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Letters to the editor

Mayors don't rotate

Dear Editor:

I found your Dec. 14 editorial, "New mayor for Danville," very interesting, and in part very true, yet, also in part inaccurate. As a 22-plus year politically active resident of Danville, I have the knowledge to judge.

The paragraph about Mike Shimansky's service as mayor in 2007 was accurate and deservedly complimentary. However in the preceding paragraph, the phrase, "The mayoral position rotates among the five Danville Town Council positions," is false. In the past Shimansky, for example, has been skipped twice when it was his "turn" to be mayor.

On Dec. 4, Mayor Candace Andersen, Vice Mayor Newell Arnerich, and Councilman Mike Doyle, recipient of a public service award, were all unanimous actions. Andersen, Arnerich and Doyle are also the three council members up for re-election in 2008. Coincidence, or a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act?

"How many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn't see? The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind," . . . Bob Dylan, 1963

Ralph Hoffmann, Walnut Creek

Posted by Ralph N. Shirlet, a resident of the Danville neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2007 at 8:28 am

Thank you, Mr. Hoffman, for the reminder of what we learned following 1959 from our fellow youth including Bob Dillon. Another very good lyric that applies is John Lennon's "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" from Strawberry Fields Forever.

Danville is held up as a model to other communities such as Alamo seeking incorporation and yet we should be nobody's model. Danville is proof of a town government autonomous to the will, interests and advisory of its residents and their neighborhoods. It does not appear possible for the most sincere council members to remedy that result.

It is as if we have once again returned to 1959 and mindless disregard for our governments' misbehavior as we selfishly celebrate lifestyle.

Ralph, Alamo Ridge neighborhoods