McPension Struts His Stuff
In an ideal city our elected officials would know what the hell they were voting on. Alas, in Fullerton, such is not the case. Here is the egregious Pat McKinley last Tuesday demonstrating that he hasn’t got a clue what he is talking about. First he emphatically says there is no Ackerman project. Then, when corrected, he emphatically says he supports the Ackerman project.
McPension is totally clueless, except for one thing: He knows that his pal Dick Ackerman needs an approval of a lousy project with a massive subsidy to keep his oily hide employed. And that’s enough for McKinley.
That ’bout sums it up.
“Dick Ackerman needs an approval of a lousy project with a massive subsidy to keep his oily hide employed.”
True. That creep’s stock is tanking at Nossaman.
Is it me or are the 3 clowns suffering from dementia?
Pat McKinley reminds me of “Clara Bell the Clown” from the childrens T.V. show that aired in the 50’s, “Howdy Doody”.
I think we’d all be better served if McKinley would just stick to the horn that Ackerman provided Pat to respond with, rather than attempting to wing it with dialogue of his own.
He doesn’t know or he pretends not to know what he is voting on?That is either plain scary or flat out diabolical or both. Either way Pat move over and let someone else represent the fine citizens of this great city. Couple million here or there who cares, no big deal huh?. Hey Pat I know people who go to work in respirators so they can feed their families and give their kids a better chance at life knowing full well they are walking neuroendocrine carcinomas. What a bunch of creeps.
McPension & Co. are bought and paid for.
If Tony Bushala’s the “Downtown Developer” that the 3 decrepit dinosaurs keep blathering about, and obviously this is not a Bushala project, so which projects did Bushala develop?
Ackerman is paid by a group of developers. He sells his services just like a lobbyist, only he does not have to register. The group of developers hired Ackerman because he PROVED that he could get developments through Fullerton city council since he is tight with the three jurassic stumps.
It reminds Tuco of the film “Back to School” where Rodney Dangerfield tells the Economics Professor about needing Guido to grease the palms to get the projects completed. Otherwise, its a “fairy tale”!
Who’s project is it that is being approved? Ackerman’s? and no one who supports anti recall, see’s this as funny business? or as one hand washing the other?
Bet if it was Tony’s project, he’d get all kinds of crap not just from the 3 petrified turds but from the anti recall camp.
So why is everything cool as long as it’s one of “their people”
This is who Fullerton has in charge? Really?
“he emphatically says he supports the Ackerman project.” You mean he didn’t say he “violently supports”????
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING, SHOW ME/US SOME NUMBERS. ARE THESE RENTAL UNITS OR ARE THEY FOR SALE?
Listening to Jones & McKinley it difficult to not get vulgar.
I understand that an element of the developer will be the managing company of these units FOREVER. The fleece is full of lice.
McKinley tried to do a misrepresentation of the of the ordinance to be voted on and got caught in public. He has had many years of practice and in all likely hood would have been considered a “BRADY COP”.
And with Jones overlooking small details he would have been a big hit in the OR in charge of a surgical team.
plain ornery on March 12, 2012: What is the definition of affordablel housing?
Great question. I asked the council that question on Feb. 22 when a affordable i.e. low income seniors housing development went before the council.
I do not remember the exact numbers but very low income was approx a 30 thousand or below threshold and low income was apprx a 40 thousand or below threshold.
These numbers are not exact but I will use them for example purposes only.
I then asked the 64,000 question?
Is there a net worth limit to qualify for these very low income or low income housing units?
Astonishingly the answer was NO!
In other words a senior citizen can have a million dollar house and 1.5 million dollars of 1 year treasury bonds paying about 1% a year plus some social security and be legally eligible to live in these units.
Are you kidding me? No I am not!
1.5 million X .01 = $15,000 income
social secuity income est. = $12,000 income
Total income = $27,000
So the goal of subsidizing private developers to provide housing for low income people is really a sham! They do not have to be poor, they do not even have to be middle class necessarily as my example above clearly demonstrates.
Now C. Whitaker clearly gets this!! However, the Mayor and the other three senior citizens on the dais, surely do not!
I am a conservative. I do not believe it makes sense to take tax dollars from hard working people who have earned it and then literally throw it away on a program that does not even do what it pretends its suppose to do! Namely, to help poor senior citizens.
Under these circumstances, no one should be for these programs, conservatives, independents and liberals alike.
So good riddence to Redevopment and let us keep our guard up that the city does not try to impose some other illogical, inefficent system that picks winners and losers and puts money in the pockets of developers who know the “Right”
people!
Barry, I like the way you think and I support you.
But, if we didn’t give away millions to developers for this scam, what would Charles Kovac and the rest of the redevelopment staffers (now called successor agency staff) do for a living? They have kids, so think of their kids.
That Levinson fella is one smart guy! Better not git in Doc Hee Haw’s way or he will have ya bloused!
Them Low Cost housing projects generate a lot of free cash flowing in the coffers of elected govmint officials! Ya don’t have to be a Beverly Hillbilly or even a Fullerton Hillbilly to see where the money is bein made.
Oops that is low rent (sorta) not low cost housing! Well it at least has ta meet code!
PS:
I used the term senior citizens not to offend those over 65 but rather to keep my comments about McKinley, Bankhead, and Jones on a higher level!
Let us look at real low income housing.
First, Craftsman. Yes, we mean the tradename of Sears and Roebuck. In the 1910’s and 1920’s you could order a mail order house from Sears. The pieces would be shipped out to your lot along with instructions on how to put them together. They still stand. In downtown Orange, Fullerton, Hemet, and countless other communities accoss the United States, people are still proud to own one of the high-quality Craftsman homes.
Second is Levitt. Facing the return of hundreds of thousands of troops returning from World War Two eager to take their organizational skills back to civilian life and begin the baby boom, Levitt began to construct whole communities with street after street of mass produced houses, all similar and built with factory precission. Each skilled professional would do his job on one lot and then move to the next as another skilled professional move in to do his part. This was the beginning of tract housing.
We moved to Fullerton for cheap housing, as my father got a job in downtown Los Angeles. As a plus, we got to live in the same tract as our cousins, the Kennedys. The homes were mirror immages, although ours had been added to before we bought it and had a variation of a free-standing garage.
My mother told me that our tract, El Camino Dr., Cerritos Dr., and portions of Richman Ave., Highland Ave., and Richman Knoll, was the original Sunny Hills Tract. Indeed, what is now called Sunny Hills was originally sold as Sunny Hills West. Part of the sales pitch was that we would grow up to attend the new Sunny Hills High School, which my two oldest cousins did. But as the population grew to the west, the school boundaries changed and the other seven of us went to good old Fullerton High.
But I digress.
The first two forms of affordable housing involved revolutions in construction methodology and were sold directly from the provider to the consumer. Today’s affordable housing involves a layer of government beauacracy condemning private property, transferring it to a new pseudo-private entity, constructing it to arduous often arbitrary standards, and then providing it to consumers who often could not afford it without additional government subsidies.
Is there any wonder that modern affordable housing is not as affordable as Craftsman or Levitt homes were in their time?
Building ‘Taj Mahals’ with Taxpayer Money
The $44 million [Estrella del Mercado affordable] apartment project will cost an average of $477,743 per unit, 90 percent of which will be paid by taxpayers. That’s twice what private developers say they’re spending to develop high-end apartments in the city today.
A few miles away, in Mission Valley, a private developer said he’s building top-shelf apartments for $225 a square foot. Another developer currently building upscale apartments downtown said his total cost is $275 a square foot.
The Estrella del Mercado apartments will cost $529 a square foot.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/public_safety/pavement/article_5ca97da6-b3d1-11e0-83b9-001cc4c03286.html
Thanks Barry,
I appreciate your interest and questioning of the presentation of affordable housing.
The other term used in a lot of gov’t BS is low cost housing.
I think the presentation jargon of low cost and affordable is to confuse.
We should be building more SRO units for those people that are living in the shadow of death.
These people may be functionable in a structured living environment, these are the people rejected by the general populace and are in need of special attention(not the FPD) and HELP.
There are charity groups and organizations that seek-out families and provide for them in many ways.
affordable housing is another way to say theft of tax dollars from those who never get a financial break and are always expected to pay their way in life, to subsidize developers building houses for those whose income may be no lower than $40,000 a year and as high as $111,000 a year. Affordable housing is code for guaranteed return on investment, and whose money truly is at stake here may answer many questions as to why affordable housing is so popular with Fullerton’s city council and their hanger-ons, because it is fronted with tax dollars not private dollars and the requirements for ownership stipulates only those who fall in the middle to uppermiddle class income bracket qualify to buy affordable housing. so what happens to those who earn less than $40,00 a year? they are displaced. This does not smell like “its not charity, its equity” excuse to justify diverting tax dollars away from needed public infrastructure to enterprises that deliver a profit to those in government who promote these schemes
No, they are just trying to keep track of all the lies…and they cant keep up- prior to us showing up-there were 25 people seriously involved in politics….now that the number is growing-thank goodness…and they are being held to task-they cant do it, and they are showing their antiquated thinking…they are in fact becoming extinct. And I for one, am happy to see it.
The Developer said at the Planning Commission hearing that probably everyone in the room , including the Commissioners, would qualify for the rent subsidies they proposed. I wonder if the 4 Costa Mesa “Firefighters” who made $346,168 $313,009, $283,753 and $288,960 last year (as reported in this Sunday’s Register) can get there housing subsidized too.
of course!
Quirk Silva is spot on! Don’t approve a project that has no funding. McPension was violently in support of the project.