Earlier Letter ‘Made Me Laugh’

The statement, “Politics for the sake of politics should take a back seat to the welfare of the people of Monterey Park” by (activist and former Councilman) Irv Gilman, in a recent letter to the L.A. Times (Oct. 5), made me laugh.

Irv Gilman is one of our city’s “good old boys” and a political godfather who seems to control the way council member Betty Couch and Mayor Pat Reichenberger vote to spend our money.

I have known Irv Gilman as a “smoke-filled back room” political deal maker for over four years.

He has always put politics before the welfare of the people of Monterey Park.

Yet he castigates council members Hatch and Houseman for their “no” vote on a water rate increase and increased building in our city as no more than irresponsible “inflammatory rhetoric” for the sake of “scoring a few political points.”

While he’s probably right, I would like to remind the reader that it was his political machine that installed these two politicians in office almost four years ago.

I also think that Mayor Pat Reichenberger, who voted for this water rate increase, should be investigated to see if a conflict of interest exists.

Why?

She is married to San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District Board of Directors Member Joseph Reichenberger. It is his board that will benefit from the increased taxes.

He works as a vice president for Engineering Science, a Pasadena firm that advises business and government entities on the planning and design of water supply and water treatment facilities.

Do they do business with Monterey Park? I don’t know, but I do know that in Southern California, political power is traditionally tied to land with a supply of water, and money.

Gilman (who was once a council member himself, but couldn’t get reelected) rode the issue of slow growth--as if he were whipping a dying horse to get him into battle before it died on him--in order to get his people into power.

Now that he has political control again, he has abandoned the slow-growth issue in favor of using tax money to help the developers.

Politics for the sake of money or politics should take a back seat to the interests of the people of Monterey Park, but it won’t, as long as political godfathers like Gilman and his puppets control how our taxes are spent.

FRANK J. ARCURI

Monterey Park