Mailbag: Initiative would give the people a say over Fairview Park development

With respect to the Daily Pilot Commentary: “No need to add `amenities’ to Fairview Park” (Oct. 29): Well said, Kevin Nelson.

If this doesn’t help convince people to keep Fairview Park as a natural and native park, then take a look at the Costa Mesa lighted sports complex that some of our City Council is promoting and the $186,000 spent to evaluate proposed changes to the park’s master plan. They say “preliminary estimates for this concept ranges from $12 million to $15 million.” This sounds like the phrase, “preliminary estimates for the bullet train.”

The Fairview Park Preservation Alliance is working to put an Initiative on the November 2016 ballot to pass legislation to create an ordinance to give the people of Costa Mesa a vote to determine what significant changes to Fairview Park may be made.

This ordinance does not prevent the city from maintaining and improving Fairview Park based on the existing Fairview Park Master Plan. It is designed to keep Fairview Park as a natural and open space as documented in the approved Fairview Park Master Plan.

This is your wake-up call. We need help with this measure. Email me at [email protected] with you commitment, thoughts or questions to help us make this ordinance happen.

Larry Courter

Costa Mesa

The writer is director of communications for the Fairview Park Preservation Alliance.

*

Superintendent earns too much

The president of the United States’ yearly salary is $400,000, plus a $50,000 expense account. German Chancellor Angela Merkel weighs in at $234,000. British Prime Minister David Cameron draws $214,000. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes $202,700. French Prime Minister Francois Hollande makes $194,000. Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, only makes $120,000, and China’s president, Xi Jinping, draws and even $22,000.

Our Newport-Mesa Unified superintendent has just been given his third raise in as many years, and his base salary, according to his contract, is $275,945, plus a transportation allowance of $9,000, and a communication allowance of $1,200. His total compensation is $286,145. As if three raises in three years wasn’t enough, the board is throwing in “merit pay” to the tune of $20,000.

In a year when the district employees received a 2.5% raise, and an inferior and in some cases, more-expensive benefit package, this superintendent enjoyed a 9% increase. Why? Why is the superintendent of a medium-size district making only $150,000 less than the president of the United States? I bet Merkel would like to know too.

Sandy Asper

Newport Beach