Belmont Site and LAUSD Woes

Re “Panel Votes 4-3 for Completion of Belmont Project,” Oct. 21: The wealthiest people in history, we have chosen to cover our landscape with strip malls, automobile sales lots and expensive sports stadiums, while making only derelict and polluted land available for our children’s schools.

We should stop claiming to value education or the family, because our actions and our spending decisions drown out our words. Until we are able to point to our schools with the same pride our civic leaders now lavish on a mere hockey stadium, we will continue to be a society of private luxury and public poverty, rife with hypocrisy.

THOMAS MILO SOMERS

Loma Linda

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Isn’t it ironic that the newly elected school board (Mayor Richard Riordan’s puppets) used the same secretive, back-room, conniving tactics to strip LAUSD Supt. Ruben Zacarias of his authority that were used by the different commissions to conceal information from the public concerning the contamination at Belmont?

The school board blatantly misled the State Allocation Board to believe that the new CEO [Howard Miller] would only oversee the construction program, knowing full well they were going to underhandedly strip Zacarias of his power. Do new board members really expect their constituents to trust them to make good, sound, ethical decisions?

Zacarias cannot possibly resurface the Titanic and make it seaworthy in just two years. He or any other individual would need substantially more time to rectify the district’s deep-rooted problems. This school board, in its haste, has decided to deny him that opportunity and at the same time has very effectively drawn the ire of the Mexican American community.

SAM CHAIDEZ

Mission Hills

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I would be more willing to listen to the comments of the leadership of the Hispanic community about the Zacarias imbroglio if they were also willing to admit that a member of the Hispanic community could be an incompetent. It appears that the minority communities take the position of our man, right or wrong; rather than our man, but only if he’s right.

ROBERT M. ROSENTHAL

Los Angeles

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I voted for [school board president] Genethia Hayes and even put a sign in my yard, but now I’m having second thoughts. Although it seems unlikely anyone could be worse than [former board member] Barbara Boudreaux, the closed-door, secretive power plays she apparently favors are a cause for real concern. This is reform?

TODD ENGLE

Los Angeles

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Having had to suffer through Paul Conrad’s polemics (but great drawings) throughout the years, it seems only fitting that I can laugh and enjoy great drawings with my kind of politics. Congratulations, Michael Ramirez, you have all my respect as a devoted fan. As for the skewering of state Sen. Richard Polanco (“Racial Politics,” Oct. 19): It isn’t about his supporters’ brown skin, it’s about their thin skin!

LELAND P. HAMMERSCHMITT

Ojai

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The Times has absolutely nothing to express “regret” about (editorial, Oct. 20). Ramirez’s Oct. 19 cartoon was a perfectly appropriate, albeit hard-hitting, political commentary about a vital community matter. I submit that the “offense” was that the commentary hit the mark.

ERIC ISKEN

Tarzana

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Re “The Man Driving the Latino Machine,” Oct. 14: Thank you, Richard Polanco, for the service you have provided to all of us Latinos over the years. You have given us such unremarkable “leaders” as Rep. Grace Napolitano, Assemblyman Thomas Calderon and former Assemblywoman Diane Martinez, and now you threaten to fill the streets of L.A. with masses of Latinos if school Supt. Zacarias is ousted for not knowing that millions of our tax dollars are being thrown away every day and for being incapable of bringing his school board together.

Getting Latinos elected is one thing; electing Latinos who are responsive and accountable to the communities they serve--now that would be a truly remarkable feat.

VICTORIA R. BALLESTEROS

Los Angeles

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The article correctly noted Polanco’s longtime commitment to advocacy for services to the mentally ill. As a psychologist, I have found him to be bright, energetic and genuinely interested in this subject. The article, however, implied that he carries legislation for his political contributors, with specific reference to his authorship of legislation to authorize properly trained psychologists to prescribe medications for mentally ill persons.

State records show that in 1998, organizations representing those opposed to Polanco on this issue--specifically, physicians and psychiatrists--contributed nearly seven times the amount psychologists gave to him. If he truly had an eye to contributions, he would not carry legislation opposed by physicians. The fact is that medical psychologists who have received balanced training have shown they can provide high-quality medication services, and Polanco believes they can help the underserved.

DANA KIESEL PhD, Chair

Governmental Affairs Committee

L.A. County Psychological Assn.