Editor,

What I find absolutely appalling is that elected officials stood up in court and said Larry Kwarsick should not serve jail time nor be removed from his position as Mayor of Langley. The man committed a crime while in and as part of being a public official; he admitted to forging official documents.

Then to say it did no harm — we don’t know that. What he forged ended the monitoring of sensitive environmental areas around his stepdaughter’s building site. We have no idea what impact that will have in the years to come.

The point, however, is he knowingly and secretly forged a document. I’m sure he is contrite, I’m sure he wishes he could take it back, but he can’t. Nor can he continue to be in a position of public trust.

Maybe the Langley City Council should publish a list of laws that are OK for their mayor and board members to break without any penalty. That way we’d all know the rules. One council member said “our trust isn’t broken.” What level of crime would it take to break your trust?

Kudos to Judge Vickie Churchill for treating this case like the crime it is.

“Good old boys” — you bet, but to be more politically correct maybe we should start calling it “the good old islander’s club.”

Donna Taylor
Freeland