Letters

I recommend and endorse Pam Torrisi for election to the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education on June 7, 2016. Pam is the one candidate to bring back civility, honest and open dialogue and good governance principles to our school board.Pam's service to our community and school district has been long and commendable. She came to Morgan Hill as a young girl, attended middle school and graduated from Live Oak High School in 1969. She took a position with our district as a Teacher's Aide working with Special Needs students, retiring 30-plus years later with the highest of accolades. During her long tenure she was recognized by her peers and elected President of the Classified Employees bargaining unit, serving more than 10 years in that position.I am a founding member of Community for Positive Governance (CFPG), a grassroots organization formed a few months ago in response to the resignation of Amy Porter Jensen from our Board of Education. Ms. Porter Jensen resigned because she was bullied and harassed by some members of the community and at least one board member. It was apparent to CFPG that there was a high degree of dysfunction on the BOE. We adopted a goal of reestablishing Positive Governance in the BOE through the election of candidates that adhere to the principles and philosophy of Positive Governance. The June 7 election (to fill the Porter Jensen vacancy) will be our first chance to make that happen.Pam also lives in the new district that the board voted to adopt and will run again for the full term in November. We request your support in that endeavor.Please consider Pam Torrisi for MHUSD BOE.Respectfully,Roger C. KnopfMorgan Hill

Let’s try pedestrian safety suggestionsI appreciated Kathy Sullivan's more expansive solutions to the serious concerns about pedestrian safety downtown.As a member of the Downtown Association, she presented more proactive suggestions than just saying that flashing pedestrian lights would detract from the ambiance of downtown. It's obviously a tricky proposition. How do we create a situation in which downtown businesses thrive, which is the obvious goal of the Downtown Association, while providing a safe environment for residents and visitors?Perhaps the dialog has now progressed to the point where these are not mutually exclusive endeavors. Downtown businesses need patrons and people will not venture downtown if they fear for their safety. Expanding our creative options to benefit both downtown businesses and the safety of their patrons should be our goal.She has offered many good starting points for reaching consensus. Among them is closing Monterey Street downtown on select weekends or even every weekend when commute traffic is not an issue. Her suggestions merit further discussion and trial implementation.Working together and thinking outside the box, we can create a win-win situation for our downtown businesses and pedestrian safety!Debra UllmanMorgan HillCut down on wasteful spendingVery biased views on downtown presented in last issue. Let's interview and talk with a vast array of real citizens without vested business interest in downtown and find out what they are thinking.Downtown is not the only place that feels unsafe. More traffic in the entire town by distracted careless drivers is pronounced.My opinion: too much taxpayer money is being poured into downtown. Instead, that money should have been spent on infrastructure such as road and pipe repairs. No new taxes please.Learn to spend the resources more wisely. City government tends to be somewhat wasteful spending our tax dollars. The economy isn't going to be like it is now forever. We need to spend more carefully.Marie LambMorgan Hill