Renee Ramirez Archives - Friends For Fullerton's Future

That is the question of the day. We have previously reported here that Tom Daly likes to give jobs to relatives or friends of campaign donors. But this hiring takes the “Manager of the Year” to a whole different level. According to department insiders, Tom Daly hired the wife of a City of Anaheim employee who also happens to be a personal friend of Tom’s.

Even during these tough times at the County, Daly has been budgeting at least $200,000 per year for extra-help hires. Despite revenues and workloads being at their lowest levels ever, Daly feels it is more important to keep his friends employed than to protect the interests of the public. Extra-help employees are basically at-will employees and can be let go at anytime.

Not surprisingly, Daly hired his friend’s wife under this category which means no competitive recruitment was held to bring her on board.

Clerk-Recorder employees tell me they are upset because this person speaks very little English. Due to her lack of English skills, this person is given very menial work but is getting paid the same as others who do much more. Word has it this person doesn’t seem to posses any qualifications or skills or even a verifiable high school diploma, the minimum educational threshold for the county, but was even given a raise over all the other extra-help employees in the department. How does this happen? Loophole-finding Tommy boy allows the assignment to expire and then re-hires the person at a higher position thus earning higher wages.

Other extra-help employees have been told by department HR that per County policy they were not entitled to raises.

Even more disturbing is that Assistant Clerk-Recorder Renee Ramirez approached several staff when this person was being hired and asked them “do you know how to hire an illegal alien?”

Is this a liability for the County? Is Tom Daly opening himself to a lawsuit where the taxpayers will have to foot the bill?

This clearly demonstrates that Tom Daly feels he can do no wrong and that no one will hold him accountable. Let’s show this CAREER POLITICIAN that we are watching him and that we will vote him out of office sooner than he thinks.

A source inside the County government has directed our attention to a contractual relationship between the County Clerk’s department and a “consultant” that bears closer scrutiny. Our source has indicated that monies were paid out for questionable or dubious “services.”

This contract involves Barbre & Associates; Brett Barbre is a former County employee, a Water District official, and now a self-styled political public relations guy. It appears that Mr. Barbre received at least $36,000 through last summer to do something (see vendor report, above). What did he do? Our source tells us it was supposed to have something to do with organizing an Orange County Hall of Fame memorabilia display. We’re not buying into that just yet since such an inconceivably profligate waste of money, especially in a recession, is hard to ascribe to anybody – even a big spender like Daly.

Nevertheless, Barbre’s name immediately piqued our curiosity since he claims to be in PR, a function that Daly supposedly hired former reporter Jean Pasco to perform. Furthermore, Barbre, a nominal Republican, was an early and public supporter of Democrat Clerk/Recorder Tom Daly in his quest to be our County Supervisor. Check out the “host committee” to Daly’s 2009 fundraiser. Yes, Brett, we see you right there, #6 in the first column. Later in 2009 Barbre also took on the job of introducing Daly’s hand-picked successor and Clerk Department employee, Renee Ramirez, to the OC GOP Central Committee. Coincidences?

Since Daly and Ramirez run the Clerk/Recorder’s office, we immediately started to wonder just what Barbre did, to pick up that 36K. We have such suspicious minds, you see.

And so we have made a public records request with the County to find out the scope of services that were supposed to be rendered by Barbre and just what was accomplished for all that money.

And when we do find out we will certainly share the information with you.

Tag: Renee Ramirez

IS TOM DALY HIRING ILLEGAL ALIENS?

Monkey Business At Daly’s Clerk/Recorder Office?