READERS RESPOND

AT ISSUE: With the November local elections approaching, a recent

Daily Pilot editorial asked, “Where have all the candidates gone?�

Hello, hello, Daily Pilot editors -- where, oh where have you been,

speaking of “Where have all the candidates gone?�

Your staff has written several articles over the years about one Steve

Bromberg, Balboa Island community leader, former president of Little

Island Property Owners Assn. and winner of Balboa Island top volunteer

award.

Bromberg, my very good friend and contemporary, has thrown his hat

into the ring for the Newport Beach City Council. And I am proud to

support him and represent him as a “great candidate� to others in our

city who do not know of his involvement and accomplishments.

He is a consensus builder, an arbitrator, a peacemaker -- all of the

qualities that are needed in a leadership position with the city.

Bromberg is always willing to listen, he’s always willing “to do�

whatever is necessary to get the job done; he’s a great volunteer, having

spent many hours with his Balboa Island contingency and many more hours

as chief counsel and vice president of the Balboa Performing Arts Theatre

Foundation. Talk about a “perfect candidate� for now, with all the issues

dividing Newport Beach.

I hope you’ll see the error of your “oversight,� and I certainly hope

you’ll print this.

I’m casting my vote for Steve Bromberg for City Council.

DAYNA PETTIT

Balboa

I would like to respond to your editorial today.

I am a candidate in the 7th District for the Newport Beach City

Council. I have not held any appointed seat or elected position. After

three weeks of being a candidate, this is why I believe there are not

more announced candidates for the three Newport Beach Council positions:

1. Disclosures: The city candidate handbook is more than an inch thick

with detailed forms and reporting requirements. Included are mandatory

financial and conflict-of-interest disclosures and ongoing contribution

reports, all of which is open-book to the public without limitation. And

those complicated reports must be continually updated.

2. The hours: I estimate the campaigning will equate to six to eight

weeks of full-time work and that the council job will take 20 hours per

week. That is time, attention and patience taken away from family,

growing children, business.

3. Election costs: In my view, $40,000 to $70,000 is the estimated

cost per council seat, with the probability that you will raise 30% to

50% -- if you have the right connections, and you pay the balance.

4. Public scrutiny and access: Your personal affairs are now public

affairs, and your past is always a target for scrutiny, disclosure and

criticism. Your official decisions and vote will alienate a number of

people each time, and you will probably lose personal friends. Your

remaining private time will be interrupted and disrupted by citizen

pleas, questions and complaints.

But, with all of those apparent negative features, our representative

form of government -- even in the tarnished image of many of our current

elected officials -- requires candidates to overlook these problems and

run for public office. I encourage more to do so for this upcoming

election. Yes, even in my District 7 race. That is how the system works.

JOHN HEFFERNAN

Newport Beach

The unwelcome news that three incumbent school board members may get a

free ride, by running unopposed this fall, hits our community rather

hard. I hope that it isn’t true, but if it is, we have only ourselves to

blame.

Certainly, in an area with a population of almost 200,000, there

should be a number of public-spirited people who can rise to the

challenge of contesting the incumbents on a host of issues.

This impasse -- or predicament -- could be solved in part if the

elected leadership of Costa Mesa were to encourage Hispanic leaders in

our community, such as Oscar Montoya of Save Our Youth Center, to run for

office. Montoya has qualifications which are all but nonexistent on

today’s school board.

There are others who should be urged to come forth by emphasizing the

importance of having a Hispanic member on a board with a policy I

consider “benign neglect,� which has produced a number of unsatisfactory

Stanford 9 test scores at Wilson and Whittier elementary schools and

Estancia High School.

A qualified teacher who knows his/her subject matter is the primary

reason for a student’s success at all levels of education.

It is vital, as things stand, for an “interested� board member to take

the initiative to look closely at the qualifications of the teachers at

these schools -- and compare them with those who teach at schools such as

Anderson and Harbor View elementary schools, where the test scores are

amazingly, lopsidedly higher.

The purpose of periodic elections is not only to meet and satisfy the

requirements of the democratic process. Elections also give the citizenry

a chance to find out a little more about their schools and students.

When there is no one from the local population running an active,

vigorous campaign, our democratic process becomes a travesty; and the

chances that the perennial status quo will remain unchangingly firm are

likely.

Relinquishing continued control to the current board without a “fight�

means that, a year from now, when the Stanford 9 tests are taken again,

the results will inevitably be the same.

LEFTERIS LAVRAKAS

Costa Mesa