Friends For Fullerton's Future
FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Here at FFFF we like to share. So we share this – a time lapse clip we harvested off of youtube – of one of the embarrassing erections that has gone up lately at FJC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrqFaZCxkuYNow why did they have to go and spoil perfectly good music by Aaron Copeland?
Let’s hope the city council comes to its senses and votes NO on raising our water rates and associated taxes 91% over the next 10 years. Friends, I’d like to thank Greg Sebourn for bringing this issue to our attention. As many of you may remember, Greg ran for Fullerton city council last year and received 6,375 votes. Here is Greg’s take on the proposed rate increase:
This Tuesday night the Fullerton City Council will direct staff on the implementation of a water rate study. Based on the proposal from the City’s consultant, Municipal & Financial Services Group (MFSG), the new rates will be increased by 10% for 5 years then 3.5% for another 5 years amounting to a 191% increase by 2021.
The reason for the tax hike is clear. MSFG says, “It should be noted that the planned spending on mainline replacement over the projection period is significantly more than the City has undertaken in the past. At a cost of approximately $190 per linear foot of line the City plans to replace approximately 6 miles of mainline per year at a cost of over 6 million per year. At this pace it would take the City 400 years to replace the entire system (which consists of approximately 420 miles of pipe).”
MFSG’s proposal spells out how exactly we got into this mess in the first place. Unfortunately, this proposal and the implementation should have been undertaken decades ago. Oddly, the proposal notes that the City could just ignore the problem (like they have been doing for so many years).
Read the rest of “Fullerton Water Rates To Double”
Here’s a bit of exciting news coming out of the County Health Care Agency that is the local entity that oversees Emergency Medical Service provision. A new trend may be emerging.
It’s about the idea contracting with private service providers for paramedic services. The model is pretty simple: the paramedic goes with the ambulance, not with one of a city’s fire engine companies, who necessarily escorts their paramedic to an accident scene then has to toodle on over to the hospital to pick up their boy who has meanwhile accompanied the private ambulance to the ER.
And never a fire in sight; a fire crew mostly just driving around in their big shiny engine, sight-seeing.
The present scenario is so dysfunctional it’s amazing that it has lasted as long as it has. And that’s a backwards tribute to the “firefighter” lobby who knew fires were decreasing a long time ago and got their foot in the paramedic door; and to the supine politicians who let them do it.
But, as they say, that was then. And this is now. Municipalities are being crushed under the burden of “public safety” salaries and pensions and the current way of doing things is apparently no longer deemed to be carved in stone.
Amen. Maybe we can all be Hero now!
Could the real reason that Fullerton School District superintendent Herr Doktor Mitch Hovey told his IT guy to deny FSD network access to our blog was because some of the district employees were addicted to our humble little blog and spending way too much of our (tax payers) dime/time blogging and not working?
Well, that sure seems plausible. And it’s true that we have been a lot less than enthusiastic about some of the goings on at District HQ, from the bogus laptop scam to the Board’s congenital rubber stamping. Oh, and yeah, the Pam Keller Collaborative swindle. That probably stirred up some resentment among the rank and file.
Yet, instead of telling the employees to knock off the blogging and getting back to work, it appears that the good doctor simply denied them access to our blog. And only our blog. I’m sure those same employees are still surfing the internet; it’s sort of like an addiction, and as with most addicts when they give up one addiction they replace it with another.
So I have to wonder what we are being replaced with. Youtube, OC Weekly personal ads, Hulu?
And I also have to wonder who is next on the censorship hit parade.
The other day I took a field trip over to FSD HQ and took a ride on their network. Apparently the FSD network train makes many stops; but there are some places you just can’t get off. Did I just say “get off?”
Well, he’s at it again. County Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly appears to be doing the crony thing again.
In the past we took him to task for employing the relatives of campaign contributors. The funniest thing is that Daly likes to hire political types to act as intergovernmental liaisons and such like nonsense. What this has to do with the functioning of a County Clerk’s office is anybody’s guess.
Just recently Daly has hired Jordan Brandman, a supposedly up-and-coming Democrat who got himself elected to the Anaheim Union High School Board a few years back. Was there an open recruitment by the Clerk’s Department?
What special skills does Mr. Brandman bring to the Clerk’s office? Hard to say. According to his official bio his work history over the past decade has been pretty, um, varied: some political appointment jobs in Sacramento, followed by a brief stint with the useless OC Business Council in “workforce development” (including his own, presumably), and most lately employment in the Brandman family “environmental consulting” business. What any of this background has to do with the smooth operation of the County’s top paper shuffler is unknown.
What is known is that last fall the County CEO instituted a strict “hard hiring freeze” policy across all County departments. Either Daly didn’t get the message or perhaps he’s just flipping the bird to the CEO and the Board of Supervisors. Daly is elected, of course, and may figure he’ll do whatever he damn well pleases. Because he over-charges his customers for his services, Daly returns a surplus to the County’s General Fund. And maybe this makes him feel he’s above the belt-tightening endured by everybody else.
Another sad truth is that very few politicos have any marketable skill sets applicable to getting and holding real word vocational employment; others seem to have lost their taste for actually working at all. Many need a source of income as they plot full-time supervisorial and legislative careers. And the taxpayers pick up the tab. Is that what’s going on here?
A while back we shared a classic lackey moment when Matthew J. Cunningham gave former Anaheim Mayor-for-Hire and all-round sleaze Kurt Pringle a vigorous lingual lather up.
Not to be out done by an amateur, The Register’s in-house boot-lick-name-dropper Frank Mickadeit decided to do him one better, and offered up a sloppy tongue-job to the man the State’s Attorney general found be conflicted in his serial roles as lobbyist, mayor, and Boondoggle HSR Chairman.
Now, we all know that Pringle is and always has been in it for Pringle. But good old Frank seems perfectly willing to pass along the nonsense that Pringle is out of elective politics to focus on his business. No. Pringle is out of elective politics because there is no longer any elective office that wouldn’t be a detriment to his business.
Of course we hear from former Anaheim garbage hauler Bill Taormina, supporter of the lamest of the lame Lorri Galloway, who believes that Pringle should be California’s governor or maybe a senator. Taormina has millions of reasons to praise Pringle, but there is no more moral underpinning for his support of Pringle than there was for his giving Galloway three fake addresses in his various rental units so she could run a fraudulent campaign for County supervisor.
Which leads to the conclusion that the sooner the pathetic Register goes under for the third and final time, the better.
Good news for OC Republicans who frequent blogs: looks like my buddy Chip Hanlon let my other buddy Allan Bartlett post again. Sha-zam!
Bartlett’s near re-inaugural post makes for entertaining reading. It’s all about some dust up between Mike and Mary and a conservative drinkies hour with Chuck Devore as the featured attraction. Now I personally can’t imagine anything more dreary than drinks and Chuck Devore droning on (except maybe no drinks and Chuck Devore droning on), but that’s a whole ‘nother issue.
What’s really fun is the comments thread where the insiders have at it.
Damn, do we finally have a fun Republican blog in town?
At the OCTA Board meeting a couple weeks ago, 4th District County Supervisor Shawn Nelson lofted a proposal that the members of this fairly opaque (but very rich) agency who attend the meetings should only receive their stipend if they attend the entire meeting. Nelson’s idea was that in order to get that stipend, someone ought to actually earn it.
Well there’s a novel concept. Getting folks on the government dime to actually put in their time.
It seems that OCTA, and many similarly under-scrutinized agency and special districts are plagued by members who show up for only part of the meeting to qualify for their stipend, then disappear. And certain pols are most notorious for this behavior – more on them later.
Well, naturally Nelson’s plan went over like flatulence in church. You can’t expect the dope addicts to voluntarily give up their smack, now can you? But our thanks to Nelson anyway for doing the right thing. And to those who continue to rip-off the public: shame on you.
On August 29th, 2010 at 4:28 am a three-alarm fire was reported in a building structure with six businesses at 306 N. Raymond Ave. About 80 firefighters from the Fullerton Fire Department, Brea Fire Department, Anaheim Fire Department and the Orange County Fire Authority were dispatched to bring the fire under control.
Fullerton Fire Marshal Julie Kunze told the Register “The structure itself is a total loss. We’re estimating the structure itself at probably $2.2 million with unknown content.”
The fire department has taped off portions of the parking lot, as charred debris covered the ground around the badly burned building. The roof had completely collapsed.
That was six months ago. Today the charred building is still charred and the site is now a real eyesore. How long should it take for the city to issue a notice to abate the public nuisance?
If this mess were in Sunny Hills, would it be any different?