This might become a regular feature: an FFFF reader just sent in a quick summary of interesting items up for discussion/vote at tonight’s Fullerton City Council meeting.
If there is anything else that needs to be brought up before tonight’s meeting, this is place to discuss it.
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Nothing too exciting for the open session.
FFFF and Tony make the #2 Closed Session Agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting. Oh, to be a fly on that wall!
Heads up on Item #15 of the Open Session Agenda. Is management taking a pay cut? Great idea, take one for the team!
Item #16 looks like a ban on cell phone use. This matter concerns the use of cell phones and other electronic communication devices by Council Members and staff during Council meetings. One can only wonder what would be so important that it needed immediate attention by staff and council. Maybe it’s to deter all out secret bidding/bribing? Who knows! Sounds like a good idea to me.
Aside from the MILLIONS of dollars being allocated and reallocated into various projects, it looks like a quiet night…
UPDATE: Here’s a post from last winter, published again to remind the Friends that Fullerton’s decision-makers promised to put the term limits issue on the next available ballot. Of course that opportunity came and went with the 72nd Assembly Special Election primary. It could still be done in January 2010 if the Special Election itself is required. In any case there is a General Election primary election next June. So let’s all remember!
In dramatic fashion our friends on the Fullerton City Council decided on January 6th that the voters of Fullerton should decide whether a twelve-year term limit for council members is right for Fullerton.
Pam Keller joined campaign promise keepers Shawn Nelson and Sharon Quirk in placing the issue on the first available ballot, which should be in June, 2010. Predictably, antediluvian councilmen Don Bankhead and Dick Jones opposed the motion believing that you can never be around too long, be too hidebound, too boring, and too inert to serve the public.
As usual, the good government types (i.e. we know what’s good for you so sit down and shut up) like Jan Flory were on hand to oppose the idea, knowing as they do that the longer you are in office the more likely you are to identify with public employees instead of constituents. These folks pretend to defend the public’s right to choose who their elected representatives are even though they don’t seem to trust the public to do much of anything else without government intervention.
We strongly support term limits. We believe that public choice will be enhanced by term limits because the well-financed incumbents will be forced to give way to new representation that might actually give people of real talent a chance to participate in governance, people who now largely acquiesce to the inevitability of incumbency. Fortunately, a majority of the council seem to agree.
The outstanding legal issue is whether the limits can be applied to previous years in office. The final wording of the plebiscite will have to address this. Let’s hope it works out so we can end the Age of Dinosaurs in Fullerton.
Check out this fun post by Dan C-somethingorother at theLiberalOC blog. I’ve been named the scariest blogger in OC! Not #3, not #2, but #1! Like Coach used to say they only come after you when you’re carrying the ball!
I think Dan C. is still mad at me for saying that he and Matt Cunningham were just maggots (or maybe it was parasites) burrowing into different sides of the same rotten apple.
I am derided for not pursuing Dan’s “reasoned debate” (say Dan, any more jokes on Norby marriages?); and also that I am a bully (although he remains silent on whom I have bullied); and also because there’s a Chris Norby sign somewhere in Tustin; and because Jim lacy offered to include us in his defense of free speech; but Dan is just a spokeshole for the crooked Boss Agran machine in Irvine so we can pretty quickly find his spot on the shelf and put him on it. He actually goes on to say that he wants Ackerwoman to win just to hear me whine. Well, that won’t happen!
But anyway, its good to get peer recognition whenever you can and some supposed insults can be proudly worn as a badge of honor.
The LiberalOC? Hell, we get more daily hits than they do! And with Dan’s help we’ll get even more.
UPDATE: This post was previously published on October 18th. Our Friend Joe S. asked that we repost as a reminder that the Ackerman campaign is really built on nothing but hot air and bad intentions.
We received an e-mail from our long-time Friend, Joe Sipowicz, yesterday and decided to share it with you. It has Joe’s trademark frankness so please don’t get mad at us. We just pass it along as Joe sent it, with a couple of spelling corrections:
Sure, I'll sign anything Dick tells me to. We're a team.
I came home from work the other day and brought in the mail. Among the rest of the junk was a Linda Ackerman campaign mailer. One side included some bullshit about how Norby voted to raise his Sanitation District stipend, something I had already read about: he didn’t actually cast a vote so we don’t even know if he was in the room. But the Ackermans just decided to say he voted for it. Throw it up, see if it sticks.
The other side showed the Ackerman woman in her staged “experienced businesswoman” pose and costume – a blatant fraud already well debunked as a con by Grover Cleveland’s excellent posts.
But the best (worst) part of this flier was the little corner dedicated to a facsimile of some asinine “no tax pledge” signed by this woman. No new taxes. And a signature.
Then it hit me. What kind of a goddamned idiot would be impressed with this horse crap, and what kind of cynic would think they would be? Well, clearly this flier was meant to appeal to some brain-dead jackass who actually thinks a politician’s pledge is all that meaningful. And of course I understand that the Ackerman woman has no record on anything, and needs to make up stuff. So she signed some stupid piece of paper to see how many of the rubes would go for it.
Given that fact that the Ackerman “campaign” has been nothing but a load of lies from the beginning – residency, experience, etc. it’s hard to believe why anybody would take this lame-ass pledge seriously.
And another thought: people like the Ackermans with their political money machines and their lobbyist enabled free trips to Hawaii know how to game anything in government – even signed “no tax” pledges. There are all kinds of ways to raise government revenue in Sacramento, the most obvious being the notorious “fee” increase, often nothing more than user taxes applied to government services or facilities that have already been paid for by the taxpayer. And raising these fees is just another way of raising general fund revenues through the back door – without actually “raising taxes.”
Well, the back door seems to be the place of preferred entry for the Ackermans: from Sacramento to Lindendale, in Fullerton; through which they must be sneaking in at night since nobody has seem them going through the front door of their rented address.
Orange County lawyer James Lacy has leaped into the breach to defend Art Pedroza’s Orange Juice blog from the intimidation by legal monster Jones Day – reportedly the fourth largest law operation in the nation. Here is Art’s post on the subject.
You may recall that Art, like us, received a threatening letter from Jones Day lawyer Thomas Reed Malcolm (who just happens to have been at the same college and law schools at the same as Dick Ackerman. Hmm). Malcolm, it seems, is representing one Desiree Mouzoon – who was the subject of a KCAL investigative piece by Dave Lopez. Several local blogs were targeted (including ours) for merely passing along news of an event that occurred in our city.
Lacy has also agreed to defend FFFF against potential legal harassment, although we never took down the post.
So our thanks to Mr. Lacy for doing the right thing. If the political machines – republican or Democrat – can deploy their pals in big law firms to bully and harass their opponents, then we’re all in big trouble.
Over at his dreary and deserted Repuglican blog Brown Klownty, minor grade GOPer lackey and Fart Boy Matt Cunningham accused FFFF of violating campaign finance laws. He showed pictures of NO ACKERMAN IRVINE CARPETBAGGER signs that he got from our site.
First, thanks Jerbal for the additional publicity for our blog; and also to the cause of running Ackerwoman out of Fullerton and back to Irvine. Oh, wait. We can’t do that BECAUSE THE STUPID CARTOON CUTOUT NEVER LEFT IRVINE!
I resemble that remark!
What a maroon. It pleased Fart Boy to accuse FFFF of not making the necessary reporting on expenditures over a thousand dollars. First it doesn’t seem to have occurred to him that you can make signs for a lot less that he may imagine. But since he has no idea how many signs were even made he’s just making up shit and tossing it around again. Pretty low for the self-described model of character and virtue, but that’s the business he’s in.
The absolute funniest part is how he assumed that it was FFFF who failed to do the reporting! He portentously linked to the FFFF page at the Secretary of State’s website. It may come as a surprise to this pin head but the FFFF IE isn’t spending a dime in this election!
Your honor, I'd like to abridge the First Amendment! By the way, are you going to finish the rest of that soda?
Last night we received an e-mailed letter from Jones Day, the same lawyers that miraculously worked on convicted criminal ex-Sheriff Mike Carona’s defense for free.
The letter demands that we remove the post we published about KCAL’s Dave Lopez pursuing a story concerning a former Mike Duvall associate at Linda Ackerman’s October 20th fundraiser at the Summit Inn.
Our post was about an event that occurred within Fullerton, our city. It’s on film. Thousands of people have seen it on television. It indisputably happened. It was of particular interest to us since Mr. Lopez also interviewed us at our protest at the site of the fundraiser; this fact was clearly related in the very first sentence of the post.
The post made it very clear that the behavior ascribed to the individual in question was merely alleged. We did not claim that it was true, since we did not know. Therefore Jones Day’s second demand – that we publish a retraction averring the falsity of the allegations – is a logical absurdity since we have no way of knowing that the allegations are false, either. We presume credible allegations were actually made since this story was aired by a reputable news operation.
But we will say this: the subject in question and her lawyers categorically deny the allegations reported by KCALs Dave Lopez.
This appears to be nothing more than a little intimidation orchestrated by Ackerman, Inc. itself, to keep people in Fullerton from knowing things that happen in Fullerton – much like the rest of phony “Ackerman for Assembly” campaign.Is it merely a coincidence that the guy whose name on the Jones Day correspondence is an Irvine lawyer who just happens to have been at The Hastings School of the Law at the same time as Ackerman? Hmm.
We have caused nobody “serious and irreparable harm;” we have defamed nobody. If KCAL determines that this story has no basis and no merit then we will be happy to relate that, at the appropriate time.
We have long know about Dick Ackerman’s arrogance, but really, is it a good idea to brush off a reporter on the trail of a sex scandal story by swigging a beer right in his face?
Or maybe Ackerman has decided to peddle Corona Light in his copious spare time and saw some free air time.
Check out the clip below and watch Dick and Dave square off; but Dave is not daunted and pursues his deer-in-the-headlights prey.
Nothing says "screw you" quite like a bottle of beer in the face!
Forget about the law, my community knows no boundaries!
As we promised yesterday, a gathering of Friends took place last night at the entrances to the Summit House restaurant where a fundraiser for the Mrs. was organized by Ackerman. We wanted to make sure Ackerman, inc. got the message that we don’t care for carpetbaggers in Fullerton.
We noticed the arrival of a few of OCs more notorious Repuglicans – like Diane “the FBIs Comin'” Harkey and Lynn “the Bulldozer” Daucher. And we noticed an unusual police presence given the short notice of out protest. Hmm. Well, we behaved ourselves and the police hardly hassled us at all.
The best part of the evening was the arrival of Dave Lopez of KCAL , who broke the original story of the Duvall disgrace a couple months ago. Ever helpful, we supplied Lopez with the phony address Ackerman, Inc. are using on 1541 Lindendale, and hopefully he went over there to see for himself if Ackerman, Inc. ever showed up to spend the night at their alleged abode.
Linda and Dick appeared to be surprised when they drove past some of the Friends at the State College entrance…..stay tuned!
A party in honor of me? You shouldn't have. Really. You shouldn't have!
The Ackerman is hosting a reception to night “in honor of” the Ackerwoman, at the Summit House restaurant. Huh? Why?
It’s obviously related to the 72nd Assembly district campaign since the party is being held in Fullerton, instead of Irvine, which is where the Ackermans live. Maybe it’s really a fundraiser. Our invitation didn’t say.
This is an obvious South County political foray into Fullerton, and we don’t like it. So let’s get our act together and protest this carpetbagging Irvine political socialiteand send her and her pals back to South County!
Show up tonight (5:30) at the Summit House Restaurant at the SW corner of Bastanchury Rd. and State College to fight political carpetbagging in North Orange County. We’ll bring the signs! Let’s make this a “reception” she won’t forget!
Nothing too exciting for the open session.
