Another columnist [Pat Orr] in the Review made the following argument in a recent column: A Town Council sets policy. Period, end of statement. They do not report to the public on financial matters.

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If Pat Orr’s position as the conductor of the Apple Valley Town Council’s amen choir wasn’t secure before, it certainly should be now in light of his attempt to absolve the Town Council of any and all responsibility for the governance of the Town (What does the Town Council Do?, Daily Press, January 30, 2018).

If Orr is to be believed, the Town Council’s one and only responsibility is to hire a Town Manager. From that point on, they are more or less useless.

Strange that Orr missed the fact that we the electorate don’t vote for the Town Manager. We vote for the members of the Town Council and expect them to represent us in matters affecting the town. When citizens don’t like the way things are being done, we direct our comments and concerns to our elected officials, not unelected bureaucrats over whom we have no control.

Has Orr forgotten the organization chart the Town used to publish in each year’s budget, showing that Town commissions, the Town Manager, and the Town attorney report to the Town Council, with the Town Council reporting to the citizens?

Has Orr forgotten how council members tried to deflect criticism of the defective work product of former Assistant Town Manager Marc Puckett by saying that Puckett was just doing what they told him to do? Or Barb Stanton’s claim that transparency is job one?

If Orr’s vision is correct, council members would be powerless to object if the Town Manager decided to allow council members to pad their expense reports with charges for personal meals out with friends, or gave everyone at Town Hall a raise.

Balderdash.

If the Town Council isn’t representing the citizens of Apple Valley as Orr implies, it’s time for them to go.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA

Let’s look at recent projects undertaken by the Town of Apple Valley: The Yucca Loma Bridge, purchase of the Hilltop House, running a mile or so of unusable purple water line, extending the otherwise neglected Bear Valley bike path by a few feet, paving the Mojave River walking path, micro-surfacing select roadways to make them look better for a few weeks, and retrofitting town parks with rubber pellets that even the Town claims create health and environmental hazards and are a fire hazard […] contaminating the surface and groundwater.

By Angela Valles

Well, that was quick.

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By Angela Valles

Isn’t it funny how many so-called businessmen who run for office claiming to be fiscal conservatives turn into tin cup jangling paupers begging the taxpayers for higher taxes?

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I was disappointed to see that in your story about Apple Valley Assistant Town Manager Marc Puckett’s driving record, you only enumerated traffic infractions in San Bernardino County (A history of infractions: Between 2011 and 2014, Apple Valley’s finance director paid more than $3,000 in traffic fines, Daily Press, December 7, 2017).

As a former local elected official and planning commissioner, I look at the definition of the office to include as its first priority, service to the public. Under no circumstances is it appropriate for elected officials or government employees to degrade or demean taxpayers or to withhold information relative to how public funds are being spent.

By now everyone must have heard that Apple Valley Assistant Town Manager for Finance Marc Puckett was involved in what is being investigated for a felonious hit-and-run that occurred on July 20 (Vehicle belonging to AV town manager involved in hit-and-run, Daily Press, August 7, 2017). Briefly, a woman claims that Mr. Puckett rear-ended her on the I-15 at 11:30 p.m. Mr. Puckett claims she is lying, even though he has acknowledged abandoning his car that night off the side of the freeway in a flood control ditch, in the location where the woman claims to have been hit, and Mr. Puckett’s car appears to have been totaled. As if that’s not enough, Mr. Puckett’s account of what happened that night is incomplete at best, and what he has said about events on that night makes no sense.

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In just a couple of sentences, Frank Robinson managed to sum up just how bad things became in Apple Valley with him as Town Manager (Former Apple Valley Town Manager Frank Robinson looks to the future, Daily Press, July 29, 2017).

In 1988 when the Town of Apple Valley incorporated, the population was 41,387 and there were six policemen. By 2013, the population had increased 67% to 69,135, but the police department had increased 750% to 51.