The Litigious Santa Monica Conservancy

* Finally, someone has the guts to stand-up to Joseph T. Edmiston and his abusive use of unchecked power (“Land Use Suit Names Singer, Agency,” April 28).

What irony that Edmiston reacts “angrily to the lawsuit” filed by Richard, Jean, and Adam Siegler. Perhaps, Edmiston cannot take a taste of his own medicine.

Just peruse the newsletters of the Santa Monica Conservancy someday (any day, as it’s ongoing), and you’ll find this agency in the grips of dozens of lawsuits and in the process of perking up new ones. Edmiston and the board of the Santa Monica Conservancy are the most litigious people ever, and use court threats to bully their land-grabs throughout the most valuable land in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

For example, during the most recent battle over the extension of Reseda Boulevard to Mulholland Drive, Councilman Marvin Braude and his chief deputy, Cindy Miscikowski, repeatedly used the argument of a threat of a lawsuit by the Santa Monica Conservancy and state Parks and Recreation during testimony before three city bodies--the Planning Commission, the Planning Land Use Committee of the Los Angeles City Council and the full council--to gain support for the closure of Reseda.

What an admission of cowardice! What clear testimony of a state agency that brutally runs roughshod over anyone in its path and calls foul when challenged.

If there was ever an example of government amok and unchecked, it’s in the tactics of Joseph T. Edmiston and his gang, who appear accountable to no one.

MADELINE DeANTONIO

President, Encino Hillside

Traffic Safety Organization