Behind Closed Doors – Page 71 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 1, 2011May 2, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Fullerton Arboretum Makes the News

Among nearly unknown local governmental agencies, the Fullerton Arboretum Authority must rank pretty high on the list. Its 26 acres are tucked away between the CSUF baseball fields and the 57 Freeway. And according The OC Register, here, the Authority failed to reveal salary data of its employees as required by John Chiang, the State Controller. They faced a $5000 fine.

Arboretum staff claim they have no record of ever receiving the notice from Chiang. Which is either an indictment of Chiang, the USPS or of Arboretum Director Greg Dyment’s front office. But apparently they have contacted the Controller’s office and are off the naughty list.

The topic caused me to visit the Arboretum website. Although I couldn’t find a list of the Authority Commissioners on the website, I discovered that there is something called the OC Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum on the grounds and that there is actually a “civil rights in California” exhibit at this facility. Civil rights? That seems like a pretty long stretch for a botanical garden, although the connection with Japanese WWII internment is clear enough. Still, I’m wondering what the connection is between a botanical garden and Nikkei history in the first place, other than that Japanese-Americans were farmers and nurserymen – as were lots of non-Japanese.

Anyway, as a joint venture between the City, the Redevelopment Agency, and CSUF it might behoove us to learn more about the operation of this government agency.

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Job Search for City Manager, Or Just Hire That Guy We Already Know?

by The Fullerton Savage20 Comments

At the end of the last City Council meeting on April 5 Councilman Don Bankhead, supported by fellow Councilman Pat McKinely, requested that the agenda of the next council meeting on April 19 include an item to remove the term “acting” from the title of the job currently held by Joe Felz. Joe Felz was appointed Acting City Manager last December following the retirement of Chris Meyer.

Joe Felz certainly has a great deal of experience working for Fullerton. According to the city’s December 2010 press release he began working for Fullerton while still in college. He served as Director of the Parks and Recreation Department in 2007 following a two year stint as assistant to Meyer when he was City Manager.

Is Joe Felz the right person to hire as City Manager, a position that currently pays $166,250.00 per year, plus benefits? Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley seem to think so. McKinley worked for the city for over 15 years himself as Chief of Police, and Don Bankhead has been on the city council for over 22 years and also worked for Fullerton’s Police Dept. for many, many years before that.

Is Felz a good candidate for the job? Maybe, but is he the best person we can get for the money? We may never know, because two city insiders on the council want to hire another one for one of the highest paid and certainly the most powerful position in the city government. Shouldn’t the city conduct a search to find the best candidates for such an important job? They did for the Chief of Police position after McKinley retired from FPD.

Bankhead seems to be in a big hurry to hire Felz permanently because he is “a little tired of using the term acting city manager.” Is it possible that Bankhead is just tired in general and doesn’t want to bother with a job search? Don’t we deserve to know that our City Manager is the best person for the job, and not just the one that has been around for the longest amount of time and knows the most people?

April 13, 2011April 13, 2011Behind Closed Doors

A Blast From The Past

by admin5 Comments

Every now and then we like to remind our Friends about Fullerton’s recent history. We did it here, in a post on the arrogant mismanagement of Fullerton by former City Manager, James L. Armstrong. We noted that in 2001, after seven years’ worth of failure in Fullerton, he failed all the way to the top job in tony Santa Barbara.

But, alas, Poor Jim has run afoul of the cops up there, and, recently was taken to task by a blog for his efforts to stall the release of information about a city program that subsidized houses for – city employees! Too bad Armstrong mistakenly cc’d his sentiments to the very people who were making the public records request!

hot_steamin_manure-300x225 — Jim Armstrong hard at work shoveling...well, you know what he's shovelling.

Still the same. Incompetent and arrogant.

April 12, 2011April 13, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Reason Rips First Five & Co.

by admin36 Comments

Here’s an article from Tim Cavanaugh at Reason, having some fun with Rob Reiner’s big government First Five Program.

The best part is the reference to our old friend Matthew J. Cunningham. Follow the links all the way back to a 2006 Flash Report blog post Cunningham did on the program – before he got hooked up with all that Children and Families green!

And here is a tale in The Voice of OC(EA) about how our local branch is suing the State to keep their stash from going to help support MediCal! It seems these people are really, really desperate to keep their gravy train rolling along. After all, the Executive Director of the OC branch makes $327,000 a year in salary and benefits. His job? Handing out cash. Nice work if you can get it.

Right now the First Five superstructure is tottering and about to collapse. Let’s help give it a push.

April 6, 2011April 6, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Why Hugh Hewitt Belongs on the First Five Commission

by admin20 Comments

Hewitt_Sterling_Travel_Panama_300x250 — A lot of Love on that First Five Boat

The other day we re-ran a post from last year questioning how repuglican yakmouth Hugh Hewitt was qualified to be on OC’s version of Rob Reiner’s tax and redistribute Children and Families Commission. See, we didn’t believe he could possibly meet the requirements for membership defined in the County ordinance.

Watching yesterday’s Board meeting provided some enlightenment and showed how much Supervisor BillCampbell, who chairs this ultra-liberal commission, wants Hewitt on there. Badly.

billcampbell-240x300 — Yes. It's a Do Tank.

As Campbell explained, Hewitt does indeed qualify in the education category. How? Because he is a director of the local branch of something called Young Life. I googled the name and found this. Not much to go on. No list of directors, so we’ll just have to take Hugh’s word for it. But check it out. It’s a Christian-based program for adolescents. This has zero to do with 0-5 child development and nothing to do with any professional qualifications for anything, so at least now we can be completely satisfied that Hewitt’s appointment was always bogus.

But as they say on TV infomercials: wait, there’s more!

According to Supervisor Shawn Nelson, who objected to Hewitt’s appointment, the latter missed seven meetings in a twelve moth period, and, per the code, was automatically removed from the Commission. Of course the Commission staff never notified the Board of Supervisors as the law requires. Hewitt was simply permitted to keep participating in the few meetings he was able to make, and was casually “re-appointed” along with the rest of the incumbents. And on that subject Nelson demonstrated that no solicitation for new members had ever been made – also required by the law.

So there you have it. A packed, opaque Commission doing whatever the hell it damn well pleases, and answerable to nobody, except presumably, its grossly overpaid Executive Director and his protector Bill Campbell.

April 3, 2011April 3, 2011Behind Closed Doors

So How Did Hugh Hewitt Get Onto the OC Children and Families Commission?

by Grover Cleveland20 Comments

Here’s a post we ran last summer. Why is it timely? Beacuse I noticed on Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s agenda an item to reappoint all of Supervisor Bill Campbell’s minions on the OC Children and Families Commission – including Hugh Hewitt – who is not legally qualified to be on the Commission in the first place.

P.S. Apparently you can join Hewitt on a cruise! If you decide to go be sure to ask him to explain the complicity of a “conservative” on a big, liberal tax-redistributionist scheme. Let us know if you get a coherent answer!

– admin

And what useful purpose does he serve there?

According to the State Health and Safety Code, and the County Code that created the “First Five Commissions” (pursuant to liberal activist Rob Reiner’s successful tax and redistribute Prop 10), the commissions are made up of people in the kiddie welfare biz.

Which brings us to Hugh Hewitt, whom Gustavo Arellano has described as a “conservative yakmouth.” We’ll leave aside the conservative tag for a bit and reflect upon the fact that Hewitt is a lawyer, talking head, writer (when not being ghost written for by Matthew J. Cunningham), etc.

Here are the minimum qualifications, per the Code, for the membership category in which Hewitt is enrolled:

A representative of a local child care resource or referral agency, or a local child care coordination group, or a local organization for prevention or early intervention for families at risk, etc…

Say what?

Since Hewitt is clearly not recognizable by the Code’s definition, we are entitled to inquire and speculate about the real reason this ‘pug is on the Commission. Could it be simply to help ratify contracts to his pals and buddies at the behest of Commission Chairman Bill Campbell, the avuncular cipher who represents the 3rd District on the County Board of Supervisors? Campbell appointed him.

fartboy — That's not a road apple. That's equine feces!

And maybe he is there to help his old friend Cunningham put some sort of conservative polish on this big, liberal road apple.

March 10, 2011March 10, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Would Fullerton be a Ghost Town without Redevelopment?

by Joe Sipowicz35 Comments

Here’s a revealing exchange between Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker and his two dinosauric RINO colleagues Don Bankhead and Dick Jones. The subject is Redevelopment.

Whitaker points out that Redevelopment property tax diversions from school districts are back-filled by the State and that absent Redevelopment diversions back, taxes could go up. He also takes exception to Bankhead’s assertion that without Redevelopment Fullerton (or downtown, take tour pick) would be a ghost town. Bankhead loves big government economic central planning; Whitaker has faith in the private sector.

Naturally the ever-increasingly disheveled Doc HeeHaw (say that haircut sure looks like blight to me) stimulates himself by babbling about about stim-u-lus and even mentions Prez Obama and how Fullerton’s government stimulus is real stimulus. Thanks, Comrade Heehaw.

Well, there you have it Friends. A clearer distinction between calm, conservative opinion and rambling, emotional, Jurassic nonsense could not be drawn.

Kudos to Whitaker. And shame on all the Fullerton voters and repuglican string pullers for making sure nincompoops like Jones and Bankhead re-elected.

March 8, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Hairbrain Sidhu Still In the News!

by Mr. Peabody16 Comments

Repuglican Jon Fleischman’s “Flash Report” blog unleashed a poll recently about potential 3rd District Supervisorial candidates.

It addresses a possible Third District candidacy of Chuck Devore, the over-aged boyscout from Irvine and his chances against Todd Spitzer.

But that is of little interest to us. What’s really interesting is that the poll includes Hairbag Sidhu, who as we all know lives in the 4th District. At least he left a long, shiny trail of voter registrations in the 4th District last year.

March 4, 2011March 4, 2011Behind Closed Doors

LA to Anaheim HSR on Verge of Derailment

by Mr. Peabody16 Comments

Our friends over at the the Voice of OC(EA) are reporting on yesterday’s California High Speed Rail Authority meeting. And if you’re one of the repuglicans or make-work junkies supporting the unsupportable, the news ain’t good.

Everybody now admits that the LA-Anaheim link is the most impractical and least effective segment of HSR. In fact, if it is ever built, it may not be “high speed” at all! Hiding behind euphemisms like “phase-in” the reality is that this segment has been pushed all the way to the back of the CHSR bus.

Hilariously the HSR-ocrats are paying lip service to the Will O’ The People who voted a multi-billion dollar bond to support this extravagant boondoggle. Oh, that’s right. The People. The ones who were given false information at every step of the way and who were never presented with a business plan as required by the initiative. And the People, these miscreants are quick to remind us, voted for a system that would come all the way to Anaheim! No prize for guessing who got the Anaheim language into the initiative.

And speaking of Der Pringle, he provides the best quote of the article when he cautioned not to use the word “splippage” since it might undermine confidence in the whole gig. Hooboy!

Meanwhile Pringle’s glassy monument to himself, the egregious ARTIC 200 mil bus barn continues to loom in our collective psyche, promising to suck up $100,000,000 of Measure M revenue that is supposed to bring HSR to an expanded Metrolink station. Of course ARTIC does neither, but as we have already noted, that means nothing to the small-town drones on the OCTA board. And this reminds me of a poem:

In Anaheim did a ‘puglican

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Santa Ana, the part-time river, ran

Through suburbs measureless to man

Down to a closed-beach sea,

etc.

March 3, 2011March 3, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Der Pringle Creeps Out of Shadow, Into OCTax Light

by admin13 Comments

Curt-Pringle-High-Speed-Rail — I will be conducting your future

We got wind of a press release put out the other day by an organization called “OCTax,” an organization that purports to be an advocate for taxpayers, yet in actuality is little but a vehicle for political endorsements and self-promotion of its president and officers.

So naturally Anaheim’s former Mayor-for-Hire Kurt Pringle would be a great Chairman of this operation. This greatness has been thrust upon him at an annual general membershp meeting. Now he won’t have to pull the strings from behind the curtain.

Another officer includes Pringle Pal Lucy Dunn, who seems to be intent on using any organization for her own self-promotion.

The best part of the press release is the description of the 29 boardmembers of this entity, a group that endorsed the unendorsable Pringle Puppet, Carpetbagging Haibag Sidhu – which not only reveals the moral lassitude of this endorsement-for-pay operation, but its practical incompetence, too, since Hairball went down like the RMS Titanic .

titanic_sinking_atlantic — Glub, glub, glub....

Here’s the fun description:

These Board Members represent a wide variety of private companies, public agencies and non-profit organizations throughout the county.

Holy Politburo! “Public entities and non-profit organizations” represented in a tax advocacy group? Well, folks, that tells you just about all you need to know about OCTax. Stay tuned in 2011 for big ARTIC and high speed rail sink hole boosterism, and in 2012 for an endorsement slate that best fits Der Pringle’s vision for his own healthy revenue stream.