I enjoy reading The Sun every week and I think a local newspaper is an important resource for our community. I've got a couple of comments about the June 9 edition.

First, I appreciated seeing the mention of Ponderosa Elementary School being honored as a California Distinguished School. Since I live in the portion of Sunnyvale that's in the Santa Clara Unified School District, it has always bothered me that The Sun only seems to cover the Sunnyvale and Fremont Union district schools. I'd like to encourage you to give more coverage to the SCUSD schools that serve large numbers of Sunnyvale students: Ponderosa, Braly, Laurelwood, Peterson and Wilcox.

The other issue is DeCinzo. I've seen a number of letters to the editor complaining about DeCinzo's cartoons, and I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Although I was not a fan of Ronald Reagan, I found DeCinzo's cartoon this week rather offensive. In fact, his cartoons are rarely humorous, often in poor taste and generally not particularly witty or insightful, in my opinion.

He's got a right to express his opinion and you've got a right to print it, but I think you could probably find a better use for the space.

Betsy Moore

Sunnyvale

DeCinzo speaks for many
who live in Sunnyvale

Thank you for all the great DeCinzo cartoons. This guy speaks for many of us.

As far as I'm concerned, it's the primary reason why I even look at The Sun.

Give that man a raise.

Eric Predoehl

Santa Clara

Question about pension
cost savings has merit

This letter is in response to the June 16 letter to the editor by Tim Risch regarding pension costs.

Risch stated in his letter to The Sun that he had not received pension cost information requested from me in a May 11 letter. His letter was received at City Hall May 17, and I received it a couple of days later.

I believe the public needs accurate information. On June 15, after spending several weeks reviewing seven years of city budgets, I read my response letter to Mr. Risch at the end of the city council meeting, answering all of the questions Mr. Risch asked.

In his June 16 letter to the editor, Mr. Risch raised the same topic. He stated he had reviewed the city's budget for the last five years and found no such improper item as I had described. He also claimed my assertions were "unfounded and without merit."

In fact, there was substantial merit to my questions regarding $5 million in pension cost savings.

First, there was an error in the amount. The correct amount of pension cost savings should have been $3.4 million per year for four years. The response letter details how the $5 million was originally estimated with data provided by the city staff in 2003 and how the actual $3.4 million is determined.

Second, it does appear that council was not specifically advised of the pension cost savings, which totaled $13.6 million over the four-year period.

Third, a total of $2.6 million of the $13.6 million had been set aside for future costs. My preliminary information was that none of it had been saved.

I refer anyone who is interested to the city's website at www.sunnyvale.ca.gov to read my response letter as well as Mr. Risch's original request letter. The letters are located at the end of the minutes for the June 15 city council meeting.

Why is any of this important? I believe one of the reasons I received more votes than anyone else in the last election was because I pledged to use my financial background to push for fiscal responsibility and make city government more open and easily understood. I believe that the $3.4 million pension cost savings each year were financially significant; it was 4.8 percent of the general fund operating budget the first year it occurred, and council should have been allowed to make a public policy decision on the disposition of the savings. I expect any future significant changes to the budget will be discussed publicly.

Dean Chu

Vice mayor of Sunnyvale

Many help feed, clothe and house the homeless

For the last 17 years, Emergency Housing Consortium and the County of Santa Clara have teamed up to provide life-saving shelter and hot meals during cold-weather months to homeless adults and families at the National Guard Armory in Sunnyvale. We are extremely grateful to the concerned citizens, businesses, schools, and community organizations who are such wonderful and inspiring partners, volunteering their time and support to help provide meals, medical/dental care, transportation, literacy classes, clothing and a helping hand to 250 of their less-fortunate neighbors who stay at the armory each night. These efforts have contributed to the success of this year's Cold Weather Shelter Program.

This winter, more than 980 different men, women and children came for help; for the four months of the program, the armory provided the equivalent of more than 13,300 nights of shelter. In Sunnyvale, the success of this program is dependent on the generosity of our volunteers, 25 of whom work with us every year. In addition, this year, we had six join us for the first time. We express our sincerest gratitude for their support.

In Sunnyvale, in addition to individuals, we received dedicated support from many Bay Area organizations, including religious groups, neighborhood associations, schools, cities, service clubs, corporations, health and private organizations.

Finally, we would like to thank the Army National Guard unit in Sunnyvale for going out of its way to accommodate the Cold Weather Shelter Program, an essential service to the North County community.

Ky Le

Assistant director, singles division Emergency Housing Consortium