Editor,
The public comments made by a few self serving citizens at the last city council session was unfortunate in that it was clearly a politically driven attempt to undermine and and pile dirt on a individual who has served the citizens of this city unselfishly and honestly for many years. Steve Dicterow is an honest man who has had some financial problems and he has responded in the most public and legally effective way possible.
For candidate (Judie) Mancuso and her friends to use such valuable time out of a public forum as an opportunity to spread malicious gossip on her opponent and to promote her own candidacy, is underbelly politics at its worst. Even though we are recently seeing this kind of politics at the national level, it is most unfortunate in a small personal city like Laguna.
Roger McErlane, Laguna Beach
The author is an appointed planning commissioner.
Just to set the record straight. Judie Mancuso had nothing to do with calling out Mayor Dicterow on his attempt to keep his financial instability from voters at the October city council meeting. She was merely supporting those of us who stepped up to let the public know because we felt it was dishonest of him not too. Had Mayor Dicterow divulged this himself which he had every opportunity and obligation to his constituents to do, residents would not have had to do it either. In his situation, he clearly should not be in charge of our city finances and his ties to drvelopment interests (44% of his campaign contributions) is also alarming. In addition, his 700 reporting forms show inconsistencies and an FPPC complaint has been filed against him. Laguna does not need a leader in financial distress. The risks are too great.