Government employees salaries; Orange County’s ailing toll roads; Meghan Daum’s praise for snail mail

Checking out state workers’ salaries

Re “State turns up more big salaries,” Feb. 2

So California state Controller John Chiang has demanded salary information from nearly 900 local government entities. The report is part of Chiang’s effort to document the compensation of all government officials and employees in the state.

I would hope that this will include state employees in general, and University of California and California State University administrators in particular. This is one area that is in desperate need of examination.

UC and Cal State bureaucrats have salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Hopefully, Chiang will have the temerity to open this can of worms. He will be surprised, I assure you.

Joseph A. Lea

Mission Viejo

How can 172 local government entities refuse to provide the information requested by Chiang? California has laws that mandate open government, including access to meetings and public records.

The fact that an uncooperative government entity faces a fine of $5,000 is laughable. That’s chump change compared to shenanigans like those in the city of Bell.

To quote the Ralph M. Brown Act: “The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”

Richard Dickinson

New York

Now that I am completely numb from reading about utility chiefs and water district managers making salaries in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, the pain that Gov. Jerry Brown expects me to endure with his budget proposal shouldn’t hurt a bit.

Where can I sign up to pay more taxes?

Robert Mauck

Torrance

Children let down by adults

Re “Divided by parental love,” Column, Feb. 1

I was deeply saddened by Sandy Banks’ column, not just because these children are blocked from seeing their mother but because all of the adults in their lives have let them down.

The adults have not done the work of processing their grief, channeling it appropriately and then teaching the children that pain happens and it’s OK to be sad. Until that happens, the whole bunch will be stuck at anger.

As I was reading the article, I had a flash of Abbie Cohen Dorn’s ex-husband and her mother and father gathered around her realizing they share the same loss, and falling on each other with much weeping and swearing at the great tragedy that has come to them.

Please, adults, grow up! Teach these children to process pain by processing it yourselves.

Debbie DeCaro

North Hollywood

Thanks to Banks for her eloquent and thought-provoking article on Dorn, who has become estranged from her three children by the concerted efforts of her former husband.

Perhaps the real reason Dan Dorn doesn’t want the children to have any contact with their disabled mother is because they may eventually ask him why he left her.

Marcia Goodman

Long Beach

O.C.’s troubled toll roads

Re “Economy takes its toll,” Feb. 1

Orange County built its toll road system when the state did not have the money to fund the projects. Because there was a need for alternate routes to Interstate 5, Orange County privately financed the construction and used tolls to pay back the costs.

User fees (which is what the tolls are) are a great way to get needed infrastructure built. If you want to use it, you pay for it. Naturally, during a down economy, fewer people drive, meaning that fewer people choose to use the toll roads. But should a catastrophe occur, having an alternate route could be a lifesaver.

California has gotten into financial trouble because residents want great services but have no interest in paying for them. Building projects or providing services through user fees is a great free-market way for people to choose what is really

important to them.

Matt McGrane

Laguna Niguel

Toll road proponent Marlon Boarnet believes that people should have a “choice” in transportation matters. Then why do the folks in Orange County have no subways or streetcars?

The better question is why the Bus Riders Union is silent on the subject of toll roads, which are essentially socialist transportation for those with excess discretionary funding.

Jon Hartmann

Los Angeles

That was then

Re “Hope amid the chaos,” Opinion, Feb. 1

Contrary to what Jonah Goldberg quotes another journalist as writing, Jimmy Carter didn’t lose Iran. President Eisenhower did when he backed the overthrow of its democratically elected government in 1953.

The long-term consequences of U.S. support for dictators exceed the short-term benefits. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recognize this in Egypt and appear to be skillfully balancing the aspiration for democracy against the immediate risk of a complete and chaotic government collapse.

Thomas Bliss

Sherman Oaks

Traffic trouble

Re “Council mulls shorter bus route,” Feb. 3

When will Westside mass transit opponents realize that the lack of off-road transit options west of Western Avenue is part of why the traffic is so awful? The only way to get to Westwood, Century City or Santa Monica is by car. And commercial development on the Westside has meant that there are a lot of people who need to get there.

No one will claim that the Expo Line, a “Subway to the Sea” or the Wilshire Boulevard busway will reduce traffic; that could not happen until development is controlled. But at least these projects would give those of us who live on the Westside and the thousands more who work there alternatives to sitting in traffic.

Sarah Hays

Los Angeles

The writer co-chairs Light Rail for Cheviot Hills.

Mail call

Re “In praise of snail mail,” Opinion, Feb. 3

I closely identify with Megan Daum’s sentimental attachment to snail mail. But she sabotaged my 2011 resolution to de-clutter. Now how can I shred all those cards and letters I have saved for so many years?

Yes, e-mail is quick, efficient and a space-saver — it has its place — but it can never replace the intimacy of a lovely handwritten letter that can be held in one’s hands and revisited for years.

Linda Linville

Corona