Mailbag

Regarding The Montrose Collection: Folks, after careful digestion of the saga of events per the Glendale News-Press of Sept. 8 (“Neighbors named in $2-million suit”) and the just-filed $2-million slander lawsuit in Superior Court on Aug. 16, the restaurant should be renamed the Comedy Saga Restaurant.

I don’t know personally and haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Robert and Sharon Thompson or Loren Harris, who just happens to live behind the restaurant. But they are certainly in my opinion great Americans who just simply want to enjoy the peace and quiet of their respective dwellings.

No one in the city is sacred, from the mayor on down, or above the law where city code violations have been verified by our Neighborhood Services Department on various banquet hall facilities.

I have attended many hearings myself in 2005 along with others when various violations have surfaced regarding city code infractions. If The Montrose Collection owners were really serious about wanting to be a good neighbor, they would have invited the Thompsons and Harris along with Margaret Hammond over to their restaurant for coffee. This way Montrose Collection can identify the concerns of their neighbors and work on finding workable solutions.

By their $2-million slander suit, which included both compensatory and punitive damages, the plaintiff is more interested in obtaining monetary rewards than finding a fix that will benefit all of the parties in and around the restaurant as well as the Montrose community. I have knownthe fourth defendant, Hammond, personally since 1998. She is also a great American and has done an outstanding job as president of the Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council. When she appears before City Council, Hammond commands the respect and attention of all council members. Each of them are focused on her remarks, whether in agreement or not. Hammond is a first-class lady all the time. In my nine years in having the honor and privilege in knowing her, she has never — again, has never — engaged in any of the demeaning accusations as stated in the first, second and third causes of action on pages 2 through 5 of the lawsuit, which includes mention of an ethnic motivation on page 5.