To the editor:

Re: "12th and Cambie," June 17.

In the weeks after the current administration moved into city hall this past December, Courier reporter Mike Howell had some pretty harsh words about how he had been duped by Vision Vancouver regarding some of his access-to-information requests related to campaign financing.

As the previous mayor's chief of staff and communications director, I was surprised by Mike's account of the treatment he had received. He is a real pro and I always tried to treat him with respect. I chalked it up at the time to a new administration still learning the complicated ropes of media management in the Vancouver market.

Well, whatever Mike has done since then, he appears to be on the comeback trail. In a recent edition, Mike is now bragging about the direct pipeline he has regained to the corridors of power at 12th and Cambie.

According to Mike, his renewed status at city hall it is already paying off for Courier readers.

What has he unearthed? The mayor's secret community consultation plan for the HEAT shelters? The real cost of Vision's social housing experiment in Southeast False Creek? Another DUI?

Nope.

Instead, Mike's well-placed sources provided him a magazine "subscription" that appears to be left over from the previous administration. While I pride myself on being as urban as any male I know, the Urban Male subscription Mike refers to is just another one of the many pieces of unsolicited mail the mayor's office receives each month.

Not only did taxpayers never come close to paying for it, I can't even remember having the time to look at it. Fortunately for Mike, this does not appear to be the case with the new administration. It looks like Urban Male has caught someone's eye in the mayor's office.

Can a backyard chicken swimsuit edition be far away?

David Hurford,

Vancouver