A Step in the Right Direction Archives - Page 8 of 16

February 28, 2017February 28, 2017A Step in the Right Direction

Our Police Force Could be Second to None. An Essay

No, seriously. I mean it.

And not like Doug “Bud” Chaffee means it when he says our fire department is “second to none.” The unintentional irony of Chaffee’s words escapes the Hero worshipers. He’s right. Our fire department is second to none because they are all virtually the same. Same standards, same recruiting pool, same ridiculously grand benefits, same sense of unearned entitlement. Response times? The differences are statistically minuscule, statewide.

But back to the cops.

If you were an honest person with a sound work ethic what would you do to work for the absolute best police force in the State of California? Would you work for less money than you could in a department with a worse, or much worse reputation? Maybe not if you really had the sense of excellence that is pretended by all police departments, but that we know to be a pure myth. You are not a parasite, or a racist, or a belligerent fool with a gun and a Taser who is delighted to have a union that will oppose any real investigations into bad behavior, and that has no qualms about possibly bankrupting the city that employs you.

Wouldn’t it be great to have 150 great cops who are interested in serving the public and a lot less inserted in grabbing what they can under the delusion that somehow the taxpayer should be eternally grateful to any thug or idiot with a badge and a pistol and a club?

How can this happen? Not by denying the obvious Culture of Corruption that has become the unfortunate hallmark of our department, and that was vigorously denied by our former Chief, Dan Hughes who spent the final twenty years of his career being nurtured by the culture, and nurturing it in turn. No. We need an outside agent who is rigorously analytical, ethically sound and emotionally confident. Somebody like Joseph McNamara immediately springs to mind. And then you start recruiting decent, empathetic, intelligent human beings – not messed up LAPD castoffs, perverts, kleptomaniacs, self-righteous thieves, lazy sociopaths, paranoid thugs and drug addicts who become liabilities the day they are hired. You institute a culture in which bad behavior will result in termination, not cover up.

In the meantime the lazy, stupid and violent bad cops would be weeded out as quickly as possible under the ridiculous two-tiered justice system known as POBR.

It will take years. Maybe 10 or 15.

The sooner we start, the better.

February 4, 2017February 4, 2017A Step in the Right Direction

Don’t Just Complain – Do Something

by Sean Paden30 Comments

We’ve covered the Red Oak development before – a four story, 295 unit development at 600 Commonwealth which does not have adequate parking and would create serious traffic concerns as residents block traffic on the West side of Commonwealth to turn into the project during rush hour.

On January 16, the City Council on a 4-1 vote largely approved the Project, leaving the door just barely cracked for minor revisions to the proposal. I have spoken with the developer of the project, who has discussed potentially alleviating the parking issue by adding a level to the proposed parking lot, and while this would admittedly help the parking issue if they followed through, the traffic problems would remain. Think about it – just how exactly will the Westbound side of Commonwealth be traversable during rush hour if the left lane is being blocked every five minutes by a tenant looking to turn into their home?

So what’s different about this vote? Someone decided to do something about it.

The group Friends for a Livable Fullerton has decided to not take the vote lying down and have been circulating a petition. If they are able to collect the 6,800 required signatures it will qualify for a public vote of the voters of the City of Fullerton to overturn the Council’s resolution.

So here’s the deal: Friends for a Liveable Fullerton need signatures and even more important they need people to circulate those signatures. So if you agree that it’s time to take our City back then help the volunteers at FLF. They can be reached through their facebook page at or via email at and help them get the signatures they need.

February 4, 2017February 24, 2017A Step in the Right Direction

Behind the Badge: The No-Bid No No and An Email to the Council

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy22 Comments

I rescued a cat. The beat down on that kid never happened.

FFFF has tracked the obscene waste of taxpayer money – $200,000 so far – on a vacuous, pro-cop PR outlet run by Cornerstone Communication called “Back the Badge.” We have noted a supremely fuzzy contract, approved only by a bureaucrat and managed in the most slip-shod fashion.

On February 2nd, Mr. Travis Kiger sent a communication about it to Mayor Bruce Whitaker. We faithfully reproduce it, here:

Mayor Whitaker,

After reviewing the contract, purchase orders and payments to Cornerstone Communications, along with the communication from the city below, it is clear that the City Manager issued the contract and payments improperly.

City code 2.64.050 and city policy requires a Formal Bid Procedure be followed for awards over $50,000. On 3/28/2013, the City Manager signed a contract with Cornerstone Communications not to exceed $40,000 with no evidence of a Formal Bid Procedure. On 5/20/13, less than 2 months later, the city issued a purchase order extending the contract by 6 months and $23,000. This PO brought the total contract value to $63,000 in the first year. This maneuvering suggests that the City Manager intentionally bypassed the city’s requirement for a formal bid procedure.

This issue is even more alarming considering that City Manager and the Chief of Police had an existing relationship with Bill Rams, the proprietor of Cornerstone Communications, prior to the initial contract issuance.

Additionally, there were $32,000 of payments to Cornerstone Communications from 4/1/14 through 11/1/14 that were made without an active contract or purchase order. This is an egregious error that is further complicated by city management’s pre-existing relationship with the vendor.

There are other problems with this vendor relationship. Purchase orders were issued in excess of the contracted amounts and term without an updated contract. The contract is open ended, vague and does not provide for specific performance. The contract does not require the vendor to deliver performance reporting, nor is there evidence that the vendor provided evidence of effectiveness of deliverables, which is customary in online marketing agreements.

Given the improper nature of the issuance of the contract, which was renewed over four consecutive years without the approval of the City Council, and the sudden departure of the City Manager who oversaw this contract, I strongly believe the council should review the contract and payments to Cornerstone Communications at a public meeting immediately.

Thank you,

Travis Kiger

Email re Cornerstone Communications

Cornerstone Communications Contract and Invoices

Now let’s see what Mr. Whitaker and the City will do with it, if anything.

January 28, 2017January 28, 2017A Step in the Right Direction

Whitaker Wants to Hear More From You; Bored, Tired, Cranky Fitzgerald Wants to Hear Less

by admin33 Comments

Watch as Mayor Bruce Whitaker restores the public’s full speaking time. Following in Jan Flory’s footsteps, Jennifer Fitzgerald puts her disdain for the public on full display. Councilman Silva shows a healthy attitude about hearing from the public and staying up late from time to time: “It’s what we do.”

When lobbyist Fitzgerald began her mayoral term last year, she cut public speaking time to 3 minutes. Of course she gave out-of-town developers all the time in the world.

January 8, 2017January 8, 2017A Step in the Right Direction

Sappy McTree Jr.

by The Fullerton Harpoon8 Comments

A tree grows on Glenwood.

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017A Step in the Right Direction

Nobody Reads The Blog…

by Fred L. Olmsted13 Comments

Our uninformed (and often uniformed) critics are always saying nobody reads our humble blog. Well, somebody in City Hall does. Please note the “after” images of two construction sites we identified that had illegally blocked public sidewalks. And not a whimper from anybody in authority.

Now that’s better.

December 20, 2016December 20, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

Getting to the Bottom of It

by Joe Sipowicz10 Comments

We may have bid a fond adios to former City Manager, Joe Felz, but the mess he leaves behind still needs to be attended to.

The most timely issue is Fullerton Police Department personnel conduct in the Case of the Missing City Manager. The police on the scene of Joe’s Big Crash drove him home sans Breathalyzer test, and despite the fact that his vehicle had careened out of control and run over a parkway tree; and this after an evening of fun DTF libations and despite the fact that a cop on the scene smelled alcohol emanating from Joe. Did the cops follow their own rules? Or did they help their boss boss get away with a couple of crimes? From here, it looks pretty bad.

It’s been six weeks and nobody knows what’s being investigated. Or even if there’s any investigation at all.

What’s happening now? Certainly there’s no evidence of an internal investigation. Nothing more about the hiring of the mysterious “independent person.” And who really knows if anything got sent to the DA? Our city council (at least certain members) is in the dark, and so are we.

When the perps are about to get away, you gotta do what you gotta do. Filing a personnel complaint initiates an internal investigation, or at least a pretend investigation, into the events of election night, just in case one doesn’t already exist. So one of the Friends decided to do just that.

View compliant

When the investigation is complete, this complaint entitles the filer to a letter from the Chief of Police indicating whether the finding was sustained or not sustained. That’s not much, but something is better than nothing.

December 12, 2016July 29, 2017A Step in the Right Direction

FJC Hornets Take Top Spot in Final National Football Poll

by The Fullerton Harpoon17 Comments

The Fullerton Junior College Hornet football team have been named the number one JC team in the country per JCFootball.com. The team went 12-1 in 2016 and was one aggressively lousy call away from beating Saddleback, and running the table.

So congrats you Hornets and die-hard Hornet fans.

And maybe somebody in the FJC administration will wake up and decide to start playing home games at FHS or over at CSUF.

December 11, 2016December 11, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

Make It One For My Baby, And One More For The Road

by Joe Sipowicz26 Comments

Another party on a Tuesday night, and no DUI stops!

How fitting. Soon to be former councilwoman Ms. Jan Flory, one of the principal architects and mother hen of downtown Fullerton’s out-of-control culture of vodka. vomit and vehicular mayhem, is tossing herself a going away party. And naturally it’s at one of Fullerton’s ~~fine dining establishments~~ bars.

Here’s the outreach:

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Jan Flory [mailto:jflory1@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 11:07 AM
Subject:

Good morning!

As you know, the new council will be seated on 12/13/16 at 6:30 p.m. Would you pls get the word out that I will be having a soiree at Joe’s Bar and Grill after that council meeting. I’ll have appetizers and a no-host bar to celebrate my leaving the council. That doesn’t sound right, but it will be better than a funeral. People will probably start showing up between 7:30 and 8.

Thanks a bunch and thank you for keeping so many people informed.

Jan Flory

You would think a Fullerton City Councilperson would be a little reluctant to have a political party at a downtown saloon given what happened the last time this occurred – five scant weeks ago.

You’ve got to love the message of the “soiree”:

“I’ll have appetizers and a no-host bar to celebrate my leaving the council.”

Maybe Flory figures if you have to buy your own drinks you’ll be a lot less likely to get drunk, drive off the road on the way home and require the interim police chief to cover up the whole mess.

We probably won’t be there, but we’ll be celebrating, too.

December 7, 2016December 7, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

A Worthy Cause

by admin14 Comments

Reposted from Bax Baxter

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Please support local children who have lost a parent to police violence this holiday season by donating an unwrapped gift to our Young Survivors Network Toy Drive before DECEMBER 15TH. You can help by simply purchasing a new toy, of any value, and dropping it off at the Young Survivors donation box located front and center at Max Bloom Cafe Noir (220 N. Malden in downtown Fullerton 1pm – 10pm M-Sat) Volunteers will wrap the gift for you before it is distributed among the families of these victims.

I know many of these kids personally. They are strong, they are beautiful, and they are hurt. To have lost a parent, in such a violent manner, at the hands of someone wearing a uniform that you have always been told to turn to when you needed help, is uniquely horrifying. Additionally, the family, and the victim, are far too often villainized in the press and by the police in a concerted effort to mitigate any civil action. Regardless of the circumstances which led up to the violence, these children are innocent, and they have been dealt a hand which is incredibly difficult to process. A simple act of kindness on your part this holiday season, will bring them a little joy, and assure them that there are members of their community, who care about them.Please be one of those member of their community.

I thank Kevin at Max Blooms for allowing us to use his establishment for this cause, and I thank all of you who plan to step up.

Merry Fucking Christmas!