Re “City gets nothing for $100M favor to SDUSD” (April 5): I want to thank Hal Valderhaug for his commentary on San Diego City Hall. I had the opportunity to work with Hal on the redevelopment of property when he was a deputy city attorney. Hal was right about how the city functioned when staff was under a city manager, not the mayor. The staff contracted independent fair market appraisals (usually two) for acquisition. For a resale, a market analysis was prepared. The mayor and City Council were then able to review property issues on the basis of independent facts. Political bias came with the public discussion at a council meeting.
As Hal wrote, we need to get back to the city manager form of government and separate the facts from the politics.
— Paul Desrochers, San Diego
Re “Budget chief defends host of positions in middle management” (April 9): Until this city goes back to the system of hiring a city manager empowered to do what is necessary to solve or at least improve our fiscal crisis, nothing is ever going to change. Keeping the mayor in charge of how this city is run is sort of like letting the fox run the henhouse. Haven’t we had enough of this nonsense?
Lay off the middle managers and reform the pension plan. Stop letting labor run our city. Stop letting politicians make real estate deals.
No more “strong mayor”!
— Glen Volk, Point Loma