2009 - Page 23 of 53 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

September 24, 2009January 26, 201072nd Election

Ackerman Phone Call Intercepted!

Our field operatives have just recently intercepted a phone conversation between former State Senator Dick Ackerman and GOP PR flack Jon Fleischman, the producer of the now infamous “2007 Holiday Greeting” in which Fleischman identifies Ackerman’s house as located in a “secret, gated community” in Irvine.

As our Friends are aware, this video came at a sensitive time, as Ackerman’s wife is attempting to offer her services to the residents of an assembly district (ours) in which she does not live – yet. Fleischman pulled the video off Youtube – but too late! It had already been snagged by video enthusiasts the world over.

The quality of the phone conversation recording is poor, perhaps due to the multitude of wires in the Ackerman’s topiary gardens; so poor in fact, that it is not effective to reproduce it; however our audio reconstruction department staff have analyzed it at length and have produced the nearly believable transcript below:

(phone ringing)

Fleischman: Hello?

Ackerman: Yeah, (grunting sound) Fleischman, this is Dick Ackerman!

F: Senator, how are you? How is your lovely –

A: Cut the crap, you donkey. That lame-ass movie you made is still on the internet. That bastard Norby got Bushala and Pedroza to do blog whaddyacallits. Now everybody in the 72nd knows we live in Irvine. I never should have let you through the gate.

F: Gee, I sure feel bad about that, Senator. I wish there was something –

A: And another thing what was all that fat-mouth bullshit about a “secret gated community” and “doing pretty well as a legislator?”

F: Um, well…um…

A: Now get off your fat ass and pull that video (snorting and grunting sounds).

F: Gee, Senator I’m not a lawyer, but it’s on Youtube, you know, in the public domain. It’s gonna be hard, you know, to –

A: You’re goddam right you’re not a lawyer. So shut up and do it. Get rid of it. Now.

F: Well, okay Senator, I sure am sorry about all this, you know how I feel about you and um, Linda.

A: (more grunting sounds) That bastard Norby’s behind this. Well, his days are numbered.

F: Yes, sir. He’s not a real conservative, like us, and he’ll do anything to get elected.

A: (snarling sounds) There’s a strange van out behind the tennis court. Now get off the phone you jackass and make that goddam thing go away (static).

September 24, 2009Redevelopment

You Want Blight? We Got Blight!

by admin6 Comments

Dear Friends, we know that the issue of blight relative to the proposed Redevelopment expansion may seem confusing to you, perhaps even a bit abstract. So we have decided to collect some images of blight to help you get the picture. To be fair, and consistent, we have tried to stick to the City’s own standard (or worse) as we collected pictures not in the proposed area, but in the existing Redevelopment Project Area – to let you also see what a bang-up job the city is doing to eradicate blight already, especially with subsidized projects that it has already built!

September 24, 2009September 24, 200972nd Election

Councilwoman Sharon Quirk-Silva Throws Hat in the Ring for the 72nd

by admin12 Comments

Fullerton Councilwoman Sharon Quirk-Silva sent me a text message that read; “To my favorite blogger (I like the sound of that) I am officially running for the 72nd Assembly seat”.

This is good news for Fullerton Democrats that care about having a principled Democrat in the race. There appears to be another Democrat in the race from Placentia, but Sharon Quirk-Silva has a high profile here in Fullerton, and Fullerton is a much bigger chunk of the 72nd.

Quirk-Silva is now firmly opposed to redevelopment boondoggles. She recently opposed the bogus redevelopment expansion and had the courage to change her vote on the $6 million McDonald’s redevelopment giveaway/boondoggle.

So far, of all the candidate’s websites, I think she has the best. Here’s the link.

September 24, 2009December 30, 2009Dick Jones

Who Do You Believe, Nelson or Jones?

by admin6 Comments

Here’s a video clip with two starkly contrasting views of the hush money scheme Fullerton’s Redevelopment lawyer Jeff Oderman cooked up to payoff the County in order to prevent a lawsuit against the city’s crooked Redevelopment expansion proposal.

Shawn Nelson rightly identifies the $4,000,000 upfront General Fund payout and later phony lease-back arrangements for what they are: a gimmick and a scam. Dick Jones just can’t let it go at that and interjects his windy summation, again, since he had already had his chance to bloviate over the City’s shenanigans earlier.

Well, Friends, you decide; “brilliance” or “scam.”

September 23, 2009December 28, 200972nd Election

ACKERMAN RESIDENCE REVEALED! THEN COVERED UP AGAIN!

by Grover Cleveland9 Comments

Earlier today we shared an amusing youtube clip fashioned by none other than Jon Fleishman, OCs most notorious GOP boot lick (if you don’t count Jerbal Cunningham). In it he visits the Ackerman Family McMansion within a “secret gated community” in Irvine. Irvine?! A few hours later that clip was removed from public access. Gee, we sure wonder why!

Mrs. Ackerman wants to be OUR elected representative in Sacramento. And she lives in Irvine? Well, clearly the Ackerman clan is going to have to dummy up a fake residence somewhere in the 72nd Assembly District so that the missus can qualify to run for office.

Heh-heh. I'll be back in Irvine by Thanksgiving.

But really, what kind of a decent candidacy can possibly be based on spite and mendacity? That question sort of answers itself.

September 23, 2009January 4, 201072nd Election

Well, We Know Where They Live!

by Grover Cleveland9 Comments

UPDATE: APPARENTLY THE ACKERMAN MOB DOESN”T WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT THEY LIVE IN A “SECRET GATED COMMUNITY” IN IRVINE. THE YOU TUBE CLIP HAS BEEN REMOVED.

Check out where the Ackermans really live! And they seem to think we want the Mrs. representing us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTc_kJBmUkY

A “secret gated community.” In Irvine!

And we thank OC GOP hack and former Mike Carona flack Jon Fleischman for all his hardwork producing this 2007 holiday greeting!

September 23, 2009December 30, 2009Pam Keller

Fullerton Collaborative Collaborates on Stall

by The Fullerton Shadow3 Comments

Yesterday our own tenacious Travis followed up, as promised, with Pam Keller, to find out what the Fullerton Collaborative board had decided about our request to divulge their donors.

Here’s what Travis got back:

Dear Travis,

The Board of the Fullerton Collaborative met today. Your request was included on the agenda. The Board suggested if you are interested in knowing about our financial state you are welcome to look for our 990 forms on http://www2.guidestar.org/. If you would like to know more details about how we are funded, where the funding comes from or how our Collaborative functions Zoot Velasco, Chair of the Board; Barry Ross, Treasurer and I would be glad to sit down with you to go over the information.

Thank you for your interest in the Fullerton Collaborative,

Pam Keller

Executive Director

Well, you didn't think it I was going to make it easy, did you?

Hmm. We didn’t get what we wanted, but rather we got a brush off – sort of. While we have nothing against sitting down with these good people, it hardly seems necessary. We don’t need face time with them. They are either going to cooperate or not.

The invitation that we view the Form 990 is really pretty disingenuous: Ms. Keller knows very well that we have already looked at their 2007 version of this document on line – which caused us to start asking our questions in the first place. We posted about it here .

This whole thing is really starting to smell like a stall to us – we’ve been put off for over a month already. Oh well! The truth will out, as they say.

September 22, 2009December 28, 200972nd Election

Dick Ackerman For 4th District Supervisor?

by The Fullerton Harpoon4 Comments

Lost in the brouhaha over his wife’s sudden carpetbagging political ambitions in the 72nd State Assembly special election is the curious fact that Dick Ackerman is very likely going to be a resident soon of the 4th Supervisorial District.

We’re not real sure yet where the Ackermans have decided to take up their faux residence, but chances are pretty good it will be back in Dick’s old happy hunting grounds, surrounded by the love of all his old Fullerton Rotarian pals. And if he does “move” to Fullerton he would be able to throw his hat in the ring for termed-out Supervisor Chris Noby’s job.

Far-fetched? Well, maybe. But the Ackermans seem to be the type of folks who avoid leaving anything on the table, so Shawn Nelson would be well-advised to watch his back…

September 22, 2009January 4, 2010Orange County Government

Milking The Cash Cow; John Lewis et. al. and The Politics of Profit

by admin7 Comments

Why is it so many supposedly conservative, small-government OC Republicans seem to make it their business to make as much money as they can off of the very entities that they are constantly railing against? For many of these miscreants the County government is nothing but a plantation to be worked, and worked over, as often as possible.

Take the case of former State Senator John Lewis, supposed arch-conservative Republican, who as a campaign consultant gets his boys elected and then as a lobbyist raises money for them – right before he puts the squeeze on them for a vote or two. His “firm” brags about being able to navigate the complex maze of government. Hmm. Seems like it’s to his advantage to keep government as big, complicated, and non-user friendly as possible. The list of other Republicans -like Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle, County GOP party Chairman Scott Baugh and his predecessor Tom Fuentes, who lobby this or that – is pretty long. We’ve even heard from one reliable source that the latter’s endorsement can be had – for 2500 bucks.

But back to Lewis. His most recent Lewis scam seems to be the utterly bizarre candidacy of one Laura Cunningham for the County Clerk job – as reported by Lewis himself on the Orange Juice blog here. We say bizarre because this idea is so weird that it barely deserves consideration. Except that what the hell, somebody’s got to win this election! Ms. Cunningham is the spouse of Matt Cunningham, a Lewis protege and collaborator; according to her on-line resume she also used to work for Lewis himself as a lobbyist at the County Hall of Admin – so the promotion of this “candidacy” makes sense. But this woman seemingly has no experience or record managing anything. Like her husband, she seems to have spent an adulthood spinning yarns for this or that Republican politician, or trying to help some clients “navigate” some public issue or other (i.e lobbying and PR); running a public agency? Nuh, uh.

Can't these people get real jobs?

Lewis may be afraid that his boy Tom Daly is getting cold feet about running to replace Chris Norby as Supervisor and wants him to nail his colors to the mast by endorsing a potential successor. Ultimately Lewis has nothing to lose by promoting an unqualified unknown. Who knows? Maybe the whole thing is just a ploy. On the other hand maybe Lewis figures this could be the start of a brilliant new political career – and ultimately a lobbying target in the future!

P.S. The funny thing about all of this is that everybody seems to be forgetting about Chris Norby who until a few days ago was also running for the Clerk job. If he gets beat by Ackerman in the 72nd Assy primary in November will he re-train his sights on preserving our vital records at the County Clerk’s office? And what would Lewis do at that point?

September 22, 2009December 28, 200972nd Election

Mrs. Ackerman Goes Negative @ GOP Central Committee

by admin5 Comments

Oh yeah. It's gonna get ugly. Real ugly.

Our Friend Allan Bartlett who happens to be an OC GOP Central Committee member reports that an anonymous flier was passed out at last night’s meeting attacking Chris Norby – for the bogus sexual harassment suit (filed by a County employee fired for misfeasance), and for allegedly saying bad things about Mexicans.

Bartlett says Mrs. Dick Ackerman (who is going to run against Norby for the 72nd Assy seat) denied any knowledge of the flier, but he’s not buying that, and neither are we. She already let the cat out of the bag that others will be doing her dirty work for her- most likely her old man who has a natural flair for it. So be it.

As we have said the harassment thing was conjured up out of malice. As far as discriminatory comments about Mexicans is concerned, two thoughts come to mind: first, Norby may have his faults, but he is one of the least prejudiced people on the planet Earth; second that such a charge would be brought up at the forum of the OC GOP Central Committee meeting is just hilarious. How could anybody think that was going to hurt Norby at that venue!

When word of that flier gets out it might actually help Norby win the Raymond Hills GOP Bluehair vote!

Some of my best friends are Mexicans. Like my gardener and my house cleaner.