A Step in the Right Direction Archives - Friends For Fullerton's Future

This site, FFFF, has been my digital home off and on since I broke the news that Joe Felz committed his “wet and reckless” and ran over Poor Sappy McTree on 09 November 2016. In the 4+ years since that fateful post I have written over 180 posts under my own name and allegedly may have collaborated on some work with Lonnie Machin which led to this blog, David Curlee and myself getting sued.

I’ve made local friends, enemies and a lot in-between in that time and I regret very little of it. I’m not a hero in the story of FFFF as I’ve simply been another voice in a collection of malcontents who have worked to expose some of the corruption at City Hall and in/around Fullerton since this blog was founded circa 2008.

Contrary to some local speculation this isn’t my blog. I do not own it. I do not host or administer it. I do not write the content other than what I previously mentioned. I also try very hard to follow Wreck it Ralph’s first rule of the internet.

That said, my limited activity on here is coming to a close. The lawsuit used by the kleptocrats at City Hall to shield themselves from responsibility took a lot out of me. It was draining for me and my family and it cost me some friendships I’ll miss. Now that it’s all said and done I’ve decided to step away from FFFF as I’ve never really felt like I was a good fit for this place.

I’m too uncompromising. Too much of an ideologue. I’m just not very good at Team Sports and politicking. Because I don’t know who the anonymous bloggers are here at FFFF, it makes it impossible for me to work with them which likewise makes it impossible to share a vision or goals. I know we all want a better city with more responsible government but that’s largely where it ends. I need to stress this next point – and I can’t stress it enough – that’s a ME problem. FFFF was FFFF before I came along. I knew, largely, what I was getting myself into and that I wouldn’t know who I was “working” with on this site. That was and is a feature of FFFF and not a bug. I am/was able to post whatever I wanted with no oversight or editing or controls. It’s a free for all here at FFFF and that freedom can lead to breaking stories, shitposting or lawsuits. It’s a mixed bag.

But I’m looking to get out of the blogging world. I started doing news/politics related videos some time back and found that I enjoy that more than sitting here typing. I like deep diving into a topic at my leisure instead of feeling bad that I don’t post enough or that I haven’t found more people to write for a site that isn’t mine. I feel a big weight on my shoulders writing for FFFF and that weight isn’t mine any more than FFFF is mine.

The videos I was making for YouTube were never on local politics so they didn’t belong here on FFFF – on a site branded and run for local Fullerton politics – but as I shifted from typing to talking more and more I found that as I tried to figure out what content to put where – I wasn’t putting content anywhere. This, again, was and is a ME issue.

I fully realize that the reach this site has (I know how many people get the email list) made me somewhat notorious locally and not the other way around. I appreciate everything the Friends have done for me and my family over the years, especially during that hellscape of a lawsuit when it cost me my job. I made some friends thanks to this site I could not replace if I tried and I’ll always be grateful for that and many other things. But my usefulness here has ended. I’m more of a liability than an asset. More of a distraction than a feature. My interests fall outside of the narrative arcs that the anonymous bloggers publish and that’s not a bad thing.

I’ll always read FFFF and will always be grateful that they asked me to join them after the City Council race of 2016. As I stated earlier I have few, if any, regrets from my time here. I’m also grateful to the many readers who appreciated what I was trying to do in exposing the truth in Fullerton. You’d be shocked how many people stopped me on the street, at the local bars, in the grocery store even – to comment on my posts or to thank me for my writing. It was a pleasure knowing that I had even a limited impact and I hope to continue that with my videos to a different extent.

Thank you all for the years of friendship, malcontentedness and support.

In the words of the Dolphins who left Earth in the Hitchhiker’s trilogy, “So long and thanks for all the fish”. Cheers.

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021A Step in the Right Direction

The Dead Kennedys & Others

by Joe Sipowicz26 Comments

Now that the City of Fullerton’s retaliatory lawsuit against FFFF bloggers Joshua Ferguson and David Curlee has finally done its inevitable Zeppelin Hindenburg act, some folks who promoted and nurtured the despicable assault on freedom are already trying to rewrite their participation.

Kimberly Barlow, Esquiress of the lamentable law firm of Jones, Mayer and Gecko is saying she’s just “happy the City got its documents back” another disingenuous swipe at Ferguson and Curlee who never deprived Barlow of anything; her “happiness” is costing us $750,000, at least , but she forgot to tell the reporter this inconvenient fact.

Ahmad Zahra the hapless, preening poseur, and insufferable boohoo gasbag is now claiming that he was a “fan” of settling this lawsuit, a statement completely unsupported by any fact as the City continued its legal harassment of FFFF.

Then there’s Sharon Kennedy, the (former, supposedly) proprietor of the Fullerton Observer. In a comment string at their blog, Kennedy is now denying her involvement defaming our bloggers and pretending that her involvement was strictly objective. Unfortunately for her, the facts suggesst a slimy collaboration with the City and Jones, Mayer and Gecko. Her “expert” who claimed that she hired him, produced an opinion that was a joint statement to the Observer and an official Declaration to the Court in the case. How that happened and who, if anybody remunerated this self-styled expert is unknown – so far, but it looks suspicious as all Hell. Commenters are questioning Kennedy, but she isn’t answering. And naturally, the expert conveniently backed up the long-since debunked statement of the City’s own “expert.”

Kennedy can claim innocence all she wants, but her track record of venom toward this blog and really toward anybody else whose honesty threatens the well-being of government employees is well-known, and the malice might be pretty easy to prove in court if anybody cared to hold her accountable.

Well, the rats can scurry off the SS Jones, Mayer and Gecko as quick as their little legs will hurry them along. But the facts are incontrovertible and somebody, and soon, is going to have to pay the proverbial piper – just like the taxpayers are going to have to pay for the horrible and intentional malice of City Hall and its lawyers.

May 12, 2021May 12, 2021A Step in the Right Direction

And Another One Bites The Dust

by Joe Sipowicz13 Comments

The Word out of City Hall is that the “Community Development” Director, Matt Foulkes, is hitting the road. All the way to neighboring Buena Park, a city half the size of Fullerton. This is not a lateral move.

Matt Foulkes. The spin out left casualties…

Foulkes no doubt saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall and realized the long, long era of incompetence and no accountability in the Fullerton planning process was over.

The last straw may have been his ass-backward proposal to convert a park into a private event center masquerading as a aquaponic farm.

Domer-Decorations — Hitching to Buttonwillow…

But Foulkes was by no means simply in over his head. He was part of The Fitzgerald and Domer team that deliberately ignored code enforcement downtown and who actually looked the other way when Joe Florentine forged an official city application document. And then there was the documented theft of the “Fullerton Rail District” name for his own secret plan that envisaged stack n’ pack housing to appease his SCAG overlords, and of course, the now-departed lobbyist, Jennifer Fitzgerald.

Maybe the next Director will be somebody capable of explaining things without a long string of jargon, nonsense and outright lies. It seems unlikely, but the Friends can always hope.

April 23, 2021April 24, 2021A Step in the Right Direction

Is Domer Dunn?

by Joe Sipowicz32 Comments

Last Tuesday the Fullerton City Council majority finally got sick and tired enough with their hapless City Manager to tell him to take a hike. The votes to oust Ken Domer came from Bruce Whitaker, Nick Dunlap and Fred Jung.

Cop coverup artist, drug warrior, IT wizard, this talented cat can do it all…

Insiders are suggesting that his temporary replacement will be none other than Police Chief Robert Dunn.

The Council is meeting Tuesday to discuss a replacement appointment.

And when you think about it, the only real question is why it took so long.

By any measurable standards, Ken Domer was not very good at his job. He took too long to address the City’s structural budget deficits, and when he did, his solution was to raise sales taxes – taxes not even aimed at our horrible infrastructure.

Under Domer we saw the deliberate ignoring of noise code violation enforcement and the effort to dilute the relevant codes. We saw the the aiding and abetting of a permit applicant who forged official planning documents. We saw idiotic and unsupervised vanity construction projects. We saw stupid things like the recently killed “aquaponics farm” and the connivance required to begin a Specific Plan without any input from the community or even the City Council.

We saw a string of “consultants” hired out of the blue to perform tasks that Domer and his highly paid staff should have been able to do in their sleep.

Why the underqualified Domer was ever hired in the first place will probably always remain a mystery, except that it makes perfect sense that Jennifer Fitzgerald, our former Mayor-for-hire, wanted someone who would reliably do what she wanted without asking any embarrassing questions.

Along with walking legal catastrophe, Dick Jones, Domer was certainly complicit in the vindictive lawsuit waged by the City against FFFF bloggers, a disastrous strategy that will cost the tax-payers plenty.

Measure S Covid Lie

But it was the ill-fated and duplicitous Measure S sales tax scam that really iced the cake. It was designed as a rescue for the pay and pensions of Fullerton’s full-time public employees, who, during the pandemic, have continued to enjoy pay and benefits while many of Fullerton’s residents and business were suffering the cruelty of a real world unprotected by the largesse dispensed by government union-friendly politicians.

Well, Domer is gone, but it would be a waste of time and tears to mourn his departure. He is getting a month’s pay and benefits up front worth $25,000. And then he will begetting 9 months’ pay and benefits courtesy of a contract extension granted just two month before last November’s election by Fitzgerald and her council cronies Ahmad Zahra, Jan Flory, and Jesus Silva. That’s another $25,000. Per month. And the bonanza of Domer’s pension spike in Fullerton will be a cost borne by all of us for a long, long time.

The people of Fullerton have been awful good to the Domer family.

April 21, 2021April 21, 2021A Step in the Right Direction

Signs of Life On Mars!!

by The Fullerton Harpoon15 Comments

Well, no Friends, not Mars. But in Fullerton.

An institution, namely our City Council, that has been moribund/and, or corrupt and cowardly for at least 40 years has finally sprouted a few darling buds, raising hopes that our future is no longer simply a matter of waiting for mental and moral entropy to render our city into a puddle of putrification.

Well, what happened? you ask. Last night the City Council pronounced a loud no to bureaucracy- driven nonsense. Let me explain.

Yesterday evening the Council took up the matter, again, of extending an “Exclusive Negotiating Agreement” or ENR, with some guy who wanted to put a non-profit aquaponic farm on the site of our embarrassingly fenced off Union Pacific Park on Truslow Avenue. The biggest trouble (among many) was that this type of venture is thoroughly dependent upon the financial kindness of strangers and can’t possibly sustain itself.

Matt Foulkes. The downward spiral wasn’t complete, after all…

No problem there! said our Planning Director and incoherent word salad shooter, Matt Foulkes. The aquaponic farm shall be surrounded by a fence and a hedge, and a private event center to pay for it all! In true staff fashion a last minute “letter of intent” from an event coordinator was offered up yesterday afternoon to show the marvelous potential of converting a park into a private facility – open now and then to the public – at the convenience of the operator.

Councilman Ahmad Zahra was in fine fettle – drumming up a handful of forlornly ignorant boosters; and his hapless colleague Jesus Silva stammered and stuttered support for this nonsense as well as his limited ability permits. He moved for an extension of the agreement

The train of thought was weak but it sure was short…

But then the fun started: several speakers pointed out both the idiocy of making a deal with a single, impecunious guy. Other pointed out the hypocrisy and nonsense of permitting an event facility that has no parking.

Mayor Bruce Whitaker cogently and patiently explained his rationale for offering a substitute motion to end the deal then and there: the park is part of a much larger Specific Plan area being developed (behind closed doors) and it made no sense to pursue piecemeal development with a single individual on the 1.7 acre site.

Dunlap-Jung — Can these two help bring some accountability to Fullerton?

Councilman Nick Dunlap echoed that idea and observed, kindly, that the aquaponic guy already had 18 months to work something out with nothing to show for it. Like Whitaker he suggested an RFP process to determine ideas for the site.

Finally Councilman Fred Jung unloaded on the hot mess, decrying the City’s inability to address the park over the years and the arrogance of city staff thinking it could determine what was best for “the community.”

In the end Whitaker’s substitute motion carried the day 3-2 with Zahra and Silva trying desperately to defend the honor, competence and integrity of a planning staff that hasn’t got any of those qualities.

April 18, 2021April 18, 2021"Dick" Ackerman

Joe Kerr Clears Up Mystery!

by Joe Sipowicz5 Comments

Former OC 4th District candidate for Supervisor, Coto Joe Kerr, has decided his latest campaign for Supervisor needed a little more clarity. Maybe this was because his website failed to indicate which of the seats he was going for this time. This announcement identifies his target: the 5th DIstrict.

We remember Coto Joe running to represent us in 2018 even though he had to fake a couple of addresses to do so. We busted him using some dude’s address in Brea first, a la Linda Ackerwoman; then he rented an apartment in Placentia while running his campaign from poolside at his Coto de Caza baby mansion – still a resident of the 5th District.

Well, at least this time he can say with truth that he lives in the district he wants to represent, although truth doesn’t seem to be much of factor in Joe’s political ambition, one way or the other.

Now the 5th District can decide if it wants to elect the former union president and massive public pension beneficiary. Good luck with that.

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021A Step in the Right Direction

Domer Quits As Fullerton City Manager

by The Fullerton Harpoon8 Comments

Late yesterday afternoon the City of Fullerton announced that City Manager Ken Domer is quitting. Observers have noted a growing dissatisfaction by a majority of the council with Domer’s lack of management ability.

The City press release quotes Domer, thus: “I really can’t stay any longer. It used to be so easy to do the things I do, in the way I do them. Now I have to try to answer embarrassing questions all the time. It’s not supposed to work like that.”

Most recently Domer tried to get the council to go along with privatizing the business registration function – a move that would actually cost the City money, and, by relocating an existing employee, maintain the current employee headcount. This item was rejected by the City Council in a 3-2 vote, now a familiar trend.

In the press release, Domer continues: “I will always value my four years in Fullerton. Working with Jennifer Fitzgerald and Jan Flory was so rewarding for me. And I mean that literally. And of course Jesus Quirk Silva and Ahmad Zahra always had my back, and I had theirs.”

In his brief tenure as City Manager Domer will be remembered for unbalanced budgets, a failed sales tax scam, crumbling infrastructure, lack of code enforcement, bending over backward for downtown bar scofflaws, ridiculous vanity construction projects and many other accomplishments. But he may be best remembered for the City’s reckless lawsuit against this very blog, and the incredibly corrupt decision to approve Joe Florentine’s forgery of an official city planning document.

When reached for comment, former councilperson Jennifer Fixgerald noted, “Ken Domer is a real treasure; a pleasure to work with; worth his weight in gold.”

January 20, 2021A Step in the Right Direction

Whitaker Re-elected to OC Water Board

by Mr. Peabody15 Comments

Last night the City Council voted to appoint Bruce Whitaker To the OC Water District Board of Directors. The term of the previous incumbent, Ahmad Zahra had expired at the end of 2020.

The vote was 3-1-1, with Whitaker, Jung and Dunlap voting for Whitaker; Zahra nominated and voted for himself; Jesus Silva decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and abstained.

It was not for lack of trying to keep this paying gig that Zahra relinquished his job. No, Indeed, for a line of scripted commenters tried valiantly to praise Zahra to the Heavens, why, Good God! The man practically invented water!

The funniest commenter was none other than Fullerton’s Mistress of Disaster, Jan Flory, who joined in to share in the hosannas for Zahra. She read her script okay, but it included her statement that Zahra had actually authored articles about water,,,for the Fullerton Observer.

Whitaker was clearly the better choice. The water board has jurisdiction over the aquafer on which we sit. The district has massive financial reserves paid by us in ad valorem taxes. And in the past decade the OCWD has been at the center of a massive rip-off called Poseidon, a desalinization scam meant to provide more water to OC county for the purposes of south county development.

Unlike Zahra, Whitaker will not posture on the board for publicity and to be able to pretend some imagined expertise. He won’t use the agency to promote his own agenda and his own political prospects. And Whitaker is not currently charged with crimes by his own police department; nor is he under threat of recall by his district constituents.

January 4, 2021January 4, 2021A Step in the Right Direction

Florentine Forgery/Fraud Case To Go to DA?

by Mr. Peabody12 Comments

By now the Friends are well-aware of the attempt by Joe Florentine, the scofflaw proprietor of a restaurant and bar in downtown Fullerton, to fraudulently alter and submit official documents in pursuit of a Conditional Use Permit.

He even admitted it.

Reliable sources have indicated that a criminal investigation has been opened by the Fullerton Police Department based on a complaint filed by the property owner, Mario Marovic, and passed along to the District Attorney’s office.

Now the felonious miscreance of a Fullerton Florentine family member is about as newsworthy as a mailman bitten by a dog – no surprise there. Rather, the key facts of interest in this case are that Mr. Florentine had lots of help inside City Hall, including the Planning Director, the City Manager, and of course our top-notch City Attorney, Dick Jones, who finally had to recuse himself from dispensing laughable advice due to a conflict of interest.

Apparently, City Manager Ken Domer knew exactly what was happening and was determined to proceed with the fraud anyway.

It’s hard not to believe that some fall out from this conspiracy will land in the proximity of new Councilmembers Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap, who will certainly be averse to the radioactivity. The City Manager is already on the thinnest of ice after blowing $130,000 on a marginally legal PR campaign to promote Measure S, and then unsuccessfully trying to spend another 90 grand just before Christmas to hire an expert to try to fix the budget shortfall. City Managers are protected by contract but there is no contractual protection for a person who has violated the law. Will we soon be hiring a management search firm?

As always, Jones and Meyer are likewise compromised by their corrupt and incompetent and self-serving practices. But Dick Jones, like Talleyrand, always seems to be able to keep his head on his shoulders despite all the revolutions.

Leaving Fullerton even worse off than she found it…

And what was the role of Mayor-for-hire Jennifer Fitzgerald, who was the evident and malignant influence around so much of the Fullerton’s recent mismanagement and the cover-ups that inevitably followed? It’s difficult to believe that she wasn’t pushing this through for the benefit of her pals, the Florentines.

Finally, if in fact, City leaders are found culpable in this conspiracy to commit fraud, what is the legal exposure to the taxpayers of Fullerton for both the legal costs incurred by the property owner in the case, and for other damages he may have suffered?

As FFFF learns more about the status of the case we will certainly share it. City Hall probably won’t.

August 1, 2020A Step in the Right Direction

Ballot Argument Against The New Sales Tax

by The Fullerton Harpoon23 Comments

Leaving Fullerton City hall a lot worse off than she found it…

Pulled from the City of Fullerton’s website, here is the official ballot statement of opposition to the new sales tax proposed by our Mayor-for-hire. Jennifer Fitzgerald. If you think about it the tax proposal is a monumental indictment of the tenure of Fitzgerald and her yes vote, Jan Flory, on the city council. Employee pay raise after pay raise, unbalanced budget after unbalanced budget.

VOTE NO!
Ask yourself: Does the City of Fullerton need even more money from me? If this tax
passes, every time you make a purchase, you will pay 9% sales tax in Fullerton, the
second highest sales tax in Orange County.
The ballot measure title is deceitful. This massive tax increase is not dedicated to fix
Fullerton streets, which are rated the worst in Orange County by OCTA. Rather, the
money would go into the General Fund and could be used for anything.
This 1.25% sales tax increase would be permanent. It is general, not specific, meaning
the City Council could spend this money on salaries and pension benefits for City
Administrators and other City employees.
Over the past decade, Fullerton’s failed leadership spent nearly all revenue increases on
salaries and pension benefits:
Since 2011, sales tax revenue grew by 51%, property tax revenues increased 52%.
Between 2015-16, Council majority approved $19.5 million in pay increases.
Since 2011, the Council raised its two largest department budgets 41% and 55%.
In 2019 alone, according to Transparent California: 146 City of Fullerton employees
received over $200,000 in total compensation, while 51 employees received over
249,000 in total compensation. Fullerton pension recipients collected over $43 million.
The City has already increased water rates by a whopping 29% since June 2019, and is
scheduled to increase rates again by another 11% next July 1st.
The facts are: the City had plenty of money to repair our roads many years ago had it
adopted sensible reforms and reasonable, balanced budgets. Fullerton should already
have smooth streets and water pipes that do not routinely burst.
Vote NO on higher sales taxes!

Category: A Step in the Right Direction

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish