Alarcon’s Civics Lesson Teaches Wrong Thing

* Richard Alarcon’s “A Civics Lesson: Trust Comes First,” [Dec. 13] is a prime example of the misunderstanding of the obligation owed by public officials to the electorate.

Alarcon tells us that city officials, by changing their minds about the Lopez Canyon Landfill, have violated the golden rule of good government as taught in our public schools, namely that elected and appointed government officials must keep their word.

The rule that should be taught, and which public officials should live by, is that one should never promise that which cannot be delivered. It is one thing to make a promise that you know cannot be kept, and quite another to demonstrate leadership and change as the conditions upon which a promise was made change.

I confess that I know nothing about the Lopez Canyon issue. I don’t know if Alarcon is right about it or not, but I do know this: To call it dishonest for public officials to change their mind if change is called for is the wrong message to give to our society. And coming, as it did, from an elected leader, it raises grave concerns about that person’s decision-making qualifications.

BERNARD S. OTIS

Woodland Hills