LETTERS LETTERS (August 03, 2005)

Fire board member wants competition in race

Editor:

The essence of democracy is having contested elections. The Menlo Park Fire Protection District is once again in the position of having only three filed candidates for three vacancies. This occurred six years ago with tragic results for the community.

If no one else enters the race the citizens of the district will be denied the benefits of a contested election and the opportunity to closely examine each of the candidates. The citizens will not be well-served if the three current candidates are seated without an election.

It may seem strange for a candidate to call for competition, but I am a citizen first and a candidate second. It would be a disaster if no one else enters this race. I urge qualified and interested citizens to consider running for director of the fire district. The filing period ends on Aug. 12 unless one of the incumbents does not file, and then it will extend to Aug. 17. See menlofire.org/pdf_file/ElectNov05/BrdElectionOverviewJune2005.pdf for information about this important community service opportunity.

Del Krause is the only incumbent who has not filed. I cannot speak for him regarding his intentions. If Del does not file it will be hard to fill his seat with an equally qualified person. Del has served the district for 12 years with great distinction. It would be sad to see his seat taken by someone without even a fraction of his abilities. And it would be a sad commentary on our appreciation of our democratic institutions if this were to occur without even a single vote being cast. Peter Carpenter Larch Drive, Atherton Director, Menlo Park Fire Protection District

Hurrah for changes to building rules

Editor:

Kudos to our council majority members, Mickie Winkler, Lee Duboc and Nicholas Jellins, for voting to make the Menlo Park housing rules fair and reasonable. With the recently enacted change, all homeowners on lots of 5,000 square feet and over will be "created equal." Before this change, half the homeowners in Menlo Park ("standard lot" owners) did NOT have to notify anyone except city staff. Now, ALL homeowners who want to remodel or develop their property in a one-story design must notify their contiguous neighbors (including drawings of the proposed project), and will not have to go through the added expense and strain of discretionary "design-by-neighborhood" review. This will act as an incentive for homeowners to develop or redesign one-story homes, which will have low impact on the neighborhood.

Dissenting council member Kelly Fergusson lamented that non-contiguous neighbors (the neighborhood) would lose their right to redesign someone else's home. I say, by voting for this commonsense change, the council majority establishes equal rules for all lot owners ("standard" and "substandard"), encourages the design of low-impact homes and removes the absurdity of having a neighbor several houses away stop a project. Hurrah! Mary Gilles Hermosa Way, Menlo Park

Yoo-hoo! Ken Starr, where are you?

Editor:

Where is Ken Starr, special prosecutor against Bill Clinton for an adult affair, now that we have an official in the White House who has committed treason? In times of war, as we are in now, anyone "outting" a CIA agent is guilty of treason. And I do believe that the minimum punishment is jail time. So let's all ask the Bush administration to appoint Ken Starr to prosecute Karl Rove -- this time it's a real crime against America.

Donnasue Jacobi Haight Street, Menlo Park

E-mail a friend a link to this story.