Letters to the Editor

Community Hospital

This is pretty aggravating. The Queen Mary fiasco and the deal with Community Hospital demonstrates the corruption and incompetence of city management.

Marshall Blesofsky

Queen Mary

I have done work on the QM for many years. Many people don’t realize the ship floats and goes up and down with the tide. Instead of letting the salt water slowly eat away at the hull, why don’t they just fill in the sea wall around the ship with cement right where she sits?

Problem solved. You’re welcome.

Ian Gordon

Proposed Solar Tax

I urge the CPUC and Governor Newsom to vote down the “Solar       Tax” proposal which will negate my current solar incentives, effectively block new customers from going solar, and eviscerate a promising green industry that not only creates a multitude of jobs in California but takes advantage of “free power” from the sun.

My solar energy is saving everyone money, improving reliability and upgrading safety because rooftop solar helps reduce the cost of long-distance power lines that spark wildfires and power outages (which personally affect me as a disabled person who relies on electrical power for my medical equipment).

There has never been a wildfire started by rooftop solar, but the power companies cannot make the same claim.

I’m proud of California for its progressive way of thinking. Let’s not go backwards. With more rooftop solar, there are incredible opportunities ahead to continue building a clean energy future for California!

David Mautner

LBFD Waste

Recently, using statistics from the website Transparent California (2020) I discovered that 13 LBFD employees with the title battalion chief, on average cost taxpayers $325,000 per year or $27,083 per month.

My concern is that these battalion chiefs are assigned to the Fire Department, wherein 90% of the 911 calls are for paramedic services, and only about 10% are fire related. So, what do they do? Are they just showing up to a 100-year-old carryover union position that is irrelevant to today’s medical response mission? No one seems to know.

Also, when you compare the three assistant fire chiefs and the four deputy fire chiefs job descriptions to the battalion chiefs’ descriptions, there appears to be a lot of overlap. However, after expanding my search of these top five highest-cost battalion chiefs and comparing that to the top five highest senior city executives (city manager, police chief, fire chief, city attorney, port executive director, a lawyer and a maritime industry leader) the five battalion chiefs cost taxpayers more. The top five battalion chiefs cost about $427,000 per year on average and the city executives cost an average of $421,000.

When you compare the budget responsibility of the police and fire chiefs, who are responsible for over 70% of the General Fund, something is very wrong. City Council must hire an outside auditor to find out exactly what is wrong.

Larry Boland