Re “Zirgulis’s Plans Panned by Gourley as ‘Stupid, Perverse Hallucination’”
My, my, I must have hit a raw nerve to provoke Mr. Gourley's rant against me for deciding to run for School Board again.
Mr. Gourley seems to have a habit of spewing insults and irrational comments against people he disagrees with. What kind of a School Board member publicly insults and calls Dave Mielke, union representative of the teachers, “stupid”!
As for my decision to run for School Board again, I think Mr. Gourley is afraid that I will be outspoken and point out his failures as a School Board member over the past two years.
I would also like to respond to some of Mr. Gourley's rants against me.
First of all, his attack against my environmental credentials is a joke. I have been an environmental activist since 1970 when I organized the first ever environmental club at Santa Monica High School on the first Earth Day. I was an intern for Assemblywoman March Fong Eu on her environmental committee and worked for the Metropolitan Coalition for Clean Air in Washington, D.C. on the effects of air pollution in the inner city.
I am no friend of the oil companies. The oil companies do not like me because I want to raise royalty rates. It is a fact of life that we do need oil. Yes, Mr. Gourley, as much as you hate all oil companies, you still drive a car. All I am saying is that any oil drilling should be done under the strictest environmental safeguards. I favor dialogue versus expensive lawsuits. What is wrong with that?
When I ran for office two years ago, I was the first candidate to propose using solar panels, which could have saved the District $600,000 a year in electricity expenses. To date, we still do not have solar panels, which could have been installed over a year ago.
Mr. Gourley says the Natatorium swimming pool at the high school, a blight for over 18 years, is worth zero. I have made a constructive proposal backed by members of the real estate community to sell the property to a developer who would then refurbish the pool and lease it back to the School District.
I have talked to a City Councilman about even getting Redevelopment money. The pool could also be rented out for other commercial uses, such as a scuba diving company when the pool was not being used by the school.
Mr. Gourley attacked me on the issue of red light cameras. Come on now. You can't be serious.
Studies show that red light cameras don't prevent accidents. In fact, they cause accidents by people slamming on their brakes to avoid being in the intersection on a yellow light and getting rear-ended. The red light cameras are a scam to benefit the red light camera companies. From a $486 ticket that a poor driver forks out, the city only gets about $100.
I'm running for School Board because I want to do positive things to help our students. I'm at least willing to try and experiment and come up with creative ideas to get money for our schools.
For example, I have made a suggestion to rent out the District and Lin Howe School parking lot to accommodate the patrons of our Downtown business district. I guess that fell on deaf ears.
Last time I ran for School Board, a fictious person going by the name of Ann Lidiot, attacked me in this newspaper.
At least Mr. Gourley has made no bones about his biased feelings toward me. I don't know if that has anything to do with my only getting called to work as a substitute teacher two to three days a month vs. working four to five days a week before I ran for office.
Mr. Zirgulis may be contacted at zirgulisr@yahoo.com
