The Sunnyvale Sun
Letters & Opinions
Speak Out
Family leave for council
members is not issue
I wish to respond to the debate over council member Melinda Hamilton's request to take maternity leave.
As a professional woman, I commend Hamilton for choosing a political career. We need elected officials who represent the variety of viewpoints in our community. I'd love to see more women running for office and getting elected. But to be honest, I cringe a little bit every time I read one of Hamilton's letters to the editor. Being elected to public office is not the same as having a regular job. No one can fill in for Hamilton while she is on leave. Her unique perspective, her voice and her votes can't be temporarily reassigned to someone else. She is the only one who can do the job she was elected to do.
Voters have a right to expect that elected officials will be available to represent their interests. Therefore, Hamilton's decision to take leave is a legitimate subject for public discussion. The DeCinzo cartoon was stupid, but I would urge Hamilton not to be quite so defensive about her decision (of course people will attack her where it hurts the most--it's politics), and instead focus on proving that she can take leave and still do good job for the people who elected her. It isn't fair that women, especially working mothers, have to work twice as hard to prove they can do their jobs half as well, but unfortunately, that's the world we live in.
For example, maybe Ms. Hamilton could use her experience as a politically involved mother of young children to become a champion for the interests of working women and families in the community. I think she is only playing into the hands of her critics by letting this become a narrow debate over an issue that is primarily personal to her, i.e., whether council members should be entitled to FMLA leave.
Sarah Tindell
Sunnyvale
He rates DeCinzo's
cartoons refreshing
It seems people only write to the Sun when they are offended. Wow, the Sun sure seems to have some easily offended readers.
I'm writing because I'm not offended by DeCinzo. I like DeCinzo's cartoons. In this age of corporate-controlled and government-influenced news media, an independent voice expressing controversial views on local issues is refreshing.
Please encourage DeCinzo to continue poking fun at our local politicians. Anyone who runs for public office needs a thick skin. Did the mean cartoonist hurt the poor little council member's feelings? Then maybe the council member should return to being a private citizen.
What offends me is the council's high prioritization of a city charter review issue--council members' parental leave--which affects only seven people in this city of more than 100,000. Whoops, I guess that makes me easily offended, too, just like the Sun's other readers.
Bob Weissman
Sunnyvale
Constituents would prefer
full-time council member
I read your column (Bogart column, Sun Aug. 9) dealing with the matter of council member Melinda Hamilton's pregnancy and largely agree with you. However, I think one important point was explicitly missing from your column, although it may have been implied: Most women who choose to have children while working for an employer do so because they have little choice to stop working as many families need that second income. Hamilton's self-righteous protestations that all women on the council should have the same protections as working parents in the workplace are somewhat hollow in this case: Choosing to become a council member is largely voluntary and involves a public trust. Although it does pay a very modest stipend, it can hardly be called a real "income." Therefore, having to choose between having children and being a council member does not truly pose an economic hardship (in fact, many candidates actually spend some of their own money to campaign). For her to run and then pick that time to bear children and take long stretches of time off violates that trust to her constituency. Had they had known it was Hamilton's intention to get pregnant and take leave (twice) during her time on the council, I can scarcely believe Sunnyvale's citizens would have chosen to elect her into office in the first place. Rather, they likely would have opted for a candidate who was going to keep his/her promise to represent them fully. For her to equate her situation with those of working women who have only a Hobson's choice between a needed second paycheck or starting a family is not really valid.
Peter Cirigliano
Sunnyvale
