Marina Del Rey, Foreign Leases

I just read the article (“Secret Foreign Group gets 49.9% Stake in Prime Marina Leases” Part II, Aug. 9) about the L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously approving a deal giving a group of anonymous foreign investors a large share of the long-term leases in Marina del Rey.

The article also indicates that Abraham Lurie gave four of the five county supervisors more than $27,000 over the past three years. I note that it is Lurie who proposed the deal.

Lurie is the largest lease-holder in the Marina and apparently he needs a quick transfusionof foreign cash to continue the “over-development” of the Marina.

One thing I’m not quite clear on, though. The county supervisors just gave a large percentage of the Marina’s leases to foreign investors whose identities are unknown. So how come I, an American citizen, have to provide my entire financial, employment and in general, life history if I want to rent so much as a one-room apartment or a boat slip in the Marina?

RICHARD SCHAEFER

Santa Monica