Why Did Fullerton Aide & Abet Forgery?
It’s been 11 months and we still don’t have any answers, let alone accountability, over the forgery committed on behalf of the Florentine family with the apparent blessing of City staff.
For those new to this story, a fraudulent Conditional Use Permit “Master Application Form” was illegally modified to allow a tenet, Joe Florentine, to change the property rights of a property owned by somebody else.
When this story first came up, Dick Jones of Jones & Mayer, the City Attorney tried to run cover for the fraud by claiming that Florentine had standing to make changes to the property rights based on an old non-relevant case in San Francisco. What the City Attorney didn’t answer, and nobody on City staff has managed to explain to date, is why the City aided and abetted fraud and forgery?
Irrespective of the alleged ability of Florentine to request changes to his permitting, he didn’t have the right to falsify or forge a document.
Here’s the CA Penal Code on forgery:
115 (a) Every person who knowingly procures or offers any false or forged instrument to be filed, registered, or recorded in any public office within this state, which instrument, if genuine, might be filed, registered, or recorded under any law of this state or of the United States, is guilty of a felony.
We know that the Master Application Form was falsified, there is no question on that front. The area for the “Signature of Property Owner” was illegally replaced with “Signature of Applicant/Use Owner”.
On top of the Forgery, we have the problem of Perjury. Joe Florentine submitted a false document and signed, under penalty of perjury, in the presence of a notary that he had the “authorized capacity” to sign it when after years of signing city documents he would have known that was false.
Florentine likewise wouldn’t have been communicating with city staff about the above San Francisco case if he didn’t know that he wasn’t authorized to sign this newly falsified form.
So what has Fullerton done about this forgery/perjury that was excused all the way up to and through the City Attorney & City Manager? Nothing. Who in the City was held accountable for facilitating this fraud? Nobody.
The same nothing that was done & nobody who was held accountable when Staff & the City Attorney cocked up the Air Combat case which just cost us $1Million+.
The same nothing that was done & nobody who was held accountable when the City Attorney convinced council to sue us for Jones & Mayer’s gross negligence & illegal handling of allegedly confidential files in as clear cut of a case of conflict of interest that I can imagine.
Why is nothing ever done and nobody ever held accountable when City Hall screws up? They’re quick to demand more from us, be it new taxes or Christmas decorations, but never willing to hold their own to account when they screw up.
We could spend days going over all of the times misconduct has led to nothing happening to nobody within the city and it’s pathetic and needs to change.
Maybe now with a fresh new council we can finally get some oversight and accountability in Fullerton. It’s long passed time.
Dick Jones is a crook, plain and simple. Remember when he got caught trying to steal a pension in Westminster?
Unfortunately, a culture of “FU, we do what we want” has pervaded every level of government, especially over the last four years. Unless there are consequences for actions like this at every level, things will only get worse.
I would hope that the city will require the removal of the illegal sidewalk encroachment by the new owners as a condition for approval of their remodel of their vast complex of storefronts at that corner.
A Fullerton Police Shooting Draws Neighborhood Outrage to Department’s Doorstep
https://voiceofoc.org/2020/12/a-fullerton-police-shooting-draws-neighborhood-outrage-to-departments-doorstep/
Don’t forget, Jones also had a conflict of interest as he owned property near the Florentine Restaurant. He recused himself at the Planning Commission meeting – after his conflict was exposed – but his ethical obligation was to recuse himself immediately and leave it to another, non-conflicted law firm, to research whether the tenant had standing to submit the application.
Matt Foulkes was aware of the crime; Domer was aware of the crime. Yet the both went ahead on the say-so of conflicted Dick Jones. Why did they all put their heads on the chopping block? Answer below.
1) There is no chopping block in Fullerton’s notorious Culture of Corruption
2) They were being directed to involve themselves in a criminal conspiracy because the Florentine Crime Family’s protector, Jennifer Fitzgerald was orchestrating the whole damn thing and would run cover for the crimes that were being committed.
But let’s not forget who did nothing about this conspiracy and yet must certainly have known all about vi this blog and their own Planning Commissioners: Whitaker, Flory, and Silva. And next time some boohoo starts bleeding about poor, wronged Ahmad Zahra, ask them how come their golden boy has done NOTHING about the lucrative crime wave overseen by Jones and Mayer.