Mailbag: Cottie Petrie Norris is changing politics as usual

Huntington Beach resident Tim Geddes has joined the growing list of fans of our new assemblywoman, Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach), who is like a breath of fresh air in the otherwise turgid political atmosphere of the area in which she reigns (“Petrie-Norris has already had positive impact,” Aug. 8).

One of her greatest attributes is her accessibility to her constituents in the 74th Assembly District and her nonpartisan approach toward addressing their needs. In my opinion, her greatest accomplishment in her short term of office has been her acquisition of $2.9 million for immediate release to house Orange County’s homeless veterans.

Hopefully she will be able to continue to focus on the oft-overlooked needs of the homeless. A two-year term is a short period of time to benefit from such a stellar representative. Hopefully, Petrie-Norris will be around a lot longer to address the needs of the 74th Assembly District.

Lynn Lorenz

Newport Beach

School district is financially inefficient

The Newport-Mesa Unified school board is considering yet another raise for Supt. Fred Navarro? Whatever happened to independent-thinking board members who represented their taxpaying constituents by insisting on cost-effective management and educationally sound instructional programs? Under no circumstances should Navarro’s contract be renewed. Please try and finally, at long last, to demonstrate some fiscal and moral leadership.

Kent Moore
Corona del Mar

Foley distinguished herself at forum

I attended the Huntington Beach Huddle debate between Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley and UC Irvine assistant professor David Min on July 20. Both are Democratic candidates for the California state Senate District 37. The most obvious difference between the candidates is that Min has never been elected to public office, but Foley has more than 15 years of elected office experience as mayor, City Council member and school board member.

This difference in background and experience was highlighted during the debate when Foley expressed opposition to the Orange County needle-exchange program for intravenous drug users, which Min favors.

Unlike Min, Mayor Foley understands what it means to be responsible for the safety of all the people in the city or district she represents. She has considered the public safety risk from hypodermic needle litter, as happened in Santa Ana, the lack of professional medical oversight, the unacceptable proximity of needle exchanges to homes and schools due to concerns of drawing drug dealers and users near schools, and the potential that more drugs could be brought into a city that has a large population of recovering addicts in sober living homes.

Fixing these and other implementation problems needs to be done before the program proceeds.

Terri Fuqua

Costa Mesa

Couple is all shook up

It is fitting that Sylvia Ronquilla and Jesse Nava will pay to tribute to Elvis as they take their vows of marriage (“It’s now or never: Yorba Linda seniors will tie the knot at the 20th annual Elvis Festival,” Aug 16). The couple met while attending an Elvis tribute show in Las Vegas. May Sylvia and Jesse live happily ever after, and long live the memory and music of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach