In favor of Antonovich’s service

I am amazed by the amount of coverage of LA. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich by your paper.

Antonovich made a choice, which is reserved to him as an elected official, to appoint another individual instead of Councilmember Ara Najarian to the Metrolink Board. I have lots of respect for Najarian and I believe he is qualified for the job. However, this was Antonovich’s decision to make and he made the decision based on what he perceived to be the best choice for his constituents.

Now comes the driver story, where Antonovich used a chauffeur to drive him around in Washington. I have looked into other elected official expenses and this was not a situation unique to Antonovich. Due to shortness of time and need to cover lots of ground in Washington, many elected officials use paid transportation there. This is a trade-off to supervisors staying in hotels for longer periods of time and incurring additional daily expenses, which will cost taxpayers more than paid transportation.

I want to add that Antonovich is one of the most respected politicians by both Republicans and Democrats. He makes more appearances in his district than any other politician in the area. For more than 30 years he has served our communities as a model representative and has been a respected and loved politician by the more than two million constituents he has represented. He is one of the greatest representatives this area has seen and will be an icon when he decides to leaves this office.

I, along with my friends and family, support Antonovich and the incredible job he is doing representing our communities. We hope that we can find a way to have him serve us for another 30 years.

Albert Abkarian

Glendale