A ROYAL PAIN "King of Monterey." You said it! ["The Happy Mayor," Oct. 17-23]. Time for a mayor less enmeshed in the old days and old ways. One that will look ahead and move forward. Morgan Christopher''s campaign may be casual but it is a serious effort. Your coverage practically ensures more votes for Dan Albert. I did not see any mention of the other mayoral candidate Bob Oliver. Come on Weekly, I count on you to inform and I hold you to a higher standard. Please, don''t make me pay for the Herald.

LINDY DUNLAP/MONTEREY

HOLD YOUR WATER BOARD

When politicians complain about an "out of control" Water Board, we need to ask: "out of whose control?" When those same politicians claim that our newly elected Water Board is responsible for 22 years of past misdirection we wonder: "Who are they trying to kid?"

Unlike those politicians, our new Water Board has moved aggressively to correct the worst of the old policies. It has changed the rules to allow homeowners that extra bathroom. It has stopped the unfair practice of selling water to the highest bidder. It has stopped giving water that we do not have for new developments. And, it has begun the difficult work of restoring the Carmel River.

For the last two years, we have had a Water Board that we elected and that is in our (the public''s) control. Not the control of the highest bidders. Not the control of water hungry developers. Which is why those politicians are so anxious to get the Water Board back "in (their) control."

JOHN DALESSIO/CARMEL VALLEY

CHUCK DAN

I had already planned to heed those signs exhorting me to chuck Della Salla. You presented some compelling reasons to chuck Mayor Albert too. Albert''s opposition to Measure A alone is enough to make a Morgan Christopher supporter of me.

In a city as flush as Monterey, how could the Mayor want to put the squeeze on our police and firefighters? Something you didn''t mention is that the city has tried to present firefighters and cops as being over-paid by misleadingly including the money they pay into their retirement fund as part of their net salaries.

MARILYN ROSS/MONTEREY

UNITED NATIONS DAY

October 24th is United Nations Day. Rarely has the nation''s attention been more focused on the United Nations, leading me to make two points:

One: Saddam Hussein, armed with deadly weapons, is a serious threat to international peace. It is appropriate that world leaders at the UN sought alternatives to the US administration''s rush to war.

Not only would such a unilateral, preemptive war create horrendous consequences for civilian victims, military participants, and many parts of the world, it would violate international law and create a truly dangerous precedent for other countries starting similar wars when they feel threatened. Many Americans and most of the international community have tried to hold back this rush to war. Thank goodness they are willing to speak out.

Two: As world leaders at the UN have resisted US calls for war, our President has questioned the "relevance" of the United Nations. Many of the world''s people are not the priority issues of daily life. They are dealing every day with grinding poverty that we cannot even fathom, with mass hunger, even mass starvation; with millions of children dying each year from preventable diseases and AIDS; with unending violence, and with an overwhelming lack of hope that life will ever be better. The United Nations and its humanitarian agencies are the way the world''s community comes together to respond to these problems and is of critical importance to the survival of hundreds of millions of people, and to any hope for a better world. For our American President to question the "relevance" of the UN is ill-informed, dismissive of global realities and many millions of human lives, and I must say, it is embarrassing.

LARRY LEVINE, PRESIDENT/MONTEREY BAY CHAPTER UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION