Behind Closed Doors – Page 72 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

January 3, 2011January 4, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Another Pringle Undertaking

Cemetery1-300x225 — Der Pringle is dying to get in...

The OC Cemetery District sure seems to have a morbid fascination with failure.

Last year we reported on how the Orange County Cemetery District had employed Anaheim’s mayor-for-hire, Kurt Pringle as a consultant. Pringle was getting 6,000 bucks a month to find a new cemetery site, do PR, and act as a cemetery developer. Which was really pretty funny since Pringle is not a realtor, is not a landscape architect, and all the publicity the Cemetery District has gotten lately has all been bad.

PringlePower-300x225 — We have something really nice for you in mahogany.

Pringle’s been on the Cemetery District’s payroll for two years now, which seems like ample time to have accomplished a lot. Well, something. Anything.

But in these opaque, special districts nothing succeeds like failure, apparently, for tomorrow the Cemetery District Board of Trustees is being asked by their staff to extend Der Pringle’s contract even though so far he has accomplished virtually nothing for them. Part of the problem is that the Cemetery Board is independent of any real oversight; and the average age of the Board is something like 969 years old, so there seems to be zero sales resistance.

Renew!!?? Sweet Jebus! The Board ought to be suing Pringle and his Associates for breach of contract!

December 19, 2010December 19, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Hey, Lucy, Where’s the $75,000?

by admin29 Comments

Back in September, the OC Board of Supervisors approved yet another feel-good layer of government – something called the End Homelessness by 2020 Commission. They even allocated $75,000 towards one (1) executive director; another $75,000 was supposed to come from the “private sector.” The thing was trumpeted as a “public/private partnership” and all the do-gooders were feeling pretty good. Lucy Dunn, head of something called the OC Business Council was there to make sure everybody knew that the business community was on board and meant business.

Lucy-Dunn-300x280 — We were this close to raising a nickle!

Flash forward to December14. On their agenda, the BOS had a agreement with the Children and Families Commission to front the other $75,000, and not only that, but to “recruit, hire and house” the executive director. What was sold a s a public/private deal was now wholly public; and the supes were asked to let another agency recruit and hire a contractor who is supposed to report to them!

Of course Ms. Dunn was there again to shamelessly blather on about her “time and treasure” even though there was none of her treasure, or that of her members, in evidence.

Supervisor Shawn Nelson would have none of it. He had the strange idea that words in a staff report should actually mean something; “show me the money” was what he had to say, indicating his acknowledgment that in almost a year the private sector hadn’t coughed up so much as a nickle and everybody on the inside knew it.

Led by John Moorlach, the crew approved this arrangement 4-1, and provided yet another example of how supposed conservatives in OC can’t throw away your money fast enough. And the Children and Families Commission has new roles – employment agency and homelessness advocates.Wanna bet to whom the executive director will answer? That’s right, Mr. $327K a year Mike Ruane, who runs the OCC&FC “do tank” and who will probably ask for a raise.

And what will happen in 1n 2020 when homelessness is not ended and the Commission has a staff of 23? Well, Hell, that’s easy! Just rename the commission. 2030 will be right around the corner!

December 7, 2010December 7, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Quirk Screws Silva; La Plus Ca Change…

by The Fullerton Shadow16 Comments

It happened. As predicted. At the behest of the repuglican puppetmasters that helped put him on the Fullerton City Council, ex-police Chief and $215,000 a year pension puller-downer Pat McKinley bypassed Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva for Mayor Pro Tem. Instead Fullerton’s former top cop and election winner by 90 votes went with the feeble octogenarian, Don Bankhead. Gotta keep that winning team intact, right?

Well, goddamit, the ‘pugs weren’t the only people who helped put McKinley on the council. They had help. As noted previously, many of the the Yellowing Fullerton Observers went for McKinley, too, including folks like Molly McClanahan, Jan Flory and….wait for it…Sharon Quirk-Silva! It cost Doug Chaffee the election.

Two years ago these same people helped put the cracker back in the cracker barrel.

Say, guys, hows that strategy working out for ya?

December 2, 2010December 3, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Pringle Outed; AG Yanks Open Closet Door, Shines Light on Embarrassing Scene

by Mr. Peabody11 Comments

Yesterday the State Attorney General handed out an opinion that, yes, outgoing Anaheim Mayor-for-Hire, Kurt Pringle did indeed hold incompatible offices as the Chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority. For three long years. And that raises all sorts of questions about the ethics of Der Pringle’s votes on both HSR prioritization issues that benefited him and his clients, and City of Anaheim land use issues that benefited – him and his clients. You can read all about it in an LA Times article, here.

Well, we told you so. What will his mom say?

Interestingly the other day the Voice of OCEA did a story on an e-mail exchange between Herr Burgermeister Pringle and his former Director of the HSR, in which he attacks the “core competence”of the Authority’s engineers. The author misses the point, somewhat, in noting Pringle’s critique of the “experts” like so many others in California have done; but the real point is that his anger was based on their unwillingness to defy engineering realities to deliver the HSR line to his already designated ARTIC boondoggle. It certainly wasn’t lost on the recipient of his e-mail who noted dryly that he wasn’t sure if he was communicating with the HSR Chair or the Mayor of Anaheim.

Well, our boy Pringle is days away from being off the OCTA and out of City Hall (except as a lobbyist to his hand selected replacements, of course). But what about his Chairmanship of the CHSRA? Can the new guv keep him? Hard to imagine why Jerry Brown would keep on the HSR a repuglican who has soiled himself and the Authority so badly, if he had a choice.

December 1, 2010December 1, 2010Behind Closed Doors

HeeHaw, It’s The Law!

by admin16 Comments

jones-gone-wild1 — No, no, no! I ain't a' gonna do it!

Well, not the law, exactly. More like City Council Administrative Policy #37, approved last February. Check it out:

Administrative Policy #37

Here’s the deal: the guy with most seniority since last being Mayor shall be appointed, plain and simple. And that means our Crazy Ol’ Doc Heehaw is line to shoulder the burden of the mayoralty, like it or not. Well, he can shirk his duty again, like he did before, and go to the second spot.

Sharon_Quirk_190px — Not time to step up?

That means the next in line to be Mayor is Sharon Quirk-Silva, with Dr. Phogbound as Mayor Pro Tem; and if he declines the second spot, too, that would fall to the highest vote getter in the last election. And that’s our old Friend, Bruce Whitaker.

Now it could very well be that Sharon Quirk-Silva would defer her place until next year to run for re-election in 2012 with the title “Mayor of Fullerton,” in which case our next mayor would be Whitaker.

Whitaker — Could greatness be thrust upon him?

Of course Administrative Policy #37 isn’t worth the TP it was written on or the Sharpie it was written with – despite the fact that it’s the wet-dream of all Fullerton liberals, and ironically could produce the first truly conservative mayor since…well, since anybody could possibly remember.

How will it play out? Who knows? One thing is certain. This is Fullerton and it’s bound to be a confused mess. But the entertainment value should be high.

November 20, 2010November 20, 2010About Us

Fleischman Puts ‘Pug in Repuglican

by Grover Cleveland15 Comments

You remember a fellow named Jon Fleischman, don’t you? Well, of course you do. He starred in the now historic 2007 holiday visit video to Dick Ackerman at the latter’s house inside a “secret, gated community” in Irvine.

tricky dick — I still owe Fleischberg for that. Heh heh.

An alert Friend just forwarded a post that was published on the completely hackish blog-for-sale, The Flash Report, of which Fleischman is proprietor. It’s a rousing condemnation of the practice of bogus non-profit, public benefit corporations staging legislative love-ins at plush resorts on Hawaiian islands. The things are bought and paid for by lobbyists who get to corner state legislators at fraudulent “conferences” that are nothing more than schmooze fests, golf and cocktails on the veranda. The Sac Bee gives more info on the latest scams, here. At the end you’ll read about “The Pacific Policy Research Foundation” that just perpetrated its annual scam on Kauai.

Sound familiar? It should.

We reported about the scam over a year ago, here. And the biggest offender of course was the hideous Linda Ackerwoman, bogus 72 AD candidate, who participated in the sham front known as the Pacific Policy Research Foundation that got her and husband, Dick Ackerman, annual junkets to Hawaii. And of course Ackerwoman was an officer of the bogus “charity.”

And to close the circle we have to recall that Fleischman was a big Ackerwoman cheerleader. Ackerwoman. No record, no accomplishment, no residence, no sale. What a difference a year makes.

November 13, 2010November 13, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Pringle Ethics Probe. Break Out The Scanning Electron Microscope!

by admin8 Comments

Uh, oh. More bad news for Anaheim’s outgoing Mayor-for-Hire, Curt Pringle. An FPPC investigation into foreign junkets by the California High Speed Rail crew.

Pringle declared all the gifties large and small from Europe’s socialist governments that are hoping to sell the CHSR good jobs that Americans are too stupid to do.

But the rest of Pringle’s gang at CHSR may not have been so diligent, especially the Golden horde of consultants, yes men, and PR tools Pringle & Co. have brought on board their choo-choo.”Record keeping lapses” unintentional? More hilarity to follow.

From the Register, yesterday.

November 7, 2010November 7, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Chaffee Lead Shrinks to 30. Things Are Looking Grim In Leftyville.

by Joe Sipowicz63 Comments

At close of day 11/07/2010 Pat McKinley’s lead over Chaffee was reduced to 34 from yesterday’s high in the 50s.

At close of day 11/5/2010 Pat McKinley had vaulted his agile self back into the lead – by 36 votes.

As of last night Doug Chaffee’s lead over ex-Po-lice Chief Pat McKinley in the Fullerton City Council race.

With absentee voters generally leaning to the Republican flavor it looks like the desperate hours are about to set in for Chaffee backers, especially considering the anti-Chaffee hits unloaded by the local GOP.

Maybe the repuglican cartel that backed the over-pensioned relic McKinley can put the champagne back on ice, after all!

November 5, 2010November 5, 2010About Us

Another Nail in Pringle’s High Speed Rail Coffin?

by Mr. Peabody10 Comments

PringlePud — Always get your picture taken in front of a flag. They won't notice your hand in their pocket.

The Voice of OC is reporting that the Feds are finally getting tired of Anaheim Soon-to-be-ex-Mayor-for-Hire Curt Pringle’s misdirection of High Speed Rail priorities to feather his own Anaheim nest.

It appears that the Feds have suddenly realized that they require that the initial track be laid in the Central Valley – not in a stretch of territory already covered by existing rail and commuter lines, and where a high speed rail line makes virtually no sense.

Good to see the US Gov’t get one right.

In other news, the HSR hired a former Parsons Brinkerhoff executive to be project manager. Hmm. That’s a tentacle that may need to be lopped off.

traincrashthroughbuilding — Gee, we told it to stop.

And finally, more good news: the new Guv is said to intensely dislike Pringle’s HSR shennanigans.We know he got our letter.

So maybe soon Pringle will be off the HSR board althogether. And that would make for an early Christmas.

November 3, 2010November 3, 2010Behind Closed Doors

The Lights Have Gone Out on Lucky Way

by The Fullerton Harpoon11 Comments

LuckyStrike — Jeez, it almost looked habitable...

Yes, the house is dark at 2215 Lucky Way, Anaheim, CA.

The neighbors will tell you that, yes, someone was living there. Once in awhile they would catch a glimpse of a squat little kid whose infrequent visitors called “Yo, Billy Dude!”

The grass looked green, so somebody was paying the water bill, alright. And there was that one party with loud speed metal blaring. Once in awhile a pale round face peered out from behind the red velvet drapery to surreptitiously survey the neighborhood.

Two cars used to be seen in the driveway. The same two cars. They never moved. But now the cars are gone and the house is dark.

Sunset has descended on Lucky Way.