Friends For Fullerton's Future
FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
In this video from CSPAN’s BookTV, Steven Greenhut talks about his book Plunder!: How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.
Fast forward to 22:20 and listen to Greenhut recount the story of how Shawn Nelson saved Fullerton taxpayers from a secretive retroactive pension spike orchestrated by council RINOs Jones and Bankhead in 2008.
Former State Senator Joe Dunn has submitted a proposal to the OC Board of Supervisors that would register and track the activities of lobbyists at the County, as reported in the OC Reg by Jennifer Muir.
In the article Dunn is careful to point out that his mission is to restore faith in government rather than to stem any specific corruption. Well we don’t have to be so polite: for months we have been complaining about the circles of influence and money that run things in the County. There’s nothing wrong about knowing who is paid to peddle influence and whom they are peddling it to. The only people who will try to make this look troublesome are the ones who don’t want a light shined on their activities.
Some of the items that Muir describes in the Dunn proposal are not necessary – such as a registry fee, and some of the information – like the amount a lobbyist is paid is irrelevant. The piddling stuff can be worked out. And let’s not forget that people like Nick Berardino and Wayne Quint of the OCEA and OCSD unions are paid lobbyists, too – paid by their members to get as many concessions for themselves that they can. They should be included in any program that monitors lobbyists.
The Repugz and their blowholes will probably be decrying their loss of free speech and will forecast a tsunami of paperwork and bureaucracy – which is pure malarkey. An on-line registry could be created and maintained for next to nothing, and could be accessible by the public all the time. The Supervisors have paid staff with hardly anything better to do who can keep their bosses activities updated.
For some reason Dunn is trying to get this on the Supervisor’s January 12th agenda at the last moment which seems sort of odd. If he gets no help from the BoS he says he’ll get it on the November ballot via petition.
Good luck, Joe. Ya gotta start somewhere.
Although George Will can be stuffy and, well, fat-headed on occasion, there is nothing off the mark about his opinion piece in the Washington Post the other day about the Atlantic Yards eminent domain scandal occurring in Brooklyn, New York. Read it here.
Sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it? Trumped up findings of blight that justify the creation of a government-as-developer zone. In Fullerton we have the proposed Redevelopment expansion – leveraged off a completely fraudulent finding of blight. There are no massive projects in the expansion area – yet, but the idea of securing property tax increment and using the expansion to extend the life of the existing Redevelopment project area foreshadows all sorts of problems with government overreach and the misdirection of public revenue.
Hoo Boy! So this is how a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative squanders our money.
In the fall of 2008 Pam Keller attended the California League of Cities Annual Meeting, a useless agglomeration of bureaucrats and bureaucrat lovin’ electeds who like to micromanage everybody’s life while we pay for it.
The event was held at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, a luxury hotel, exactly 26.1 miles from Fullerton. The distance is so vast that Pam decided to stay at the hotel for three nights and amassed a bill of $1236.10. Check out the payment vouchers, the hotel invoice, and even a handwritten request for nine buck’s reimbursement for parking, here.
Seems Pam also took along a guest, and, among other treats, they may have availed themselves of a trip to the LB Aquarium that was included in the deal.
Even if we disregard the questionable usefulness of attending one of these taxpayer funded boondoggles, what on earth was the need for Keller to stay at a hotel whose drive-time distance Mapquest lists at a mere 28 minutes?
And I have to wonder how all of Keller’s lefty knee-jerk supporters could possibly countenance this sort of profligacy of public money. $1,200 could be used collaboratively to feed a lot of homeless people, right?
Now to be perfectly fair (I am a very fair person), Fullerton’s two RINOs, Don Bankhead and Dick Jones also attended this conference and also racked up big bills. At least Jones went alone.
Friends, this is likely not the only Keller taxpayer-funded junket and rest assured, we will be providing examples of others in the very near future if we find them.
How come our electeds don’t seem to be able to grasp simple concepts; why have they no resistance to the bureaucratic sales pitch; why must they obscure their own ignorance in a cloud of asinine nonsense or outright lies?
Last Tuesday night the Fullerton City Council/Redevelopment Agency approved the idiotic Richman housing project, a staff-concocted, no-bid, pet project that proposes to subsidize ownership of condos. The vote was 3-1, Sharon Quirk-Silva, dissenting. Shawn Nelson took a powder.
Why is this project idiotic? First we believe that the ownership of a house is something that should be available equally, and not doled out by the government to its own selected recipients.
Second, the units in this project will have to be perpetually restricted to people whose income levels qualify. Perfect: perpetual housing bureaucracy! The necessary deed restrictions are a pretty significant encumbrance and will just add to the financial shakiness of the whole enchilada. But without these restrictions the original buyers would be in line for a massive windfall courtesy of all of us, when they sell.
A third point, as was admirably developed by Sharon Quirk-Silva, the proposed occupancy restrictions would very likely disqualify people who need housing the most. Which leads to the fourth point. These units will not count against Fullerton’s most neglected RHNA category – low and very low income. Which leads to:
Five. Dick Jones claimed that approving the Richman project is required to satisfy some legal mandate – it is THE LAW. That’s just a tin-plated, bald-faced lie. The SCAG RHNA allocations are goals, not a legal mandate. Cities are required by the State HCD to provide evidence of programs used to achieve those goals – not specific projects. And, in any case hypocritically, this project does not address the most urgent RHNA category of all which means that for folks who profess to really like this sort of thing, an opportunity has been lost.
Finally, FFFF has tried to promote better, more sustainable design in government-subsidized projects. And this project just promises more of the same old architectural crap we’ve been getting all along.
And now that we contemplate this fiasco, we feel the need for a last minute adendum to the Fringie Worst Vote category.
The Fullerton City Council has just released their agenda for December 15, 2009 and it’s a fat package!
Something near and dear to me is baseball so I take a little more interest when the subject shows up on the agenda. Item 2 of the closed session is a conference with the real property negotiator concerning 304 W. Commonwealth Avenue. It would appear that the Orange County Flyers of Fullerton want to move to downtown Fullerton to be closer to City Hall. In fact they want to have the baseball field across the street where many a young man played pony league baseball. The Duane Winters Field just might be the sight of the next Golden Baseball League Championship. In March 2007 the team gave up being the Fullerton Flyers because the new partners wanted to be more marketable. Hmm, sounds like an Arty Moreno stunt! So the changed to the Orange County Flyers. I have a t-shirt that says “Top 10 Reason’s To Be a Fan: …Reason #4: They aren’t the L.A. Flyers of Fullerton.” That’s true; they’re the O.C. Flyers. So, will Parks and Rec Director, Joe Felz, give them the field? We’ll see…
Also in the closed session is another real property whiz-bang. Rob Zur Schmiede is working on 655 W. Valencia. In 2007 this was a 63 unit condo by John Laing and the project was in plan check. 3+ years later, what could they be discussing? Price and terms with C&C Development’s Barry Cottle, according to the agenda.
In the open session you can look forward to a presentation by MWD and a few awards to people like Quirk-Silva, Dick Waltz, and – drum roll please – The Golden Bell Award, Fullerton Union High School District and (another drum roll please) Fullerton School District! How ya like dem apples?
Make sure you fill out your blue card before you yell at the council – which you will want to do…
There are a few appointments being made to the Library Board of Trustees. Your favorite Mayor, Don “Don’t Mess With Me” Bankhead and Shawn “See Ya Later Alligator” Nelson. Their terms are to expire December 31, 2012 – if they last that long.
We have a busy consent calendar to cover so hang on tight. In the mix is the amended landscaping ordinance, group insurance for city employees, the employee’s deferred compensation, more sewer replacement, a bunch of Redevelopment stuff, air pollution, SALE OF THE ORANGE COUNTY FAIR GROUNDS (seriously – item 11), Raymond Avenue grade separation, Fire Management Association agreement, Bastanchury/Valencia Mesa bike path. There is too much for me to cover here so I’ll expand a little on just a few.
First, there for Redevelopment. Item 6’s title should tell you everything you need to know… “Redevelopment Agency’s Annual Determination That Planning And Administrative Expenses Are Necessary For The Production, Improvement, or Preservation of Low and Moderate Income Housing”. Yep that’s all you need to know so don’t look into it or question it. I suggest that if you ever had a beef with Redevelopment, this is a chance for you to SCREAM at your elected officials. This “determination” is the justification for wasting your money. Because if that isn’t enough reason, read item 7, the Redevelopment Agency’s annual report. This the RA’s justification for existence to the State and Feds. If it doesn’t dazzle you with brilliance, rest assured, it will baffle you with bullshit!
Ok, enough with the Redevelopment Agency, let’s get down to real business. According to item 8, it’s time to modify the signals at Orangethorpe and Highland, as well as re-stripe the area and add some signs.
Air pollution shows up 9th on the list. It’s actually a MSRC grant for $450,000 for a compressed natural gas station. I wonder how much money we will throw at it to get the gas station operational. How much will we sell the gas for? Are there enough customers to make it profitable or are we, the tax payers, suppose to subsidize CNG vehicle owners? I’m sure the details are all there waiting to be found.
Don Hoppe gets an appointment as the Public Works Dispute Hearing Officer. Will he get paid extra for the job?
And then we have the Fairgrounds. It appears that the council would like to request the Governator to not sell the O.C. Fairgrounds. I’m sure Arnold will read the letter and quickly cancel the whole sale.
The Raymond Avenue Grade Separation is getting a change order for AECOM. Their fee is $2,450,000. It is unclear from the agenda or staff recommendation just how much the change order will cost us, if anything. According to the recommendation, there is $63,739,000 for the project. That’s a lot of money!
Skipping ahead to the Public Hearings we have some more Redevelopment doozies. The first one, item 15, is for 524 and 530 S. Richman Avenue where the Olson Company wants to erect 34 moderate income housing units. I believe the Honorable DR. Jones said we “…absolutely have to build these. It’s the law!” Well, sort of…not really.
Also, item 16 is the Five-Year Implementation Plan for Redevelopment Agency. The item is on the agenda so that a request can be made to have a public hearing on it and consider adopting the plan. What a racket!
Here is an interesting one. Item 17 is an appeal to install a nature/wildlife habitat along a portion of the Juanita Cooke Greenbelt (known to many who are not as up to date on official trail names as “The Equestrian Trail Behind the Court House that goes to Laguna Lake”). After looking at what they wanted to do and where, I’m not sure why the City didn’t take advantage of the situation. Here are a couple who want to improve the trail where it runs along their backyard. They wanted to make it wilder (I guess) on the slope NEXT TO the path. The fix could have been to enter into an agreement whereby they can install certain pre-approved plants in a pre-approved manner, the total costs of which would be paid by the applicant. The City could have the homeowners maintain it until such time as the agreement is cancelled in which case the homeowners could be on the hook for removal/restoration costs. The cop out from Parks that the trail has two paths and this would confuse people is silly. Are people really that stupid? Also, from what I have seen, the encroachment would be onto the slope. I don’t think the mountain bikers are on the slopes nor are the walkers or horses. So what’s the problem?
The city will also be looking at parking permit fees in certain areas. (See item 18)
Moving on to Regular Business (I said this was a big package), we have a few reports on the City’s financials as well as the Airport. Also in the Regular Business is the Commission/Committee At-Large Appointment Process.
I urge you to read through all of the supporting documents for the agenda. That is where you might find some nuggets of truth that should be brought forth. I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to do it. Thanks for reading and feel free to point out other topics that I missed or are important to you!
I came across some choice nuggets in a Daily Pilot article about the OC Fair Fiasco. Apparently the DAs office is at least going through the motions:
the county district attorney is investigating the activities of the fairgrounds’ board, said Susan Schroeder, public affairs counsel at the D.A.’s office.
Well that’s good news – unless your name is Ackerman. At least there’s no overt stonewalling. But in a move that should be just as alarming to the Fair Board, County Counsel Nick Chrisos:
now has instructed the five supervisors to not interact with members of the Orange County Fairgrounds’ board of directors, Supervisor John Moorlach confirmed in a phone interview Thursday. Brooke De Baca, a county spokeswoman, said Thursday that Chrisos could not comment because of attorney-client privilege.
“This has been one of the more heart-rending directives that I have received, as many of the Fair Board members are long-time dear friends,” Moorlach said in an e-mail sent out Wednesday.
Moorlach wouldn’t say more or explain what was behind the counsel’s directive to the supervisors.
Yesterday a truly weird balloon was lofted over the dismal, cratered landscape of the Red County. It was another one of those the Fair Deal is Dead, I Don’t Care Once way or Another, Privatization is Good blog posts done by Matthew J. Cunningham. But Lo and Behold, he finally got around to actually discussing the activities of the Fair Board members who created a “Foundation” behind the scenes so that they could buy the Fairgrounds from themselves.
Here’s the first sparkler:
However, the OC Fair Board directors — or at least most of them — constituting themselves as the directors of a non-profit that would buy the fair was a very delicate political dance that has proved impossible to pull off. Not conducting the non-profit’s initial meeting in public was mistake and a PR black-eye, which fed into sale opponents’ message of “secrecy and corruption.” They have been beaten so badly with the Bad PR stick it’s doubtful their efforts buy the fair ground will ever succeed. At this point, better to stanch the bleeding and pull the plug.
So the real problem is not that they conspired to sell the Fair to themselves, and met secretly to discuss fair business, i.e. The Sale; no, rather that they couldn’t perform a “delicate political dance.” They have earned a “PR black-eye.” And have been beaten with the “Bad PR stick…” Oh, the poor misunderstood Foundation, er Fair Board.
It gets even better:
I do think the Fair Board directors have been unfairly assailed, and do not deserve the pitchfork treatment they’ve received. Sale opponents could and should have been able to mount a sound public policy case without resorting to throwing allegations at the wall in the hopes somehting would stick. Assemblyman Jose Solorio — who not so long ago voted to sell the fairgrounds — could have refrained from this kind of purple rhetoric: “misinformation and misrepresentations, conflicts of interests, questionable legal and ethical activities and a potential constitutional barrier regarding the sale of the property.”
Aha! Poor Fair Board as victims, unfairly assailed, with pitchforks no less (note: PR stick has morphed into pitchfork!). Oh yes, a mob has gathered to demand that such niceties as open meeting laws and conflict of interest rules for government appointees are upheld. Well, anyway, that’s a new approach. Wonder if it will work. And the subtle turn of the Fairground sale opponents into the actual villains of the piece is classic PR schtick, that of course nobody is going to fall for.
Here is Mr. Cunningham trying to disarm through humor. Bad strategy when this sense was apparently strangled in his crib:
If I had a dollar for every time I heard or read accusations of “conflict of interest” or “illegal lobbing,” I could put a down payment on the fairgrounds myself. But I have yet to see anyone produce any evidence to substantiate what are very serious accusations.
Well of course he hasn’t seen any evidence to substantiate anything. He obviously hasn’t looked for any. But others have, such as Nick Chrisos, the County Counsel, and the sequence of events point to the Board using public resources to incorporate itself as the “Foundation,” and hire Dick Ackerman to work to get AB22 passed; and then later (finally) in public, and as the Fair Board, hire a “consultant” (Ackerman’s firm, again) to go lobby the Governor for favorable conditions in the Request for Proposals from would-be buyers.
But our boy’s not done yet:
After funding a “Derail the Sale” campaign that has subjected the OC Fair Board directors to a hail of abuse, it will be interesting to see if Tel Phil Enterprises approaches the Fair Board for yet another rent reduction — and how such a request will be received. I think Tel Phil’s role has been one of the most interesting, and least remarked upon aspects of this imbroglio — after all, it isn’t often you see a government lessee going after its landlord.
A hail of abuse! Outrage: the old stand-by. Go on the offensive and attack! But wait, that won’t work – that will just make the ignorant pitchfork wielding villagers even madder! And nobody gives’s a rat’s ass about “Tel Phil.” Big plop sound.
And in conclusion:
In the meantime, there’ll be much sturm und drang that’ll will provide enough blog fodder for everyone, but in my humble opinion, were already at the Appomattox stage of this war.
Sarcastic sturm und drang. Blog fodder. Appomatox. In other words, lots of aimless speculation, and the deal’s done anyway, so break it up folks, go on home, nothing to see here!
But let’s hope this is not the end of the story. Many wars are followed up with legal proceedings to hash out things like reparations and responsibility. Let’s hope the end comes only after legal investigation into the doings of the Fair Board/Foundation and their “consultant” Dick Ackerman; and only after a plausible explanation is given as to why the public was billed over $19,000 to pay for legal/lobbying services that benefit the Fair Board directors who are also Foundation members.
As an alternative to this nonsense I recommend Barbara Venezia’s excellent column I shared with you a few days ago.
Has anyone other than me wondered why neither of the two main partisan blogs in OC – the Liberal OC and Red County have even mentioned the OC Fair scandal a-brewin’?
Red seems intent to chatter about all sorts of Fair topics – but not the crooked Foundation itself. Blue doesn’t seem to have posted a comment about the Fair at all.
Are these two paragons of “reasoned debate” both so involved in reasoned debate that they have missed one of the biggest stories of the year?
Just asking.
Over the week-end we read some interesting things about the surreptitious “Fair Foundation” and their publicly paid lobb….er, consultant, Dick Ackerman. It transpires that the State AG, Jerry Brown has pulled the plug on legal support for the Fair Board, arguing quite reasonably that the Board majority are members of the clandestine Foundation, and that the taxpayers ain’t gonna pick up the tab to defend their misfeasance. Now they’ll have to pay for their own lawyers, thankfully, and we won’t.
We also learn that Ackerman’s law firm was paid over $19,000 in public funds to do something (not lobbying of course – that would be illegal). We would dearly love to see the billing statement with dates and activities.
Honorary Fringer Vern Nelson has an excellent post this AM over at the OJ blog.
The helpful folks over at the OC Progressive have posted a fun run down here, passing along info gleaned by the Daily Pilot via a public records request.
Despite all the obfuscation and dust kicking up by Foundation apologists, it seems like the truth will emerge.