Los Angeles City Workers

This letter is regarding your March 13 article about Los Angeles employees’ suggestions to Mayor Richard Riordan. As a city general services clerical worker, I experienced disbelief on reading an employee’s suggestion that he should be fired to save the city money because he reads newspapers all day. While this common-sense-challenged individual probably has a point in his own case, the public would be hard-pressed to document such taxpayer-financed sloth in my office. Our workers are constantly rushing to finish ever-escalating accounting tasks with ever-diminishing staff.

I realize that bashing all levels of the American government is currently in fashion, but, please, couldn’t your reporter manage a little balance and fairness even for public-sector workers? We may save your life one day as 911 operators, paramedics or police. We may open the eyes of your child to the world of books in public libraries. We are caretakers of what we all have in common. Most of us try to do the best job we can, given the limited resources provided by your taxes, to take care of our public treasures.

My office invites the underused worker you described to come help us. He should bring his office machines with him; we lack sufficient personal computers, fax machines and copiers, for starters. Neither our machines nor our staff spend their days sitting in idleness. And the same is true for the many busy city offices I visit during the course of my workday.

MYRNA HILL

Sylmar