admin, Author at Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 31, 2010May 31, 2010About Us

Memorial Day Questions

We received this letter from an anonymous person who raises some serious questions that we should ask ourselves on this Memorial Day and every day as well:

Can we honor our heroes who’ve fallen in distant lands and still question the politicians who put them there? Should failed foreign policies be allowed to hide behind patriotism?

The Greatest Generation needed Pearl Harbor before fighting World War II. Would many of them have bought the rationale for invading Iraq?

How can those who don’t trust the federal government to run health care still trust it to run Iraq and Afghanistan? How can those so critical of Obama’s domestic power grab not criticize his sending 30,000 more troops to prop up Karzai?

How did the Neo-Cons (McCain, Cheney, Palin, Krauthammer, Wolfowitz, Perl, etc.) hijack conservatism for a vast expansion of deficit spending on ill-conceived foreign wars?

Can Ron and Rand Paul remind their Tea Party followers that open-ended foreign military commitments were never envisioned or sanctioned by our constitutional framers?

The British numbered their Afghanistan fiascoes: First, Second and Third Afghan Wars. They all ended the same. They never tried a Fourth. Can we learn from them?

When will any of the anti-deficit Republicans running to face Boxer question the $900 billion in deficit spending so far in Iraq and Afghanistan?

As John Quincy Adams said, “America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. We are the supporters of freedom for all but the defenders only of our own”. Should these words still apply? Are their prudent limits on what, where and how we should use military strength?

If our purpose is to extend freedom, why has our Iraqi regime forced half the Christians to flee and our Afghan clients suppress religious freedom entirely?

In honoring all those who fought in our wars, can we also question the limits of military force in achieving political ends? Can we remember that no soldier or general ever got us into war, but civilian authorities–here and abroad? The biggest tribute we can give all who served is to use their lives wisely and only when a clear goal can be achieved.

May 31, 2010May 31, 2010Arts & Architecture

Should We Subsidize the Muck?

by admin7 Comments

We received this letter from a “Mr. Ed” on the subject of the the Muckenthaler Cultural Center:

The Fullerton City Council will hold their final meetings on the fiscal year 2011 budget on June 1 & 2. I am aware of one contentious item on the agenda: elimination of the $80,000 annual cash grant to the Muckenthaler Center Cultural Foundation (MCCF). It should be noted the $80,000 cash grant is part of the City’s support which totals about $200,000 a year.

At the first budget meeting in March the Parks & Recreation Department proposed cuts to all groups under its jurisdiction, i.e., youth sports programs (Little League, Pop Warner, Rangers Soccer, etc.), Senior Citizens Center, Fullerton Museum Center, and MCCF, to name a few. The MCCF was the only group that objected, claiming they were being unfairly singled out. All other groups realized the magnitude of the situation the City was facing and accepted what was being proposed.

At the March meetings councilwomen Quirk and Keller were supportive of the cut for the MCCF: Quirk for the full $80,000 being proposed by Parks & Recreation and Keller for a $40,000 reduction. Councilmen Bankhead and Jones were against any cuts but seemed to indicate they could go along with a $20,000 reduction. Councilman Nelson suggested exploring some alternatives for privatizing the Senior Center and the City’s cultural programs.

Privatization is not the answer. The MCCF was privatized 16 years ago. In 1994 Fullerton ceded control of the facility to the MCCF. The City retained ownership and maintenance responsibility of the grounds and building. At that time the MCCF stated they could run the facility more cheaply and efficiently if the City was not involved. All they needed was three years of financial support from the City and after that they would be on their own.

Sixteen years later the MCCF is still on the dole to the extent of about $200,000 per year. The city has spent over $3,000,000 in support over the past 16 years with no discernible benefit to the taxpaying citizens of Fullerton.

Councilmen Bankhead and Jones felt the MCCF was not on firm financial footing and needed continued assistance from the City. The director of the MCCF was and is pleading for the public to “Save the Muck”.

The Muckenthaler does not need saving!

The last published financial statement shows the MCCF has cash and investments of $590,000 and total revenues of about $650,000. It also shows the MCCF realized a surplus of $99,000 for the fiscal year ending June 2009. Of the $650,000 in total revenues approximately $250,000 is attributable to wedding receptions Colette’s Catering, a private company, holds on the grounds of this publicly owned facility.

The current arrangement has the taxpayers subsidizing two private entities: the MCCF and Colette’s Catering. We can no longer allow this waste of taxpayers’ money to continue.

Rather than continuing the current arrangement with the MCCF a powerful case can be made that the facility should be placed back under the city’s management. This option would allow the citizens of Fullerton to benefit from the facility rental income. Another option would be for the MCCF to reimburse the City annually for the $200,000 that Fullerton spends to maintain the building and grounds. Both cases would be a net saving to the city of about $200,000 per year. This would go a long way in helping alleviate the budgetary problems we are facing.

May 28, 2010May 28, 2010Harry Sidhu

OCEA Lobbyist is Behind the Phony “Crime Victims United”

by admin14 Comments

The other day Red County blogger and First 5 fat-skimmer Matthew Cunningham eagerly scampered up to Fullerton to film a press event in front of the police department by a group called “Crime Victims United.” The group was making a laughable attempt to associate Shawn Nelson’s website with victims of crime.

With the help of my Friend and Red County blogger Chip Hanlon, FFFF did a little digging into the background of Crime Victims United to see what they were all about. When the curtain was pulled back, Chip discovered that several union lobbyists are also high-level staffers of this organization.

You see, Wayne Ordos is a political adviser who is listed as a staffer and attorney for Crime Victims United.

But Wayne is also the organizer for the OCEA political action committee.

Wayne’s claim to fame includes other union PAC’s such as “Minorities in Law Enforcement Independent Expenditure Committee” and “CAUSE Law Enforcement Independent Expenditure Committee.” Those PACs bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight for enormous union benefits to the detriment of taxpayers.

We don’t have time to go through the rest of the extensive list of staffers and board members at Crime Victims United, but I’ll bet that more union connections float to the top.

Here’s what matters in the end — the unions will stop at nothing to deceive voters into voting for a pro-union candidate like Harry Sidhu. But we’ll keep shining a light on the lies and deception until the unions are defeated and good leaders are elected.

Perhaps we can look forward to more combined efforts with Chip Hanlon’s Red County blog to fight perpetual government growth. With the awareness of the electorate, we can take the wind out of the unions’ sail and their candidate Harry “Carpetbagger” Sidhu for a Nelson victory.

May 27, 2010Harry Sidhu

Sheriff’s Union Sends Sidhu a Dictionary

by admin5 Comments

Harry cant spell — How do you spell "pension?"

It looks like the Sheriff’s union has been watching the same video clips that we have. You know… the ones where Sidhu stammers incoherently and fails to answer simple questions about union pensions.

That must be why they sent out this mailer with a photo of Harry sifting through a dictionary, as if to tell voters “Harry knows pensions. See, he looked it up!”

What a bumbling buffoon! It’s no wonder county unions can’t wait to sit at table with Harry Sidhu and negotiate their next pension spike.

May 26, 2010May 27, 2010Pam Keller

Pam Keller’s Big Announcement

by admin24 Comments

short version above, long version below, we’d love to hear your comments.

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010Orange County Government

CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY LIES (AGAIN) TO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY CEO

by admin6 Comments

In a May 12^th memo sent to the Board of Supervisors by County CEO Tom Mauk, it was confirmed by Mauk that Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly was less than truthful with regards to the acquisition of the $2.1 million money-sucking building that he decided splurge on with tax payers’ money.

Mauk says that “…it has become apparent to me that the Board was not provided with all the information known to staff at the time given the June 29^th RDMD A&E memo among RDMD and Clerk-Recorder staff.”

In that sentence, Mauk confirmed what we have known for a very long time… that Tom Daly is deceitful and that he believes it’s OK to lie to the public and the Board of Supervisors.

Tom Daly lies so much that he can’t keep his lies straight. For example, in the same memo Mauk was told that “Since the acquisition of the property, the thirty-four spaces have been utilized and saved the County approximately $26, 100 a year due the ability to reduce the number of parking spaces the County leases from the private sector.”

We received several calls from Clerk-Recorder employees indicating that only one Clerk-Recorder employee parks at that parking lot. Guess who it is? Low and behold, it’s the wife of Disneyland’s Manager of Government Relations Chris Lowe. As reported in a previous blog post here, Disney has contributed to Tom Daly’s campaigns since 2002. Apparently the scampaign contribution not only led to a job for Lowe’s wife but also prime parking space. This has several long-time Clerk-Recorder employees fuming.

The truth about the parking lot is that it is being leased by Daly to a private company. The parking management company leases the parking lot and pays the Clerk-Recorder Department about $1,500 a month to manage the lot for profit. Any revenue above the $1,500 mark is kept by the company.

Does this sound like a fair trade off? Daly spent $2.1 million of tax payers’ money for a return of about $18,000 annually and 34 parking spaces. The math doesn’t add up! Daly is really putting his English major from Harvard to work here.

Look at the photos. The lot is clearly marked for public parking for $5 a day. This is a blatant lie to the Board and to CEO Tom Mauk.

The other baldfaced lie is that according to the memo, the department has reduced the number of spaces leased from privately owned parking lots for its’ employees. Since 2008, Tom Daly has been leasing about 17 spaces from Mike Harrah’s parking company Sycamore Parking Concepts to the tune of about $1,200 a month or $14,400 a year. This lot is located behind the run-down YMCA building on Civic Center Dr.

The best outcome for the money sucking building is that it be sold. If the tax payers are lucky they will recover the cost of the property and break even. However, the condition of the building is horrendous, per the memo. So I find it odd that Tom Mauk would say that “…having the property in our inventory is a positive outcome.” Is Tom Mauk covering for Tom Daly? Or did good-old friend of Tom Daly, Rob Richardson, write this memo without clearing it with Mauk or even verifying the information given. All Mauk or Richardson had to do was take a little stroll to the parking lot across the street and see that it is public parking.

Tom Daly is a red-faced liar and deserves to be voted out of office. Daly and company are running a misinformation campaign not only to voters but to the public, the Board of Supervisors and CEO Tom Mauk. Supervisor John Moorlach needs to call for audits of the Clerk-Recorder Department to see what other lies are uncovered.

May 22, 2010May 23, 2010About Us

Martha Montelongo Live Tonight with Bill Hunt, John Seiler and Tony Bushala

by admin1 Comment

Moonlight Tonight with Martha Montelongo from 8 to 11 PM, on CRN Digital Talk Radio

On Moonlighting with Martha, OC Sheriff Candidate Bill Hunt, a 22 year year veteran of the Orange County Sheriff’s Dept in CA, he stood up of for his values and his chosen profession, law enforcement, administration to former Sheriff Michael S. Carona in 2006. That decision cost him his career. And now he’s back!

Also, John Seiler of Calwatchdog.com on the Greek fable of bankrupt dysfunctional California, and its stooge legislators who work desperately to make things worse.

And me Tony Bushala (admin), on the power of blogging to fight back against corruption, deceit and abuse of power.

May 21, 2010May 21, 2010Dead heads

Hide and Seek Sidhu On Public Employee Unions

by admin36 Comments

UPDATE: I came across this earlier post today as I was thinking about all the political mail paid for by the “public employee unions” telling you what a great guy Harry Sidhu is and what a bad guy Shawn Nelson is. This video is worth a replay. Sidhu has an almost limitless capacity for clownish behavior — a perfect fit for the union circus.

Here’s another classic “what did he say?” mumble moment brought to you by Harry Sidhu at the GOP Central Committee meeting last week. We think he believes in public employee unions, but not in his ability to say no to them if they give him dough (directly) – so Honest Harry says he hasn’t and won’t take it. Even though he has been taking it ever since he first got elected in 2004!

In any case he says he won’t ‘take their money now. But just a few days before he had gone hat in hand to the Sheriff Deputy’s union to get their endorsement – and a big monetary expenditure via their IE, and he knows he got it. This is perfectly consistent with the profile of a politician without an ethical fiber in his being.

And that makes him a first class hypocritical hair ball and a worthy candidate for the John Lewis crowd to support.

What a guy.

May 21, 2010Boohooism

Observer Seeks Credibility; and City Funding

by admin18 Comments

A Friend sent in an interesting newspaper clipping this week. It looks like Sharon Kennedy is trying to obligate the city of Fullerton to pay her Observer rag for posting public notices.

Back in March the city council decided to stop paying local newspapers to print public notices in order to prevent layoffs. An obscure set of state laws deem that Fullerton has no local “newspaper of record” and thus is not required to waste money on ad space in the back of newspapers for notices that could just be posted on the Internet.

But now it appears that Kennedy is anxious to latch on to the city teat and get her hands on the $40,000 per year that the city is currently saving. She will appear before a judge next month in hopes that her wretched rag will be bestowed with some judicial legitimacy.

Unfortunately Kennedy has failed to read the very simple laws that define a newspaper of general circulation.

For one, the paper has to be printed at least weekly. The Observer is printed bi-weekly and monthly during the summer.

Second, it has to be physically printed inside the city. The Observer is printed elsewhere.

Third, it must have “substantial distribution to paid subscribers.” The Observer is free.

And finally, the paper must have “maintained a minimum coverage of local or telegraphic news and intelligence of a general character of not less than 25 percent of its total.” We’ve said it before: most of the stuff printed in the Observer is opinion disguised as news.

If Kennedy succeeds in her wacky court case, it will force the city to pay her for publishing public notices. Perhaps the city will dispatch someone to the hearing to make sure she doesn’t get away with it.

May 19, 2010May 19, 2010Hidden Government Agencies

“MANAGER OF THE YEAR” TOM DALY MANAGES TO WASTE OVER $70,000 OF TAXPAYER MONEY ON REMODEL. OCEA IS M.I.A. –AGAIN!

by admin8 Comments

While several county departments have to endure furloughs and layoffs, “Manager of the Year” Tom Daly seems to be on a mission to continue to waste public money the taxpayers be damned. We recently learned that a remodeling project for a “marriage ceremony and passport application acceptance room” is near completion. The cost to tax-payers: $73,000 plus change. For a remodel. Of a room. I’m pretty sure we won’t hear a peep from OCEA and it’s head thug, Nick “Bullhorn” Beradino. I’m still hoping Nick misplaced the bullhorn in some nook or cranny and is frantically looking for it..

I would like to invite OCEA members and the general public to come and see for themselves how this wastrel continues to shove his crazy spending down the taxpayers’ collective throat. From the looks of it, no expense was spared. But you be the judge.

The location is: Old Orange County Courthouse, 2nd floor
211 West Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana, CA 92701

And while you are at it, drive by the $2.1 million money pit Tom bought 2-years ago for his Sports Hall of Shame, at:

433 Civic Center Drive
Santa Ana, CA 92701

After you soil yourselves in anger, call Tom Daly at (714) 834-2248 and let him know how you feel about this wasteful spending.

I am providing the address because I want to make sure that the OCEA and Nick Berardino don’t get lost on their way to protest this wasteful spending just like they did the Board of Supervisor’s remodel last year.

Nick, if you need to borrow a bullhorn let me know. OCEA needs to tell Tom that this has to stop. The voters need to send Tommy boy a strong message this June. Vote career politician and free-spending Tom Daly out of office!!

By the way, it would interesting to know what the Board of Supervisors know about this latest misadventure. Wanna call up and ask?