Letters to the Editor 3-23-23
Library appreciation
Dear ER:
I want to commend Steve Fulton on his beautifully written cover story about Manhattan Heights Library 319 (“319,” ER March 16, 2023). I am the daughter of the librarian he wrote about, and he really captured the spirit and the ultimate subversiveness of the library and how magical it can be. Thank you for taking us on the journey from the first time you opened it to the final Allen wrench locking of 319’s door. Your storytelling is exquisite and it really moved me.
Linda Agnelli Carroll
Redondo Beach
| Fun read
Dear ER: Steve Fulton’s “Remembrances of Library 319, Manhattan Heights” (“319,” ER March 16, 2023) was engaging, nostalgic, humorous, and fun. The author’s prose along with the photos were sublime. We need more articles like this to remind us of the past and focus on the “good times” so many of us shared together. Thank you to Steve Fulton for the memories of his life at the iconic Manhattan Heights Library. It’s been a very long time since I’ve laughed so hard from anything in print. Tracey Windes Manhattan Beach |
Redondo upset
Dear ER:
It is certainly newsworthy that Paige Kaluderovic won the Redondo Beach District 3 city council seat with 51.5 percent of the vote, compared to 48.5 percent for opponent Candace Nafissi. Nafissi had every conceivable advantage: years of insider experience, numerous endorsements (including Congressional Representative Ted Lieu) plus previous failed attempts running for the District 3 seat. So how did a newcomer like Kaluderovic beat Nafissi?
As a district 5 resident, I reached out to help Kaluderovic before she even filled out her paperwork to run. I was motivated by seeing Nafissi’s constant criticism of many things I love about Redondo Beach. I wholeheartedly disagree with her assessment that School Superintendent Dr. Steven Keller didn’t “go to bat” for our kids. My impression is he worked tirelessly during the pandemic and made every effort to keep families informed. I admire previous District 3 City Council members who showed tremendous integrity, especially Christian Horvath, the most recent incumbent. I am a big fan of the Beach Cities Health District, and I support its Healthy Living Campus. I am thankful Kaluderovic is such a worthy candidate who will represent people like me. Because admittedly I would have probably supported Cookie Monster if he was the only candidate challenging Nafissi. If we are going to have a puppet in local government, it should be a nice, likable one who won’t carry on the nasty politics. I want to thank the numerous local leaders that endorsed Kaluderovic, my fellow volunteers who supported her and most importantly the District 3 voters who chose positivity despite having their signs vandalized and stolen. Kudos to Kaluderovic. We are so happy to see you win and are confident you will lead with integrity.
Marie Puterbaugh
Redondo Beach
Hospital history
Dear ER:
There aren’t very many people who remember the story of the South Bay Hospital District. The hospital district was formed to build and run a hospital for the residents, not the entire area. So voters bought land, paid for the hospital, and paid all the bills and workers from the 1950s until 1984. The hospital lost money all through the 1970s and had to be shut down in 1984 or go broke. Fortunately a private company rented the hospital, cleaned house and kept some of the services running as a private hospital until 1998. Beach Cities is just South Bay Hospital with a name change in 1994. Even though they no longer had the public hospital, the board of directors decided to keep the taxpayer money and land and do whatever they wanted. The health district no longer meets a single one of the requirements that voters approved when they approved the hospital. It doesn’t own or operate a public hospital and it’s become a commercial business that works outside the voters’ cities. I understand that the district wants to get bigger and bigger, since that’s what government agencies do. What I will never understand is why the district continued to exist when so many of us protested in the 1990s to either keep the hospital running or shut it down. They seem to have created some sort of private company that no longer works for the residents.
R A Loeffler
Hermosa Beach
City Clerk, roll call
Dear ER:
Checks and balances used to be provided by an elected city clerk.
But in 2018, the Hermosa Beach City Council chose to eliminate these checks and balances by allowing our City Attorney to submit a one sided ballot initiative argument. Now we have an appointed City Clerk, not an elected one. The city presented this initiative to eliminate an elected city clerk as a no-brainer, cost saving measure with no downside. Nothing could have been further from the truth. But in an attempt to consolidate the city manager’s power, stifle dissenting views, and eliminate the checks and balances provided by an elected city clerk they pulled the wool over our eyes, again. There was no mention in the city sponsored ballot arguments about the role of an elected city clerk in safeguarding transparent, fair and even handed access to public records. There was no mention of the City Clerk role in providing meaningful public notices. (As an example, the wholly inadequate 26th street cell tower notice.) There was no mention of the city clerk’s role in ensuring written communications make it into the city council packet on a timely basis and are not excluded simply because they don’t support a city sponsored, pet project.
The time has come for the city council to sponsor a new ballot initiative on whether we should have an elected City Clerk; and this time instruct our City Attorney to provide an honest analysis of the issue in the ballot arguments.
Anthony Higgins
Hermosa Beach
Correction: In “Suspicious endorsement” (ER Letters March 2, 2023) letter writer Vicky Oetzell mistakenly stated that District 3 Council Candidate Candace Nafissi was a founder of the ROW (Rescue our Waterfront) PAC. Nafissi was a founder of the community group and Facebook page ROW, but not the ROW PAC. ER