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Letters : Hearing the Public

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Question: Why doesn’t Councilwoman Joy Picus hold regular public meetings? I haven’t been able to find anyone who can remember the last one. Can you?

I believe a public meeting gives the salary-paying public an opportunity to question and advise an employee, as well as receive firsthand reports and explanations.

It would be nice if the news media thought enough of this idea to consider having a representative there too.

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So far we must make an appointment with one of our other employees to maybe get to see this higher-echelon employee. By the time we maybe get in, the situation we wish to influence with our opinions and facts has already become a bad scene or history.

I am sure that most of us would consider every other week a reasonable option.

I would also call a Friday or Monday night meeting (in view of Friday and Monday night football) a sick and obvious attempt to sabotage this idea.

I also believe more letters from the readers should be printed for a fresh viewpoint. After all, we get a steady diet of staff and paid writers who write the news from their viewpoint. But nowhere do we get a chance to get a point clarified or more information on a subject presented.

Bruce Winters, the former editor of a local paper, at least gave the public a chance to talk to him in his monthly meetings. We know we seldom succeeded in changing his mind, but I’m sure that sometime we were a slight influence.

REGINALD WALICKI

Van Nuys

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