On last Tuesday’s City Council closed session agenda, an item popped up that surely bears close examination.
This is about an appeal regarding a decision involving “post retirement employment.” That means it involves CalPERS the massive pension program for public employees in California. Obviously CalPERS came down on these four individuals listed for violating terms of retirement, terms meant to make retirement a serious decision. I’m moderately familiar with the rules. The basic ones are that if you are officially retired you can’t go back to work for any CalPERS agency for more than 960 hours a year, and you can’t take on the responsibilities of a full-time employee.
Gone, not quite forgotten…
Friends may remember Jeff Collier, former City Manager of Whittier, who was the “Interim” City Manager after Steve Danley (an OCERS retiree and therefore eligible), for a while in 2021-22. Did Collier work more than 960 hours? Can an “Interim” qualify to get around CalPERS restrictions? I don’t know.
Pfost came to Pfullerton…
I don’t remember a Cindy Collins, but a do recall Gregory Pfost, retired head planner from Laguna Beach who washed up on Fullerton’s shore.
A Manfro all seasons…
Finally, there’s Eddie Manfro, retired City Manager from dysfunctional Westminster who hired on a few years back as an HR consultant, I think, and became the de facto HR Director. He is now the Interim City Manager.
The one thing all these individuals have in common is that they were and are, well-aware of the limitations placed on CalPERS retirees, so whatever the violations are that are being appealed, should have been avoidable.
I would like to know how Fullerton got stuck with this embarrassment and who is paying the legal costs for the waiver process and the appeal. I get the feeling we are paying.
The conversation at tonight’s Fullerton City Council meeting will turn to public property leases in Downtown Fullerton. A few years ago the Council raised rates. The jump was high – around 90% – but the City hadn’t increased rents for 10 years so the real increase over time was about 9% a year. Add the three succeeding years and it’s 7.7% per annum. That’s still high, but that’s what the Council approved, most notably the self-styled “pro business” Councilman, Ahmad Zahra.
Les Amis sans meubles...
The matter is now controversial because one restaurant occupying City space, Les Amis, run by the Montecristo clan, is using the 2022 rent hike as justification for their refusal to pay rent for years – dating back to 2011. They don’t bother explaining to their dupes all the years they stiffed their landlord (us) rent; and they never mention all the times they encroached on City property without permit or agreement. The City government bent way over backwards to accommodate Les Amis, who have shown very little gratitude for the latitude they were given for a decade and a half. Quite the contrary.
Apropos of the rent issue, one of the other complaints from the grand bruitLes Amis claque is that that one patio in particular pays no rent – the Santa Fe Café, run by Salma Bushala-Hamud.
Salma Bushala-Hamud, Fullerton small business owner and philanthropist.
First it should be mentioned that the patio in question is included in the Bushala Brothers, Inc.’s lease at the depot. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that the area designated as 9 in the site plan is included in BBIs master lease with the City and is thus included in the entire lease.Here’s the leasehold plan:
Even if this weren’t the case, BBI has obviously decided to let the public occupy shade covered tables and chairs even if they don’t patronize the café. All you have to do is look at the people sitting in the area. Almost none of them are café patrons.
This policy is indicated by an actual sign that lets the public know they can sit there, gratis, a decent and civilized gesture.
Cry harder…
But back to the meeting. I hope the item starts out with a reminder from Mayor Jung and the City Attorney to the predictably frothed up Les Amis amigos who show up all the facts of the situation; to relate the years of skipped rent, the tens of thousands in overdue amounts, and the illegal encroachments; to let them know they’re being played by the Noaccounts of Montecristo and the rank-and-file of Ahmad Zahra’s Fullerton Boohoo stooges who demand a victim-of-the-week to weep for.
Back in March 2025 the Fullerton City Council decided to fire the City’s ambulance contractor and take the responsibility in-house. Why? Well, naturally there’s the official story, which is that there will be some sort of saving, which is nonsense, since it means adding 20 new public employees on the payroll, and was all based on wishful thinking. So instead of shopping out the paramedic business like Placentia did, Fullerton did the opposite, requiring acquisition of ambulance rolling stock and the various other appurtenances like gurneys, etc.
On this Tuesday’s Council meeting Agenda Item #10 proposes a payment plan for this nonsense. Guess what? It looks desperate. City staff is still proposing to finance the acquisition of all the ambulance stuff through acquiring debt, via a master agreement with Bank of America to buy City bonds at a coupon rate of 3.5%, and then use the proceeds to lease ambulances.
Well, there she goes. Don’t worry. There’s more where that came from…
Yes, you read that right. We’re paying for Fire Department empire creation with $2,000,000 credit. The capital repayment and interest on the bonds would amount to $2,175,000 by the time the last bond matures in November 2031. And let’s not forget the dough paid to bond counsel and financial consultants (UFI) who are selling this deal. And oh, yeah, let’s consider there’s now insurance, maintenance, fuel, etc., of vehicles owned by the lessor (BofA), which was all glossed over last April 1st, as was the cost of financing which is over $200,000.
The single Agenda Item #10 staff report sentence justifying the financing is laconic, and notable for what it doesn’t say; that the City still plans to finance the purchase orders for this equipment supposedly issued in April. Here’s all we are told:
“Urban Futures, Inc. (UFI), the City financial advisor, and staff determined private placement financing offers the most beneficial and cost-effective solution for the City.
But there is no explanation why. None at all. Zip. Is the City borrowing $2,000,000 at a lower interest rate that it is making in an investment pool? Who knows? The City Council and the public aren’t informed, just as they weren’t informed when financing was proposed back in April.
The fun aspect of this is that the lease of these ambulances would be rent-to-own, a little con – making the credit-risk-uninformed think they are getting something great. I mean, who doesn’t want to own stuff, right? What good is a owning a six year old old ambulance? I don’t know, but my guess is they depreciate really fast. Maybe even faster than rent-to-own toasters.
He’s on it…
I really don’t know what to say about this completely unnecessary move. If the Council had just voted no on the unsolicited plan from the FFD we wouldn’t be looking at having to cover any loan vig at all. Neither the Councilmembers who voted for this – Zahra, Charles, Jung and Valencia had much if anything to say about this bond/lease back in April.
This is how I bought my first car, a 1991 Yugo!
Of course Zahra and Charles don’t give a rat’s ass about wasting money, especially when they script some sort of feel-good performance. Hopefully, Jung and Valencia will change their minds about this resistible offer, but I’m not optimistic. Maybe Dunlap can talk some sense into them.
With Fullerton tottering on the edge of financial meltdown the Council’s behavior towards the fire department (and its union employees) has been highly irresponsible. In October they accepted a one-time FEMA grant to hire a platoon of new “fire fighters” that we will become completely responsible for in 3 three short years, pensions and all.
No, I’m not optimistic at all. The financial leveraging is bound to be used as a pretext to pass a sales tax increase next year. And what if that fails?
In just two weeks since October 21th, the Fullerton city staff have prepared the outline of a plan to create a legal fund and a general welfare fund for targets of zealous Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
I say “outline” because the staff report for the item (#7 on this Tuesday’s council meeting) only presents generalities about who might be doing what. Specifically, the report recommends creating two funds of $100,000 each. How the money is doled out and by whom, and who would be responsible for any of it remains something of a mystery although the City Manager will pick the winners and sign the contracts. I do know that there will be no accountability: the local non-profit industry seems to be the intended recipient, and the third party aspect would just make it harder to figure out what is going on and unlikely to be audited for “deliverables” – as government neologizers love to phrase it.
But there’s going to be a snag.
Jamie Valencia, an unknown variable…
The vote on October 21st was 3-2 to move ahead, with the usual boohooing by the two “doctors.” At the urging of Mayor Fred Jung, Zahra came up with the $200,00 and Jamie Valencia went along with the nonsense. But later in the meeting she clarified her position that she did not want to spend any public money on this effort; she wanted non-profits involved in it, presumably with smiling encouragement being the City’s only contribution.
Knowledge just leads to complicity…
Will Ms. Valencia stick to her guns? Fullerton Boohoo and the screaming Kennedy sisters will be at the meeting in force, especially with the misinformed Les Amis boosters in attendance to bemoan the fate of the Montecristo’s patio – the one they diligently refused to pay rent on.
A helpful Friend sent in this California High Speed Rail (CHSR) propaganda video. It’s about what will happen in Fullerton if the LA-Anaheim line goes in – a giant boondoggle within a fantastically bigger boondoggle. It’s mindbogglingly stupid.
So Fullerton’s Transportation Center is going to have massive negative impacts for years as CHSR builds ramps and tunnels, removes and relocates south platform parking, shuts down Walnut Avenue, and who knows what all else?
And get this: Fullerton isn’t even a “preferred” site for a stop. That decision has already been made.
The silly sales pitch is laughable: all this disruption will make it easier for northbound commuter trains to get to the north platform without crossing all the tracks – nonsense because they can use the south platform with a little logistical planning.
I suppose we can get some satisfaction that this massive disaster will possibly never be built. There’s no justification for HSR between LA and Anaheim, except that cooked up by people like our old friend, lobbyist and conman Kurt Pringle working for who knows whom. Pringle’s grand contribution to this mess has already been the embarrassment of ARTIC, the $200,000,000 station that is no station at all, but sold to the silly and gullible as a necessary component of the Big Idea.
The travel time between LA and Anaheim for HSR is essentially the same as current Metrolink service. The short distance from Union Station, and Deadman’s Curve in Fullerton militate against high speed travel through densely populated areas.
But never let facts and commonsense stop the CHSR propaganda machine; after all, propaganda is almost all the CHSR has produced so far, plus a few grossly overpriced overpasses around Fresno. Not much to show for 18 years of effort, and billions wasted. Not a single track has been laid; not a single train car delivered.
Will Fullerton put up some resistance, even token resistance? We’ll see if anybody on our City Council has some courage. It’s a damn good issue to go to bat for; which means probably not.
So it looks as if the City of Fullerton has finally decided to quit playing pat-a-cake with Jinan and young Oliver Montecristo. The owners of the restaurant Les Amis who kept encroaching on public property without approval or permits, and who serially dodged paying tens of thousands of dollars to the City in rent, are having their “improvements” on public property removed by the City.
Les Amis and unpermitted stuff…
Here’s the notification to the City Council from acting City Manager, Eddie Manfro:
Mayor Jung and City Council Members,
I was informed this morning that Public Works crews have removed the outdoor dining encroachments at Les Amis restaurant this morning. This follows the 90 day extension that she was granted by City Manager Eric Levitt. Following her payment of $3,900 on July 23, 2025, no further payments have been received.
According to Director Bise, Les Amis was provided with a 48 hour notice prior to removal of the encroachments. Public Works will hold it for 30 days in case they wish to keep it for their future use (but not for installation in the public space).
A copy of Mr. Levitt’s 90 day extension is attached for reference. Thank you.
Eddie
A yard sale is a small business!!
No doubt the suddenly “pro-business” folks at the Fullerton Observer, and “doctors” Zahra and Charles will continue to spin this into a David and Goliath story: little David being the scofflaws who have paid almost nothing to the City in rent for 15 years and who blatantly refused to follow City rules about squatting on public premises.
Poor Oliver
The last City Manager, Eric Leavitt actually gave the Montecristo mob yet another 90 days to make good on their debts and encroachments. Les Amis got a two day notice and still refused to do anything. So Public Works did. And the City has generously volunteered to keep the Montecristo junk on hand for a month in case they want it for some reason.
Les Amis sans meubles…
I really hope Jinan and Oliver get a bill for cost of removing their junk from the public right-of-way, although I doubt if they’d pay it.
And speaking of ever so earnest Oliver, I look forward to his appearance at the next City Council meeting blaming Mayor Jung for his own mother’s failure to pay her bills and play by the rules.
