MAILBAG - Jan. 4, 2001

I have enjoyed the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse for many, many years in

various capacities -- as a board member, as an actor on stage and as an

ardent fan. My late wife was an outstanding singing actress under Pati

Tambellini and others.

We lived in New York City in our younger days and attended many shows

on Broadway, as well as many productions at our local performing arts

center. I say without hesitation that the caliber of the performances and

the direction of Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse productions have been so good

as to compare favorably with many of the extremely costly Broadway and

performing arts center productions.

Our community needs the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse! We need it! Our

people are entitled to the culture of good theater at reasonable prices.

Save it!

JULIAN S. ERTZ

Newport Beach

Councilman doesn’t need more staff to be effective

Newport Beach Councilman Gary Proctor symbolizes an emerging concept

in representative government. Proctor is lucid, intelligent, organized

and, if applying for most positions, would be considered overqualified.

It was heartening to see the extent to which Proctor is willing to go to

get in touch with his constituents. There is little doubt that Proctor is

no stranger to the information age and knows how to communicate.

Having said this, we wonder why someone of Proctor’s obvious qualities

is requesting additional staff help to serve the needs of Newport Beach.

Does Proctor suggest that city staff can’t or doesn’t brief council

members in proper detail? Is he suggesting that only the rich can run for

City Council because of the uncompensated out-of-pocket expenses that are

required? Does he infer that current and past City Council members don’t

know or didn’t know what was going on because of the complexities

involved with the job? Or is it that Proctor is so concerned with

constituent problems and finding resolutions quickly that he will require

dealing with city staff or residents mostly through a third-party

arbitrator?

We applaud Proctor for his willingness to serve -- certainly we need

smart people that will guide and direct our city intelligently. However,

during his first year of office, he should therefore document a time

study of all the missed phone calls, how many people were forwarded to a

phone message machine, how many calls were never returned, how many

meetings were missed, receipt of all out-of-pocket expenses that are not

tax write-offs and then subtract all the paid committee meetings he

attends on city business. Proctor is obviously familiar with business

plans -- but right now, he probably needs a new one.

RON and ANNA WINSHIP

Newport Beach