May 28, 2026May 29, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

More Monkey Business With the Budget?

If as is being claimed by “Erik” at Fullerton City News is unequivocally stating that Fullerton City staff has been unilaterally backfilling departmental funds without approval by the City Council. This would be unethical and illegal.

Elected officials have to approve these sorts of transfers from the General Fund as well as periodic budget adjustments. Period. Erik claims this has been going on for at least seven years and the amounts are substantial.

Erik uses this situation to suggest a City sales tax bailout is the wrong way to reward the bureaucrats who perpetrated this possibly criminal hairball.

Here is his post:

I’ve Got 24,816,001 Reasons To Not Support A Sales Tax

City Hall Spent $24.8 Million Without Council Approval And Now Wants A Tax Increase

Erik

May 21, 2026

Budgets are estimates, it’s an unpredictable world, and not getting it perfect is understandable. Fullerton City Hall staff and the city council are supposed to work together to determine how much money should go to each fund / department but ultimately it is the city council who, being elected, gets the final say on how we prioritize and spend that money. When council does this properly the residents are happy and councilmembers get re-elected, run for higher office, etc. When they don’t get it right they lose elections, get recalled, and/or face public scorn. The city council is our control mechanism over how our money is spent.

When a council appropriation ends up being more than what was needed, the remaining money can return to the General Fund without issue. When a council appropriation is not enough, the correct action is to request an increase from the city council. Again, city council is our control mechanism over how our money is spent. Staff does not have the legal authority to increase spending, only council does.

This is spelled out in City Municipal Code 2.68.030:

Prior to June fifth of each year, the City Administrator shall submit a budget for the coming fiscal year to the City Council for adoption.

And the restrictions given in City Municipal Code 2.68.050 which states:

C. Transfers of appropriations between departments and funds, or use of salary and accounts, other than those exceptions authorized herein, may be made only by authority of the City Council.

D. Expenditures in excess of the budgeted amounts are prohibited. (Ord. 1485 § 5, 1967).

This should be clear and simple. Need more money? Go ask council for it. However, it appears City Hall chose not to follow this practice (or the law).

During a conference call with a municipal finance expert, I was directed to the ‘Budgetary Compliance’ Section of the City’s 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). They summarized that when that section is present in the report it means that something has gone wrong and in this case it’s by a lot. The ‘Excess’ column of this section lists money that city staff spent in excess of the council-approved budget and for 2025 it totals $11,148,422.

Consider for a moment what this means. Our only way of having a say over how our taxpayer money is spent is through the city council. They are elected to represent us and our interests. The municipal code confirms this is their decision to make. Yet in FY25 unelected bureaucrats at City Hall simply ignored the city council and the voters they represent and went and spent whatever they wanted.

Police couldn’t manage on their budgeted $61.3M? They spent $63.9M.
Fire couldn’t operate on $34.6M? They spent $36.2M.
‘Capital Outlays’ went over by $6M. This one is especially troubling because there’s no clear explanation of what those funds were actually spent on.

Put another way, the city council budgeted a total of $132.9M to the General Fund but staff spent $144.1M … $11,148,422 of which was without council approval. You might notice on the Revenue side that we brought in $8.9M more than anticipated and should have had a $5.4M surplus. But staff’s $11,148,422 unauthorized spending pushed us from a large surplus to a $5.7M deficit.

This is a complete disregard of good financial practice by City Hall. While some overspending covers legitimate needs, the lack of prior approval violates the process residents rely on, a process that does not include staff spending whatever they want and stashing it on page 105 of next year’s ACFR. Their actions were in direct violation of the city municipal code and are a slap in our faces.

But wait… it gets worse. Much worse. If this were a one-time thing I could almost understand. But, Dear Readers, City Hall staff has disregarded city council approved budgets every single year for the past decade. See for yourself:

gdfgdfgd — 2023: $455,176. And they were nice enough to put in a reminder that this was not legal spending.

Prior to 2021 accounting used a different format for the annual financial report known as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and the format is a little different, but the pattern of spending beyond authorization continues.

Starting in 2019 to present, staff has helped themselves to $24,816,001 of our taxpayer dollars beyond what our duly-elected council representatives legally allocated them. This money was taken without permission, outside of our established legal process, repeated every single year in recent history. This is an outrage.

Our current unrestricted cash reserves are $19.8M which, with a general fund of $144.1M gives us the current 14% reserve level. This is well below the council target of 17% and translates to 1-1/2 months. Had staff followed the budget all these years, our reserves could be as high as $44.6M which comes out to a 31% reserve level or 3-1/2 months. Or some of that could have gone to paving more streets.

But alas, it is already spent and gone and those who spent it are telling you to just give them more money via a sales tax increase. You should ask your councilmember how they feel about this, do they still trust City Hall, and what are they going to do about it?

We are being robbed.

Back to Harpoonville. This sounds pretty serious and I sure hope the crack accountants we have hired to check the books to explore a few facts:

How were these transactions booked and who authorized them?
Were the transactions simply glossed over in annual CAFRs and budgets without saying who approved them?
When, if ever did the Fullerton City Council approve these transfers? Were any of them ratified after the transfers were made?

We have already seen the City play fast and loose with Redevelopment Successor Agency funds as well as other non-discretionary funds to pad the invalid General Fund. That was bad. And in retrospect, maybe those transfers were just part of an overall pattern of misfeasance.

May 5, 2026May 5, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

The Party Pooper

by The Fullerton Harpoon8 Comments

At the last Fullerton City Council meeting Ahmad Zahra, the ersatz damascene doctor, brought up the subject of the annual State of the City event. It’s a big lunch affair with lots and lots of people attending. His intent was to try to embarrass Mayor Fred Jung since the Mayor is the one gives the address, and Jung does it often whereas Zahra has never done it and never will.

Zahra called the event a publicity stunt that, given the bad state of Fullerton’s roads and finances should be scrapped. It’s all about transparency and public involvement, and other such nonsense. He still wanted an accounting and naturally so did his associate Shana Charles.

But then, lo and behold. When the two sanctimonious boobs were done, Mayor Jung, asked the City Manager how much last year’s event cost the City. The latter announced that last year’s event didn’t cost the City anything. In fact it made money!

Oops.

Anyway, ther unnecessary review of this event is on tonight’s council meeting agenda where Zahra can whine about the council as a whole having no input; and the usual Fullerton Boohoo and Fullerton Angry nuts can stomp and shout.

You might think that a conscientious public servant like Zahra would forgo wasting staff time putting together and delivering a report on this event; and wasting his colleagues’ and the public’s time in listening to it. If you did you would be wrong. This is going nowhere. Here’s the lead in on the actual agenda:

An update on the City of Fullerton annual State of the City event, including a financial
summary of the 2025 State of the City and considerations for the 2026 event. Staff
anticipates utilizing a sponsorship and ticket-supported approach similar to the successful
2025 event for the 2026 State of the City and seeks City Council direction.

When staff describes the Mayor’s speechifying event as “successful” you’re not going to be able to use it to embarrass the Mayor.

Maybe Shana Charles will show up and then galumph out in a high dudgeon protest – like she did in 2023. But then she’d have to pass on a free lunch.

April 22, 2026April 26, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

When is An Audit Not An Audit?

by The Fullerton Harpoon24 Comments

Well, there she goes. Don’t worry. There’s more where that came from…

When a misleading City of Fullerton agenda proclaims: “Introduction of Special Fiscal Audit – Grant Thornton Risk Advisory Services.”

I assumed, wrongly, that somebody had already been hired to look into the misdirection of funds into the General Fund Reserves that should have gone some place else, a fact that has caused considerable embarrassment to our severely and habitually underinformed City Council. I also figured this firm was going to talk about what they found.

But no.

In fact, the firm of Grant Thornton Risk Advisory Services were brought before the council by the City Manager, Eddie Manfro, simply to make a sales pitch for their services. And what services.

Step one is to be some sort of forensic accounting exercise, a fishing expedition to explore the world of Fullerton’s accounting regime to see what, if anything, is amiss. Nobody said anything, but there must have surely been some internal squirming when the company rep kept using the word “fraud.” And that included our Finance Director and recently anointed City Treasure, Steven Avalos who was sitting in the pit.

The second phase of GTRAS’s endeavor was to explore how the City might improve efficiencies, save money, and help address Fullerton’s grim fiscal situation. Why this all-purpose company was suggested for this task seems odd, the two tasks having nothing to do with one another.

I’ll address the first project first. Why is it necessary at all to delve into Fullerton’s accounting with an audit? We have been told that there were seemingly honest bookkeeping errors – embarrassing, sure and it did alter the already dire projection of General Fund reserve draw downs, but fear not, all was well. The councilmembers kept talking about transparency and public trust, but what does that really mean? Is this serious or just a political pantomime?

Consider the following facts. GTRAS was picked by the City Manager under his own authority and just brought to the council to give them a chance to ratify the decision. That’s a sole source contract, and the public has no idea how much they will be paid, and won’t without a PRA request. Will added scope to the $100,000 contract be reviewed by anybody except the City Manager and Steven Avalos? If some sort malfeasance were actually discovered – purely by accident, of course – would offender(s) names be published? Is any of this going to discussed in Closed Session because it touches on employee issues? Who knows? The Council approved the deal, without knowing whatever it is or might be.

As for the second part of GTRAS offer, the City Manager announced that would be returned to the Council for approval of a $130,000 deal. At least someone might get the chance to ask some pertinent questions, such as why is this “economic development” effort needed, given that Fullerton has highly paid staff who enjoy employment as economic developers. What have these people been doing and why do they need outside help. These people have been on the payroll for years. What have they accomplished?

Sunaya Thomas, in charge of economic development, was in attendance. Her presence at the meeting was an almost begging of the question about her own success in this endeavor, the effort of bureaucrats that never even pays for itself.

I wonder if GTRAS will actually suggest something that might help, outside of taxes. Personally, I doubt if their suggestions would even pay for their own service. That we will probably never know because no one will talk about it. This will be an agreement with no metrics for success or failure, just more electronic billboards and hotel occupancy taxes. Staff reductions? Getting rid of all our brand new “firefighters” and ambulance drivers? Don’t be ridiculous.

Anyhow our brave Council voted unanimously to proceed down this dark corridor, protesting their sincere desire to pursue those most elusive prey: transparency and public trust. No one said much about accountability. They never do.

March 20, 2026March 20, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

$10,000,000 Misdirected; Budget Crisis Suddenly Gets Worse

by The Fullerton Harpoon26 Comments

At Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting our honorable elected representatives found out that our fiscal reserve funds were overpopulated with bucks that belonged someplace else. I haven’t been able to view the video – the City Clerk’s link doesn’t work – so I’m relying on a Voice of OC article.

It seems monies that should have gone to Fullerton’s Redevelopment Successor Agency and other sequestered funds were being counted in the general fund reserve pool – $10,000,000 worth. How and why this occurred wasn’t spelled out in the article except as some sort of accounting error:

“These funds remain part of the city’s overall fund balance, but are now set aside in a way that better reflects their intended purpose,” said Steven Avalos, the city’s finance director, at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Mr. Steven Avalos, Fullerton’s New City Treasurer

Wow, that’s an application of bureaucratic soft soap, massaging what amounts to an egregious accounting error, or worse.

What it means is that all previous budget discussions led by Mr. Avalos and his predecessor have been nonsense for the past 5 years. And decisions in just the past year obliviously come into sharper focus for their foolishness – like going in-house with ambulance drivers and hiring a bunch of new, permanent “firefighters” based on a one-time FEMA grant. Parenthetically, I note that Mr. Avalos was appointed City Treasurer earlier in the Tuesday meeting. That’s a bit funny, really.

The Voice reports heated and loud interlocutions between Ahmad Zahra, the perpetual grandstander, liar, and victim, in exchanges with Mayor Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap. The exchanges as reported generated a lot more heat than light, but so it is when Zahra begins his sanctimonious routine. Ironically Zahra says a new sales tax increase won’t help.

We are informed by the article that City Manager Eddie Manfro is going to meet with the ad hoc Budget Sustainability Committee on March 30th which seems like just a stall of 12 days.

Won’t look you in the eye while you’re trashing him…

One interesting statement was uttered by Jung in a Voice interview:

“I think we were set up to fail.”

We don’t know what this means because apparently the reporter didn’t follow up. Does the Mayor believe this misallocation of funds was deliberate to create a budget crisis at some point? Who knows?

Things are grim in City Hall, and a cactus garden in front isn’t going to cheer anybody up.

February 27, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

A Manfro All Seasons. Eddie Manfro to Be Anointed New City Manager

by The Fullerton Harpoon24 Comments

At next Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting Eddie Manfo. Acting City Manager will be hired by the City Council to fill the job formally.

He will get $305,000 per year as base pay, plus a cornucopia of benefits that amount to, well, a helluva lot of money. Does he get to keep his current pension?

He’s quasi-at-will until this November, after which he gets nine months’ severance if fired.

Apparently there are at least three votes for Manfro’s appointment, but the sledding will not be without some controversy. Manfor was one of four Fullerton hires post COVID that attracted the negative attention of CalPERS, the State’s public employee retirement system. Once you officially retire there are limits to what you can do for employment inside the system. I don’t know what is required to unretire yourself so maybe Manfro has done that.

However, the CalPERS controversy, such as it is, is bound to arouse the indignation of certain elements in Fullerton Boohoo/Crazy who will use any opportunity, no matter how slim, to impugn the Jung/Dunlap/Valencia troika; the Kennedy Sisters, for instance, continue to bemoan the loss of “excellent” City Manager Ken Domer the incompetent stooge of Jennifer Fitzgerald, and wail about all subsequent replacements.

February 14, 2026February 14, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

Is Fullerton Getting a New City Manager?

by The Fullerton Harpoon8 Comments

Item 1 on the Closed Session agenda looks a lot like this:

Since right now we have an “Acting” City Manager, Eddie Manfro, I think we can surmise that this is either an item to select a replacement or to appoint a permanent City Manager, who might be Manfro himself.

Manfro has held a bunch of jobs in Fullerton since his retirement as City Manager in Westminster, a situation that has caused a complaint from CalPERS, the State public employees retirement system, that is currently the subject of possible litigation.

Since I am not privy to the closed door doings of the City Council, it is possible that interviews with other candidates have taken place since the last City Manager, Eric Levitt ditched Fullerton for San Bernardino last summer. If the CM job was posted, it isn’t anymore.

On the face of it, the Fullerton City Manager job can’t be an enviable one what with the looming financial crisis and the roads being the worst in Orange County. Still, the job remuneration will be exceedingly high, and the accountability, as we have seen over the past four City Managers, exceedingly low.

If a decision is made next Tuesday we will be informed at the start of the public meeting.

December 9, 2025December 10, 2025A Manfro All Seasons

Something Fishy in Fullerton

by Grover Cleveland36 Comments

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.

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.

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.

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.

December 2, 2025December 2, 2025A Manfro All Seasons

Public Property Lease Rates on Agenda; And the Reality of the Santa Fe Café

by Mr. Peabody52 Comments

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.

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 bruit Les 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.

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.

November 30, 2025November 30, 2025A Manfro All Seasons

The Strange Case of the Ambulance Bonds

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy21 Comments

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.

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.

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?

November 2, 2025November 2, 2025A Manfro All Seasons

I Pity the poor immigrant – Part 2

by The Fullerton Harpoon35 Comments

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.

That was pretty fast so I imagine the immigrant fraudster himself, Ahmad Zahra was doing some of his special brand hysteria behind the scenes.

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.

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.

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.