Letters to the editor

The following are letters to the editor that appeared in the Oct. 14 print edition of The Peninsula Gateway. To submit a letter, e-mail gatewayeditor@gateline.com. Please keep letters submissions to 250 words.

Anderson, a true non-partisan, should be county auditor

In a Scoop du Jour column by Publisher George Le Masurier (“Voters now have many items in front of them,” Sept. 16), he pointed out that our current auditor, Jan Shabro, has taken actions that could be considered partisan. I could not agree more.

Hiring a former chair of the Republican Party to be chief deputy auditor and then having him help form a PAC which will “presumably benefit Republican candidates” smacks of partisan politics.

As one of 23 Freeholders elected in 1979 to write the Pierce County Home Rule Charter, resulting in our current executive/council form of government, I think back to the discussion we had over the issue of whether elected county positions should be partisan.

I was one of the Freeholders who was for non-partisan positions, since I felt it would result in electing the best-qualified candidates. But the majority of the Freeholders voted for partisan positions.

Two years ago, the voters of Pierce County changed the Home Rule Charter and made a number of positions non-partisan. The auditor is one of those positions.

I feel vindicated that my position 30 years ago is now part of the county charter. I felt strongly about non-partisan positions then, and I still feel as strongly about them now. I am affronted our current auditor is so blatantly partisan in a non-partisan county position.

We can do something about that by electing Julie Anderson in November. Not only is she the best-qualified person for the position, I know she will not play partisan politics when she’s elected.

John Lantz, Raft Island

Time to get rid of Commissioner Bosch; elect Hunt and Jones

In no way do I want the two Key Peninsula Fire District 16 issues to reflect on one another. This letter is about the commissioner race, which is separate from Proposition 1, the levy lid lift.

A little history. I was a member of the Key Peninsula Fire Department from 1966 to 2006. In 2000, I was elected to the District 16 Board of Commissioners and was the Chairman of the Board. It took a while to build a working relationship with Commissioner Jim Bosch, with Al Yanity stirring the pot all the time. But we did finally turn that around.

It was Mr. Yanity who I beat out for the position.

In the beginning of my six-year term, Mr. Bosch and Mr. Yanity were friends; by the end of my term, they appeared not to be friends.

Since I was planning to move away, I did not run for another term. Mr. Yanity was then elected commissioner.

The board has not been productive during most of Mr. Yanity’s term. Only with the action to go to a five-member board has it made any headway. One of those appointed board members, Sheila Hunt, is running for election at this time.

Hunt is a very professional, reliable person who has been helping the fire district for many years. Much of that help has been in the background and unrewarded.

Hunt’s opposition, Richard Hanna, is a close friend of Mr. Yanity’s with experience from a very large fire department. Being in a large department usually doesn’t give the necessary overall experience to manage or understand the administrative side of the department.

This all could be part of Mr. Yanity’s kingdom building. Who knows? Maybe this play of not being friends with Mr. Bosch is a hoax, and if Yanity’s friend is elected, you will have a three-person board again in truth. Is this a political conspiracy, only at the local level?

Vote out the troublemakers and elect a productive board. Elect Sheila Hunt and Claudia Jones.

Fred Ramsdell, Na’alehu, Hawaii

Process for Sgt. Dougil has been fair; healing process must begin

Let me see if I understand this. Mr. Folden (Letters to the editor Oct. 7) and other supporters of Gig Harbor Police Sgt. Matthew Dougil can show their support for him both in the press and at city council meetings, but if people want to show their support for the city and Police Chief Mike Davis, Mr. Folden wants to cry foul?

Mr. Folden also wants to cry foul in regard to the investigation that has occurred, calling it a “reckless indifference to the public good.”

The city was made aware of possible misconduct by Sgt. Dougil. Those accusations weren’t made by the convicted drug dealers but by a police officer.

The city, like any public agency, investigated the allegation and brought in an outside agency to do it; that took away the possible bias on both sides. After doing an investigation, the agency presented its findings to the city.

The findings were forwarded to the Pierce County Prosecutor’s office, another outside agency. It reviewed the findings and found not only enough evidence to overturn the convictions of the three men involved, but to also file criminal charges against Sgt. Dougil.

Sgt. Dougil was placed on administrative leave with pay. After a time, that turned into unpaid leave, which most agencies would have done.

Also during that time both sides agreed to wait for an internal review until after the criminal trial.

Not unexpected, two of the men involved in the drug arrest filed suit against the city.

Like it or not, every citizen in the United States is protected by the U.S. Constitution — even criminals. I have no doubt that the city, working with its legal advisers as well as its risk management people, realized that trying to settle this without going to court would be cheaper for the city as well as Gig Harbor citizens. By the time you throw in court costs, attorneys fees and the gamble of what a jury might award, the $200,000 settlement probably was a bargain.

Finally, after a long delay because of the court system, the criminal trial was held. Sgt Dougil was found innocent by a jury of his peers and was immediately put back on administrative leave with pay.

Now the city’s internal investigation will play out. And because it has to do with policy violations, not criminal violations, there is a little difference in the burden of proof here.

The city and Sgt. Dougil will lay out their cards, and an agreement of some sort will be reached. So far, I have seen no reckless indifference here. All I have seen is the system working properly for all parties involved.

This has been an unfortunate incident, and it’s time to move on and let the healing process begin.

Kevin Entze, Retired Gig Harbor Police Department, Gig Harbor

Marriage is between man and woman; vote ‘no’ on Ref. 71

I am writing to urge everyone to vote no on Referendum 71.

The bill that was passed by the state Legislature basically changes the definition of marriage without coming right out and saying that.

Voting “no” on this referendum has nothing to do with abolishing laws or denying rights. It’s an English lesson; marriage is one man, one woman.

Voting “no” on this referendum will bring together two segments of society that seem to always be battling — evolutionists and intelligent designers.

Looking at a man and a woman, we can see they are perfectly suited for each other, like an electric plug and a wall socket. If you believe in evolution, time and chance brought about men and women who were, by accident, perfectly suited for each other. If you are an intelligent designer, the Designer made men and women go together.

So not only will voting “no” on Referendum 71 protect our children, it will help our society to just get along.

Jim Hagman, Gig Harbor

Obama comparison to Mussolini shows inept characterization

I am indebted to John Stadler (The Peninsula Gateway Letters to the Editor, Oct. 7) for pointing out that the President of the United States, Barack Obama, is in reality not African-American but Italian — a descendant of Benito Mussolini on the Fascist side of his family and a descendant of Al Capone on the criminal Chicago side. Interesting.

One minor point, although I am loathe to correct such an astute student of history, Mussolini’s rise to power was in the 1920s, not the 1930s, when he was not shy about letting Hitler know that he, Mussolini, was the first Fascist dictator in Europe.

But by all means, we don’t want either Mussolini or Al Capone to be allowed by the Peninsula School District to speak to our children!

God forbid.

But there’s more to this than meets the eye. I have e-mailed George Lucas to inform him that I have uncovered the true identity of the ultimate villain of the Star Wars saga.

Aha!

If we would simply remove Barack Obama’s black Nazi-Fascist-Socialist-Communist helmet, we would find, much to our amazement, Darth Vader!

And now we learn that President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which only proves what the American right-wing xenophobes have known all along — that the Nobel Awards Committee is really a front for a Mexican Drug Cartel!

Leigh Hunt, Gig Harbor

Boundless Playground colors seem out of place at Sehmel

I am writing in response to Jennifer Flint-Nelson’s letter in the Oct. 7 issue of The Peninsula Gateway.

I am the person who “jeered” the fluorescent-colored playground equipment installed at Sehmel Homestead Park, and I will continue to jeer those colors.

I think the Boundless Playground concept is a wonderful idea! “Allowing children of all abilities to learn and play as equals.”

But after reading and viewing the Boundless Playground’s Web site, www.boundlessplaygrounds.com, I am a bit puzzled as to the PenMet Boundless Playground Committee’s reasons for choosing such ghastly fluorescent colors for the playground equipment.

There are numerous Boundless Playground parks pictured on the Web site that don’t have fluorescent-colored equipment. See Hartford and Killingly, Conn., and Buena Park and West Los Angeles, Calif., just to name a few.

Are these playgrounds unattractive to children? From my experience, if children see playground equipment, they are going to run to it and play on it, regardless of color.

Fluorescent colors have been proven to cause aggressive behavior in some children who are bi-polar or autistic.

They fade faster from UV rays and have absolutely nothing to do with heat or cold transference.

It is the material used, not the color, that has the main bearing on heat or cold transference.

I’m sure children with visual impairments have been able to navigate the Boundless Playground’s equipment with normal colors at other locations mentioned without confusion or injuries.

Many of my friends, neighbors and family members in the vicinity of this park were quite shocked to see this ghastly playground equipment installed when everything else at the park seemed to be fairly well-planned.

Those colors just seem out of place. They belong at a restaurant play area. Not at Sehmel Homestead Park.

Thomas Reid, Gig Harbor

Feral cats are an issue, but the answer is not euthenization

Friday is the ninth annual National Feral Cat Day to raise awareness that feral cats are out there and need our help.

Feral cats are abandoned pet cats who reproduce and become more wary of humans with each generation.

There are three ways of dealing with feral cats:

A Do nothing. The cats will continue to reproduce, be hungry and start to be a problem when their numbers increase dramatically.

A Trap and euthanize. It’s cruel, ineffective, expensive, and it goes against valuing all life as important.

Our humane society does not want to keep killing as population control, so please support them to achieve this.

A Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR). The cats are humanely trapped, neutered and returned to their familiar environment to live out their lives without reproducing, under the watch of caretakers who feed them.

Young feral kittens can be socialized, fixed and adopted to good homes whenever possible, along with tame adult cats.

Adult feral cats are happiest and do best when they’re returned to their original location.

Spaying and neutering reduces and eliminates the behaviors that people find offensive: spraying, fighting, yowling, wandering far from home.

It also adds years to the cats’ lives by keeping them healthier, protected from fight wounds and reproductive organ cancer.

Spending $1 on spaying and neutering saves $7 on animal control.

We desperately need more high-volume, low-cost spay and neuter programs and clinics.

We need more veterinarians to get involved and help in this area.

Please do your part and make sure all your cats are spayed and neutered.

Linda Dennis, Bremerton