Mailbag: Gordon comparison far from flattering

Councilman David Gordon shouldn’t take as a positive any similarities between him and former Councilman Ted McConkey (“Council treatment of Gordon is familiar,” May 22), who was a fine fellow personally, but a flop as an office holder.

McConkey was swept into his council seat on a wave of anti-airport sentiment, but for all his speechifying about Thomas Paine and curfews, I don’t know one thing he set out to do that had any direct bearing on the airport, or for that matter, anything else.

What he was stellar at was making enemies. He courted them on the council, on staff, on the school board and in the press. The only people for whom he had no criticism were the gadflies, who became outrageous at the time.

Eventually voters got their fill of Cirque de Gadfly, and of McConkey, who came in a poor third in his reelection bid.

I’m not saying Gordon is the new McConkey, only that he should be concerned rather than flattered when others say it.

ALAN BURNETT

Burbank