Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

Regarding the recent letter about the landscape maintenance district (LMD) and their 'constitutionality':  my fellow citizens should be absolutely clear that the letter writers are not lawyers and have become obsessed with LMDs. 

We attended and watched the recent council meeting - our mayor and council grilled a competent and experienced lawyer who happens to specialize in LMDs and received assurances, several times, that the Manteca LMDs are legal and constitutional. Our proud mayor took the extraordinary step of asking the council individually if they would ever violate the constitution and they all replied solidly that they would not. The matter under consideration about LMD's was voted on and passed. 

We looked up all the so-called legal issues cited by the letter writers and did our own fact checking. These two gentlemen just will not listen to anyone and are obsessively convinced they are right and everyone else is wrong. The press was at the meeting, all deliberations were held in public, all speakers were allowed to voice their opinions and I am very satisfied that our council and city staff did the right thing, with due diligence, respect and a whole lot of patience.

 By the way, we live in a LMD and are very happy with the maintenance done by the city crews and feel that we are rightfully paying for a specific benefit and it is well worth it.

 Richard & Linda Silverman

Manteca

July 20, 2012