Chronic Failure Archives - Page 64 of 68 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

April 17, 2012Boohooism

The Power to Recall: Unambiguous, Indivisible

Molly — Twenty years later and as clueless as ever.

The opponents of the Fullerton Recall, just like their predecessors in 1994, keep yammering about the “proper” use of the recall process. According to these worthy folks, the power of recall is only to be exercised in cases where an office holder has perpetrated malfeasance in office. Their argument is self-serving. And wrong. Here is what the State Constitution actually says, clearly and succinctly:

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION ARTICLE 2 VOTING, INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM, AND RECALL SEC. 13.

Recall is the power of the electors to remove an elective officer.

And that’s it. The rest is all about the technical procedure of doing it. There is no discussion of when recall is appropriate or when it may be used. None. From this terse definition we may reasonably infer that any use of recall is appropriate when the electorate deems it to be so. But what about malfeasance in office? That’s why we have a criminal code!

Of course it hardly needs to be pointed out that the Fullerton Recall has several great reasons to get rid of the Three Dithering Dinosaurs, including failure to lead, creating and tolerating a Culture of Corruption in the FPD, backing an illegal tax on your water for 15 years, and of course, let us not forget, all those insider deals to cronies and campaign contributors in which they gave away streets, sidewalks and government subsidies worth millions.

Anyway, next time you hear somebody like Molly McClanahan or Jan Flory cluck-clucking about this, be sure to to ask them if they’ve ever even bothered to read the State’s Constitution.

April 16, 2012Chronic Failure

County Melt Down, Part II

by Mr. Peabody16 Comments

Last summer I did a post on the disastrous leadership at the County, and how I hoped the Supervisors would perform a certain kind of cranial extraction and take care of business. Of course that was months ago, and the disasters keep mounting due to the indifference of the antiquated and exhausted CEO, Thomas Mauk. Naturally, the Board did nothing, most likely because a majority of the Board rely on the CEO to push their pet projects through.

The latest mess to unfold is an embarrassing sex scandal that has engulfed the Public Works Department – all due to the bad behavior of some deviant named Carlos Bustamante. Apparently this bad boy was shielded from investigation until things got so bad he was permitted to quietly resign.

Anyway, Vern Nelson over at the Orange Juice Blog has done a write up on the situation that deserves our attention.

April 15, 2012April 15, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Acting Chief Still Acting Like Predecessors

by Joe Sipowicz92 Comments

When FPD Acting Chief Dan Hughes was handed the keys to the front door, wishful thinkers proclaimed the dawn of a new day for a department reeling from humiliating self-inflicted wounds.

His supporters claimed that Dan, for some mysterious reason, was going to bring decency and reform to a department whose members had, within the short space of seven months been exposed as thugs, perjurers, thieves, con men, sex perverts, destroyers of evidence, thieves (again and again), etc., etc. Despite a 30-year FPD career and various job titles that closely tied him to this band of miscreants, Dan is Different, his defenders said. Somehow. A veritable Galahad, in fact.

Even when Dan denied a Culture of Corruption in the FPD and said such an idea was disseminated by liars or ignoramuses, his supporters clung to the idea that Dan is Different.

But Dan’s latest decision may provide cause for pause. According to the folks at FullertonStories Hughes has replaced the otiose Andrew Goodrich with yet another union member, Sergeant Jeff Stuart, to be an official department spokeshole and Face of Fullerton. Really? Has Hughes learned nothing from the misinformation peddler, Goodrich. Maybe not. Or maybe he likes the idea of the FPOA getting the first, and often the last shot at misleading the public.

Haven’t we had enough of public information officers whose loyalty to their own tribe is far greater than that to their employers? To me this just looks like more of the same ‘ol same ‘ol: another opportunity to do the right thing has been passed over by Acting Chief Hughes, who is acting more and more like Chief Sellers all the time.

April 13, 2012April 13, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Sharon’s Having A Party!

by Jan Florys Dog36 Comments

FFFF’s anonymous news clipping service just forwarded this announcement from the Quirk for State Assembly campaign that Loretta Sanchez is hosting a fundraiser for her.

Since it’s at Sanchez “home” I can understand the need for secrecy. Still, given the fact that Loretta’s home used to be in high-toned Palos Verdes as she represented the barrios of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Fullerton, we may be forgiven for wondering where she actually sleeps.

Anyhow, if you’ve got $250 or more and are inclined to drop by let us know how it went and please send pictures!

April 13, 2012April 13, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Don Bankhead’s Gears Slipping; Elevator Not Reaching Top Floor

by Mr. Peabody21 Comments

Here is an interesting clip of Councilman Don Bankhead from the last meeting opining on the subject of new elevators being added to the existing elevator bridge at the Fullerton train station. See if you can figure out what he’s talking about.

Poor Don seems to think this is a brand new elevator bridge at the new parking structure being built on Santa Fe.

Uh, oops.

Confusion is nothing new for Bankhead, but one thing Don knows for sure: when somebody else is fronting the money for a project it doesn’t matter where it is, what it does, or how much it costs.

April 10, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Water Rate Study Ad Hoc Committee Calls On Council to Rescind Water Tax

by Greg Sebourn52 Comments

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.

(more…)

April 9, 2012April 9, 2012Chronic Failure

Fullerton Is Not For Sale? Yeah, Right!

by Grover Cleveland24 Comments

Here’s a fun image of the house of an anti-recaller who seems to want people to believe that Fullerton is not for sale. Whose abode is it?

Why none other than Mr. Jim Blake, Fullerton’s Metropolitan Water District (MWD) Representative for Life, who was recently busted by a local news watchdog for his high living on the water rate payer’s dime. Blake also got some unwanted publicity from Teri Sforza at the Register for racking up huge travel bills a water junketeer. Blake has every reason to support the Three Hollow Logs, just as I’m sure they appreciate his ethical backing.

So there you have it folks: the Culture of Corruption in high dudgeon as it misrepresents itself to what it fervently hopes is an unsuspecting public.

April 5, 2012April 5, 2012Chronic Failure

The Rancid Lieutenancy of Andrew Goodrich

by Grover Cleveland75 Comments

For some months now trolls have been bragging about the impending promotion of FPD Sergeant Andrew Goodrich to lieutenant, presumably because such a promotion meant that all the half-truths and outright lies peddled to the public by the cops’ otiose Public Information Officer proved the inefficacy and futility of the protests by those who thought Kelly Thomas, despite being schizophrenic, homeless, and dead, deserved the basic civil right of not having a public employee lie about him.

I take a different view. To me, the promotion of a worthless, dissimulating, union hack like Goodrich just goes to reinforce what we have known all along: there is a deeply ingrained Culture of Corruption within our police department; a department that not only tolerates criminal behavior such as assault, sexual battery, false arrest, perjury, theft, fraud, and murder, it seems to encourage these affronts to the very public its members have sworn to serve.

Consider the case of Goodrich: although the comical Gennaco report says there is no evidence to suggest Goodrich deliberately lied to the public about the facts surrounding the murder of Kelly Thomas, there is absolutely no doubt that he disseminated false information, and then never retracted it. If this is not tantamount to an outright lie, then I don’t know what is.

We also know of the tortured way in which Goodrich dismissed the obvious perjury of Hampton and Nguyen in the fraudulent Veth Mam prosecution, and the cavalier callousness of his statement in the wake of the false five-month incarceration of Emanuel Martinez.

Well, friends, the character of Goodrich is evidently the barometer of success in the FPD. And to the apologists for their new Acting Chief, Dan Hughes, a proud veteran of the force for thirty years – and vociferous denier of any Culture of Corruption – all I can say is I pity you. I really do.

March 30, 2012March 30, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

More Mayhem In Doc Heehaw’s Crazy Wild West Show!!

by The Fullerton Harpoon168 Comments

Last fall anti-recallers wanted folks to believe that everything in Fullerton’s great and it was just a wholesome family town. Of course the facts are that City Councilmembers Bankhead, Jones and McKinley have turned downtown Fullerton into an all night free for all of drugged-up, boozing, fighting, defecating thugs from who knows where. And of course an out-of-control gang of badged thugs was deployed to try to keep the other thugs in line.

All of this is just a long preamble to advertise the fact that another shooting took place in Downtown Fullerton early this morning, in the parking structure in the 100 block of east Wilshire Avenue.

Who benefits from this mayhem besides the liquor peddlers? Ask Bankhead or Jones or McKinley next time you see them.

March 30, 2012March 30, 2012"Dick" Ackerman

Bankhead and The Great McDonald’s Leap Forward

by admin49 Comments

For those who really and truly want added proof of the fiscal irresponsibility of City Councliman Don Bankhead, here he is casting his vote to pay $6,000,000 to move a perfectly good McDonald’s restaurant about 200 feet to the east.

Bankhead’s only arguments? One, that he’s already wasted a bunch of money on this titanic Redevelopment boondoggle; and two, that without the relocation the titanic Redevelopment boondoggle might be harder to build!

Fortunately (somewhat) wiser heads prevailed, although nobody in City Hall ever admitted that the monstrous “Fox Block” was just a plaything for the Redevelopment staff, a source of government handouts to the so-called ‘developer,” and had absolutely nothing to do with the restoration of the historic Fox Theater.

Really and truly, Bankhead has been supporting massive boondoggles, huge corporate subsidies and crony capitalism for the better part of 25 years. High time to hit the road.