I was certainly surprised to find out that Sunnyvale's council members after five years could, under certain conditions, receive health benefits for the rest of their lives. I could understand that those benefits might be extended for a couple of years after they leave the council, but not forever.

The council gets laptop computers, a lot of free travel, etc. when in office.

I would certainly hope that in a follow-up article that you would publish the names of the four ex-council members who are receiving those benefits. I don't know the ages of the two that are going to be retired in the coming election, but they must be close if not at the age to qualify.

I doubt that very few citizens in Sunnyvale had any idea of the perk The Sun uncovered.

William Zanker

Sunnyvale

Fowler used same tactics
that he decried in letter

Congratulations to The Sun for exposing the hypocrisy of Councilman Fred Fowler in its Nov. 2 issue. Fowler is notorious for launching unsuccessful ethics investigations of his council colleagues, under the apparent belief that any action taken contrary to Fowler's political interests is unethical.

In the same issue we were lectured once again in the letters column by this self-appointed arbiter of ethics, we got to read about Fowler's intimidation of council candidate Nancy Smith back in July for daring to disobey his instructions to run against Planning Commissioner Chris Moylan.

And then, a few days later, thousands of voters received a vicious, misleading hit piece against Moylan, proudly displaying Fowler's picture--exactly the kind of mailer that Fowler decried in his letter to The Sun.

Fowler's gripe about one of Moylan's campaign mailers four months after his harassment of Smith has been revealed to be nothing more than another of his political tactics against those who dare to think independently. What an embarrassing conclusion to an already checkered council career.

While we can all take solace in the fact that Fowler has less than a month left to serve on the council, we must remember this issue of The Sun in case Fowler ever dares to put himself on the ballot for another office. We don't need another Boss Tweed nor do we need calls for unfounded investigations that sound like the ranting of someone with aluminum foil on his head.

Peter Cirigliano

Sunnyvale