‘Much Ado About Nothing’ on HCAC

Josh Meyer, in his article on the personnel changes in the Hollywood Community Advisory Committee to the CRA (Times, July 8), attempts to make much ado about nothing, and in the process is offensive to all the good people of the HCAC, Councilman (Michael) Woo and myself.

First of all, there was no “shake-up”; there was the healthy periodic evaluation and upgrading all functional groups undergo. Secondly, the HCAC is “controversial” only to a handful of former PAC members, unrepresentative of the Hollywood community and now marginalized by their own past ineffectiveness and negativity, as well as the HCAC’s impressive list of quiet achievements over the past nine months.

As for my own role in stepping down from the chairship of the Executive Committee to sit on the Social Needs Committee, it was simply time for me to focus on my work at the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, as well as make room for new leadership. I resent the implication in The Times article that there was more to it, especially since Meyer was in the room when I announced my need to devote more time to focusing on the AIDS epidemic--my community’s grim holocaust. Meyer’s coverage displays both insensitivity and a search for scandal where there simply isn’t any.

TORIE OSBORN

Executive Director

L.A. Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center