Here’s a new message from Harold A. Schaitberger (yes that’s the head of the International Firefighter’s union’s real name) where he warns firefighters that “attacks on your pension plans are like a tsunami rolling across the country.”
A pension tsunami? Chief, I think you’re a little mixed up. Pension Tsunami is a famous little website that was cooked up right here in Fullerton, CA, and you probably don’t want to be spreading THAT message any further. Oh well, too late.
Over the years we’ve learned that boldfaced spin and self-serving regurgitation of misinformation is a regular indulgence for those union mouthpieces over at the Liberal OC. Like most, we quickly grew tired trying to make sense of the noise emerging from the OCEA’s propaganda machine and so we’ve learned to ignore it. But every once in a while someone new comes along and gets sucked right into the blue vortex.
A few weeks ago, Chris Prevatt wrote this blurb supposedly “Busting the Myths” about how public employee pensions don’t cost us hardly anything and the real problem is… well something somewhere else. He backed that up with the audacious claim that public employee compensation only sucks up about 10% of California’s budget, a dubious statement which was then re-quoted by OCEA booster Nick Berardino in this letter to the OC Register.
Well somehow our perplexed new Friends over at UnionWatch.com stumbled upon Prevatt’s steaming pile and decided to break down this mythbuster’s logic. In a lengthy post based on conservative figures and some elementary math, the unnamed blogger discovered that the LiberalOC was off the mark by a factor of six. In fact, conservative calculations pinned public employee compensation at about 67% of California’s budget, far more than Prevatt’s 10%, putting public employees right back at the top of the lineup as a primary suspects in the case of California’s budget woes.
So nobody really knows if it was Prevatt or Berardino who initiated the transmission of this blatant error, but it doesn’t really matter. It served their purposes for a few moments and a couple of union adherents probably sucked it up and will continue to pass the falsehoods along. At least now the rest of us know better.
The Fullerton School Board doesn’t show its meetings on cable or the Internet. In fact, they don’t even post the audio recordings online. The only way to find out what really happened is to drive over to the district headquarters and ask for a CD.
Well that’s pretty sad, especially given the board’s constant bloviating about their total technological immersion programs for little kids. Shouldn’t the self-appointed exhibitors of the next YouTube generation be a little more eager to put themselves online?
We can do better. And so the Friends are going to bring some extra transparency to the Fullerton School Board meetings by broadcasting them and posting the archives online for the benefit of the public. Here is the first recording of last night’s meeting:
Most of the meeting is spent “giving out gold stars” just as commenter Fullerton Rudy predicted, but there are a few interesting items in the video:
Discussion and approval of Board policy on Charter Schools – 1:37:00
Discussion and approval of lawsuit against OC Health Care Agency regarding state funding changes – 1:41:30
Our hope is that the district will ultimately take the reigns and opt to broadcast and record their own meetings, but in the meantime we promise to archive them here at FFFF for all to see (and comment on.)
Yesterday Norberto Santana of the Voice of OC (EA) did a post on a report by a group called OCCORD that accused the cities of Santa Ana and Anaheim of “rubber stamp” planning. Among other things the planning commissions in these towns were identified as living preponderantly in small enclaves and it notes the undue influence of out-of-town developers.
I’m having a little trouble separating the message from the messenger. See, the troubles are real all right. We’ve seen the same operation in Fullerton, as with the creeps who are trying to ram Amerige Court and the hideous Jefferson Commons down our throats. Our electeds got their drinkies, and their boat rides and their thirty pieces of silver from slimers like Steve Sheldon; and we got the shaft. Yet while I can’t disagree with thing the obvious OCCORD conclusion that development in Anaheim and Santa Ana is all tied up by goons with financial ties to people like Kurt Pringle and Miguel Pulido, I have to wonder what it is OCCORD is really promoting.
A quick trip to OCCORD’s website rewards visitors with a list of boardmembers and contributors that reads like a veritable who’s who of leftist, labor, and low-income housing advocates. Here’s what they say they are about:
In Orange County, California, top-down economic development policy and institutionalized anti-immigrant sentiment have served to exclude low income, immigrant communities from government decisionmaking processes, and in many cities, rapid demographic changes have created a political environment in which people are increasingly disconnected from their elected representatives. As a result, income inequality is growing faster in our region than in the nation as a whole, and our sense of community is declining.
I notice with satisfaction the name of Lorri Galloway who not only has approved just about every developer-wet-dream megaplex put in front of her in Anaheim, but also supported SunCal’s mammoth project on Anaheim Boulevard with its sham veneer of “affordable housing.” And that may be a telling.
What else will she pull out of her cookie?
So what’s the real deal? OCCORD seems to be promoting authentic, popular participation in land use decision, of the sort promised by Pam Keller when she first ran for Fullerton City Council in 2006. Pam ended up voting for a bunch of megaprojects, herself, so maybe the whole thing is just some sort of make-people- feel-good-about-looking-like-they’re-trying-to-do-something-anything, scam. Or maybe they actually want “immigrant communities” to have input into decision making land use processes – especially the development of subsidized housing projects.
I think the mistake of swapping “top-down” development policy driven by developers, and that driven by the professional houseacrats and do-gooders, and social conscience hand wringers is a distinction without much of a difference. Overbuilt, overbearing, subsidized, architectural monstrosities built on public debt are bound to follow either way. Will OCCORD ever come out against the idiotic Redevelopment housing policies and ethnic cleansing pogroms? Not likely if there’s a jaw-droppingly expensive “affordable” project of some kind, any kind, at the end of the bureaucratic rainbow.
This post is a story about the City of Orange. Why is it relevant to Fullerton? Because the antagonist of the tale is none other than Matthew J. Cunningham who loves to pontificate about all things freedom-friendly, posing as he does as a champion of business and free enterprise, and property rights, yada yada yada; a typical OC repuglican, in fact: we all know now that Cunningham was pulling down a hefty six-figure income for many years from the ultra-liberal Children and Families Commission.
Cunningham’s loud brayings on all things conservative maybe even helped him get appointed to the Orange Planning Commission by Orange Councilman Jon Dumitru. But, alas, talk is cheap. Here’s Cunningham voting to shoot down a proposal for a cafe owner to have a live music until (gasp) midnight. Watch Mr. Friend of Freedom in action:
It also transpires that Cunningham and his wife have been lobbying in Orange, too. And that doesn’t look very good for somebody making discretionary decisions on behalf of the public of a city.
And in a rather stunning display of disloyalty Cunningham refused to support his patron, Dumitru, in his run for mayor last fall. In fact the little woman chipped in a hundred bucks to Dumitru’s opponent, Carolyn Cavecche.
It would appear that Mr. Dumitru has finally run out of patience with his appointee and has asked him step down. Word in the Orange Plaza is that Cunningham refuses to go quietly, perhaps believing he has the three votes necessary to remain on the commission despite the fact that he was personally selected by Dimitru. The F-you to his boss has instigated an effort by Dimitru to force the City Council to vote on the matter. Here’s the agenda item at this week’s council meeting.
Will Freedom Boy stay or go? And will he quit harassing business owners in Orange? Stay tuned for the fun!
One of Chris Thompson’s first challenges on the Fullerton School Board may be to oppose the approval of a resolution by the Fullerton School District to support the extended tax increases in California.
The district typically has supported anti-taxpayer, pro-union resolutions like this forwarded by self-serving organizations like the California School Boards Association. With the highest state taxes and entitlement expenses in the nation, let’s see if this 5 of 5 Republican School Board has nerve to insult our intelligence with this resolution.
Tonight on the Martha Montelongo Show: Norberto Santana of the Voice of OC(EA) on a story he broke regarding allegations that Former State Senator Dick Ackerman had lobbied his former Orange County colleagues in the CA State Legislature in violation of State law.
Several local bloggers had previously alleged that Ackerman was lobbying for the sale of the OC Fair Grounds, but they were lacking a smoking gun until now. Santana uncovered records that are certainly compromising to both Dick Ackerman and to O.C. DA Tony Rackauckas, who appears to have covered for Dick.
Also on the show, Ron Kaye of Ron Kaye L.A. Blog, and John Seiler of CalWatchDog.comtalk about taxpayer subsidies and land give-aways to bring NFL Stadiums to the City of Angels. Tune in on 870AM or at www.krla870.com.
Check out this clip of resident Barry Levinson challenging the city council to tackle our unfunded pension liability problem at the February 2nd council meeting.
Once he gets past the dreary numbers, Barry suggests that the city manager obtain outsourcing bids to create a dollar baseline as a heavy bargaining chip during the next set of negotiations with the unions.
The lumbering Mayor Pro Tem, both a recipient and perpetrator of the ridiculous pension scheme, became agitated and cut Barry off several times, but Barry got his point across in the end.
Of course he will. He’s already re-authorized the original bill twice and voted to make it permanent. Why should we think he won’t join the majority of Dems and ‘Pugs to renew some of the law’s more controversial provisions in the coming days?
The probing will continue indefinitely.
The Patriot Act was created in the rabid aftermath of 9/11 and passed by a broad coalition of legislators who never even read the bill. It granted federal law enforcement bureaucracies a new range of surveillance powers previously considered unconstitutional by anyone who bothered to read the Fourth Amendment.
Warrantless wiretaps, secret court orders, and immediate access to the Internet history, emails, medical records, public library records and school records of every single American are now available to any agent convinced that terrorism might take place somewhere sometime.
Not a terrorist? The definition of terrorism has been conveniently expanded to include activities previously protected by the 1st amendment, such as protests in inconvenient locations or anything else that fits the vague description of “disruptive activity.”
Nope. No terrorists here.
Lost on every foam-at-the-mouth terrorist hunter who embraces this law is one simple reality: the invasive provisions of the Patriot Act apply not only to them evil terrists, but also to every single law-abiding American citizen of the United States.
Thanks, Ed Royce, for another unchecked expansion of government power.
Okay, we’ve had some harsh criticism of the Voice of OC in the past, but today Norberto Santana came out with a great expose about OC Fair-employed lobbyist Dick Ackerman, husband of former carpetbaggress Linda, both of whom are residents of Irvine.
I told the DA everything was on the up and up. And that's what he went with!
Last year our do-nothing DA whitewashed Ackerman’s role in the ’09 OC Fair sale matter, saying he didn’t lobby the Legislature in violation of State law. How did the DA reach this conclusion? It wasn’t through investigative work, that’s for damn sure. Naturally, Amen Corner repuglicans like Matthew J. Cunningham crowed when the whitewash came out, but they’ll be eating crow soon enough. See, Santana got hold of Ackerman’s Nossaman Law Firm’s original billing records. And even though those records were laundered through some “environmental” consulting firm called LSA, the details prove what we here at FFFF have known since the fall of 2009: Ackerman was acting as a lobbyist and that in 2010 the DA was covering it up. The Nossaman billing records show phone calls to members of the State Legislature at $500 an hour. And that was illegal.
I gotta eat the feathers, too?
We didn’t have the billing, of course. We just had Dicky-boy’s own words:
“In order for the fair to be sold, it would require budget language to authorize the state to sell it,” he said. “I did some preliminary work to get the language in the budget.”
Preliminary work? Well, that’s one way of describing it; and that pesky budget language sure wasn’t going to jump into the bill all by itself, now was it?
Well, Friends, don’t expect any legal remedies anytime soon. Just remember the name: Ackerman. When you hear it, or read it, or smell it, you can bet some monkey business is afoot.
