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Claremont COURIER/Friday, June 14, 2013 7

[Editors note: The following letter wassent to the Claremont City Council, witha copy forwarded for publication. KD]

Conflict with citys law firmDear City Council members:

Your list of future council agendaitems includes the contract with BestBest and Krieger for legal services.

For many years, it has troubled methat the city attorneys law firm may also

represent the city in litigation. This cre-ates a conflict of interest.Our city attorney should be advising

you how to minimize litigation and alsowhether to accept the recommendationsof its litigators. Litigators have a reputa-tion for promoting further litigation in-stead of settlement, and mediation can bepreferable to litigation despite being lesslucrative for attorneys.

In addition, by not having a contractwith one law firm for legal services, youcan engage the most expert law firm forthe topic when you are required to liti-gate. A city attorney should give inde-pendent advice, which is at leastawkward if his or her own firm is com-

peting to be selected, and which is notpossible at all if the firm has a monop-oly.

Any conflict of interest should beeliminated. I hope that you will do thiswhen the legal services contract is up forrenewal.

Meanwhile, I request that you publisha breakdown of our citys expenses dur-ing the current legal services contract pe-riod before you calendar its renewal. Weshould know how much is paid to whomfor what.

Bob GereckeClaremont

Invalidating whats validDear Editor:

Are you kidding me? Is our legislaturereally that clueless? We want to givevalid IDs to illegals and felons who arebreaking our laws by being here to beginwith. We want to thereby grant them im-mediate access to all sorts of social serv-ices that most of them dont pay into (notaxes withheld from under the tableworkers).

Lets look at some of the drawbacks.(1) Birth certificates and proof of res-

idency are required to obtain these doc-uments. These can be created by

hundreds of counterfeiters who are cur-rently supplying them to anyone with theprice to pay.

(2) These documents can be obtainedunder any name the perpetrator of thiscrime chooses, thereby allowing for mul-tiple IDs for criminals and terrorists who

wish to remain anonymous.(3) Once obtained, the holder of these

documents can roam freely throughoutour country and never fear that they willbe jailed or deported. This will allowcriminals and terrorists free rein to de-stroy any building, installation or group

that they have targeted because, ifstopped, they will have valid ID.

(4) This law will make the term validID meaningless and once again thisstate will be the laughing stock of thecountry and the world.

Hayden LeningClaremont

Drop the personal attacksDear Editor:

May I express my gratitude for EllenTaylors unstinting and generous serviceto the community of Claremont.

Without her diligent and yes, unbiasedinformation, we would be hard-pressedto analyze, cogitate upon and resolve

many political issues.As a registered Republican, I am

grateful for people such as Ms. Taylor,who are devoted to the concept of com-munity service. I do rely on her analysisand perspective as a community leaderto provide information and balancedevaluation to the political conversation.

I am so sorry to see a letter to the edi-tor turn into a personal attack, and I mustsay that as a fellow property owner I ab-solutely agree with Ms. Taylors re-sponse to the Girl Scouts incident (andhavent we heard enough ignorant opin-ions about this topic?). The Girl Scoutswho wanted to sell cookies could have

benefited from a lesson in civics as theywent to city hall and obtained a permitfor their sales; instead the Girl Scoutswere thrust into a situation where theylearned nothing and probably felt bad.

We are not all privileged enough toown property, but any property ownerknows that liability starts whenever any-one sets foot upon their property If theGirl Scouts had been allowed to com-mence selling cookies upon private prop-

erty, any one of their customers couldhold the property owner liable for anysmall infraction, real or imagined.

Ms. Taylor was right to defend herproperty. Unfortunately, most insurancecompanies require police reports or otherofficial documents to back up propertyowners claims or information. Ms. Tay-lor was right to call the police to docu-ment the situation. This is the bizarrenature of the legal climate; most grownadults understand this.

I used to be a Girl Scout in this com-munity and I have raised 4 children inClaremont. I know personally that the at-mosphere within this community strivesto be forward-thinking and positive to-

ward youth. Please drop this inane per-sonal attack and stick to serious issues.

Carla JohnsonClaremont

READERS COMMENTS

READERS COMMENTS

Please send readers comments via email toeditor@claremont-courier.com or by mail orhand-delivery to 1420 N. Claremont Blvd. Ste205B, Claremont, CA 91711. The deadline forsubmission is Tuesday at 5 p.m.

The COURIER cannot guarantee publicationof every letter. Letters are the opinion of thewriter, not a reflection of the COURIER. We reserve the right to edit letters.Letters should noexceed 250 words.