A rush to judgment from someone on...

A rush to judgment from someone on the outside

Bob Tanabe of La Canada Flintridge -- it’s letters like yours that

give us conservative Republicans a bad image. You don’t have to be an

angry liberal to love trees.

I was one of those angry conservatives who showed up at the

Crescenta Valley Water Board to express my shock and grieve over the

beauty that was stripped from our community. Next time, I suggest you

get your facts straight before you show your ignorance about people

and code violations.

I am on the Crescenta Valley Town Council, and we were never given

any update as to their plans. My question to this community and other

CVTC members is, what mismanagement is going on in the CV Water

Board? Since you, Mr. Tanabe, do not live in La Crescenta and do not

pay my water bills, you don’t care if they are mismanaging things.

As for your rude remarks about Mrs. Lawler, I’ll have you know

that she and her husband have volunteered countless hours in our

local schools and this community.

As for me, I am a Republican activist who supports the supermarket

strikers.

P.S. Don’t judge someone until you walk a mile in their moccasins.

These views are not of the Crescenta Valley Town Council.

KRISTA SMILEY

La Crescenta

If CVWD led by example, it was of the bad variety

I disagree with Jerry Lane’s opinion that the Crescenta Valley

Water District has set a good example. I think they set several bad

examples, and I’ll list them here:

1. First, let’s get this straight about the trees that were cut,

which were Canary Island Pines. They are not, as Jerry claims

“water-guzzling trees.” A quick check of the Internet shows that they

are classified as drought tolerant, and needing no supplemental

watering. The drought-tolerant landscaping the CVWD will be putting

in will require supplemental water until it gets established. The

CVWD’s water consumption for landscaping will actually go up this

year. Water consumption up? Bad example!

2. They illegally cut down street trees. These were trees on

county parkway land. They had no permit. They said they were told

verbally they needed no permit. The CVWD does construction projects

every day and probably deals with hundreds of permits a year, and yet

they claim they didn’t know they needed permission? They broke a law?

Bad example!

3. Mike Sovich claimed at the last CVWD meeting that he didn’t

know about the CV Town Council or the Foothill Design Committee. This

one is really hard to fathom. He’s the manager of a major utility

company, and he is unaware of the one representative body of the

community he serves. And the water board member that does attend CV

Town Council meetings apparently never reports on their activities to

Mike Sovich. The CVWD doesn’t talk to each other, and is unaware of

what’s going on in the community around them? Bad example!

4. The CVWD just raised our water rates, and almost immediately

began a $100,000-plus project that is of questionable necessity.

Jerry Lane said that they’ve been saving the money for years for

this. If they had “extra” money, why did they have to raise our

rates? They raised their prices and are spending the money on

cosmetic upgrades to their main office? Bad example!

I have heard from several people, including Jerry Lane, that Mike

Sovich is a great water engineer, and one of the best things to

happen to the CVWD in a long time. But he’s not just an engineer

anymore. He’s a manager now, and that job involves a lot of people

skills. It would seem he’s got some learning to do.

I’m not calling for Mr. Sovich’s job. I would like him to

apologize, which he has done. Next, I would like him to pull his head

out of the sand regarding the community around him. Attend a few

meetings, and talk to a few people in the community he serves.

Let’s not defend the CVWD’s actions and pretend they were setting

a “good example.” They have made a horrendous mistake and have

misjudged the community they serve.

MIKE LAWLER

La Crescenta