Shouldn’t Ignore John Q. Public

Allen Doby, the city of Santa Ana’s executive director of Recreation and Community Services, doesn’t seem to care much about the community he is serving (“Joggers Find Rocky Road to City Hall,” Aug. 9).

Statements such as “I don’t get involved with John Q. Public and with what they want” has to be one of the silliest comments I’ve heard from a local politician. How can Mr. Doby serve his community if he doesn’t get involved with the public?

What does he do? Sit in his office and wait for some pencil pusher who probably lives in Irvine to tell him what Santa Ana needs and wants?

When Doby says a granite trail “serves our needs,” just whose needs are being served? If Doby isn’t involved in public needs, how can he have the slightest idea if needs are being served or met?

Or maybe Doby is just saying his needs are being served because he is a politician who thinks only he and his “staff” are capable of making decisions concerning parks from their air-conditioned offices?

I think maybe Doby has to remember why he is an executive director of Recreation and Community Services. He is there to ensure that I and others have safe parks to enjoy. He is only in office because John Q. Public put him there, and people who don’t listen to their bosses are going to have problems.

Having been in a few Santa Ana parks, it seems to me that Mr. Doby needs to stop listening to staff and go out in some of his parks.

Or maybe Santa Ana just needs to get an executive director that listens to John Q. Public and what he has to say.

A director who holds obvious disdain for the people he is supposed to be serving certainly can’t be doing a good job.

ROBERT J. BOCK JR.

Fullerton