I am responding to Ken Jorgenson's letter (Opinion, Sept. 14) to The Sunnyvale Sun regarding how I voted almost two years ago, first as a planning commissioner and later as a council member, on issuing a permit to the Sabercats who were erecting a tent over their practice field.

First, I am happy to discuss the reason why I voted one way or another. I believe in honest and open government. I believe public officials and former public officials should explain their actions on issues.

I did vote twice on the Sabercats tent issue. As a planning commissioner, I voted to deny a permit to permanently allow a tent to be erected eight months out of the year. As a council member, I voted to issue a two-year temporary permit to allow a tent for 41Ž2 months a year.

The temporary permit also required the Sabercats to plant landscaping to partially mask the tent from the street and a change in color of parts of the tent to soften the starkness of the white tent fabric.

In short, as a councilman, I voted for a totally different proposal related to the Sabercats tent. The two decisions are analogous to deciding not to buy a full-size car one day and choosing to lease a compact car on another day.

One of the reasons I voted for the temporary permit was my concern that if the tent permit was denied--and the Sabercats were to subsequently leave--the Santa Clara Unified School District that owns the land might decide to redevelop the land and adjoining fields and the neighborhood would lose open space.

Dean J. Chu

Mayor of Sunnyvale

Paper needs to offer facts on the history of council

I have lived in Sunnyvale for six years. During that time, I have largely remained blissfully ignorant of the apparently dysfunctional internal workings of the city council.

Whatever I know of the current state of affairs, I've gleaned mostly from letters to The Sun and the occasional factual article.

The Mercury News doesn't cover the Sunnyvale council at the level of detail voters will need to make an informed decision at the polls. Sunnyvale residents depend on The Sun to cover local politics. The Sun could provide a great service to the citizenry by publishing a fact piece on the history of the council. Tell us who said what--and who did what--to whom and when.

Leave the opinions on the editorial page but give us the irrefutable facts about how the council got itself into its current dysfunctional state; what is its relationship with the PSOA and what non-negative things the candidates have to say for themselves.

At this point, I am certainly going to vote for "none of the above" for council Seat 1 because neither candidate has shown me anything positive worth voting for.

I implore The Sun to shed some much-needed light on the city council in general, and the upcoming election in particular.

Bob Weissman

Sunnyvale

Some in neighborhood want wireless tower

Why did The Sun's article about a wireless tower use one family's opinion to represent the view of an entire neighborhood?

Major omissions from your article include the following:

* Many people in the neighborhood would like to use their mobile phones in and around their homes for both business and personal uses, especially for inbound calls, but can't because reception is poor.

* Although it would be nice to place every cell tower on city property, everyone would then need to go near city property to get decent reception on their mobile phone.

* When was the last time you saw a cell tower that created "visual impact?"

Ron Bucher

Sunnyvale resident since 1977

People dependent on city
need to grasp situation

The city of Sunnyvale has been especially blessed for the past many years because it has had fiscally responsible city managers and has been part of a growing economy. As a result, the income received from the various sources of taxes has been sufficient to meet the rising costs of running a growing city.

Today, we still have an extremely fiscally responsible city manager who is well experienced in the "ins" and "outs" of city finances.

However, as a result of the bust in the economy in the Bay Area in 2000, the city's income has gone way down while the costs of operating the city keep rising with inflation. The city has had to reduce services and draw from its rainy day fund in order to balance the budget for the last three fiscal years.

For fiscal year 2005-06 the amount that has been allocated to balance the budget is $9.5 million. Forecasting the future is extremely difficult for even the best of experts.

In my opinion the economy in the Bay Area has changed permanently because of outsourcing of technical and manufacturing jobs and the extremely high cost of housing in Sunnyvale and elsewhere in the area. Venture capitalists demand to see a section on outsourcing in the business plans of new companies.

At best, in my opinion and that of others, we will be lucky to see a slow growth over the coming years.

Sunnyvale's situation is not unusual and is probably better than that of other cities in the area and the state government.

Current forecasts are that city's rainy day fund will be exhausted in fiscal year 2011-12, a very unhealthy situation for the city.

I think it is very important that everybody who is dependent on the city for services, their job or other means of support, understand today's and probably tomorrow's situation.

Werner Gans

Sunnyvale