Mr. Peabody, Author at Friends For Fullerton's Future

December 9, 2020June 20, 2022About Us

The Florentine Mob Pulls Out

Sit down and grab some sidewalk, brother…

It’s taken well over thirty years, but apparently the Family of Tony Florentine is calling quits in downtown Fullerton. Normally, such an occasion would be cause for gratitude, reflection, fond memories, etc., etc., ect.

But not in this case.

The reason nobody is indulging in kind reminiscence is simple. Over the years the family has been in on, and accused of some very shady stuff. Forget about shitty food and consider the following fun events, documented right here on the pages of FFFF, even if ignored by City staff, the Fullerton Police Department and the Fullerton Fire Department.

Tony (NOT Joe) Florentine accused by former employee of torching his own business – The Melody Inn – back in the late 1980s.
Tony Florentine magically converts an outside dining permit into a permanent structure built across a public sidewalk in the early 2000s.
Tony’s bright kid, Joe, illegally converts the family restaurant into an illegal night club in the mid 2000s.
In 2012 Papa Tony files phoney FPPC complaint against Tony Bushala in an effort to help his Gang of Three avoid recall. Complaint denied.
After gaining a CUP to operate as a club, Joe Florentine never installs the fire sprinkler system required of the CUP.
Seeking approval of yet another CUP in 2019-2020 even though the terms of the previous CUP had never been met, Joe Florentine forged and had notarized an application that by-passed the building owner, thus placing the City in legal jeopardy.
Last spring the Florentines decided they were entitled to remove on-street parking in order to help themselves.

It’s hard to say what other misdeeds and actual crimes have been committed by the Florentines, over the years. Stories abound. But what we know gives us plenty of reason not to consider their departure with any sort of remorse.

And the very continuation of the bad behavior gives us plenty of reason to ruminate on the political climate that permitted the ongoing flagrance and fraud. Decision makers in City Hall have been running interference for, enabling, and diligently looking the other way through this little reign of terror. Does anybody care? The old City Councils never did. Will the new one?

October 27, 2020October 27, 2020"Dick" Ackerman

Cho Collects Corrupt Cronies

by Mr. Peabody10 Comments

When FFFF first introduced Andrew Cho to the Friends we noted that his list of “endorsers” was a veritable rogues’ gallery of political crooks, swindlers and liars. And now the collection is complete:

It is right and proper that the Cho, the hapless stooge of outgoing Mayor-for-Hire Jennifer Fitzgerald should have the backing of “Democrat” Doug “Bud” Chaffee, the senile and incompetent clown who let Fullerton go to Hell even as he bought himself a job at the County. It’s also perfectly predictable. Lobbyist Curt Pringle, who employs Fitzgerald is a big fundraiser for Chaffee, obviously expecting favors in return. This is one of them.

And let’s never forget Chaffee’s better half Paulette Marshall, whose well-documented political hijinks and actual crimes, must have been well-known to hubby.

But the recommendation that bankruptcy lawyer Cho’s record in “financial recovery” is somehow an asset should cause even the dimmest wit to ponder Fullerton’s future with Cho on the council dais.

September 30, 2020No on S

Tax Raiders Won’t Play Fair

by Mr. Peabody9 Comments

Well, really what did you expect. The political action committee that calls itself Fair Elections in Fullerton (or some other nonsensical bullshit) and that is promoting the 17% sales tax increase has been misbehaving. Not unusual, given that it is a creation of city employees and funded by union and there is a lot at stake for them.

Opposition No on S political signs have been destroyed and stolen, and replaced with Yes signs, signs that suggest our roads might be the beneficiary of our largess, and not true, of course.

Here’s a new ploy: actually covering No on S signs with their own, a shitty little tactic that fits so well with the entitlement attitude of our over-entitled “public safety” Heroes.

September 17, 2020Fullerton City Council Election 2020

Fullerton Taxpayers For Reform Launch 2020 Campaign

by Mr. Peabody37 Comments

The good government boys and girls over at FTR and their padrone, Tony Bushala, have jumped into the 2020 District 1 council campaign with their standard attack sign with the inevitable Barfman.

First, here’s the sign:

They have conflated candidate Andrew Cho with the pet project of his boss, Jennifer Fitzgerald – Measure S. Nobody seems to know where the guy stands on the proposed tax increase, but some reliable sources have heard him support it. And since it is the brain child of Fitzgerald (who hand-picked Cho out of a line up of anonymous Korean-Americans residents) we may assume, that he is for it.

Anyhow the sign seems to go after two birds with the same stone and that’s pretty smart.

July 13, 2020July 13, 2020Ahmad Zahra

If You Weren’t So Dumb You’d Know The Right Thing To Do

by Mr. Peabody22 Comments

Accountability? It was never on the agenda.

And so education is the key. To that end our esteemed City Council voted 4-1 last week to pay some sort of “consultant” $129,000 between now and the November election to educate us all about why we need to vote for a new 16% increase in city sales taxes.

That’s right. A few minutes earlier, in the wee small hours, the council voted 4-1 to put a sales tax increase on the ballot. Then they added their little Maraschino cherry right on the top.

The government is not allowed to promote a ballot issue. Of course this prohibition never stopped agencies and school districts in the past. In fact they do it all the time. Wasting $129,000 gives them cover, they believe to promote their shake down. Well, we already know the “educational” pitch:

Lookit all the goodies we will get! Of course we should be getting all this stuff anyhow, if our city government were capable and honest instead of feeble, self-defensive, and in too many instance just corrupt. For years as our reserves were eroded every year Jennifer Fitzgerald and Jan Flory and their feel-good choir insisted that the budgets were balanced, projects were well-run, and infrastructure was prioritized. We all knew those were lies and now that we are scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel it’s obvious to even the most oblivious observer.

For years Fitzgerald and company kept pouring money into the “public safety” sack, a move that endeared them to their union supporters but that jacked up payroll and pension costs while delivering zero increase in public safety. Our famous police department continued to nurture illegal behavior in its ranks and the City did its utmost to cover it all up.

Well these worthies have a tough row to hoe given the mood of the public and the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic. They’d better have a back-up plan because there’s little chance the electorate is going to want to protect the business-as-usual gang in City Hall. The completely hollow and cynical promise of oversight and audits isn’t going to persuade anybody.

July 8, 2020July 8, 2020Ahmad Zahra

Zahra and Silva Think A Pot Shop Next to Your House Is Okay

by Mr. Peabody15 Comments

Last night’s City Council hearing on moving ahead with a marijuana ordinance produced the usual incoherent blather from our distinguished electeds, none of whom seemed to know what they were talking about, and two, in particular, who seemed to have been coached by representatives of the legal pot lobby. Of course we learned that the previous outreach didn’t reach anybody not looking to make a buck in the weed biz.

Somehow in its latest incarnation, staff’s proposed framework for allowing these uses, particularly dispensaries. reduced the “buffer zone” at schools and parks from 1000 feet to only 600, and eliminated the buffer for residential zones altogether. Why? Pretty obviously to increase the opportunities for locating dispensaries.

Councilmembers Zahra and Silva, who gave every appearance of repeating “consultant” talking points expressed concern that workers in these places be unionized and that to proceeds go to kiddie social programs, but they were more interested in increasing parcels available for development than they were about the impacts on residential neighbors. The bumbling Silva in particular made a big deal about having most permissible zoning in order that the burden of hosting these facilities would be shared by rich folks up in the hills, an idiotic pretext since a majority of the council spent a good deal of time extolling the virtues and minimal impacts of licensed shops.

Councilmembers Whitaker, Flory and Fitzgerald indicated their desire for a 1000 foot buffer, and the inclusion of residential use as a “sensitive receptor” requiring a buffer. So good for them. However, Fitzgerald and Whitaker both voted against going forward with more “outreach” and a future ordinance anyhow, meaning that either Zahra, Silva or Flory somebody is going to have to change their support for a residental buffer, ultimately, in a final ordinance. I leave it to the Friends to guess who that might be. On the other hand it’s hard to see how this can make it back to the Council before the election and both Flory and Fitzgerald will be gone, meaning that we may get lucky in Districts 1 and 2 and get a level-headed council majority who can make a decision that isn’t bogged down by fake concern, verbal gas, and union stoogery.

March 17, 2020March 17, 2020Carpetbaggery

Hope Springs Eternal

by Mr. Peabody9 Comments

There is a certain personality profile that is so narcissistic that it can’t conceive of the reality enjoyed by others. And that sobriquet must certainly apply to Paulette Marshall, the erstwhile candidate for County Board of Education who was so thoroughly trounced at the March 3rd election that she came in 5000 votes behind a candidate who spent 1/300th of what Marshall did.

If you need any evidence of this disconnect with reality, here’s Exhibit #1, an image harvested from Marshall’s Facebook page the day after the election:

Such delusion in a normal person might be cause for a certain amount of pity from folks. But this is not a normal person. This is thief, a liar, and a fraud. Pity would be misplaced. “Who cares now?” you may ask. You should. Because I predict that Fullerton hasn’t seen the past of Pilferin’ Paulette. Just wait and see.

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020Doug Chaffee

What Is The Fullerton Gazette? All Indications Are of Another Chaffee Scam

by Mr. Peabody10 Comments

It looked good from far, but it was far from good…

FFFF recently received an e-mail from something calling itself The Fullerton Gazette. The document touted a list of recommendations for the March Primary ballot yet contained no FPPC number and no political action committee name. Hmm. There among the recommendations was convicted trespasser and thief, Paulette Marshall for OC Board of Education.

A quick trip to the Fullerton Gazette website revealed a very recently concocted site with ridiculous generic “articles” that only an idiot would read. But there buried in the other pabulum was a “story” about Marshall’s interview with some thing called the “Anaheim Education Bulletin.”

A helpful link takes the curious reader to the Anaheim Education Bulletin website, another recently fabricated site with the same sort of crap we discovered on the Fullerton Gazette site. And once again, buried in the other trash is the interview with Marshall, nothing other than a political advertisement.

Another Chaffee con job. Sick of it, yet?

But now a name appears to give the thing a tincture of verisimilitude: Deborah Hayter. A quick internet search for this unusual names indicates some woman scratching out an existence as a publicist and PR person, which all makes perfect sense: an Astroturf campaign trying to look like a legitimate journalistic endeavor.

February 7, 2020A Step in the Right Direction

Pilferin’ Paulette Gets Rung Up

by Mr. Peabody24 Comments

For when you discover a basement below the basement…

Normally a race for the county Board of Education would cause no excitement – not even a blip on the local political radar screen. This year is different in our district election because one of the candidates is the unspeakably dishonest Paulette Marshall Chaffee who was busted just a year ago faking an address to run for the Fullerton City Council and then who then was caught stealing campaign signs twice.

Paulette Stolen Sign — Crime doesn’t always pay in Fullerton…

Well, this scofflaw now believes she should be on the Board of Education and true to form is telling voters she’s a former teacher supported by ridiculously posed images of her in a classroom. For this septuagenarian miscreant, just like her co-conspirator husband Bud, the sky’s the limit as far as spending vast amounts for her own electoral gratification.

But Pilferin’ Paulette has competition in this election. In one case it’s from a guy named Tim Shaw who ran against Old Bud for 4th County Supervisor last year. He knows his opponents, husband and wife, pretty well and has created a website to help inform folks of the abysmally low level of moral integrity possessed by Bud and Paulette.

Well, Godspeed, Mr. Shaw. Anybody who helps expose the incompetent criminal conspiracy known as the Chaffee Crime Family should be applauded for their good work.

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020A Step in the Right Direction

A New Website Shines Spotlight on Scam Fullerton School Bonds

by Mr. Peabody39 Comments

Usually money-ravenous school districts with their armies of six-figure educrats count on the voters in their districts to be either indifferent or stupid. At least 55% worth. That’s the level of support it takes to pass one of their jaw-droppingly expensive general obligation bonds, bonds that this March would cost the average Fullerton home owner a whopping $400 a year in new taxes.

The website is http://www.noschoolbonds.com.

Check it out. And spread the word.