To the editor:

Your newspaper recently reported that Chief Hammer will be following our former city manager to Banning, a city between LA and Palm Springs where he will get a pay raise over what he is making here.

We will miss him, but he will earn that extra salary. According to areavibes.com, a website that tracks city statistics, the overall crime rate for Banning is more than twice as high as Bainbridge, with violent crime there about eight times as high.

Good luck, Chief Hammer!

ROD STEVENS

Bainbridge Island