Confirmed: A friendly postal carrier brought these by today.
A little birdie just dropped this off. To be appearing soon in mailboxes across Fullerton?
Front:
The back:
Fullerton City Council candidate Travis Kiger held a well-attended fundraiser yesterday at the Matador restaurant in Downtown Fullerton. As you can see, Councilman Bruce Whitaker seemed pretty happy about the prospect of getting some help on the Council.
Travis spoke briefly about his goal of bringing conservative accountability to the Fullerton City Council.
Of course Chris Thompson was on hand to share the good news of integrity and fiscal responsibility coming our way.
And I would be remiss if i didnt mention the presence of Travis’s completely adorable little daughter, Selah.
Last night the Water Rate Study Ad Hoc Committee voted unanimously to recommend to the Fullerton City Council that the “in-lieu” franchise fee, or “water tax” as it has become known as, should be suspended indefinitely.
Another motion was made to recommend an audit of the Water Fund. The motion failed 5-5.
Some members stated they had enough reports and felt spending more money would not provide any answers. One member even said that no matter what is discovered in the audit, it would not be enough for some.
Others, like myself, feel it is a disservice to the public to not account for the misappropriated funds. As we look to answer the question of how much was overcharged to ratepayers, we realize we cannot arrive at a fact-based answer. Instead, the city’s staff will have the Ad Hoc Committee look at what could or perhaps should be charged to the Water Fund. That may be an appropriate step going forward but without an audit we will never know where our money went.
Friends, long time community activist Steve Baxter wrote a must-read letter that was published in one of Fullerton’s up-and-coming blogs, The Fullertonian. Enjoy!
For a period of time I knew the man six Fullerton officers killed last July. His name was Kelly Thomas and I liked him. As I was walking to my car in the Fullerton Ralphs shopping center, a man, when seeing my “Justice for Kelly” button, said to me that if I cared this much about Kelly when he was alive, he would still be alive. I was pretty baffled at that statement, but then I saw the “NO RECALL! FULLERTON IS NOT FOR SALE” sticker on the back of this big boy’s Jazzy Jeff scooter and it all made imperfect sense. “Hey brother,” I yelled, “just because you …..” That’s as far as I got before I knew it was not worth it. Besides, you don’t look very dignified yelling at someone who is relegated to a scooter.
I know that Kelly was loved by his family, and I know that Kelly was welcome to stay at any number of relatives’ homes, and for periods of time, he did. I know what six of our police officers did to him, and I know how Dick Jones, Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley, the three councilmen now facing a recall, reacted publicly to his death. Their lack of urgency, their lack of outrage, and the insensitive treatment to Kelly’s family, after what in my mind may be the most shameful 10 minutes in this city’s history, rises well beyond what even I expected from these three men. I’ve witnessed their disdain for the victim and his supporters firsthand at many council meetings. I witnessed it again watching TV interviews, where their ignorance was broadcast across the county. These old mens’ desperate need for order trumped any need for truth. They lied and tried to spin the story at every opportunity, at times to ridiculous proportions. Dick Jones even tried to diminish Kelly’s injuries by saying he had seen worse in Vietnam. When the DMZ becomes the go-to reference point for downtown Fullerton, we have a serious problem. In light of this, the “NO RECALL! FULLERTON IS NOT FOR SALE” signs mean nothing to me.
The CSUF Daily Titan ran a piece on Wednesday about the Fullerton Recall, spotlighting the candidacies of Travis Kiger and Jane Rands, running to replace F’ “Dick” Jones and Don Bankhead on the city council.
It’s good coverage for both, and captures the feelings of disgust felt by the tens of thousands of people who signed the Recall petitions because of the complete leadership failure of the Three Hollow Logs.
At 5:00 PM today the filing period to run in the Fullerton Recall Election came to a close. These are your candidates:
F “Dick” Jones:
- Travis Kiger
- Glenn Georgieff
- Roberta Reid
- Dorothy Birsic
- Matthew Hakim
Don Bankhead:
- Greg Sebourn
- Paula Williams
- Jane Rands
- Rick Alvarez
Pat McKinley:
- Barry Levinson
- Doug Chaffee
- Matthew Rowe
- Sean Paden
As a public service, FFFF will be providing detailed, insightful, and colorful descriptions of these candidates to help you Friends reach an informed decision on June 5th.
Well, somebody has to do Bankhead’s job since he has adamantly refused to do it himself – for almost 25 years.
Today, Jane Rands, former State Assembly candidate under the Green Party banner, has filed papers to replace council Precambrian holdover, Don Bankhead.
Jane appears to be somebody who is smart and believes in accountability, and would make an immeasurably better city council person than Bankhead – who has been targeted for Recall because of his dismal leadership failure.
FFFF looks forward to sharing more information about Jane and her platform in the coming days.
With the deadline for filing papers to run in the Recall election approaching – it’s at the end of the week – it seems like an opportune moment to invite our Friends to suggest names of people they would like to see run for the seats held by the Tyrannic Triad, Jones, Bankhead and McKinley.
During the past eight months we’ve seen lots of people step up and take leadership roles, challenging the Old Regime for its incompetence, corruption and detachment from the very people they were elected to serve.
The issues have centered around the serial criminal behavior by members of the Fullerton police department that culminated in the beating death of Kelly Thomas; the illegal grifting of a 10% water tax; and the land development giveaways handed out to campaign contributors.
There is no doubt in my mind that there are dozens of folks in these protests that would do an immeasurably better job governing our City than the The Three Fissured Fossils up there on the dais now.
So share your ideas. Maybe we can talk some of these good people into running.
The Voice of OC(EA) is reporting here that Fullerton mayor Sharon Quirk-Silva intends to issue an apology to the Thomas family on behalf of the people of Fullerton; and apparently she also wants name a small part of Fullerton after Kelly Thomas, the homeless, schizophrenic man beaten to death by members of the Fullerton police department last July.
What’s the apology for? According to the article, it’s not entirely clear if it’s for the deliberate smear campaign against Thomas to help make the cops look justified in their actions, or for the actual killing itself.
If it’s the former, I guess the apology would focus on the FPD/City totally mischaracterizing as a “fight” the horrible beat down that took place on Thomas; for telling the public that cops had suffered broken bones; for insinuating that Kelly was amped up on drugs and had stolen property on his person.
Of course all that nonsense was pitched by FPD spokesdonut Andrew Goodrich who never thought it necessary to correct any misinformation he had peddled in those first days after the crime, which makes it deliberate, obviously. If this will be the gist of it, then the apology will be nothing more than a repudiation of Goodriches’ sad performance trying to defend the indefensible actions of his union brethren.
Personally, I would be happier with an apology for the murder itself, along with a personal apology from Quirk-Silva to the citizens of Fullerton for helping permit a Culture of Corruption in the FPD during her seven-plus years in office. I guess this ins’t too likely.
An apology may make Q-S feel better, but sincere or not, I think it falls under the heading of too little, too late; still, better late than never, I suppose.
Oh, by the way, Ms. Quirk-Silva is letting the City Attorney edit the “apology” and that’s not good sign.
As to the issue of placing and naming a bench after KT, I think that’s not helpful. But I relish the idea of watching Pat McPension vote to recognize the homeless man who was beaten to death by thugs he personally hired and vouched for.
Enjoy the rare sight and sound of an elected Fullerton leader actually leading.
Please note the not so subtle threat: the tyranny of the Three Dead Batteries, Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley is exercised to deny an elected official – Whitaker – access to public records and public property; and their own stupid intransigence is forcing their dereliction directly into the political arena.
Not surprisingly, the Three Stagnant Ponds are backed up by Attorney Richard Jones who, incredibly, wants the people of Fullerton to believe the authority of the Council derives from – the Council itself!!
That’s the kind of Divine Right bullshit that inspired the American Revolution. The Three Hollow Logs no doubt find comfort in that sort of tyranny. And that’s exactly why we are having a recall.