Letters to The Editor

Response To Kathy Esfahani

MARTIN L. HANNIGAN, San Clemente

Respectfully, as a resident of San Clemente since 1972, I totally concur with (former) Councilmember Gene James’ plan for the removal of these vagrants from our fine town.

The option for private security not only in North Beach but at the Pier is “shockingly” cost-effective, compared to the addition of OCSD entry-level sheriffs to nanny the vagrants, considering base pay, pension, and other benefits.

The opinion that “many in the community believe the unhoused,” which are actually the “vagrant criminals,” create have an unhealthy relationship with food, what then is the solution? need to be healthy human beings, and being “at weight” doesn’t mean they are “healthy.”

34932 Calle del Sol, Suite B, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624 phone 949.388.7700 fax 949.388.9977 sanclementetimes.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Shawn Raymundo • 949.388.7700, x113 sraymundo@picketfencemedia.com

SPORTS

In programs such as OA, individuals learn instead that they might need to “abstain” from “trigger” foods that threaten the individual’s ability to heal, allowing them to then work toward or maintain a healthy body weight through the 12 steps.

That is why I always say I have one of the hardest jobs in the world, but also the most satisfying.

BY GINA COUSINEAU

Let’s get back to the “committed or interested” theme I proposed at the start.

First, I need to tell you that in my practice, most people have some form of “disordered eating.” There are those who are inherently thin, who are really good at having food boundaries that allow them to control their weight.

But then we can swing the other direction to those who have been on every diet in the world, and while they can “lose weight” with the latest punitive and restrictive approach, and waste money on the “in vogue” pill, powder, or potion, they cannot keep the weight off once they go back to their old ways.

And don’t forget those with diagnosable eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, according to the DSM Manual, the standard classification for mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the U.S.

No matter their weight, many of these individuals are malnourished, meaning they aren’t getting the nutrition they real crime, not nuisance crimes, is totally proven true given facts on the ground from the citizens of our fine town who attempt to have a quiet walk down the Beach Trail or take children to a park.

San Clemente has zero obligation to provide housing or other benefits to the vagrant population. Property owners, “motels,” have zero obligation to be subjected to an eminent domain taking of their business or other rights.

San Clemente has zero obligation to build low-income homes except for police and first responders, as has been discussed for 10 years. Sheriffs should live here in town, not Temecula. Firefighters should live in town, not Corona.

The idea of paying for “immediate unlimited interim housing” for vagrants is comical, at best. The idea of providing an RV park is laughable to people who actually worked all their lives to aspire to live in San Clemente.

My hope is to encourage and educate individuals on how to commit to a healthy eating pattern most of the time, with science- and evidence-based nutrition leading the way. For those who don’t struggle with “addictive food” tendencies, this nutrition shift will then allow them to add in treats and splurges on occasion and thrive in life.

On the other hand, too many of us need help with controlling these self-destructive eating behaviors. Check out the screening tools at both oa.org and nationaleatingdisorder.org to identify if you or someone you love can benefit from these two fantastic resources.

Gina Cousineau, aka Mama G, is your local nutrition expert, chef, and fitness professional, with her BS in Nutrition and MS in functional and integrative nutrition. She uses a food-as-medicine approach for weight loss to health gain, and everything in between. Follow her on social media @mamagslifestyle, and check out her website mamagslifestyle. com to learn more about her programs and freebies offered throughout the year.

Let us enforce “our” rights as property owners and law-abiding citizens to require council and staff and OCSD to enforce nuisance ordinances, loitering ordinances, pandering ordinances, soliciting ordinances, overnight camping ordinances and hygiene ordinances.

Being at the extreme south end of the county, Supervisor Foley wants to push the problem down here where nobody will notice—kinda runs downhill, I guess.

Thanks for your time.

Mass Shootings

ALBA FARFAGLIA, San Clemente

A Newtown resident, Monte Frank, recently went to Congress to promote banning assault weapons.

Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; make background checks on anyone who wants to buy a gun mandatory; make gun-trafficking a federal

Zach Cavanagh • 949.388.7700, x110 zcavanagh@picketfencemedia.com

ADVERTISING

Lauralyn Loynes • 949.388.7700, x102 lloynes@picketfencemedia.com

DISTRIBUTION

Racks, Driveways, Subscriptions Inna Cazares • 949.388.7700, x111 icazares@picketfencemedia.com

GENERAL MANAGER Alyssa Garrett • 949.388.7700, x100 agarrett@picketfencemedia.com

How To Reach Us Picket Fence Media

CEO/FOUNDER

Norb Garrett

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor

Shawn Raymundo

City Reporter, SC Times

C. Jayden Smith

City Reporter, DP Times

Breeana Greenberg

City Editor, Capo Dispatch

Collin Breaux

Sports Editor

Zach Cavanagh

Digital Producer

Evan Lancaster Columnists

Tom Blake

Special Projects Editor

Andrea PapagianisCamacho

Copy Editor

Randy Youngman

ADVERTISING

Associate Publisher Lauralyn Loynes

(SC + DP)

Advertising Sales

Debra Wells (CD)

ART + DESIGN

Special Projects Art Director

Jasmine Smith

Graphic Designer Chelsie Rex

Advertising Design

Marc Hostetter

OPERATIONS

General Manager

Alyssa Garrett

Group Operations & Production Coordinator

Inna Cazares

Local Distribution

Tim Trent

FINANCE

Accounting & Finance Manager

Tricia Zines

CONTRIBUTORS

Megan Bianco, Jake Howard FOLLOW

San Clemente Times, Vol. 18, Issue 19. The SC Times (sanclementetimes.com ) is published weekly by Picket Fence Media, publishers of the Dana Point Times (danapointtimes.com) and The Capistrano Dispatch (thecapistranodispatch.com). Copyright: No articles, illustrations, photographs or other editorial matter or advertisements herein may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, art, photos or negatives. Copyright 2023. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. San Clemente Times is published weekly by Picket Fence Media, 34932 Calle Del Sol, Suite B, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624. Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at San Clemente, CA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: San Clemente Times, 34932 Calle Del Sol, Suite B, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624.

(Cont. from page 10) crime; enact severe penalties for “straw purchases” of firearms.

Why would any law-abiding citizen not be in agreement with this? No one is banning all guns, just military-style weapons, and the other restrictions are common-sense.

Recently, five countries, including Australia, Germany, and Japan, have advisories for people traveling to the United States because of the high incidents of gun violence, which surpass any of the industrial countries.

This affects our economy, the tourist industry, restaurants, hotels, national parks and recreational areas, small businesses, foreign and exchange students who come here to study.

It is unreasonable to think that the Second Amendment’s “well-regulated militia” would include military-type weapons the likes of which the framers of our Constitution could not even imagine. And not just “accessible,” but “easily accessible” to anybody and everybody.

How about this? How about a compromise?

It appears to me that the gun lobbies won’t budge. They won’t even entertain the possibility of any common-sense restriction on gun ownership. And this leads me to believe that, finally, it’s all about the money.

The manufacturing of firearms is a $28 billion industry. This is what we, the American people, are up against. However, we must continue to do what is right. We must convince our representatives and senators in Congress to get military-style weapons out of the hands of individuals that are anything but members of a “well-regulated militia.”

And we must agree that the life of school children trumps billions of dollars that are made from manufacturing weapons of war.

COUNCILMEMBER GENE JAMES’ RESIGNATION—SHAME ON YOU MOLLY MCLAUGHLIN, San Clemente

What a surprise to hear that Councilmember James has resigned midway through his term of office. His cowboy stance on important community topics was notable in its lack of intelligence and knowledge of public policy.

Don’t get me wrong, I know we are all tired of career politicians who only put their interests first, and he may have seemed like a breath of fresh air to many. But did you ever really listen to him?

Councilmember James wanted to turn San Clemente into the Wild, Wild, West— pretending that his gun sanctuary efforts were not already protected by our Constitution. Or how about his diatribe on the homeless? Or even better, his hateful attitude to a reporter just trying to question him on his resignation? Crude and cruel words for a leader in his position.

Independent of a potential health or personal consideration that left Councilmember James with few choices, a responsible and caring councilmember would have given the city a 60-day notice regarding his resignation, providing his colleagues and staff enough time to prepare and provide options in moving forward.

How about the impact of his resignation on important city matters that might be postponed because a 2-2 vote of a five-member City Council cannot move forward?

The consequence of Councilmember James’ actions is that until an appointment or very expensive special election, the city could find itself at an impasse on key legislative matters, thereby postponing key decisions that could have impactful consequences on residents and staff.

A blustery cowboy politician who quits on his colleagues and residents—shame on you, Councilmember James. We deserved better.

ANOTHER RESPONSE TO ‘COUNCILMEMBER JAMES TO STEP DOWN FROM LOCAL OFFICE’ BEN RICH, San Clemente

The news that Gene James is resigning from the City Council and moving is a simple a case of great news for San Clemente and not so great news for Wyoming.

SAN CLEMENTE HOMELESS JAY THOMAS, San Clemente

San Clemente is a tourist town. Putting the homeless in San Clemente hotels and motels is a horrible idea. Who wants to stay at a hotel with homeless people (many of whom are drug addicted and/ or mentally ill) not just nearby but right down the hall?

The homeless should be kept as far away as possible from tourist areas. Let the county open, operate and pay for shelters a wide distance from schools, public areas and tourist zones.

Learn the lessons from cities like San Francisco and Portland, which have tolerated and enabled the homeless to the point they are now overrun and have crashed their tourism industries into the rocks—which unfortunately has opened plenty of hotel rooms for even more homeless.

That’s what is known as a death spiral (some now use the term “doom loop”), but whatever you call it, it’s not something that we want or need here in beautiful San Clemente.

VACANT COUNCIL SEAT

MATT EGAN, San Clemente

I am firmly against the City Council selecting a new councilmember to fill the vacancy. We just had an election six months ago, and the next-highest vote getter was Donna Vidrine, who lost by a mere 23 votes, one tenth of a percent difference.

If Steve Knoblock is a legitimate office holder, then Donna Vidrine would be just as legitimate an office holder by that slim of a margin.

Let democracy speak instead of a brokered selection process that wreaks of suppressing the will of the people. If not that, then hold a new election.

In a town that is ready to spend $8 million on a pickleball facility or $1.2 million a year to chase the homeless away, I would think we have a mere $100,000 to let our democratic system work.

And I don’t care what Laguna Niguel did; this is San Clemente.

NOW THE SHOE IS ON OTHER FOOT TONY RUBOLINO, San Clemente, and LAURA FERGUSON, former San Clemente councilmember

Last year, a resident discovered 22 pub - lic comments with residents’ personal identifying information, such as email addresses, phone numbers and addresses published on the city website.

Rather than remove this information when citizens requested, the city doubled down for months before council publicly addressed the matter.

During the April 19, 2022 council meeting, instead of demanding the city comply with its legal and ethical duty to redact personal information in the protection of constituents, Councilmember Chris Duncan gaslighted residents who “complained” and accused them of “wasting time on a non-issue” and attacking staff with their “made-up allegations.”

Now the shoe is on the other foot, and Duncan, instead of disclosing unredacted emails about his D.C. trip, insists that his email address remain redacted from public view to safeguard the privacy of his personal identifying information. Talk about a double standard.

It was improper for Duncan to use his personal email when conducting what he alleged was “city business” in the coordination of his trip, using $4,600 in council contingency funds without council approval.

It was also improper for him to include his assembly campaign in the signature block of his email correspondence about city business.

At the May 2 council meeting, resident Tony Rubolino asked councilmembers for an update since they recently asked Duncan to provide unredacted emails related to his trip.

Rubolino added, “The moment he used his email with a hyperlink to his campaign to communicate his trip to D.C. on the taxpayer dime should be instant nullification of city funds used for this trip, and Duncan should pay this back to city coffers. Council, this is your moment to shine to hold Duncan accountable.”

Duncan is laser-focused on his campaign for higher office. Anytime a politician is self-serving and intoxicated with power, the people are not represented. We must demand honesty, integrity and accountability of our elected officials. If they lack these qualities, they should be voted out of office; not promoted to higher office.

Letters To The Editor Policy

San Clemente Times reserves the right to edit reader-submitted letters for length and is not responsible for the claims made or information written by the writers. Have something you’d like to say? Email your letter to sraymundo@picketfencemedia.com no later than 8 a.m. on Monday morning. Limit your letters to 350 words or less. Please send with your valid email, phone number and address for verification by staff. Your address and phone number will not be published.