Bad PR, good PR
Dear ER:
Kudos to Nanette Barragan for bringing to our attention this shocking fact: the HB City Council has been paying a PR firm $10,000 a month for three years! (“Council questions PR budget,” Easy Reader Jan. 2). Shame on Michael DiVirgilio for speaking up in defense of this egregious practice.
Three times in the last year I’ve gone to City Hall to seek help from different HB City employees. All three times they have been kind and helpful. Let’s spend our money rewarding these people who truly practice outstanding public relations.
Liz Brubaker
Hermosa Beach
More PR questions
Dear ER:
On December 24th, the [Hermosa Beach] City Council received news that our public relations consultant resigned after I questioned the city’s $10,000 per month retainer agreement. At the December 10th council meeting, I requested an accounting of the fees. The details revealed that the city used $10,000 of your tax dollars in November to pay the consultant for approximately 39.5 hours of service or roughly $253 dollars/hour. I was appalled to learn about the tasks they performed for this high rate, including “monitoring media – specifically election coverage, compiling news clips, compiling and distributing news clips, drafting press release (re: election outcome), attending city council meeting, telephonic meetings on recount and installation of council members . . . .”
I also was shocked to learn that E&B, the oil company proposing to drill for oil in Hermosa Beach, is paying for city-issued press releases regarding oil-drilling information and activities. The reimbursement agreement provides that the oil company has a say in who the city hires as a publicist and provides E&B access to the publicist to provide “best available information from [E&B] in support of the project.”
Is this how residents want their hard-earned tax dollars used? I do not. What would you rather see this money spent on? At the January 28 City Council meeting we will decide whether to re-hire a publicist. I urge you to email me at nbarragan@hermosabeach.org and other members of the council to let us know if this is how you want your tax dollars spent. I also encourage you to attend the January 28 council meeting that begins at 7 p.m. at Hermosa Beach City Hall.
Nanette Barragan
Hermosa Beach
Undocumented
Dear ER:
The California Supreme Court granted Sergio Garcia, a undocumented immigrant (without a green card) the right to practice law in California. An undocumented immigrant’s presence in the country violates federal statutes.
In the future, thanks to Governor Jerry Brown and the California Legislature – we can go for surgery performed by undocumented immigrant licensed physician, and if we want to sue for malpractice we can go to undocumented immigrant licensed lawyer. Transportation to both of these places can be provided by an undocumented immigrant licensed driver. This ruling allowing undocumented immigrants licenses may well be expanded to licensing of professional engineers and other professionals, licensed by the state of California.
This legal precedent grants Sergio Garcia the right to practice law in California. Garcia graduated from Cal Northern School of Law and passed the California bar exam. Garcia’s record has not been entirely flawless – he provided a false “alien registration number” to a workplace and inaccurately claimed he was a lawful permanent resident (he didn’t disclose that falsehood to state bar investigators examining his moral fitness to practice law). He also was cited for driving without a license or insurance.
The California Supreme Court should have picked a more suitable candidate (one with moral fitness to practice law) for this unprecedented ruling. What do the lawyers who practice law legally in California think about this ruling?
With the help of Governor Jerry Brown and California Legislature, attorney Sergio Garcia will be able to become the first undocumented immigrant governor of California.
Robert Bush
Manhattan Beach
Memories of a fire truck
Dear ER:
So very much I thank you ER for bringing to our community attention gripping headliner interviews with the unique lifestyles of outstanding individuals; for me particularly Pat Aust’s exquisite collection of fire company tools (“Burning Obsession” Dec. 12 Beach magazine).
For a man it is expected to have an affinity for what fire trucks and the assemblage of fire fighting paraphernalia symbolize, especially if these implements were emblems of his successful career as a fire fighter.
As a little girl my big brother Ruben was often elected to take care of me. Ruben, having an exceptionally kind soul enjoyed caring for me. He had a dream to be a firefighter; often he strolled me pass our neighborhood firehouse. The trucks in gleaming red enamel with gold pinstripping looked breathtakingly fast, with their flashy, nickel plated pie pan shaped headlights; as I stood next to the fire engine its shinning black tires were much taller than I. I too wanted to be a firegirl – they all laughed. My brother explained to me that men were firemen, and girls got rescued by firemen on tall varnished ladders from tall burning buildings. Immediately, I realized there were only men at the firehouse. I knew that I could no more be a fireman than their mascot dog, a female dalmatian.
Nevertheless, the firemen would set me up into the driver’s seat, I held tightly to the steering wheel, what an euphoric experience – I knew then what I wanted to be.
I started kindergarten. Our teacher, to get acquainted, asked each of us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Excitedly I volunteered “I want to be a fire truck!” My world was where my brother took me, and Ruben’s world was to be a fireman; from those fondest of memories when I was an impressionable little girl with an extravagant imagination, to be a fire truck seemed acceptable. Many years have outdistanced that little girl, and I have loved being a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
I just had to respond. Mr. Aust’s fantastic collection reminded me of my brother.
Dora Perez-Meyer
Torrance
