The Case of the Florentine Case
It’s true that the gears of justice grind slowly and no where is that more true than in the case of the Florentine forgery. You remember that, right? Joe Florentine, proprietor of the family amalgamation of restaurants on the corner of Harbor and Commonwealth deliberately altered an official planning document so that he could pursue the Conditional Use Permit that he had never bothered to get. That was in January 2020.
The document was changed to make it look like Florentine was the owner of the property simply because he had a business there. His specious legal theory was backed up by City Attorney Dick Jones, who had his own conflict of interest in the matter and never should have been involved in the first place.
To their credit, the Planning Commission refused to deal with the matter and the application was dropped. But the forgery was not forgotten, as desired.
The real owner of the building, Mario Marovic became involved in a lawsuit with the City over this complicity by both the City Attorney and the City staff – most notably City Manager Ken Domer and Planning Director Matt Foulkes. When that case was settled to Mr. Marovic’s satisfaction ($25,000 courtesy of you and me) he proceeded to file a criminal complaint with the Fullerton Police Department.
That was over eight months ago.
Finally, we hear from folks at City Hall that the case is finally making its way to the District Attorney. Why it has taken the sleuths at the FPD almost nine months to refer this case to the DA can only be explained by a reluctance of the cops to make their compadre public employees look bad. The evidence was right there, on video. The perp admitted what he had done. A blind man could have processed this thing expeditiously. Well, fair is fair, I guess, and Fullerton’s City Managers have never once said or done anything to correct the rampant corruption in the police department.
Well, the hapless boob Domer is gone, kicked out after several years of gross incompetence and mismanagement; Foulkes fled to Buena Park – a step down – but presumably a step ahead of the axe. Both should be damn glad this issue hasn’t come up sooner because both were complicit in the forgery – and that in itself is a felony.
Why is Dick Jones still in Fullerton?
Dick has outlasted every crooked group of leaders that have ever taken charge of Fullerton. As long as he is still there, Fullerton will continue to fail miserably.
Take out the trash.
That won’t happen. Linda Whitaker likes Jones. He must be buying lunch.
The issue of Joneses corruption and incompetence is so obvious it’s amazing that he is still around, proffering his marble-mouthed horse shit. It’s obvious that either Dunlop, Jung or Whitaker wants to keep him. Why?
It will be interesting to see how officialdom tries to protect those responsible. I’m pretty sure Jones has feathered Todd Spitzer’s nest over the years, and government employees don’t like applying justice to other bureuacrats.
This was nicely done. Fitzgerald gave direction to Domer who gave it to Foulkes. There was collusion with Jones to give a fig leaf of legal cover so they wouldn’t have to take the fall if the shit hit the fan. Now that the Princess of Darkness is gone Jones is the only one to take the heat. He ca just claim incompetence, as usual, and the hapless dolt Joe Florentine skates because City Hall big shots told him he could FORGE AN OFFICAL CITY DOCUMENT.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-florentine-36100911
“Looking for management position in operations”
I hear JP23 is looking for managers.
Why is Jones still working for Fullerton? Ever heard that you get what you pay for? the answers: Jones and Mayer are cheap because he hires shitty attorneys.
Maybe. He is a shitty attorney himself. But the amount of money this boob has cost taxpayers wipes out any savings he might offer in the way of bargain basement lawyers.
But it’s right to point out these vile and vindictive assholes – people like Kimberly Barlow and Gregory “The Hand Job Lawyer” Palmer.