In less time than it would take to honor the former city manager's contract, the Sunnyvale City Council has taken Sunnyvale city governance from All-American, with governance in the sunshine, to "all-embarrassing," with governance by misstatements and secret legal negotiations. The Dec. 12 issue of The Sun indicated that Bob LaSala was placed on administrative leave and quoted Mayor Howe as saying: "LaSala is not currently under any sort of investigation or legal charges." This is a clear misstatement by Mayor Howe.

The Dec. 18 city council meeting with minutes approved by the council on Jan. 6 document that Councilman Lee stated, "City Manager Robert LaSala will be away from his office for personal reasons." This is a clear misstatement by Councilman Lee.

As a concerned citizen, on Jan. 6, I presented to the city council my concerns with the recent election, their latest actions with the city manager and the absolute absence of open and truthful discussion about events and the process.

In order to keep this all behind closed doors and avoid public scrutiny we are now told that since the situation was resolved by legal means in such a way that the public cannot know the specifics of this saga. This is governance by secret legal negotiations.

Ethics statement No. 1 of the city of Sunnyvale states, "Recognizing that stewardship of the public interest must be their primary concern, members will work for the common good of the people of Sunnyvale and not for any private or personal interest, and they will assure fair and equal treatment of all persons, claims and transactions coming before the Sunnyvale City Council boards and commissions."

Given that the Public Safety Officers Association gave an unprecedented amount of money to the victorious council campaigns and that the immediate past president of the PSOA, Steve Fisk, was quoted in the Feb. 7 San Jose Mercury News as saying: "[LaSala] was a playground bully. Sunnyvale is better off without him," do the city council's actions with the city manager represent working for the common good of the people or does it represent a payback to the private interests for their assistance in the previous election?

This council has real ethics and integrity problems. They have demonstrated a true lack of ability to understand and to focus on their elected role—setting policy. They are pursuing their misguided desire to run the day-to-day activities of the city from the council chambers. It took many years for Sunnyvale to become an All-American city. The new Sunnyvale City Council was able to turn this All-American city into an "All-Embarrassing" city in less than six weeks. Their actions are reprehensible and comical and they are an embarrassment to the community.

Michael L. Knaebel

Sunnyvale

Sharing son's story may be helpful to others

Our son, Daniel Steel, was included in The Sun's cover story, "Straight Talk," on Feb.25. We read the article and have shared with family, friends and co-workers.

We want to thank your paper and the writer for covering such stories with such care and compassion. The most important thing to our family now, besides Dan's health and well being, is to "get the word out."

We know we are not alone. And if sharing our story will help other families we are glad to do so.

The Steel Family

Sunnyvale and Cupertino

If it saves a buck, it keeps daycare costs down

I agree with Constance Cook-Turner's Feb. 18 letter in the Courier that the children we watch are our future. My wife has provided family daycare to children under five for almost 35 years, and I've helped. We have a sole-proprietor home business.

We are moderately well-off, buying our own home. We own one car, 18 years old this year, and we spend a decent amount of our gross revenues on arts and crafts and home study for "our" kids.

We cannot afford to hire an assistant at above the minimum wage without raising rates considerably. We provide our own in-house equipment for the most part and do a lot of copying at Kinko's. If other providers can access and use facilities for arts and crafts, I don't see anything wrong with it. If it saves them a buck, it helps keep the cost down for the parents. The dollar benefit compared to overall costs is marginal.

As for teaching children values, I am more concerned about other issues than where their paper projects come from.

Teaching children to share, helping hyperactive children learn to control themselves and children with language difficulties learn English helps instill the idea of right and wrong and gives them the discipline to overcome difficulties, even exceed their own expectations.

One of our boys was a 5-year-old of another culture who couldn't write or read even simple English or always understand what we told him. He used to break pencils to avoid the work. Within three months, when he was ready to leave daycare, he could write his name, the alphabet and numbers and could read entire sentences. His parents still contact us and tell us he's received awards for his classwork.

This is where our values come from.

James Daugherty

Sunnyvale