Author: The Fullerton Harpoon

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This guy was riding his bike westbound in the 100 block of West Orangethorpe a week or so ago, when blammo, a man driving the wrong way in the northernmost lane wipes him out. The injured man was hospitalized with unknown injuries and later released. The driver who sped off (somehow still in the wrong lane?) was later apprehended by the cops. His name is Christian Diaz and lives in West Covina.

Mr. Diaz has been charged with attempted murder.

The cause and the duration of Diaz’s wrong way journey remains a mystery, but boy is he in Big Trouble.

By now we are all familiar with the sudden emergence of the innocent flower Elijah Manassero, who shot up out of nowhere into Fullerton’s political garden. He’s filed numerous false FPPC complaints against Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap; and he’s written pompous, erroneous and baselessly accusatory articles for the Kennedy Sisters. We are to believe, I guess, that young Elijah is just a civic-minded, well-intentioned young boyo whose interest in community betterment is a credit to him. Sharon Kennedy gushes with admiration:

Sharon K

July 25, 2025 at 6:42 am

Matt – I am so impressed by young people, like Elijah, who have a lively vision for our town. 

Lively. That’s a good one. But Lively Elijah is not a happy young camper. He and his pals washed out badly at the Santa Fe Depot lease hearing on the night of July 15th; and Elijah, in a fit of pique, sent a threatening missive to the City Attorney as soon as he got home that night.

Dear Mr. Jones,

I am writing to formally demand immediate enforcement of the lease default provisions applicable to Bushala Brothers, Inc., the tenant of 120–140 E. Santa Fe Avenue.

At the July 15 City Council meeting, George Bushala openly admitted to subleasing the premises; a clear violation of the lease’s subletting provision. This admission came after staff publicly stated they had no record or knowledge of any such sublease. That alone constitutes a default under the lease agreement. In addition, the City’s own expenditures on building repairs and ADA improvements inside the tenant’s leased space, obligations explicitly assigned to the tenant under the lease, further constitute material breaches.

Despite these unresolved and ongoing defaults, Council voted to approve an amended lease that:

• Extends the term through 2060,

• Grants the tenant expanded rights and rent credits,

• Reduces enforcement mechanisms, and

• Softens penalties for failure to build out improvements.

All of this violates Section 6(e) of the lease amendment, which plainly states that:

“If Tenant is in default (beyond applicable notice and cure periods)… the Third Extension Term or Fourth Extension Term shall not commence.”

Your office is well aware of this language. And yet the lease was approved anyway.

This is not a close call. This is not a matter of interpretation. This is blatant cronyism and gross irresponsibility, putting the City of Fullerton in legal and financial jeopardy for the sake of political convenience. The lease should never have been brought forward in this condition, and certainly should not have been approved. If your office advised otherwise, that itself raises serious concerns.

You are now on formal notice that I intend to pursue all available legal remedies:

• I will submit public records requests for all closed session negotiations and communications related to the lease amendment.

• I am evaluating a Brown Act “Cure and Correct” demand under Government Code §54960.1, which may invalidate the Council’s vote.

• I am exploring a taxpayer lawsuit under Code of Civil Procedure §526a for waste and unlawful gifting of public funds, especially in light of the Council’s knowledge of these defaults at the time of approval.

This lease is not just bad policy. It is legally unsound, ethically indefensible, and politically corrosive. If the City’s legal department cannot uphold the basic enforcement provisions of a lease it approved, then perhaps the public should question whether your office is acting in the interest of the people, or in the interest of donors and insiders.

I expect a formal response addressing the City’s intended enforcement action within ten (10) calendar days.

Sincerely,

Elijah Manassero

Fullerton Resident

Uh, oh. Callow young Elijah intends to pursue all legal remedies! He demands! He notifies! He will submit! He will evaluate! He will explore! He expects a response! What a lively young chap is Elijah.

This is funny. Are we to believe that fragile Elijah tricycled home right after the meeting to tap out this nonsense? Of course we don’t. This was written beforehand, and not by Elijah – of that we may be certain. And the whole Manaserro schtick is now coming into focus a deliberate political maneuver to attack Fred Jung in future campaigns by creating phony “controversial” votes. He isn’t acting alone. Here’s the elder member of the Kennedy Sister Coven, once more, with the rest of her comment:

Sharon K

July 25, 2025 at 6:42 am

Matt – I am so impressed by young people, like Elijah, who have a lively vision for our town.

Unfortunately Jung has been a sad disaster for Fullerton but this article is not about that. There was plenty of criticism of the actions of “Mayor” Jung – long before Connor Traut came into the picture. Jung’s own actions are his worse enemy. We do need someone good to fill the 4th district OC Supervisor position – Jung would fit right in with the majority there who just upped their own salary to more than the governor of California makes per year. I am sick of tricky, self serving, arrogant little politicians. I don’t know Connor Traut but will look into him and hope he is a more fit candidate than Jung –
But – getting rid of him in our town by electing him onto the Board of Supervisors is not a good reason to vote for him.

The comment here is complete with the usual Observer misdirection – “criticism existed long before,” etc.; Jung is “little” and he doesn’t deserve the title Mayor without quotation marks. Kennedy will “look into” Connor Traut because she is sick of tricky, self-serving, arrogant little politicians like “Mayor” Jung. Obviously, the Fullerton Observer is already all in for Traut and is providing a vehicle, even if a lame one, to hurt Fred Jung’s politcal aspirations.

FFFF has introduced the Friends to a tender stripling political wannabe named Elijah Manaserro, a recently flowering bud who seems willing to do anything for some politician or other. His quest has seen him file phony complaints to the FPPC and to write nastigrams to Fullerton Councilmembers Jung, Dunlap, and Valencia. He has hitherto restrained himself to writing nonfactual and ignorance based articles in the Fullerton Observer. His calling card says “transparency.”

Elijah’s most recent drum beat is the same as before: the Santa Fe Depot lease to Bushala Brothers, Inc. is fraught with danger due to a massive lawsuit filed by Albert Bushala against all of his siblings and his parents. This non-issue has been the hobby horse of the Observer’s Kennedy Sisters, too, who can’t quite seem to grasp the irrelevance with regard to the City of Fullerton. As long as BBI pays its rent, who cares about the lawsuit, right?

But sweet young Elijah says otherwise. He writes: One of the assets at the heart of the dispute is the lease to the Fullerton Train Station. This is a lie.

Here is the older Kennedy sister playing the same tune in a comment: Plus this property is embroiled in the $400 million Bushala family lawsuit.

George Bushala Jr. addressed this before the council at its hearing last week: Bushala Brothers, Inc. lease is not named in the lawsuit is not in any sort of jeopardy. Apparently the delicate fleur Elijah was not paying attention, and neither was Sharon Kennedy, both of whom believe they have a live issue. They don’t.

Well, there’s more, Friends, information the Observer and sweet Elijah could have obtained by contacting George or Tony Bushala like a real news source would have. It turns out that Tony and George Bushala bought out Albert Bushala’s position in the business in 2004 – 21 long years ago. And guess what? Albert sold his piece of the company’s Santa Fe Depot business by name.

Here’s the document, signed by the brothers:

Uh, oh. There goes that already slim argument. Albert Bushala relinquished any claim to the depot lease for ample consideration, pure and simple.

Can we expect the Observers to quit pulling this frayed rope to their alarm bell? After all they read this blog. Probably not, since in small minds obsessions are a hard thing to eliminate.

One of the curiosities that emerged from the Bushala depot lease hearing at Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting was a letter from the Bushalas’ lawyer demanding Councilman Ahmad Zahra to recuse himself. Why? Because he is biased against them, as indicated by numerous derogatory comments about their supposed negative influence on the Council majority. Here’s the letter, sent to Zahra on Tuesday afternoon.

At the outset of the meeting Zahra innocently claimed his impartiality and lack of animosity to the Bushalas, a claim that his past behavior has shown to be false, and that his behavior that very night was to belie. Anyone watching the charter city hearing, and watching Zahra’s ten minute meltdown, knows this.

Zahra began to question staff about all sorts of details in the existing and proposed lease amendment; about staff’s procedures in negotiating, etc. a strategy never before displayed by Zahra when it came to dozens and dozens of previous lease agreements he approved on the nod.

Zahra’s behavior didn’t escape the notice of two public commenters who took him to task for his blatant bias, observing that he never before showed much, if any interest in the details of lease agreements set before him, most of which were passed on the consent calendar.

Later, Zahra felt the need to defend himself. The subsequent speech explained his constant attention to details and outlined his incredible diligence looking out for the welfare of the “people.” Mayor Jung felt constrained to point out the disastrous “boutique hotel” vote of Zahra and Charles, in which conmen were essentially the beneficiaries of a massive gift of public funds – obviously no due diligence had been performed by either Charles or Zahra before they voted for the boondoggle.

My own favorite Zahra dereliction was the proposed “fish farm” in which a closed public park was to be illegally converted into a private event center with a fish tank in the middle. Remember? The unsolicited proposer had no money to pay rent or even possessory interest tax, and no collateral to get a loan; there was no parking; instead of thinking about the impact on the neighbors, Zahra even dragged up some of his toadies to gargle about trees and green space, not noise and lack of parking. All the details would be figured out later, said Zahra. The Big Idea, not the details were what was important.

At Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting both Ahmad Zahra and Shanna Charles went to great lengths to decry the current rampage of ICE goons in our community. While there should be no support for the current administration’s unconstitutional activities anyplace, Zahra’s oratory struck me as ironic.

How come? Because we know that the openly gay, Zahra came to America from somewhere in the mid 1990s and immediately hoofed it on down to Arkansas where he married an American female, a woman named Michelle Salmon. Zahra told Vern Nelson of the Orange Juice blog that they liked each other but it didn’t work out.

That was a Zahra lie.

The illegal marriage fraud scam did work out, just as planned.

Just contemplate the ridiculousness: here’s a new, gay immigrant without his own address and with no work permit. What a catch for the young Arkansan woman.

Very soon after Zahra’s nuptials, he lit out for California to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker, abandoning his new bride in Little Rock. Five years or so later Zahra divorced Salmon, and with the help of a green card, no doubt, stayed in the country paving the way for ultimate citizenship.

Most immigrants that come here are damn hard working people doing jobs that Americans have become unwilling to do. Zahra, on the other hand appears to be virtually unemployed. Check out his 2023 economic interest Form 700, for example.

It looks as if Ahmad is doing a lot more political schmoozing and manipulating than he has been actively engaged in gainful employment. For a while he was collecting four grand a month going to Orange County Water District meetings, but that gravy train came to a screeching halt four years ago. It’s anybody’s guess how he pays his rent. A real audit of his campaign finances might be useful.

Then there’s the problem of Zahra’s assault and battery case against a Fullerton woman, a case that disappeared. Zahra says he was exonerated, but that’s was a lie, too.

US Immigration policy should be focused on keeping out deadbeats and bums and assaulters, not harassing people who want to work, and who do.

I have never met Mr. Matt Leslie but I already like him. For some reason the Sisters at the Fullerton Observer don’t ban him from commenting on their blog – even though he often deflates their silly rhetoric and unprofessional lack of standards. The latest example was his response to the tendentious essay posted by the political operative Steve Sherry.

Sherry regurgitated the same old absurd talking points about the Bushala lease at the Santa Fe Depot, including the nonsense that the new hotel next door will jack up rental value at the depot; he comically suggests a brand spanking new restaurant like they have in San Juan Capistrano to replace the “downtrodden” café.

Here’s Leslie’s common sense response:

Mr. Leslie points out to naïve Observer readers the nonsense of kicking out the existing café in order to install a fancy restaurant in a space where there is no large kitchen and virtually no seating. Implicit in Leslie’s response lurks the truth that the knucklehead Sherry has never even been inside the café space.

Naturally, this comment provokes one of the Kennedy sisters to leap into the breach with one of the Observer’s obnoxious “ED Responses.” The erection of a hotel adjacent to the depot is “planned,” ED reminds us. ED takes the erection for granted.

Do the Kennedy sisters really believe a hotel is coming, or is this just a (poor) talking point meant to persuade their uninformed readers? It doesn’t really matter, I guess.

Anyway, Leslie ain’t buying the nonsense, and rightly concludes that a hotel – even if there ever were one – isn’t going to make the café space any bigger, and suggests the “aspirational” hotel include fine dining for its customers. Of course aspirational is far too kind a term for an unsolicited project that was hijacked by bankrupt and disgraced conmen, is tied up in litigation, and is years behind meeting contractual milestones.

The following missive was discovered in the FFFF In Box this morning. It may seem gratuitous to point out the hypocrisy of the Fuller Observer and the two Kennedy sisters who run it, but it good to seem others cotton on to the complete lack of journalistic ethics involved there.

In the realm of local journalism, consistency and fairness are paramount. Unfortunately, the Fullerton Observer, a poseur “newspaper” in Fullerton, has shown a glaring inconsistency in its coverage of recent development projects in the city – projects that ironically happen to be adjacent. This selective criticism proves the paper’s lack of objectivity and its fundamental inability to hold local government accountable.

A few years ago, the City of Fullerton entered into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with an individual who, remarkably, had no prior experience in the type of development planned – a “boutique” hotel. This agreement granted him exclusive rights to develop a 2-acre parcel of city-owned land adjacent to the train station. Despite the lack of experience and the complete lack of market demand for the proposed hotel, the Fullerton Observer remained silent. There was no critical analysis, no questioning of the city’s decision to entrust such a significant project to an inexperienced developer. The paper seemed content to report the facts without delving into the potential risks and implications for the city and its residents.

When the project was passed on to two individuals with a record of fraud and loan default, the Fullerton Observer ignored the glaring problem – even as the City prepared to up-zone the land and hand over title to the land before a development agreement was even reached. The project is now in limbo as all of the required milestones have been missed – but the land belongs to the conmen. Silence from the Observer

Fast forward to the present, and we see a stark contrast in the Fullerton Observer’s supposed civic concern. Currently, the Observer has stirred up opposition to a lease amendment at the citiy’s adjacent property, a historic train station listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city is considering whether to include in the lease the area of only 1000 sq. ft. of its extended portion of it’s “loading dock” that’s been fenced off for nearly thirty five years with no access other than through the current tenant’s leasehold. The tenant of the station has made substantial improvements to the train station building, and has twenty two years remaining on its current lease if he exercises extension rights. However, the Observer has been highly critical of this proposed lease amendment, questioning the results of the City’s staff’s negotiations with the tenant.

The discrepancy in the Observer’s coverages is vivid. Why was there no scrutiny when an inexperienced developer made an unsolicited proposal and was given an exclusive agreement for a high-profile project? Why no scrutiny or criticism of how the deal and the land were handed over to a couple of con artists? Why is there such intense criticism now when a tenant with a proven track record is involved; a tenant who is incentivized to build out the loading dock into a tax-paying space; a tenant who is willing to double his monthly rent to the City? This double standard demonstrates that the Observer’s editorial stance is influenced by factors other than journalistic integrity.

It is crucial for local newspapers to maintain a consistent and critical stance when reporting on city developments. They have a responsibility to question decisions that may not be in the best interest of the community and to hold city officials accountable for their actions. The Fullerton Observer’s selective criticism undermines its credibility and raises concerns about its commitment to fair and unbiased reporting.

As residents of Fullerton, we deserve a real newspaper that provides balanced, critical, and thorough coverage of all development projects. It is time for the Fullerton Observer to reassess its editorial practices and ensure that its reporting is consistent, fair, and in the best interest of the community.

– A Friend of Fullerton’s Future

As a highlight, I’ve added a comment made by David Curlee on the Observer blog that eviscerates the idiotic post by poor Steve who is now left holding his own on a canal bridge. Fortunately, common sense still exists in Fullerton.

The Observer’s new action figure’s name is Steven Sherry who is on the Fullerton Transportation Commission and is also a Democrat political consultant of some sort; meaning he is on some politician’s payroll, or desperately want to be. He doesn’t seem to have ever held a job outside of political wheedling and and political campaign hackery.

Gee, I wonder who put this person on a city commission. Any guesses?

He is the author of a recent post in the Fullerton Observer attacking the proposed lease amendment at the City-owned Santa Fe Depot with Bushala Brothers, Inc. The lease would activate the long dormant east end of the loading dock and would get rent for a derelict structure that would be adaptively reused.

Steven Sherry is not happy about it. And spells out numerous reasons why. They are nothing but unfounded opinions, typical Observer innuendo, and of course, outright falsehoods. The title of his screed is “Opinion: Fullerton’s Train Station Could Be a Jewel—If We Stop Settling.” Settling. That’s funny, Steve.

Let’s review Steve’s complaints one by one.

WASTED POTENTIAL. Steve claims Tony Bushala has reneged on all sorts of (undocumented) promises from 1989 (3 years before the lease started) and comically lists things that aren’t and never were in the Bushala leasehold. He cites no sources for verification for his allegations, as usual. We do learn of a place called “Trevors” is in the SJC depot. Hooray.

AN UNNECESSARY MIDDLEMAN. Steve asserts that the City should build out the loading dock and rent it out itself, eliminating a “middleman.” But poor dumb Steve seems to be unaware that the City controlled portion of the dock is the eastern, skinny butt-end – a mere 1000 square feet. Without the Bushala leasehold portion that far end of the loading dock is completely useless. Plus, the City doesn’t have the money to build a birdhouse and has no facility for property management; but let’s not let facts get in the way of a political essay.

LEGAL JEOPARDY. A recurring Observer theme. Because Albert Bushala is suing the rest of the Bushala family the City could end up in…LEGAL JEOPARDY. Forget for a moment that the City is ALWAYS embroiled in legal jeopardy because of its own actions with no complaint from the Fullerton Observer, the issue is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the rent is paid on time. If it isn’t, the tenant gets evicted. Pretty simple unless you don’t know what you’re talking about.

DOUBLE DIPPING. Bushala Brothers were recently paid by the City for exterior plaster and interior renovation. Over $100,000 for what should be obligated maintenance under the lease! What Steve doesn’t share with his readers is that The Bushalas responded to a solicitation by the City itself to do this work, work the City obviously considered outside the scope of routine maintenance in the existing lease. Another contractor bid significantly higher to do this work. Gee, Steve wants an audit!

LACK OF REVENUE. Steve complains about the current low-rent. What Steve doesn’t know, maybe because it happened before he was born, the Bushalas put in hundreds of thousands of dollars into the initial historic preservation and rehabilitation – money the City didn’t have to fork over at all. Over the past 30 years this investment is worth many times more.

Steve wants the tenants to share the wealth! Kick back a percentage of revenue says Steve. But Steve doesn’t seem to grasp that the loading dock has produced $0 revenue for the City over the past 35 years and without this deal, never will; but with renovation that loading dock would generate sales and possessory interest tax revenue to the City and County of Orange. Steve cites the Summit House restaurant – a completely different type of agreement.

QUESTIONABLE TERMS. All terms are questionable once they’ve been questioned. And Steve is trying, gosh darn it. Then he steps on his own weenie by citing rising land values thanks to “The Tracks at Fullerton” a project that really is mired in the inability of its conmen Johnny Lu and Larry Liu to perform to the agreement, two grifters who were never “audited” by anybody in City Hall and whose multiple frauds, crimes and, massive loan defaults have never been mentioned once in the Fullerton Observer. Fortunately the odds of this monstrosity ever getting built are very long.

Poor Steven never bothers to explain what elements of his essay would make the Santa Fe Depot a “jewel” if it isn’t one already. He says the cafe is “downtrodden,” whatever that means to him. It might be news to the proprietor of the establishment.

And so Steve Sherry pops up to join the tender young sprout Elijah Manassero, in a desperate attempt to twist language and logic in an effort to defame the Bushalas, and doing it at the behest of somebody else.

Yesterday Sharon Kennedy published a post by tender young Elijah Manassero – Part 2 of what is supposed to be a damning legal revelation against the Bushala family. It’s really the wild product of an angry man-child against all of his relatives, but no matter. The point of the post is to try to make Tony and George Bushala look bad to Fullerton Boohoo, and at the same time call into question the upcoming lease agreement between Bushala Brothers, Inc. and the City of Fullerton at the Depot.

Sharon Kennedy telegraphed this intent by making the following comment on her own blog:

This is clearly supposed to be a talking point for the usual gaggle who loudly harass the City Council majority at every meeting over some silly grievance or other.

It’s funny how nobody evert hears from Fullerton Boohoo about the legal entanglements surrounding Mario Marovic’s stolen sidewalk or about the legal entanglements and bankruptcies that enveloped Johnny Lu and Larry Liu before the entitled land for the so-called boutique hotel/rabbit warren apartments was essentially gifted to the grifters. That would require intellectual and moral consistency, two qualities sorely missing from Fullerton Observers.

Well, the item is on the agenda for next Tuesday, so we can expect a vocal shrieking from the banshees Sharon Kennedy and her younger sister, Skakia intend to call out.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out (again) the secondary, perhaps primary purpose of the Kennedy Klan’s plan: to create fodder for next year’s campaign for County Supervisor, in which fresh young Elijah’s (alleged) boss, Connor Traut is running against Fullerton Boohoo Public Enemy #1 – Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung.

A couple of month ago a delicate young shoot named Elijah Manassero popped up on the Fullerton scene like a new flower nourished by a spring shower.

Who was he, and where did he come from? Who knew? He repeated all the talking points of the Fullerton Observer crew, for which he began writing “articles” under the guise of news. He posted comments on line. His themes were always the same: attacking the council majority and decrying the influence of Tony Bushala; particularly obsessed has he been with the Bushalas effort to lease the long-abandoned portion of the loading dock at the Santa Fe Depot.

Just yesterday I posted about Manassero’s ridiculous complaint to the FPPC regarding a perfectly legal campaign donation by George Bushala Jr. to Councilman Nick Dunlap. There may be others that haven’t surfaced yet. A couple days ago sweet Elijah published a story in the Observer about a lawsuit levied by a disgruntled son against everyone else in the entire Bushala family. It wasn’t newsworthy, but its purpose was to embarrass Tony Bushala by giving credence to the allegations in the lawsuit.

I got the feeling there was more to young Elijah than random concerned citizenry. I think I was right.

Sources are saying that fresh young Elijah is working for Connor Traut, the Buena Park carpetbagging councilman who is running for County Supervisor. How does attacking the Bushala family advance Traut’s goal? Easy. His only opponent so far is Fullerton’s mayor, Fred Jung.

Many people are starting to ask questions. Questions like: is the Fullerton Observer being used by Traut to create fodder for a political campaign against Jung? Are the Kennedy Sisters complicit in this or just brainless dupes? They certainly ran cover for Team Jaramillo by actively ignoring the Scott Markowitz perjury scam conspiracy, so we know they have no moral compunction against this sort of thing; and they have no professional or personal code of ethics to restrain them.

According to the Fullerton Boohoo narrative, Jung is a puppet of Tony Bushala’s, and every effort to tie them together in various nefarious schemes would be used in next year’s campaign. Will it work?

Previous efforts to attack Tony Bushala as part of a broader campaign have failed miserably, most notably in 2012. In that year’s recall the anti-recall efforts were focused on making Bushala look bad. They lost that election by 30 points.

Connor Traut may think this is a winning strategy but he is wasting his money if he is paying tender young Elijah anything. Angering the deep-pocketed Bushala clan is not a way to get yourself elected.