Editor:

I attended the public hearing in Eureka City Council chambers on March 29 ("Political Reality 2013," From the Publisher, April 4). Linda Atkins raised an important point about the process: Caltrans has these grants available every year. There was not the rush that David Hull insisted on. His mea culpa rang phony with me: he hadn't worried about the timeline to apply for the grant because he assumed (!) the city had a template for applying for these kinds of grants. Linda pointed out that the deadline was April 2 but stressed that this was a manufactured crisis because the grants are available every year.

My question: How can $17,500 in "staff time" be spent between Friday, March 29 and Tuesday, April 2? Whose money is the Caltrans grant, anyway?

I keep coming back to a certain question I have asked myself many times recently: How dumb do they think we are? Do they really think we aren't paying attention?
I've watched David Hull in action about economic planning several times since his separation from the Harbor Commission. As I listened to his presentation on Good Friday and Linda's recurrent protests that the process was wrong, I smelled a rat but couldn't trace the source of the stench.

Thank you for connecting the dots.

Now, what are we political junkies going to do about the "disinterest" in campaign finance reform?

Hollie Klingel, Eureka