In response

End of the Day

I would like to respond to the lady who wrote the letter called “The Real Fat Lady” (May 1) and tell her to get her facts right.

It was not a television program that Kate Smith had where she sang at the end of the night. It was at the end of the television day, which was midnight. No television was on after that. She sang “God Bless America” to close out the evening programming. There was no more television until six in the morning. That 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. timeframe was empty of anything except a test screen.

• Bill Sang
• via voicemail

Gleason a Miscreant

That article that Matt Potter wrote on Charles Lindbergh (News Ticker: “Faulconer Funder Nails Top Airport Spot,” April 24) where Gleason and the Airport Authority want to take the mural of Charles Lindbergh down and throw it away — it’s an abomination to do that.

Also, the article alluded to Lindbergh being a Nazi sympathizer, which he was not. Lindbergh was a patriotic American and he fought in World War II. Gleason should be kicked out of his job at the airport for denigrating a good American, as opposed to himself. Lindbergh was a first-class American and Gleason is a miscreant.

• Harold Greenman
• via voicemail

Equally Lax in Encinitas

Re: “Welcome to City Hall, Now Go Home,” April 24 cover story.

Jan Goldsmith, through the San Diego City Attorney’s office, appears to be making up excuses. Michael Giorgino, a city attorney spokesman, falsely claims this excellent piece in the Reader “is no more than a political hit piece masquerading as responsible journalism. Hargrove’s article is full of innuendo and personal attacks and devoid of factual information.” On the contrary, Dorian Hargrove’s piece is well-researched, makes important points, and is much appreciated.

Jan Goldsmith’s office should know all about political hit pieces. Despite Goldsmith’s and Giorgino’s circumvention of the issues presented, their obvious attempts to duck out on the city attorney’s failure to uphold the public trust, their office, and these public officers, should not be claiming press contacts are confidential work product.

The San Diego city attorney’s office, and public officials/officers of the court therein, should not be leaking, through private e-mail accounts, selective information to favored members of the media affiliated with the U-T, while not timely fulfilling California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests to other members of the public and media, as reported. The City Attorney’s office should be above board and set an example of public transparency and accountability. I recall Jan Goldsmith stating, in the past, that he would not conduct city business through personal e-mails. Yet he undeniably has.

We hope that changes can be made to San Diego’s Charter. We are still waiting for a Sunshine Ordinance to be passed here in Encinitas. Our City Attorney is equally lax at following open government law specified in the CPRA and the Brown Act. Encinitas was successfully sued for CPRA violations by Kevin Cummins, in 2010-2011, when City Attorney Glenn Sabine (also City Attorney for La Mesa) wrongly withheld a road report, improperly claiming it was exempt as a “draft document.” Sabine’s office attempted to appeal the court’s ruling, with council’s approval, but the appeal was so frivolous that the Court of Appeal denied review!

Mayor Teresa Barth, and councilmembers Tony Kranz and Lisa Shaffer promised in their 2010 and 2012 campaigns that, were a new majority to be elected, they would enact a local sunshine ordinance ASAP. That has yet to happen.

Instead, our council has actually regressed on open meeting law, disallowing nonagenda item public comments at all so-called Special Meeting Strategic Planning sessions. The Brown Act defines regularly calendared meetings as those that receive at least 72 hours notice. Encinitas Strategic Planning Meetings are now being held, routinely, on the first Wednesday of the month, with more than 72 hours notice.

But because city practice has been to hold council meetings on the second, third and fourth Wednesdays of the month, Mayor Barth and City Manager Gus Vina, are using this contrivance of “special meetings” to discourage public participation and to disallow the normal practice of three minutes per speaker on all agenda items.

These are all unilateral policy changes and decisions being made by outgoing Mayor Barth, City Manager Gus Vina, who was given a vote of no confidence by Sacramento City Council, before being recruited, with the help of Barth, to Encinitas, as of July of 2011, and long overdue for replacement contracted city attorney, Glenn Sabine, our City Attorney since 2000. Sabine is far too set in his secretive ways, which include encouraging, despite public objections, inappropriate serial prebriefing of council members re upcoming agenda items.

• Lynn Autumn
• Leucadia