Flanders Founder

Olof Dahlstrand and I are the councilmembers still living who were on the City Council in the early years when the city acquired the Flanders property. I want the record to show that at no time was there discussion that the Flanders estate should be sold.

In fact, I recall the city was approached by a gentleman who wished to purchase the estate, and the council directed staff to explain it wasn’t for sale.

In the ’70s and ’80s, the city was working to meet the estate’s needs. We didn’t have the Flanders Foundation, unfortunately, as I know we would have worked with a foundation to find the best usage.

I believe the defeat of Measure I will make the City Council and the Flanders Foundation find the best usage of the parkland/estate; selling it means putting the money into the General Fund so it can be wasted.

Ask yourself two questions: Does selling the parkland/estate now make sense, when housing values are at their low value; and what is the city thinking when it wants to compete with its residents in the sale of parkland/property?

Marina Factor

Your statement of endorsement of a Republican candidate for MPC trustee is wrong on two points.

First, you mistakenly refer to “incumbent Steve Emerson.” He’s not the incumbent. No one is. The Area 2 seat is new, having just been created with area-wide elections for the first time, instead of at-large elections which in past years often resulted in a homogeneous board of Monterey/P.G./Pebble Beach residents, leaving Seaside and Marina unrepresented. No longer.

Second, you dismiss progressive Democratic candidate Dr. Margaret-Anne Coppernoll’s campaign as based “largely on advocacy for Marina.” There’s something wrong with that? Of 11,350 voters in MPC Community College District Area 2, 9,900 (87 percent) have Marina addresses, and 1,450 (13 percent) are in Seaside. Do you think she’s supposed to advocate for areas she does not represent? Pebble Beach, maybe?

As the Weekly notes, Dr. Coppernoll will advocate for her largely Marina constituency. In this non-partisan election, Dr. Coppernoll has the support of voters of all types, including Republicans, and is endorsed by the local Green Party.

Editor’s Note: We regret the inadvertent reference to Emerson as an incumbent.

Reagan Recalled

It was Ronald Reagan who stated that “he did not want to make the youth and inexperience of his opponent an issue for the campaign.” However, in the case of the race for Monterey Peninsula College Trustee, that is precisely what needs to happen.

The primary responsibility of a trustee is to make financial decisions that provide the most stable financial platform for the administration, faculty and students to work from. In these days of extreme financial hardship to the district by the reduction of funding from the state, it is more important than ever that maturity and real-world experience take precedence.

The fact that MPC is now electing its trustees by district is not an excuse to seek out the most qualified among us to deal with the issues at hand; rather, it’s an imperative.