Mayor taking too much credit

What's this "Mayor Maurer" business? Each council member is elected "mayor" for one year by the other council members. She just happens to have been elected this year.

Unfortunately, the second paragraph of the absentee voter brochures mailed by Ms. Maurer states that she served as mayor for the past four years. That's simply untrue and consequently misleading.

That's not the only misleading remark attributed to Maurer. In her ballot statement, she says that she started a Community Emergency Response Team and "re-started" the Calabasas Emergency Response Program. Long before she even lived in Calabasas, CERP was going strong as an award winning, nationally recognized program.

Had she and her follow council members bothered to inquire before they essentially disbanded CERP, the Calabasas CERT team was one of the largest in the area. Thirtyplus active members were led by coteam leaders Linda Thompson and Bert Rosario. In fact, CERT members were training to maintain the city's emergency operations center in the event of a major emergency for free because all but one or two city employees live far from Calabasas.

Suddenly, Ms. Maurer and Mr. Wolfson, too, are "emergency management" experts. Of course they are. That's why they've failed to consult with their own CERP representative who still sits on the Public Safety Commission. She's one of the first half dozen original volunteers who helped form CERP in 1995. She's also one of the first two or three in Calabasas who completed the CERT certification course in about 2002.

Then there's the long-time former director of CERP, Cathey Sinai, who was Dennis Washburn's appointee to the Public Safety Commission until recently. She's also an emergency manager for the U.S. Postal Service with responsibilities all over the western U.S.

All four of the individuals mentioned above could share a wealth of information. Of course Ms. Maurer, Mr. Wolfson et al. have to be open and intelligent enough to inquire. So far, none has. Karmen Brower Calabasas