The Tale of Joe’s Tree, or The Day Government Acted Quickly

We all know that the gears of government grind slowly. Let a common citizen try to initiate some action or other and watch the January molasses flow.

Then, of course if there’s a real emergency – i.e. a need to hush something up, or cover the tracks – things move much more quickly.

Some folks thought it would be interesting to see how the City handled the issue of Sappy McTree, the Glenwood Avenue parkway youngster plowed over by former City Manager, Joe Felz on the night of his Wild Ride. Sappy was sent to the chipper, and a replacement was recently installed. Felz was sent home to spend more time with his family, and a replacement was recently installed.

Here are the relevant docs. Please note the dates.

Tree down!

The Bill
HAVE A NICE DAY!

We see that the cost of a new tree and a tree inspector (!) have been billed to Felz on November 14, 2016, five days after the incident. But note the due date – November 15th.  Nobody produces an invoice with payment due in one day. In this case the invoice was produced on a Monday, and the due date on Tuesday. Why? Well, I can only speculate but it sure looks to me like Felz was trying his level best to close out the issue before the city council meeting the next day.

In the end it didn’t matter. Felz got The Phone Call, either from the City Attorney or from Jennifer Fitzgerald herself, advising him to take some time off, and that if he had a parachute, he’d better pack it.

Installed and inspected…

Looks like the bill was finally paid on November 21 – six days late.

15 Replies to “The Tale of Joe’s Tree, or The Day Government Acted Quickly”

  1. Why is there no police report number listed?

    Oh, yeah. Little Joe was trying to make this go away as quickly as possible. Even after the cat was out of the bag.

  2. Felz was still calling the shots mid-November even though he was on leave. Sadly, one of his last calls was “I need that tree replaced right now.”

      1. It’s very clear your disdain for Joe or rather emotionally influenced attitude has negatively effected your outlook on the city as an entirety. Perhaps opposed to lambasting you take a moment and re-evaluate the scope in which you perceive people. Joe is not Fullerton. Joe is not Fullerton staff. Your ignorance is showing, perhaps you should cover up.

          1. It’s sad that a single person was preventing the improvement to begin with however I’m sure that is the case for most. Regardless, good for you and I’m glad to hear. I hope another bad apple does not trigger a fickle emotional state.

        1. “Joe is not Fullerton. Joe is not Fullerton staff.”

          Not anymore! However the DUI cover-up still exists, and the cover-up is part of a much bigger problem. But hopefully we’ll get to the bottom if it – without any help from the FPD, of course.

    1. Timely? The tree wasn’t replaced for another month ya idiot. Felz just wanted to get the thing hushed up quick. That’s obvious.

      1. I’m sorry I didn’t realize ordering trees, replacing them, recording them as assets, and creating spatial locations for them to be inventoried was such an easy thing for you. By all means why don’t you volunteer Mr.Timely

  3. People vote in bad leaders, then they pick bad leaders to help them. Out of all the choices available to your council they chose the bad apples. Now to save face they will pay someone to sit in Joe’s position from god knows where who knows jack about Fullerton. Well done. It’s honestly the voters fault. You keep voting in the same thing every time what do you expect?

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