Sidebars on Delgadillo

Re “Delgadillo trips up on fast track,” June 24

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan just doesn’t get it when it comes to the illegal actions of City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo. Riordan says Delgadillo “gets an F-minus in damage control.” Like most politicians, Riordan focuses on how to spin things after one’s mistakes. What he doesn’t understand is that it’s not the damage control that is the problem, it’s Delgadillo’s complete disregard for the laws he should be enforcing.

PEGGY JO ABRAHAM

Santa Monica

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I can’t help noticing, especially in Sunday’s extensive coverage of Delgadillo, that nothing was mentioned about his strange relationship with the billboard companies. These include his refusal to prosecute the billboard company that cut and poisoned city trees in front of their billboards (“City Atty. Vetoes Billboard Suit,” March 19, 2006) and his handling of lawsuits against the city brought by the billboard companies, in which, although the city won, he negotiated settlements that virtually invalidated most existing city ordinances for controlling billboard clutter (“Critics knock deal on ad signs in L.A.,” Nov. 27, 2006).

Due to these settlement terms, the billboard companies can convert their signs to digital images that change every eight seconds, posing a major safety hazard on our roadways besides adding visual clutter, and get permits for illegally erected billboards, among many other sweetheart deals.

Bad as it is to have a city attorney, the principal law enforcer, who acts as though he is above the law, at least such behavior so far has not directly affected the city and its citizens negatively. But what he did for the billboard companies is causing permanent damage to the city and to the welfare of its citizens for generations to come.

TED WU

Chairman

Coalition to Ban

Billboard Blight

Los Angeles