Search Results for: Fullerton Boohoo

Last night the Fullerton City Council voted 3-2 to amend the lease at the historic train station between the City and Bushala Brother, Inc. (BBI). Jung, Dunlap, and Valencia voted yes. Charles and Zahra no. The later tried to obfuscate and stall, but to no avail.

The Fullerton Observer and its brand new “writers” – political flacks Sweet Young Elijah Manassero and Steve Sherry tried their gosh darndest to mobilize a wave Observer troops to oppose the deal. In the end only a small ripple washed up on the sand to repeat the bullshit talking points they had been fed by Zahra and the Kennedy Sisters.

Comically, some of the self-appointed experts on commercial real estate were the near-homeless council regulars.

Mayor Jung did a good job upfront of clarifying some of the misinformation being peddled, to Zahra’s obvious annoyance.

Staff did an okay good job defending their negotiations against the disingenuous questioning of Ahmad Zahra who kept trying to compare the depot with completely different agreements on completely different properties. Zahra had been challenged for his (in)ability to be impartial and then showed to everybody that he was not impartial at all.

Sheena Charles wanted to talk to the Bushalas about the fact that no restaurant had ever appeared on the loading dock; she made the mistake of engaging George Bushala, Jr. in a conversation that ended in a comical overtalk exchange that left this viewer gasping for air.

According to Bushala, City staff had been causing problems for decades and had been using delaying tactics for years; and of course there was the obvious problem of the piece of loading dock not in the original lease is physically connected to the Bushala portion of the dock – a deterrent to development.

Dr. Sheena went to great lengths to act out her pretend astonishment. She bemoaned the lack of a “Trevor’s at the Tracks” like they have in San Juan Capistrano (I was immediately reminded of the idiot lefties who periodically demand the City bring a Trader Joe’s into town). She also wanted to know why the wealthy Bushalas (she is just a poor renter, she reminded everybody) wouldn’t give back a piece of gross sales as a sort of philanthropic gesture, I guess.

Mr. Bushala casually suggested her ignorance and confusion demonstrated: “that’s why you do what you do, and I do what I do.”

In the end Zahra pulled his usual “I have questions” that are nothing other than self-righteous speechifying – even interrupting Jung as the latter made a motion to approve the item. After a substitute motion by Sheena and Zahra to keep yakking it up failed, the original motion was approved and the deal was done.

MY APOLOGIES FOR IDENTIFYING THE WRONG HOUSE IN THIS POST. GABRIEL SAN ROMAN IS CORRECT. THE HOUSE IN QUESTION IS ON HILLCREST DRIVE.

Historic preservation, to my inexpert understanding, is about recognizing the significance of buildings that are associated with historic figures and with significant architecture. Enter the home of one Louis E. Plummer, longtime Superintendent of Fullerton Schools in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He wrote a useful history of the Fullerton Schools in the early days, I am informed.

Fullerton Heritage nominated Mr. Plummer’s house as a candidate for recognition as a Fullerton City Landmark. It’s (not) at 104 Park View Road – an attractive red tile roofed house from the 1920s. The item came up at last week’s City Council meeting.

Things got challenging.

You see, Mr. Plummer was a member of the Ku Klux Klan back in the 20s, according to someone’s doctoral dissertation 46 years ago. I no have idea if the assertion is even accurate, but it presented real problems for the two self-righteously woke members of the City Council, namely the Good “Drs.” Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles, who can’t be seen as associating themselves with the Klan, no matter how ridiculously remote.

The same issue confronted the Fullerton Joint Unified High School five years ago and they took Plummer’s name off the FHS auditorium that bore it for 60 years, folding under WoW-style pressure from similar ignoramuses.

Apparently, nuanced conversation isn’t useful when you’re out to score what you think is an easy political layup.

Forget the fact that Plummer was significant leader in Fullerton and contributed to the development of the public education system in Fullerton – the soi-disant “Education Community.” And forget the fact that the house wouldn’t be a damn shrine for White Nationals. And forget the fact that the house is 100 years old and designed by the guy that did a lot of those historical WPA Spanishy buildings at FJC – the old concrete ones – not the new overbearing monstrosities. Forget that the dedicatory plaque will be on private property and will offend nobody. No. KKK.

In the end Jung, Valencia and Dunlap voted to approve the inclusion of the house into the Landmark Register (or whatever they call it). Zahra and Charles voted no. Charles and Zahra both claim intellectual attainment, being “Drs” and all. But if they have any they didn’t dare show it.

Right on cue the Fullerton Observer kraken Skania Kennedy released herself with a headline that blares out:

“Council Majority Approves Controversial Landmark Designation for Ku Klux Klan Collaborator Louis Plummer’s Residence“

Suddenly a public conversation requiring some sophisticated thinking becomes an attack on Sasksa’s favorite villain – Fred Jung and Co. In weaselly fashion Sansika labels Plummer a KKK “collaborator,” but of course there’s no more proof of that than there is of his being a full-fledged member, based on who knows what evidence collected by the dissertation writer without fear of a defamation lawsuit from a dead man.

It’s pretty clear that this effort is nothing more than a way to blackguard three decent people, and maybe someday supply a theme for a political hit piece.

Anyway, I’ll let Fran J, the Observers new reality fact checker take us home by responding to Saksia and her sister, Sharon on the Fullerton Observer blog:

As for decisions like the WoW program or the Plummer home designation, these are nuanced matters being flattened into soundbites. The Plummer home, what you refer to as KKK house is historic building that tells a story—good, bad, and ugly. Pretending that preserving it is an endorsement of racism ignores the value of reckoning with our history rather than erasing it. The city isn’t honoring the man; it’s preserving a piece of our past so we can learn from it. The LA Times also reported about the Louis Plummer house that actually better reflects the complexity of that issue which I encourage residents to read if they really cared.

It’s fine to disagree on policy, but let’s do so with the full picture in mind. Mayor Jung isn’t perfect—no leader is—but he’s showing up, making hard decisions, and putting Fullerton on the map in ways we haven’t seen in years. That deserves a fair evaluation, not a list of half-contextualized talking points.

Well said, Fran.

Sometimes stuff pops up that you couldn’t possibly make up. The latest Fullerton Observer includes a piece co-authored by Curtis Gamble and Sankia Kennedy and features the headline I used, above.

To start off with I have to say I can’t think of two people less likely to come up with a potential solution for anything.

Poor Curtis Gamble is just a perpetually discombobulated fellow who takes an opportunity a couple times a month to polish his sense of self-importance at city council meetings, generally offering comments on things he knows nothing about. He presumes to advocate for the homeless, bus drivers, seniors, students, etc., etc.; people who would probably just as soon forgo his representation. Co-author Saska Kennedy is thoroughly annoying too, although she, like her older sister, Sharon, is propelled by the ideological dogma of the self-righteous and sanctimonious left.

Their “article” presumes there is a homeless crisis in Fullerton. And it offers that homeless seniors represent 20% of this crisis. Their potential solution? Use the Rancho La Paz senior mobile home park as some sort of permanent housing for the homeless, moving them into trailers as they are vacated.

I can’t conceive of a worse idea: a village of homeless people assigned property, not their own, to live in and presumably maintain. Somehow the pathologies of homelessness – schizophrenia, drug abuse, living in filth would be rectified by mobile home park living. Cooking, cleaning, job hunting, health maintenance all self-performed by the newly housed, one concludes. Of course professional do gooders from Illumination Foundation (as a for instance) will be on hand to dispense “behavioral” admonitions and the necessary modalities.

The biggest unstated obstacle, and one that Curtis and Skansia work really hard to ignore is the fact that the mobile home park has an owner. When last I heard, that fellow is a real estate and numismatist named John Saunders who has been villainized by Fullerton Boohoo for raising rents on his ground leases and who, I believe, is highly unlikely to go along with Homeless Village. Well, maybe he would if the City were to reimburse him for rents and maintenance costs and policing of the village. That would cost a fortune.

The article fails to mention that typically land, not the mobile homes are owned by a guy like Saunders. A trailer wouldn’t be available unless purchased by somebody for the homeless purpose, or just abandoned by the owner.

Then there’s the issue of joint sovereignty. The south half of Rancho La Paz is in Anaheim, not Fullerton, so there’s that.

When I was done reading this nonsense I was left wondering its purpose. Is it just gratuitous virtue signaling? A Big Idea hatched by the disoriented Curtis Gamble and advertised by the Kennedy Sisters? Hard to say. But one thing is certain. The piece projects the typical lack of pragmatism that is the hallmark of the Homeless Industrial Complex, so maybe it has a chance – if politicians can be seen to be throwing money at a problem absent results.

On Tuesday the Bushala Depot lease agreement was not voted upon. It item was continued until July 15th.

But that didn’t keep a gaggle of Zahra followers from trying to continue the narrative of subsidies and below market rate rent.

Our new friend, tender young thing Elijah Manaserro, local scholar, was there to do just that. And a few other callers in.

My favorite speaker was the itinerant pest Curtis Gamble, whose near homelessness makes him qualified to opine on real estate deals.

When public comments were done, Zahra showed his role as coordinator of the opposition. He wanted comparative market rates, he said; there won’t be any, but okay, fair enough. But then he displayed his fundamental ignorance by including agreements with The Summit Restaurant and the Boys and Girls Club – completely different properties.

The fact is that the Santa Fe Depot doesn’t have any “comps” in Orange County. The historic building is is unique and made up of several disparate areas, each of pretty small space; in other words, hard to rent out. And the Loading Dock, proposed for inclusion in a revised overall lease, is only connected to an area already leased by the Bushalas. Adaptive reuse will require a huge outlay of money to effect structural reinforcement, enclosure and interior finishes. And because there is no place for kitchen or restrooms, it is functionally useless for anybody except the Bushalas who have ten year lease extension options.

Here’s the hypocrisy part. Remember the ill-fate “boutique hotel/monster apartment,” an unsolicited proposal with no RFP, no RFQ, no RF-anything? Do you remember any of Fullerton BooHoo raising Hell about that? Me neither. I do remember that Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles voted to give con-men Johnny Lu and Larry Liu a $14,000,000 price subsidy on a parcel they upzoned themselves. Talk about short-term memory loss.

Hopefully when this item returns, staff will explain (based on their extensive expertise) the expertise Fullerton Boohoo is always praising – that the deal they negotiated is not a subsidy and that rather than losing money, the deal will bring in tax revenue to the City and to the County; and that letting the Loading Dock fall down doesn’t help anybody – even those taxpayers Zahra and Charles pretend to care so much about.

On tonight’s City Council meeting agenda you’ll see an item about a lease revision at the historic Santa Fe Depot between the City (owner) and the leasee – Bushala Brothers. Inc.

Apparently the Bushala’s have been trying to get a lease on the entire loading dock portion of the Depot for the better part of 10 years while rolling it into an updated lease for the entire building. These efforts seem to have been met with the usual obstructionism from City staff, who in the past seemed happy to stall and temporize.

But mirable dictu, the Age of Miracles isn’t past! A lease has finally been agreed, and the opportunity to see a successful adaptive reuse of the loading dock into a commercially viable space may be at hand.

Happiness all around, right?

Heavens, no! Enter Ahmad Zahra and Fullerton Boohoo. The new running dog for this dog and pony operation is a sweet young thing named Elijah Manassero who writes articles for the Fullerton Observer attacking Tony Bushala and using the phraseology of Zahra and Vivian Jaramillo. Apparently Elijah has taken to social media to proclaim his outrage over the Depot lease.

Crazy deal? Insanity? Really, innocent, young Elijah? That’s what you wanna go with? No “City taxes” are spent on this arrangement and there is no subsidy, ya poor, dumb sap.

Now we may be sure that the “well below market rate” nonsense was fed to him by Zahra or somebody else who knows even less about commercial real estate – like Skaskia Kennedy who is also parroting the idiot “subsidy” line. The fact is that there is no other potential tenant with any interest in the loading dock and never has been.

A tax-paying tenant on the loading dock would increase sales taxes to the City. Having no tenant contributes nothing, a fact that has escaped poor young Elijah and the younger Kennedy Sister.

Over thirty years ago the Bushalas were the only non-subsidy demanding respondent to an RFP by the City of Fullerton to lease and restore the Santa Fe Depot, a fact reflected in the lease value – then and now. The restoration was successfully performed and the building is now on the National Register of Historic Places – an undeniable and rare success story for Fullerton Redevelopment.

More recently, the Bushala’s have donated tens of thousands of dollars in labor and material to help volunteers perform stabilization and repair efforts on the loading dock roof structure that the owner – the Fullerton taxpayers – haven’t had to spend a dime on. More malfeasance, naive Elijah?

It’s way past time to put the loading dock platform to productive use – use that is profitable to the taxpayers pliable young Elijah and Fullerton Boohoo pretend to care so much about.

And tonight’s the time to finally do it.

Last night the Fullerton City Council voted down a desperate attempt by “Drs.” Charles and Zahra to rescind a recently approved policy that excludes non-government publications on City premises – except for a spot in the Library.

As FFFF noted the other day the whole thing was a ginned-up reason to force another vote and to mobilize Fullerton Boohoo. The transparent pretext of “new information” fooled nobody, since it was obviously just cover for Shameless Charles to get right with her constituency and at the same time to subject the council majority to another round of uninformed harangues by Zahra’s mindless minions.

Somehow a content neutral policy of excluding news outlets from the City Hall lobby was construed as an all-out assault on the free press and freedom of speech, yadda yadda. The Fullerton Observers were outraged, of course.

At the end, the inevitable wind-up speeches were completely predictable. Charles went into a long and winding circumlocution meant to separate her from her previous voice in support of the policy.

Zahra, as usual, outdid himself in his insufferable, twattish way, nattering about freedom and admonishing staff and the City Attorney that they are paid by all Fullerton, not just the council majority, and that being legal doesn’t make something right. The irony of this bullshit was lost on Fullerton Boohoo, but not on me. This is the same little miscreant who voted time and time again to pursue a lawsuit by the City against FFFF, Joshua Ferguson, and David Curlee. Zahra’s lawsuit against FFFF was an attempt to punish people expressing a First Amendment protected right. The City lost that lawsuit, costing the people of Fullerton, the folks Zahra pretends to care so much about, upwards of a million dollars. That’s a lot of asphalt repair for your district, “Dr.” Zahra.

Zahra blamed FFFF for being behind an intricate plot to get the Observer out of City Hall, a compliment really, although whether deserved remains to be seen. The new paper FFFF publication, the Fullerton Tribune (I’ve seen the gallery proof), can’t be dispensed there, either.

The vote to rescind the policy failed 2-3 with Valencia, Jung, and Dunlap voting no.

At the end of the interminable yakking, Jung moved to “table” the issue, a parliamentary tactic of using a positive majority vote that makes it impossible for Charles and Zahra to resurrect the thing through some fabricated “new information” in two weeks or beyond. Hopefully, on future votes Jung will remember to do this the first time around, or better yet, make it clear that 2 council people can only agendize new items, not something they lost.

The motion to table passed 3-2, Charles and Zahra dissenting, evidence that still want to bring it up again.

That’s the way it looks. FFFF’s attorney Kelly Aviles sent word to the City that Friends for Fullerton’s Future was planning a periodical publication and wanted to dispense it on City property – City Hall, the Fullerton Library, the Community Center. You may recall our post.

Our lawyer has not heard anything in the past four and a half weeks. There is an obvious stall tactic, of course. This means one of two things. Could it be because the City doesn’t know how to respond? Or, maybe the City wants to ignore the request just hoping somehow it will go away.

We do know that there is no love lost between FFFF and Fullerton’s astonishingly still employed City Attorney, the I Can’t Believe It’s A Law Firm of Jones and Mayer. These cut rate pettifoggers, hand job lawyers, and low percentile law school grads don’t like us because of our myriad posts outlining their incompetence, corruption, and self-dealing. They even tried to sue FFFF and a couple of its writers a few years back. Their loss must still hurt their misplaced professional pride.

We also know that the upper echelons of the City also look askance at our disrespectful but honest chronicling of their misdeeds over the past 17 years. There’s a long list of corrupt cops, boobs, drunk driving city managers, incompetents and ne’er do wells whom we have raked over the coals, including several of the current generation.

Obviously, the immigration and marriage fraud Ahmad Zahra doesn’t like us because we are anti-Muslim homophobes, which hilariously corresponds exactly with his exercise in self branding. Whether his pal in the “progressive” ideology charade, Shana Charles is opposed to an FFFF presence in City Hall is unknown.

What about Nick Dunlap and Fred Jung? We have been sort of nice to them when they do good things; also not so nice when they cave in to Fullerton’s boohoo phalanx. Are they trying to blackball us? I don’t know and I don’t know if Jamie Valencia has even heard of our humble blog.

Whatever the dynamics, we’re not giving up. If a squalid rag like the Fullerton Observer, with its innuendo, errant information, sanctimonious and blatant politicking can be disseminated on public property, so can our proposed chronicle.