Disillusioned Ex-Hippy, Author at Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 12, 2025May 14, 2025About Us

Does Fullerton Boohoo Oppose Historic Preservation? Or Just Support Political Opportunism?

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.

Louis Plummer, father of Fullerton’s school systems.

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.

104 Park View Road (not the house in question)

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.

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025About Us

The Future For Fullerton’s Trash

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy18 Comments

Fullerton’s garbage collection may seem like a pedestrian subject to you and me, but it’s a lucrative franchise for guys in the business of picking up our “solid waste” and hauling it to the land fill, or to the nearest materials recycling facilities (MRF).

The history of garbage collection is pretty dull, but it’s informative. A local family-owned company, MG Disposal, had the contract for decades under “evergreen” terms, apparently.

They got the gig when Eisenhower was President, in 1955. MG was eventually bought out, successively by Taormina Industries and then Republic Services, a mammoth solid waste collection company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The latter took place around 2009 when a new agreement was created with the City. Still, the relationship lineage was still there. In essence the City has been doing business with related, successive entities for 70 years.

Anyhow, the existing contract was signed 16 years ago if you’re counting. There have been three amendments to the agreement, but the service itself hasn’t been put out to bid to see if anybody else can do it better, cheaper, more effectively, etc. It seems unlikely that Republic can be underbid, but why not see?

Government agencies have the unfortunate habit of extending contracts in the out years because putting things out to bid takes effort, and the incumbent contractor is familiar, comfortable, and has likely developed a symbiotic relationship with both government employees and their political overlords. And the one thing you don’t want to screw up is garbage collection. That’s ruined promising careers in municipal government and in politics.

What is the right amount of time to keep evergreen deal going? I don’t know. But 70 years seems like an awfully long time; even the past 16 seems like a long time if you feel like giving Republic a brand new start in 2009.

I think it’s about time to rattle this franchise cage and see who out there might be willing to respond to a bid solicitation. It may nor result in a change, but it’s just due diligence toward the people of Fullerton who pay for the service.

April 10, 2025April 11, 2025Ahmad Zahra

We Get Screwed. Again.

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy22 Comments

You know when last week’s volunteer proposal to put public employees in ambulances popped up, I had to smile, just a little. The whole thing was so shaky, so duplicitous, so-ill conceived that you had to admire how the Heroes were able to so easily put up a hollow con job that a little kid, unlike our City Council, would question.

Of course the interests of the Fire Department and its employees jumped ahead of the interests of the citizenry.

And then it struck me. There are all sorts of ways our elected officials put others’ welfare ahead of the public, and nowhere is this better seen than in the way massive development projects that overwhelm Fullerton’s landscape. There is never any dissent. The councilpeople fall all over themselves to approve giant cliff dwellings for no discernable reason other than someone wants to do something to make a shitpile of money, and City staff gets to charge hours against fees and permits.

In short: no one is looking out for the interests of the people as the infrastructure gets taxed, neighborhoods get overwhelmed, and parking deficiencies are assumed by everybody – except the developer – who comes up with the best tale about why his project doesn’t need cars.

Which brings me, finally to the god-awful monstrosity going up on Chapman Avenue. I think it’s called “The Hub” a pathetic marketing tag that the developer hopes will generate buzz among the crowd that can afford a $3000 per month one bedroom apartment.

Just look at this hideous cliff-dwelling, which must now be the tallest residential building in Fullerton. Seven stories, eight stories? Forget about how this project was completely deficient in parking and how it’s going to impact traffic for everybody who uses the Chapman corridor. Think about the thousands of toilet flushes into the City’s sewers every day; think about the stress on Fullerton’s antique water transmission system needed to bathe these new residents and wash their clothes. Just think about the poor bastards who live across the street and will get to ponder this ponderous pile of overbearing, overbuilt, over-dense, under thought-out mess – for the rest of their lives.

Remember, Friends, this project, just like so many before it was a voluntary erection on the part of the City, rubber stamped by the people we elected. Nobody forced anyone to vote yes on this, but they all did, and they would all do so again. And they looked the other way as the burden of environmental impacts were shifted to the public. This project required General Plan Amendments and zone changes. These government entitlements are worth a fortune to a developer and that benefit reflects the shift of negative externalities to everybody else. What did the people of Fullerton get for the entitlements giveaways?

So take a drive along Chapman one of these days and see if you think our City Council is working for you…or somebody else.

April 7, 2025April 7, 2025A Step in the Right Direction

Kennedy Sisters Have Cage Rattled

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy29 Comments

On Tuesday George A. Bushala returned to the Fullerton City Council Chambers to address the the issue of Ahmad Zahra’s Marriage Fraud to gain permanent residency status. That was entertaining as Zahra got into a huff, interrupted, cried, got up and left the room. Then Bushala expanded on his thesis, noting that Zahra gets away with his behavior thanks the connivance of the fake news Fullerton Observer, a self-styled newspaper that is incompetent, always prejudiced, and that has gone out of it’s way to insinuate libels against people just like him.

In a high state of pique the Kennedy Sisters published their usual blog recap of public comments; but they let their self-righteous hosannas get the better of them.

First they recount an entire dialog between Zahra, Fred Jung and the City Attorney – none of which actually occurred.

A sense of irony being nothing if not completely missed by the Kennedy Sisters, Bushala’s speech is followed by one of those obnoxious “Editor” notes that are the hallmark of the Observer. This one is so faint it’s almost impossible to read, but really it’s just a lame daisy chain of excuses, self-righteousness and pro-Zahra bullshit that ends with an accusation that Bushala spreads falsehoods and she (which ever sister scribbled this) won’t tolerate it!

The Observer is “news of the people by the people,” donchaknow, the activist Mother that begat all sorts of save this and thats. They strive to get the truth out, so long as “truth” is compatible with their own warped, worldview. We all saw how mightily the Kennedy Sisters avoided the the story of the fake Markowitz candidacy. In fact Sharon seemed to involve herself in the cover-up by coaching the hapless Diane Vena.

And thus the circle is closed as the Kennedys perform yet again the very thing of which George Bushala accused them.

The facts are clear. There are no falsehoods related about Zahra. Everything Bushala said was a matter of fact, and FFFF has copies of the documents to prove it. If one wishes to question Zahra’s motives for running down to Little Rock, Arkansas to marry a female citizen, one is not spreading falsehoods, but rather is positing the most likely scenario.

The Kennedys believe “Dr.” Zahra is honorable and transparent – despite all the evidence to the contrary. This utterly slavish devotion renders them incapable to see their own culpable participation in Zahra’s lies. From his assault and battery case, to his Observer-enabled plagiarism they’ve been in lockstep with this Middle Eastern miscreant.

February 8, 2025February 8, 2025Boohooism

Sakia Kennedy At It Again

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy35 Comments

Hardly even pretending to be objective, Kennedy Sister Skasia just unburdened herself of a ridiculous account of how Fullerton, specifically Mayor Fred Jung, failed to declare Rosa Parks Day. Some out-of-towner named Bill Preston got up at the February 4th Council meeting and addressed himself to Mayor Fred Jung for the latter’s lack of a proclamation declaring Rosa Parks Day.

Apparently poor Bill Preston’s “disappointment” left him with a “broken heart” (No I am not kidding), but he hopes to come back next year to present a “Rosa Parks Award – whatever that may be – to the City of Fullerton.

It’s not surprising how this apparent omission was not-so-subtlety elevated into some sort of deliberate offense by Jung himself.

Once we cut out all of Mr. Preston’s hyperbole about Rosa Parks’ influence on world history and his own critical role in honoring her legacy, we are led to this predictable paragraph added to the end by Saksia:

The Mayor’s decision not to honor Parks with a proclamation has sparked a significant discussion about the values of the community and how local governments recognize influential historical figures. This situation raises important questions regarding local authorities’ responsibility in honoring those who have made a significant impact on society, ensuring their contributions are remembered and that their stories continue to inspire future generations.

Very predictable.

Why write about news when you can try to make your own! (Photo by Julie Leopo/Voice of OC)

First we are presented with an unfounded accusation – that Jung himself deliberately decided not to honor Parks, an assertion with no basis in any evidence. Then we are informed that “significant discussion” about community values, etc. has been “sparked;” but evidently not significant enough for Skadia to let us know who exactly has been sparked, and what they are saying. Furthermore, “local authorities” in Skasdia’s opinion, are “responsible” to ensure, yadda, yadda, yadda.

No, honey, local authorities are responsible to pave the damn roads and make sure the street lights work among other local government responsibilities. Honoring heroes with “days” is not on that list, and there’s already way to much of that crap weighing down council meetings.

It’s become apparent that the Kennedy Sisters and their running dogs have made it their mission to attack Jung in any way possible – no matter how fucking stupid, which for them is pretty stupid.

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025A Step in the Right Direction

Fred Jung Running For County Supervisor

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy93 Comments

Here’s a video put out by Fullerton Mayor, Fred Jung, announcing a run for 4th District County Supervisor. The winner will replace thankfully (for us) termed-out Doug “Bud” Chaffee, another in a very long line of do-nothing, accomplish-nothing office holders. The primary is in the spring of 2026 – still over a year away. The top two will advance to a November runoff if nobody gets 50% (I think that’s how it works).

The video’s not bad, although it’s sort of low energy.

A Jung opponent for the job is the nebbish Connor Traut of Buena Park who announced last year. The poor Troutlet immediately announced a $100,000 fundraising bonanza that turned out to be nothing but a transfer of money form a city council account. Jung is doing the same thing, but has twice as much in the bank – an impressive $200K.

Unlike Thr Troutling, Jung doesn’t have an “endorsements” tab, a sure sign that he holds such silly political circle jerks in low regard.

Both are Democrats, and it sounds like Jung is going after the same demographic that elected Bud Chaffee – conservative Dems and Republicans with no place else to go.

It remains to be seen if the Republicans will even bother to run anybody. Some guy named Vargas from Brea ran before and did poorly. Then there’s Tim Shaw who ran against and lost to Chaffee in 2018. In 2022 two Democrats made the playoffs so there may not even be a Republican horse in the race.

On the Democrat side it’s hard to see any other serious candidates emerging at this point.

July 10, 2024July 10, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Fall Elections Draw Few Contestants. So Far.

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy29 Comments

In five days potential Fullerton City Council candidates for Districts 1,2, and 4 will be able to “pull” nomination papers. I don’t know why the phrase is “pull papers” but that’s what they call it.

At this point you can only tell who’s running by those who have created candidate committees. And that’s a short list, indeed. Committees are listed on the City Clerk’s webpage, here, under disclosures.

In Districts 1 and 2 only the incumbents Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap have committees. This is not unusual as incumbents are hard to beat, but usually some brave souls sign up. Of course you don’t need to have a committee unless you plan on raising money above a certain threshold. I believe it’s a thousand bucks, but don’t quote me on that.

In District 4 there are two candidate committees on record. As previously noted one is for retired City employee Vivian Kitty Jaramillo who apparently used to write parking tickets back in the day.

The other candidate is Linda Whitaker, wife of outgoing councilman Bruce Whitaker. Neither of these candidates has any experience as an elected person, although Jaramillo has run previously and lost badly when council elections were held city-wide. She was subsequently party to a lawsuit to force district elections where she must have figured she has a chance of winning. She’s the Democrat anointed candidate and is supported by the Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles, our megalomaniacal and dingbat councilpersons, respectively.

Jaramillo would be a very poor choice as a vocal tax proponent and the beneficiary of City CalPERS payments. A win by her would create a new council majority run by the manipulative Zahra. Ms. Whitaker would probably be better on some revenue raising issues, but some have suggested that she is the moving spirit behind her husband’s disastrous votes on closing Wilshire Avenue for the benefit of a few restaurants, and the support of the nonsensical “boutique” hotel. I don’t know if this story is responsible, but the votes are testament to exceedingly poor judgment. She might also be inclined to form a majority with Jung and Dunlap as her husband has done.

It remains to be seen if either Jaramillo or Whitaker intend to run vigorous campaigns and how much money they can raise to do it.

So far nobody else has shown interest publicly – yet. The deadline to return papers to the City Clerk is August 9th – only a month away unless an incumbent pulls out. Then the period is extended 5 calendar days.

It would be nice to see somebody else pop up to run in the 4th District, but time is running out fast.

June 4, 2024June 4, 2024Arts & Architecture

I Wanna Paint It Black

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy6 Comments

So somebody noticed that a new downtown “club” called Kalaveras is opening. Looks like they have painted the rear of their building black.

Apparently they have also expanded their business into an adjoining property.

The trouble is, according to our correspondent, their Conditional Use Permit is only for 122 W. Commonwealth and work is being done next door – at 120 W. Commonwealth – which is not covered under the CUP. Oops. It looks like they’re actually putting in underground plumbing.

I don’t know if this information is accurate, but I know if it is, the City will likely do nothing about the scofflawry, Fullerton being Fullerton.

As far as the black exterior is concerned, it’s hard to believe that the City actually approved of this since elevations must have been submitted along with the CUP application, and yet Fullerton’s Planning Department has been so inept and careless in the past that maybe it seemed okay, Downtown Fullerton being all about coolness and hipness and a wonderful, vital, -$1,500,000 per year success, and all.

It’s entertaining to recall that the location of this operation is the same place that Slidebar, DTF’s Nexus of Nuisance used to occupy. That owner, Jeremy Popoff, went years operating without a CUP, breaking just about every rule in the book.

May 15, 2024May 16, 2024Behind Closed Doors

The Opportunity Site

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy8 Comments

A few days back I shared a couple of upcoming agenda items that the City Manager had forecast for the May 21st Fullerton City Council meeting.

I observed the reference to a development agreement with some entity called “Frontier” and also to an item simply called “Fox Block.” The two are related, but oddly, not listed together. Fullerton being Fullerton.

What I didn’t notice at the time was another item called “Chapman Parking Lease” another non-descriptive term, possibly not meant to attract attention.

A helpful Friend point out my oversight and got me thinking. Chapman parking? What the Hell is that? Then the other shoe dropped. There is a city-owned parking structure on the south side of Chapman Avenue, between Lemon and Pomona. It was built by the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency back in the ’90s the heyday of Fullerton Redevelopment, when they had so much money they could build parking structures that nobody even needed. Could this be what the cryptic agenda item referred to? Supposedly the facility was meant to help out Fullerton JC and maybe this is the entity with whom a lease was worked out.

The Junior College District has now built parking structures of its own, using our property tax increases to do it. Maybe the Chapman structure is now superfluous.

Could be. Check this out:

This satellite image has been used to accompany information/propaganda relating to the development known as the “Fox Block.” And the violet shape over in the lower left side of the image is the parking structure.

Hmm. Can this possibly be the site of yet another butt-ugly, monstrously overbuilt, under-parked housing project? Why not? It would be the only part of a Fox Block fiasco that could be worth anything to anybody. And since the City can no longer hand over piles of cash to “developers,” they can certainly hand over free land, enriched by the necessary zone changes.

I’m sure it’s all a big secret now. But in a couple days the May 21st agenda will be posted and maybe we can find out what “Frontier,” whatever that is, might be getting gratis from the people of Fullerton.

May 7, 2024May 7, 2024Behind Closed Doors

Coming to a Theater Near You

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy15 Comments

On this week’s Fullerton City Council agenda I caught a glimpse of the upcoming May 21st agenda forecast:

AGENDA FORECAST (Tentative)
Tuesday, May 21, 2024

APRIL 2024 CHECK REGISTER
MONTHLY COMMITTEE ACTIVITY AND ATTENDANCE REPORT
DISPOSITION AND DEVELOPMENT AMENDMENT FRONTIER
COSTA COURT AREA STREET REHABILITATION PROJECT
ALL CITY MANAGEMENT SERVICES CONTRACT
SENATE BILL 1383 COMPLIANCE ACTION PLAN FOR SERVICES AND PROGRAMS
CHAPMAN PARKING LEASE
FOX BLOCK
REVENUE OPTIONS

Not all that interesting until you get to the bottom.

Yeah, it was ugly as sin, but there sure was a lot of it…

The Fox Block, a never ending saga and a classic example of a tail wagging a dog. For years the “rehabilitation” of the historic Fox Theater structure has been used to support all sorts of God-awful lunacy, including residential land acquisition and demolition, new grotesque clown architecture, and the six million dollar relocation of the McDonalds restaurant a couple hundred feet to the east. The “Fox Block,” as the boondoggle came to be known, is a living fossil of the bad old Redevelopment days, when any nonsense could be got away with by City staff playing with Monopoly money. Damn accountability. It’s the Fox Block!

Why this is on the agenda is as yet unknow, but I noticed that one of our Friends “Fullerton Historian” suggested it may have to do with extending a development agreement or some other similar concept. Then I saw the third bullet point above: Disposition and Development Amendment with Frontier. “Frontier?” That’s all? What is this? Frontier Real Estate is our “partner” on the Fox Block, meaning we’re probably taking the risk and they’re goon get any reward – if there is any.

M. Eric Levitt. Will he save us from ourselves?

And finally we see an item simply called “Revenue Option” an oatmealy sort of phrase, but one that FFFF has already discussed. At this meeting the City Manager, Eric Levitt, will try (without too much unseemly enthusiasm) to tie dangling threads heretofore described here: a push poll created to drum up support for enhanced public services; a review of the likelihood that general sales tax might pass at 50%; and a precipitous budgetary cliff looming ahead.

See where this is going? Let’s see who stands up and demands that for our own good we must have a tax increase.