Letter was only a ploy to speak ill of the president
In response to Julianne Spillman’s Monday Mailbag letter on “Bad behavior tends to trickle down,” I suggest that she re-read Carl Raggio’s article.
I find that all Raggio’s articles are right on the mark. I also find that all of his articles are articulate, accurate and well researched. It also seems to me that her response was just a personal ploy to bash President Bush for everything she finds wrong with our country.
Joann Grimaldi
Glendale
Time to discuss the high salaries of city employees
Parents of teenagers can often share special stories when they had to have a heart-to-heart talk with their son or daughter. Often these were tough, difficult and embarrassing situations forced upon them by some wild, unexpected or dangerous behavior of their kids. I feel like one of those moments is coming on that I need to share with an understanding friend.
It’s not that I need to have a talk with my kids about sex — they are now in college. It’s not a problem with smoking, drinking, taking drugs or some other sickening behavior. It’s not that they don’t communicate or don’t visit often. Actually, it’s not about my kids at all, though the feeling of trepidation is about having an open yet tough dialogue with someone dear to us.
This is not going to be easy; so here it goes. Unbeknownst to most of us, and for many years, hundreds of city employees have been taking home extraordinary salaries above and beyond anything reasonable or imaginable.
I feel as if I just walked into my teenager’s room and found a used syringe on the floor.
You know the feeling. Like when you’ve been lied to about a deeply personal and moral issue and the sanctity of your home has been violated. But it’s more — it is as if this son whom you’ve entrusted with the core of your very being has been sneaking behind your back and laughing at your trusting nature again and again.
While the city had been denying my requests to fix my broken sidewalks, the crumbling curbs around my home and more parkland in my old neighborhood, they have been splurging on salaries and overtime like there is no tomorrow.
For years I’ve been asking for an aquatic facility for our kids and seniors but had been denied again and again on grounds that there was no money. Ditto on my request for accountability for roads and infrastructure information.
For years we’ve been given the “base” salary of employees as the standard of comparison to other cities and industries, but never being told of the “steps” within each salary range that boosted their pay or the mandatory overtime rigged into negotiated contracts.
Imagine salaries that should pay $80,000 winding up as $160,000 for jobs that often require no more than a high school education. Imagine hundreds upon hundreds of such jobs approved with reckless abandon by our City Council.
It’s like finding out that your teenage son was bulking up on illegal steroids and then uncovering that your own brother was the pusher. It’s never easy to find the right time to have a heart-to-heart when you feel that you’ve been cheated or wronged. But it’s time we should all have an honest talk.
Herbert Molano
Tujunga
