A 4F Record Year

Well, Friends, 2011 was a record year for our humble little blog. We’ve had 2,013,945 visitors, and counting. I wonder what next year will bring for a blog that all began here, the day I questioned the ridiculous and deteriorating Redevelopment Styrofoam light fixtures at the downtown plaza.

See what I mean?

Styrofoam, the Redevelopment material of choice...

That was just three short years ago, and since then we’ve taken on every Sacred Cow of Fullerton’s reactionary old guard – from ridiculous Redevelopment boondogglery to a police department stewed in rampant corruption. And we’re not done yet, not by a long shot.

Stick around as we continue to poniard the pompous and demand accountability from the unaccountable. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll experience a whole range of emotions. We promise.

Redevelopment As We Know It Is Dead

Come to think of it, don't rest in peace...

Yesterday the California State Supreme Court pulled the plug on the scam known as Redevelopment. The agencies that were created under the Health and Welfare Code to eliminate urban blight had taken on lives of their own, of course, and became sinkholes of waste, abusers of eminent domain, handers out of corporate welfare, and implementers of aesthetic fascism.

Good riddance. Despite stout defense by big government addicts like Don Bankhead, Pat McKinley and Dick Jones, the sad truth is that for every paltry “success” of Redevelopment, there have been a hundred failures – failures for which there was no accountability, and no responsibility. The Redevelopment klown kar had no rearview mirrors.

The Court unanimously found that the Legislature does indeed have the power to disband that which it created – common sense to you and me, but a horror-in-the-making to all the lawyers, bond salesmen, grifters, con men, housecoats, no-talent architects, and design Nazis who make their livings off of the property tax increment theft.

What will happen to all the recently approved projects in Fullerton is uncertain, although there is little doubt that McKinley, Bankhead and Jones will try to keep  building over-dense low-income housing for the benefit of their handlers, especially anti-recall team leader, Dick Ackerman.

Nevertheless, the result of the decision is crystal clear: victory for the people of California; defeat for the Unknown Government and its Invisible Empire.

Slidebar Has A Blackball List

No, you may not come in.

Guess so, but it seems to be oddly short, and it doesn’t appear to be for loud, sloppy drunks.

Image swiped from OC Weekly

Yesterday, Brandon Ferguson of The OC Weekly posted a story about how he has been banned from the Slidebar bar, presumably for sharing the allegation that it was a Slidebar employee who made that fateful call that somebody appeared to be breaking into cars in the parking lot. That call, whoever made it, led to the cop torture and beating death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man, last July 5th .

Of course no evidence has ever been presented that anybody was breaking into cars, and no evidence linking Thomas to any illegal act.

Incidentally, the other day Brandon Ferguson noted that The Weekly was getting the cold shoulder from FPD spokesphincter Andrew Goodrich, apparently because of Marisa Gerber’s Fringie® winning expose on the rampant Culture of Corruption in Goodrich’s department: you know, all that garbage he neglects to inform his employers (us) about. That got Marisa hollered at by the arrogant swine.

I’m really starting to like this Ferguson guy.

 

Pat McKinley Can Find Soulmates Among Egyptian Junta

What’s that you say, Harpoon?

Here’s a story from CNN about how Egyptian military authorities subjected arrested women protesters to strip searches and “virginity tests.”

Here’s the money quotation from one of the charming gentlemen generals who run that unfortunate land:

“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,” the general told CNN at the time. “These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs).”

Those girls weren't credible, either...

Now does that sound familiar? Oh, yeah, right. The She Bear at the Soroptimists. Maybe we should invite Amnesty International to Fullerton to check up on Chief McKinley and his She Bear.

It’s a Long Way to San Clemente

This letter just came in from councilman Bruce Whitaker, who seems to be a bit peeved that the wayward FPD is still slithering along without a leader. The pictures are courtesy of FFFF. Enjoy!

In less than a week, the City of Fullerton will be more than one year derelict in enforcing performance of a critical requirement outlined in its employment agreement with current Chief of Police, Michael Sellers.

I have frequently asserted in print, television and radio interviews that Sellers is in violation of a residency requirement (point #11) which states “Sellers will make a bona fide effort to relocate his primary residence to Fullerton no later than December 2010.”

'Twas the best of times...

Though hired two and a half years ago, Sellers continues to reside in San Clemente where his home is 43 miles from the Fullerton Police Station. Of California’s 69 cities with a population of 100,000 or more, Fullerton is the ONLY city whose police chief resides more than 40 miles away. The vast majority of California cities are served by chiefs who reside within the city they serve.

In my opinion, the clear intent of the council at that time was to compel Sellers to relocate to Fullerton, no later than December 2010. Merely making “an effort” would provide no value or benefit whatsoever, the intent was for him to live here. The Chief’s being less than an hour away was not just preferred, but essential. Since leadership in an emergency, and understanding fully the community one serves are core, critical requirements . . . without agreeing to this point, would Sellers even have been hired in the first place?

A strong case can be made that since San Clemente home values are 74% higher than in Fullerton there is no financial barrier for Sellers refusal to comply. In any event, it is Sellers burden to prove that he has met requirements in the employment agreement. Despite my efforts, an aggressive legal interpretation, one which would protect Fullerton taxpayers interests has not surfaced.

Fullerton? Just a distant memory now.

It is nearly 2012 and Sellers remains the Chief of Police, a current employee of the City of Fullerton. Immediate action is required to enforce this contract which even a year later is still being violated without consequence. It should have long ago been rendered “null and void.” It remains for the council majority to explain how “giving away public money” is a preferable course of inaction.

-Bruce Whitaker

Is Goodrich on Thin Ice?

That water's cold. Deep, too.

Here’s a Lou Ponsi effort from The Register, December 21.

Describing ongoing investigations by a special consultant, Ponsi notes a second investigation, as described by outgoing “Acting Chief” Kevin Hamilton:

a second (investigation) is on “allegations of misinformation disseminated from Fullerton P.D,” Hamilton said;

Wow. I didn’t know Michael Gennaco had been directed to look into the disinformation campaign waged by the FPD in the aftermath of the Kelly Thomas killing. Maybe I wasn’t paying sufficient attention. It’s going to be really hard for Gennaco to whitewash the various and multiple deliberate falsehoods uttered by police spokeshole Andrew Goodrich.

After the killing, when the perp-cops were still on duty pretending nothing had happened, Goodrich began lying to the press. First was the characterization of Thomas as combative and violent, two assertions we now know were false; then there was the whopper about cops receiving serious injuries – broken bones in fact. Later Goodrich was forced to admit to  squishy “soft tissue” injuries of some sort, although the broken bone lies and the mischaracterization of the beating death, alternatively as a “tussle,” “scuffle,” “confrontation,” or “fight” was perpetuated, and never corrected. In fact Register scribes still insist on avoiding the use of the phrase “beating death.”

Goodrich was also quick to note that Thomas had objects not his own in his possession, that he knew was nothing more than trash fished out of a train station trash can.

It won't support much weight...

Goodrich whoppers in other cases surfaced this fall, too. Like the sad defense of Kenton Hampton and Frank Nguyen whose untruths were an attempt to convict the completely innocent Veth Mam of assaulting cops. After a jury unanimously acquitted Mam, Goodrich’s lame defense was that the cops did not commit perjury because they thought they had the right man, a story that requires us to substitute utter incompetence for outright perjury. Well, take your pick. It hardly matters anymore.

If Gennaco’s investigation really is legit, and if Goodrich wants to save his oily hide, he may have to finger somebody higher up.

In any case, let’s hope the new “Acting” Chief Hughes starts acting, and starts by putting the odious and arrogant Goodrich where he belongs – behind the wheel of a squad car; or better yet, pounding the Barf Beat in downtown Fullerton.

 

More Carnage in Downtown Fullerton

So reports the Register, here. Seems a serious accident took place. Wednesday, at 1:45 in the morning.

Never saw it coming.

Apparently some pedestrians (i.e. jaywalkers) were crossing mid-block on Harbor between Santa Fe and Commonwealth. They were smacked by a northbound vehicle into the southbound lane, where injury was added to injury. The victims were reported to be in critical condition at UCI, favored treatment locale for DTF trauma victims.

In what must have been an attempt at deadpan humor, the register’s Denisse Salazar’s writes:

The investigation is continuing, and it’s not yet known if alcohol played a role in the accident.

Of course we will be told that the open air booze-a-thon created by the Fullerton City Council played no part in the accident.

Making’ Ya Work Hard to Get Yer Two Bucks Back!

My grandfather Casimir once told me you can always gauge the overall performance of an organization by its attention to seemingly small details. Here’s a video that shows that something’s not quite right at the Fullerton Public Library.

The idea that these folks are disabling their own DVDs is just sort of funny. But really? It takes the City four weeks to cut a $2 check? Of course processing and mailing that check is going to cost a lot more than two bucks.

Heeeeere’s Molly!

Almost on cue, who pops up to start cluck-clucking anti-recall nonsense? That’s right, the old dithering bird-brain herself, Molly McClanahan, who was recalled in 1994 for instituting an unnecessary utility tax.

Enjoy the vague abstractions and self-righteous pontification. You are left to your own devices to figure out what in the hell “emotional mischief” is. It’s anybody’s guess.

Let Molly do what Molly does best: babble idiocy about “the body politic” and the “soul of the City.” Let Molly roll out the same garbage she did eighteen years ago: that recall is only supposed to punish “malfeasance.” Wrong, dingbat. That’s what the Penal Code is for. Recall was instituted in California to get rid of politicians who had obviously failed in their duty to their constituents by placing special interests first. And that is precisely what has happened in Fullerton. And that’s why the recall of ’12, like that of ’94, is going to succeed.

 

 

Your Tithe is Man-dated At The Altar of The Almighty Bureaucrat

The upkeep just kept getting more expensive...

Everybody who goes to church is familiar with the concept of tithing – literally giving one tenth of your income to support the church and its good works. Of course the act is voluntary.

The people who pay for water from the Fullerton Water Works have been paying a tithe, too. You see, since 1970 the Citycrats have decreed that ten percent of the cost of a monopoly supplying you with water will be added to your bill, and then be immediately re-directed to the City’s General Fund.

In the early days, when water was dirt cheap it was a way to help pay for certain indirect costs of employees who were considered overhead support for the water works. It was called an “in-lieu franchise fee” like the ones the City charges other utilities to operate in Fullerton. Still, there was an immediate problem that nobody addressed: it was bad management, and bad accounting, and opened the door for all sorts of abuse. Decades later, in 1997, Proposition 218 was passed that specifically addressed the scam of governments charging “fees” that were nothing more than hidden taxes – just like Fullerton’s 10% in-lieu fee. It was now required that fee amounts be established through objective supportable analysis that was conducted transparently, in the light of public scrutiny. No longer could governments legally charge for more than any service was worth.

But Fullerton did. For 15 years the City continued to charge, then rake off a ten percent tribute from the Water Fund that went to pay for things like pensions and pay raises for all Fullerton city employees, stuff that had nothing to do with providing water to you. Not only did the city councils know about the scam, they heartily approved the slight-of-hand, year after year.

Meantime, the cost of water skyrocketed, increasing nearly 350% between 1997 and now, jacking up the illegal tax from $700,000 a year in 1997 to over $2.5 million a year now. That’s a rate of about 23% a year, just in case you’re inclined to keep track. A staggering total of almost $27 million has been surreptitiously extorted from you since Proposition 218 went into effect.

Those who support this cheapjack end run think it’s right and proper for you to pay this tithe without your knowing it, and without your consent. After all they’ve had plenty of opportunity to insist, at least, that notification of the 10% diversion be made on each water bill. But they never have. And that’s because their first priority is continue funding six-figure pensions, automatic raises for employees, and all the other things that constitute business as usual in their Church of The Almighty Bureaucrat. It’s their church, and as far as the High Priests and pharisees are concerned, you taxpayers can just sit in the back pew, way, way back there in the dark, and keep your mouths shut.