing ideas for going forward that include the following three possible steps to counteract the “MTV effect” at Laguna Beach High School:

1. Truth and reconciliation (stop the denial and spin, take the lessons learned, reclaim our sense of humor, get over it);

2. End identification of the show with Laguna Beach High School (seek MTV compliance with request to end all commercial use of the school’s image and name);

3. Entrust the new school board and new Laguna Beach High School principal to address any MTV-related campus security issues, lower the school’s media profile, and keep the focus of students and parents on education.

Steps 2 and 3 are best left in the hands of the school board and the very capable new principal at Laguna Beach High, while Step 1 is very much in the public domain. Ironically, just as some signs of healing in the deeply divided parent community were appearing, Keller comes along with provably false assertions that opened old wounds.

Clearly, Keller is suffering from an aggravated case of “MTV effect” — preoccupied and unreconciled with the truth about his past down in the real O.C., unable to focus on doing his job for the taxpayers up in Redondo.

Hang in there, Steve; the MTV effect can be beaten. We are beating it and you can, toto. The first step is truth. Go ahead — take it!

HOWARD HILLS

Laguna Beach

Firefighters’ election fliers misled voters

Like most Lagunans, I want our firefighters (as well as our police, lifeguards and other city employees) to be paid fairly. It is the only decent policy. But I am concerned about what happened in the recent election.

The firefighters assn. sent numbers of fliers to Laguna Beach voters in which they directly or indirectly claimed that the only way they would get an equitable contract with the city of Laguna Beach was if Kelly Boyd was elected to the city council.

So it was with great surprise and no little resentment that I read in the Coastline Pilot, Nov. 17, that an accord had been reached weeks before the election and without Kelly Boyd’s presence on the council. Yet the literature continued to appear. I received firefighters’ fliers almost up to election day.

Wasn’t the failure to reveal this vital information a hoax perpetrated on the electorate?

BONNIE HANO

Laguna Beach

Senior/community center problems

Does the proposed Third Street Community Center have problems?

Its underground parking will require mechanical ventilation; auto exhaust may seep into the habitable space above. It will create additional auto congestion in the Central Business District. The high front wall will bounce the sounds of traffic back and forth from Hagen Place. The handicapped entrance is placed at the bottom of the Third Street hill.

This building will have no opening windows on three sides, requiring air conditioning 100% of the time at a cost to the taxpayers of a few thousand dollars per month.

The recreation teachers and students were never invited to the planning meeting — as a result, the two exercise rooms are literally stuck in the back, subgrade, without opening windows.

The seniors will be able to use the recreational programs. The general population will be excluded from the senior side.

The city’s planning effort for this major project consisted of the minimum legal requirement, hurry up, get up here, you have three minutes, now sit down, zero give-and-take.

The current view of this site as seen from above, by about three dozen homes, looks like a park. If this project is built, the new view will be of nearly one-half acre, 19,500 square feet, of asphalt roofing.

A large equipment room housing air conditioning is placed on the roof at the corner of Loma Terrace at Mermaid Street. This AC room is situated at a lower elevation and adjacent to about 16 residences and will exhaust polluted air and noise.

There will be a meeting from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at Wells Fargo Bank. We will seek ways to create a win-win.

Call Michael Hoag for information at (949) 494-5960.

We only need two council votes to save a peaceful historic neighborhood.

P.S. If you share this view, please send letters, e-mails and phone calls to city hall. Plan to attend the City Council meeting on Dec.12 at 6 p.m.

MICHAEL HOAG

Laguna Beach