FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Author: The Fullerton Shadow
The Fullerton Shadow is a former Miss Central Nevada and holds a doctorate in animal husbandry from Phoenix University. She has lived in and about Fullerton with her husband Joe for 9 years.
Just because we had nothing better to do we took a cyber stroll through Linda Ackerman’s Facebook site and lookit what we turned up. Note the name: Carol Rudat, the erstwhile candidate for City of Orange City Council who was busted as a carpetbagger and narowly escaped having her candidacy tossed out by a judge. And now she and her husband Dave strongly endorse fellow carpetbagger Linda Ackerwoman! Too funny!
O, bitter irony! Matthew J. Cunningham had a veritable conniption over Rudat’s carpetbagging in Orange, but now looks the other way when the wife of El Commandante does it in the 72nd Assembly District race!
Our old friend Barbara Giasone penned one of her edgy, hard-hitting news pieces the other day about the upcoming Miss Fullerton Competition.
Since we ran a piece awhile back about the geezers in the Chamber of Commerce laying hands all over complete strangers – women young enough to be their grand daughters, this news flash caught our attention.
Cuddle up a little closer...
The propriety of having these young women present themselves at Chamber events to be touched, and touched often, smiling all the while, seems to be a strange way to have to earn an educational scholarship. Just think about it: okay honey you gotta go to this cocktail party full of friendly guys. Just think of them as your dad, or grand dad. What? You’re not 21? Hmm. Well, it’s really not like it’s a bar, exactly. Anyway there’ll be police there too, so that’s okay.
We have a winner...
Why can’t these young women write essays, or feed homeless people, or do something equally uplifting? Why do they have to attend Chamber of Commerce cocktail parties for photo ops? Seriously. Why?
Watch the hands, Minard...
Well, that’s what pageant winners do, for gosh sakes, some will argue. It’s all harmless, and maybe they like it! Well, maybe they do. And maybe they don’t – and just can’t say anything. In any case it’s pretty hard to escape the conclusion that these contests are are just weird hold-overs from the early part of the last century.
I resemble that remark...
Here’s some help: visualize these women without tiara and sash in the same photos, same poses. Damn friendly girls, wouldn’t you say?
We have no idea what the Miss Fullerton competition entails, but it seems pretty clear that the winner’s attendance at mixer events held by the Chamber is inappropriate for several reasons.
And if the idea is so damn hot, and not at all sexist, then why isn’t there a Mr. Fullerton constest? We’d love to see Dick Jones with his arms around the waists of a couple strapping, scholarship-hungry young guys!
If it isn't illegal, it can't be wrong...Dick told me to say that.
Over at his Repuglican PR firm, er, Red County blog, our old playmate Matthew Cunningham has taken great offense at the good post “Rogue Elephant” wrote on the Orange Juice blog the other day, and that we generously shared with the Friends, here.
Why is he offended by Rogue Elephant’s post and our take on it? Because the post pointed out that former State Senator Jim Brulte gave Linda Ackerman $3900 out of his bogus BoE in 2014(!) campaign committee. We pointed out that her husband’s equally bogus BoE 2010 (created in 2006!) committee also gave her the same amount. We noted that these committees were basically money pots that politicians could use to finance their maintenance of power and influence. In other words a scam – create a committee for a fake political campaign and then use it as an influence buying cash cow.
Cunningham got his knickers in a real wad and noted that FFFF is a political committee, too, and that there is no difference between us and the donors to Ackerman. See, it’s all about free speech. Shame on us.
What a howler.
Just say something. Anything. And keep saying it.
It seems to have escaped Cunningham’s notice that we are not politicians; we don’t raise funds under the guise of a phony run for office. We aren’t pretending to run for anything as a way to hang on to money raised for other offices. We don’t redistribute money as a way to influence elections and buy friends. Our purpose is to to promote causes and candidates we feel are worthy, but we’re not in it to amass wealth, or to keep control of wealth courtesy of people who contributed for other purposes. Too bad none of that can be said about Brulte or Ackerman.
Repuglicans have gotten into the nasty habit of using the “free speech” complaint as an argument to support any kind of deceit practiced in the pursuit of power. But at the core the issue isn’t about free speech – it’s about a fundamentally dishonest way of maintaining influence in Sacramento. Of course the crooks and their hangers-on can’t admit it. If it ain’t illegal it ain’t wrong. Plus the Democrats do it too!
Just in case you needed any more evidence that the two Register political reporters/bloggers Martin Wisckol and Frank Mickadeit are anything other than tools in the Ackerman tool shed, observe this hard hitting piece by Wisckol in his GOP celebrity column, Total Buzz.
A “granny flat”! How quaint! Linda Ackerman is doing what the Ackerman’s seem to do best – mislead the public; here into thinking they’re actually renting an abode in Fullerton. She claims that she and Dick are renting three rooms, plus “kitchen privileges.” What a load of crap. Granny units have kitchens, Linda.
Instead Mrs. Ackerman is renting an address on Lindendale in order to legitimize a carpetbagging political campaign. Nobody, not even her camp followers believe she is living in the place.
The second funniest part of this sad lie is that she claims that renting an apartment is just soooo hard! How would she know? Did she actually try?
And the funniest part is how the sycophant Wisckol just passes along this tripe, all gussied up for credibility now that a “real” reporter has posted it. Note also that Wisckol says there is a “whisper campaign” that his dear Linda is carpetbagging. WTF?
Listen up Marty:
LINDA ACKERMAN IS AN IRVINE CARPETBAGGER!
Is that loud enough for you, Mr. Wisckol? And just in case you missed it:
We wouldn't be surprised if these started popping up along Chapman Avenue...
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the good folks at City Hall to provide a public update on the drawn-out Amerige Court saga. They would just as soon you don’t know while they work out a deal behind the scenes.
Well, if they won’t we will. To that end we sent out our crack team of investigative reporters and found out a few things.
As many of the friends doubtless know, the original partnership – Pelican/Laing – that was getting all of the Redevelopment gravy: free land, super-high density, etc. etc., is no more. John Laing Homes went into receivership. But we have been informed by our sources that before they declared under Chapter 11 they managed to offload their interest in the Amerige Court project to their erstwhile partners, Pelican. We suspect that they sold out for pennies on the dollar to salvage something before a bankruptcy court judge could lock things up.
The possibility of a kickback to former Laing employees is hard to ignore, and we hope that this thought will occur to the bankruptcy judge, too. The City granted entitlements were and are, worth millions to somebody who can actually seal the deal.
The Redevelopment Agency staff is aware of all this, and rather than start over will no doubt push hard for the Agency to accept this new arrangement, if they haven’t already. It’s hard to see the Pelican boys getting financing to build a birdhouse these days, but many options are open including selling off the whole mess to somebody else. They may also try to repackage the deal in a “softer” format to makes sure they can get the green light.
So the time is ripe to call City Council members who voted for this huge subsidized eyesore. Keller, Quirk-Silva, and Shawn Nelson have an opportunity to correct their previous mistake and do the right thing by the people of Fullerton. Bankhead and Jones are, of course, far beyond hope, but you can try them, too, if you care to.
Remember 1969, free love, and all that? Many of us are too young perhaps, but others maybe not be. In any case, we evoke 40-year anniversary recollections of a film that was both epilogue to the 60s and harbinger of the 70s. Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Refresh your memories here.
But who can forget this image of Eliot Gould, Natalie Wood, Robert Culp and Dyan Canon? Not us.
The other day we did a post that dealt with the Republican “leaders” of Orange County treating government like it was their own private plantation to be worked, and worked hard for all it was worth.
Unfortunately, the Ackerman team seem to fit this profile almost perfectly, what with the Missus deciding to run to “represent’ us peons in a district in which she doesn’t even live, and getting Sacramento lobbyists to grease her skids.
Things are lookin' pretty sweet from the verandah!
And so we can’t help but recall that great Bob Dylan song Maggie’s Farm, from the Bringing it All Back Home album. Enjoy the clip. And just remember who you’re working for!
Our own Travis Kiger met with the Chairman and Treasurer of the Fullerton Collaborative yesterday to review donations to that group from people who might have had business before the City of Fullerton where the Collaborative’s Executive Director, Pam Keller, sits on the city council. He also looked into whether or not the Collaborative had received contributions from developers – people from whom Pam Keller had specifically refused to take campaign contributions.
From the records made available to him, Travis discovered two prominent names: Pelican-Ontario, an affiliate of the Amerige Court project developers, and the egregious Steve Sheldon, pitchman for the massive Jefferson Commons project. Pelican and Sheldon gave $300 and $1000 to the Collaborative, respectively. Bushala Brothers, Inc., local property owners and developers in Fullerton gave $1000 as well.
The issue of the St. Jude Medical Center participation in the Collaborative, and Keller’s December 2007 votes in favor of their large project on the west side of Harbor Boulevard was also discussed at length.
The officers of the Collaborative have claimed that the Executive Director is paid from funds separate from those gathered from donations that support Collaborative activities. That may or may not be accurate, but it is true that the typical budget for “Faces of Fullerton,” for instance, includes $5000 for staff salary, and the Collaborative only has one employee – Keller. The larger issue is that contributions made to the Collaborative could, and may have gone to pay for the contract with FSD for Keller’s services. Is it really necessary to parse out different accounts?
The Collaborative leaders also related that in the future they will scrutinize and pre-approve all donations; but that is not any of our business. Our business throughout this affair has been to find out if Pam Keller has been voting on projects applied for by members and contributors to the Collaborative (she has), and whether she has solicited donations from the very developers who she refused to take money from for her campaign (she has).
In conclusion, we make no accusations of illegal behavior on anyone’s part; but is it ethical of Pam Keller to refuse developer campaign contributions only to turn around and solicit them for the Collaborative – an entity she is paid to run? We don’t think so. When she ran for council in 2006 Keller made a big deal about letting the development process be driven by public participation – rather than by outside developers. Her votes to approve the gigantic Jefferson Commons and Amerige Court projects were baffling to many who no doubt took her campaign promises at face value.
We received an e-mail the other day from a Friend calling herself “Lady Artist.” It was a good letter and it made some excellent points so we agreed to publish it.
Didn't they put a moustache on the Mona Lisa?
The City of Fullerton has proven to be a faithless custodian of a modern architectural gem. I have come to the conclusion that the best fate of the building that has come to be known as the Hunt Branch Library is to give it back to the Norton Simon Foundation or, at least to someone who will appreciate it.
William Pereira designed this building in concert with a larger, integrated development; a site plan that included the Hunt Administration Building and coordinated landscape that included a reflecting pool and “floating” concrete slabs and steps. Over the years the property has been partitioned by a fence, the reflecting pool filled in by its new owners, with new and comically bad architecture burdening the site. Perhaps most insulting of all, the City has put a “bark park” on the grounds next to the library.
A bark park. Great for dogs, insulting for a work of art. Unless by art you mean a group of dogs playing poker.
Fullertonians may not know art, but they know what they like.
I believe that almost anybody would be a more reliable guardian of this building than the City has shown itself to be. The homeless people who camp out under the extended roof seem to appreciate it more than the City does.
I also believe the present location for a branch library couldn’t be worse. It is not well known, and frankly, I question the number of users claimed by the Library itself in its annual counts. Why continue to fund a branch library at this near-hidden location when neither north nor east Fullerton have branch libraries at all; not to mention that the existence of the Hunt Branch would probably come as a complete surprise to most west Fullerton denizens? But these are separate issues in themselves, and I digress.
For years I’ve heard all this weeping and wailing about how Fullerton could have had the Norton Simon Museum. Why mourn that? Fullerton doesn’t deserve it. Never did. The inescapable evidence is on display at the Hunt Branch every day of the year.
Let’s give it back to Norton Simon, with our thanks; and our apologies for not recognizing the architectural legacy that he gave us.
Thank you, Lady Artist, for a thought-provoking piece.
An ethics award? Me? Okay now whatever you do don't laugh out loud!
We came across this amusing tidbit the other day. According to a State Assembly website with background info on slime ball Mike Duvall, he was presented with an Ethics in America award by Chapman University back in 2000 here’s the link. Check out this gem at the bottom of the bio: Chapman University awarded Duvall the Ethics in America Award for his “demonstration of the highest standards of ethical integrity” while a member of the Chamber team (italics ours).
Now we have always got a kick out of the way Chapman and its president, Jim Doti. likes to hobnob with the rich and sycophanticize the powerful as he promotes his mission to destroy the City of Orange, er build Chapman, but this one is a bit much. At the time Duvall was merely the boss of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce.
This town ain't big enough for the two of us...
Today we found another website that beat us to posting the information here and, apparently, a Chapman University spokeshole is trying to slide out from under the association with this award – whatever the hell it is, but not altogether successfully. Read the comments.
Note also how Chapman seems to have a mania for tracking down on-line references to itself – pretty creepy as well as insecure – so we may be getting a comment!
Anyhoo, the whole thing is sort of funny so we pass it along to the Friends for whatever entertainment value it contains.
