Dear Editor:

On August 8, the City Council received the Kroll report on the City’s finances and, ever since, there has been much speculation about whether I and my City Council colleagues engaged in wrongdoing. During this upcoming period, while this complicated legal situation plays itself out, I will rely on the good judgment and good will of community members who know how hard I have worked for the past nineteen years to do the right thing for them, and for all of San Diego, even when those decisions have been unpopular or politically risky.

In 2004, I joined with my colleague Councilmember Donna Frye in boycotting a number of closed session City Council meetings in order to highlight our belief that too many of the City’s decisions have been made behind closed doors. Our efforts significantly increased the transparency of the City’s decisionmaking process.

I led the Council on clean needle exchange, the Boy Scouts, medicinal marijuana, renters’ rights and a living wage for workers. I have made increasing the availability of affordable housing a cornerstone of my work at the Council. On all of these issues, and many more, it would have been easiest to look the other way and take a more expedient path. That is just not my style.

I will continue to work actively to restore the City’s fiscal health and to put in place policies to ensure that decisions by councilmembers and city management are based on complete and accurate information, even if these steps involve difficult choices.

I was very disappointed in the tone and content of your paper’s recent editorial and article on this topic (GLT 8/17/06.) Given my track record, I had expected to receive the benefit of the doubt from a community publication like yours, especially since, given the legal nature of the situation, I am not in a position to directly respond. I am content, however, to let my reputation speak for itself with the community for now.

Councilmember Toni Atkins

Dear Editor:

[Editor’s note: See news story on page 14 of this week’s issue.]

In “Conversations With Nicole”, in your August 17 issue, Nicole Murray-Ramirez gives us some vague details about two San Diego gay bars being “almost under siege by gang-like youth” on the previous Friday. Short on details, and absent the names of the bars, it piqued further interest. We are assured, however, that Nicole herself is “looking into the matter”. Whew, I feel safer!

Scanning the rest of the newspaper, I failed to find the news article about these attacks. Did Nicole and your editorial staff feel that there would be no interest on the part of the community in learning the names of the bars where these attacks occurred, or more precise details of the attacks?

Is this not news? Or does GLT have a policy of not reporting about crimes or other news involving our local bars? (i.e. some of GLT’s biggest advertisers.)

I note that I seldom see stories about incidents occurring in and around our bars that I have witnessed myself. (Examples: A hit/run incident outside of Flick’s, committed by a bar patron against a pedestrian who was also a bar patron. I heard the “thud” as the victim was thrown up onto the car’s hood, and looked around to see the car speeding away. This is not news? The EMT/late closing incident at Rich’s most recent “foam party”.)

How many more are missed? Surely, GLT routinely checks the police blotter for community-related incidents. Is there some reason why those involving bars are not reported on?

Bars have historically been - and continue to be - an important part of our community. Why, then, is the GLT seemingly systematically ignoring news that occurs in and around them? Doesn’t the community deserve to be informed about significant news relating to them, and then be allowed to make their own choices and decisions about their attendance of same?

Jon Tara

Dear Editor:

As a conscience member of our community I was the victim this week of having my vehicle broken into. Between August 6 and today, August 11 there have been two vehicles on just ? of a residential block between University Avenue and Lincoln Street that have had windows smashed. 6am this morning my car was broken into and thankfully only my ipod was stolen. I’d like to remind your readers to be vigilant in remembering not to leave valuables in their vehicles when parking on the street or any unsecure place and to park in well lit areas. Interestingly the police don’t physically come out and take the police report, they take it over the phone so it’s important that you take pictures of the crime for your records and insurance. Also, if you are a victim of any crime, report it immediately and call your elected officials.

Jim Leckliter

Dear Editor:

As a volunteer for the SD Pride Festival for more than 10 years, I was deeply disappointed that one of the shifts I volunteered for (Beer Garden) appeared not to be able to use volunteers in a productive manner. After 3 years of volunteering to pour and serve beer and other beverages, I entered the beer garden and quickly could see that some type of catering company had taken over this function. I waited for over 30 minutes for someone to assign me, and was told I could do “crowd control or trash checks.”

One of the joys of volunteering is to have direct contact with the beautiful members of our LGBT community. For whatever reasons, the festival took away a hardworking group of people from our community that wanted to serve our own community. The atmosphere of that beer garden without the volunteer servers was clearly not of the same energy. I was told they could not get enough volunteers, but did anyone think to ask some of our LGBT organizations if they could help out? Have the background checks gone too far to the extent that people do not want to be investigated to volunteer a few hours at the event?

Let’s turn our Festival back to our community!

Michael McAndrew