Is Fitzgerald Out?

I’m not telling the truth and you can’t make me…

Rumor is circulating that our Mayor-for-Hire, lobbyist Jennifer Fitzgerald isn’t going to be running for election to represent District 1 in Fullerton this fall. Good news, indeed, if true, for those who care about honest, competent government.

But is it true? No pronouncements have been forthcoming from the woman herself which suggests that the rumor isn’t true, or that the influence peddler is going to try to slide in a candidate of her own choosing – one who may just be amenable to continuing the Culture of Corruption in the FPD and the Culture of Incompetence in City Hall.

Pringle and Fitzgerald

What her departure might mean for her future value for the swamp known as Pringle and Associates remains to be seen.

Well, I guess we’ll know in about six weeks. And if Her Highness is just playing games and is going to run after all, we’ll be reminding voters of her:

  1. Promise to take no pay or benefits, and then doing just that.
  2. Lying about a “balanced budget” for years while depleting reserve funds to pay for ever-greater pension obligations.
  3. Covering up the drunk driving of her best buddy, City Manager Joe Felz, a spectacle that has embarrassed the City, ever since.
  4. Ignoring the roads of Fullerton until they have become the worst in Orange County , as determined by the OCTA.
  5. Presiding over the shoddy or incompetent  construction of vanity projects that put money in the pockets of her campaign contributor.
  6. Working as a lobbyist while representing the City of Fullerton.
Axis of Casual Corruption.

So bring it on Jen.’ We’ve been paying attention and we’re gonna make sure your neighbors know all about your record. Stooge endorsement from recalled former council buffoons, corrupt liberals and government camp followers and a new tsunami of prevarication ain’t gonna cut it in 2020.

 

Fullerton’s New Art Exhibit?

Board Up City Hall 2
Fullerton’s Newest Art Installation

Now that the Fullerton City Council has shuttered the museum for the rest of 2020 in order to pay the cops more… in the middle of a national discussion on police mind you… what are we to do for art & culture in Fullerton?

Is this why they boarded up City Hall this weekend? Are these simply new canvases to spread the messages to “Outsource the FPD” or to fight back against higher taxes with slogans like “One Cent = One Term”?

What clever art do you think the City is hoping will adorn these newly installed canvasses?

Boarded Up City Hall
It’s so nice to have this much room to work

The Cost of Suing Us

Yes, that is the answer!

Fullerton just “separated from employment” 150+ non-union part-time staff. Why? Because despite years of Mayor Jennifer Fitzgerald’s lies about a “Balanced Budget” and our mythical reserve fund – we had no plan for a rainy day.

During meetings, myself, David and others warned the City Council that a downturn was likely in the future and with CalPERS continually raising our pension costs we needed to be smarter financially.

Fitzy & Flory wanted none of that and spent like floozies in Vegas throwing every dollar we had at every uniform in sight with Silva, Chaffee and so on along for the ride.

Now here are we looking at a month of limited tax revenue and 150+ people lost their jobs with the city. 150+ positions aren’t being eliminated – no no no, they’ll tax us more to fill those again later and cry about not being to staff the libraries and parks to justify the new taxes/fees and whatever added costs to us they can cook up along the way. But 150+ people are now wondering how they’ll pay their bills.

But let me drive this home for you some more – the city is suing myself, David and this blog because we allegedly clicked some Dropbox links in an account they sent us and told the world about in PRRs. Remember, according to Kimberly Hall Barlow this isn’t about publishing or the 1st Amendment – this is about alleged theft and “hacking” because we allegedly clicked some Dropbox links.

In the process of investigating that alleged crime, the city found out that their network (which has fuckall to do with Dropbox) was incompetently setup and they hired an outside firm to fix it. This was the reason they claimed they waited to sue us for months on end – that they had to secure their network – which again has fuckall to do with Dropbox.

Glass Box Discussion

The firm they hired, Glass Box Technology, has a contract with the city for $60k/month not to exceed $500k.

Glass Box Contract

So far, according to the City Council approved Check Register, they’ve paid Glass Box $541,451.25 to date which is $41,451.25 over their “not to exceed” limit.

Glass Box Checks

That’s over half of a million dollars SO FAR because the City found out that they suck at running their own network as a BYPRODUCT of suing us which has nothing to do with what they allege we did. This was an unnecessary expense that has to come out of next year’s General Fund because it’s yet another major cockup for which nobody will be held accountable.

How many of those 150+ people wouldn’t need to be unemployed right now were it not for sheer incompetence in City Hall? Seems that $500k+ would have covered quite a few part timers.

Then we have the expense of our idiotic City Attorneys, Jones & Mayer. Since this nonsense started back in June with their Cease & Desist letters, the city has paid Jones & Mayer $891,074.49. We have no way to know how to split that up or what to attribute to the lawsuit against us because City Hall has a long history of lying about funding and hiding expenses in the wrong accounts. Just because something is coded to the Library, might not mean it has anything to do with the Library.

J&M Checks 2020

But if we assume that just 5% of their work product can be attributed to the lawsuit against us, and considering the reams of paper they keep filing with the courts we know their billable hours are stacking mile high, we can attribute approximately $44,553 to this stupid lawsuit. Seems to me that’s a few more part timers who could still be employed were it not for the malicious lawsuit being pursued by Fitzgerald, Flory, Silva and Zahra.

We don’t know how much the city has paid their other experts or consultants in their pursuit of the evil “hackers” who allegedly clicked Dropbox links – some with my name on them – but so far we know it’s pushing $500k+.

Where there’s smoke…

Remember this come election time & demand answers from these idiots on council who would rather spend your money, and it is your money, attacking us over their own stupidity than spend it providing the very services they’re elected to oversee in our city.

Shame on Fullerton. Shame on Mayor Fitzgerald. Shame on the City Council for always squandering your money pursuing their egos instead of your best interests. Sure, they’ll blame the need to “separate from employment” those 150+ people on this “global pandemic” – but that’s only because they constantly spend all of your money elsewhere while lying to you about our “balanced budget”.

The “Fullerton Gazette” Chaffee Scam Explained

As you may have seen Paulette Chaffee got the much coveted endorsement of the “Fullerton Gazette“, a mysterious little rag that until her specific endorsement nobody knew existed.

Well, after a little internet sleuthing I discovered why there is no byline to their articles and no names associated with their masthead. It turns out that every single one of the non-Fullerton stories is purchased content from a site called PLR (Private Label Rights). I don’t recommend clicking the link, it’s ad central but feel free to see for yourselves.

PLR sells themselves in the following way:

“We believe content marketing for health and wellness professionals doesn’t need to be time consuming or complicated. There’s a faster and easier way.

“What we do is create beautiful done-for-you coaching resources that you can license, brand and sell as your own, so you can grow large and devoted audiences, without having to write everything from scratch.”

So not only is the Fullerton Gazette purchasing nonsense clickbait content, they’re purchasing “wellness” clickbait in an effort to pretend to look legit while boosting for Paulette. Allow me to show you the proof:

Fullerton Gazette Article

PLR Sale Page

Fullerton Gazette Text

PLR Text

It’s like that for every single non-Fullerton related “article” on the site starting with the very first one.

Here’s a quick rundown of some Fullerton Gazette articles from oldest to newest:

The original article from November 2019 on the website was the hardest to find because the Gazette author spelled Turmeric incorrectly which just adds to the hilarity of this copy editing fail.

“5 Minute Guide to Tumeric and Your Health”
Fullerton Gazette Version / PLR Version for Sale

The next two are just copy/paste jobs.

“15 Tips for Dealing with Insomnia”
Fullerton Gazette Version / PLR Version for Sale

“9 Strategies for Happy, Blended Families”
Fullerton Gazette Version / PLR Version for Sale

Then we have another fun one because the original article had 9 ways to make the most out of a Bad Day but our Gazette copypasta expert managed to truncate it to 3 and mess the title up.

“3 Ways to Make the Most Out of Bad Day”
Fullerton Gazette Version / PLR Version for Sale

And finally two more straight copy/paste jobs.

“Wealth Isn’t For the Wealthy – Wealth is for the Smart!”
Fullerton Gazette Version / PLR Version for Sale

“7 Brain Hacks That Boost Productivity”
Fullerton Gazette Version / PLR Version for Sale

There you have it folks, the Fullerton Gazette’s prize worthy clickbait journalism as purchased on PLR for “credits”.

It’s quite clear that someone is paying for PLR content for the Fullerton Gazette. It’s also quite clear that someone is paying for content to benefit Paulette Chaffee’s campaign, possibly exclusively to benefit Paulette Chaffee’s campaign.

Just a reminder for all the social media experts on Paulette Chaffee’s publicly disclosed payroll, intentionally hiding campaign expenditures is a crime.

This blog has never been afraid to name and shame people monkeying with our local government. That said, if you’d like to contact FFFF and tell your side of the story before it gets out ahead of you and your information gets sent to the District Attorney and FPPC, the button is at the top of this screen.

 

Encouraging Children to Break the Law – That’s the Troy Difference!

Let’s start with Exhibit A.

California Education Code, Section 7054(a) which states in pertinent part:

No school district or community college district funds, services, supplies, or equipment shall be used for the purpose of urging the support or defeat of any ballot measure or candidate, including, but not limited to, any candidate for election to the governing board of the district.

And now Exhibit “B”. This little enticement by The Troy Difference to break that very law.

High School Graduation tickets are generally limited to six tickets per student, which limits how much of one’s extended family can attend (and immediate family, if it is large enough). Giving out tickets based on their political beliefs is utterly repugnant, in addition to a violation of the law.

Now, there is one important caveat here: the Troy Difference is a PTSA organization and not, strictly speaking, the school district itself. Therefore the District could potentially claim that they had no knowledge of the offer when it was made and took appropriate steps to shut down the PTSA’s action and prevent them from following through.

Did they? Nope, not even close. The Precinct walk and the illegal promise proceeded as planned. Here’s the precinct captain at 9:00 am on February 22, 2020, well after the blowup over their campaign tactics (Exhibit “C”):

It gets better, as the volunteer states that “Ms. Gates” is more involved in the offer (Renee Gates is the Current Assistant Principle). Also, this does not appear to be the only Troy organization which has been making this pitch.

This is not the conduct of a campaign that is secure in their position. This is a campaign that is afraid it is losing and is willing to break the rules to prevent that from happening.

Vote No on Measure J and especially on Measure K.

Courtroom Showdown!

Hero. Deserves.

This week FFFF and local hero Joshua Ferguson do battle in a courtroom with the defenders of incompetence and opacity – the City of Fullerton, represented by in incomparably stupid and corrupt law firm Jones and Mayer. The Voice of OC outlines the details here, so I’ll let it go at that, other than to remark on the sad state of affairs when a citizen is sued by his own government in retribution for what they did.

Phriday Photo Phun – Early Edition

It was like getting hit with a broomstick all over again…

I don’t know about you humans, but I always find it amusing when a politician tries to look good on campaign material, but ends up really looking funny.

My former neighbor, Paulette Marshall is pretending to be a school teacher to run for County School Board. Actually she was just a typical bad local lawyer for years. In 2018 she created a phony address to run for your city council and then got busted, prosecuted, and eventually pleaded guilty to trespassing and theft charges. You would think that would be an instant disqualifier for future elective office, but in a county where her senile and crime abetting husband Doug “Bud” Chaffee can get elected County Supervisor, anything is possible if you blow enough of your kid’s inheritance. Of course spending dough doesn’t equate to success.

Here’s a piece Mrs. Chaffee sent out. Humans with opposable thumbs cropped it to get rid of the stupid, misleading verbiage.

See! That’s me with the sign! That’s how I ended up being here today for this community service photo opp. Crime does pay, boys, especially for rich old, white people…

I couldn’t think of what this reminded me of at first. Then I did”

Oh, Magoo, you’ve done it again…

Our New Mayor

I’m not telling the truth and you can’t make me…

Our esteemed City Council appointed lobbyist-councilcreature Jennifer Fitzgerald to be the new mayor a couple weeks ago. Supposedly it’s her turn again. How and why Jan Flory was appointed Mayor Pro Tem is anybody’s guess, especially since Bruce Whitaker and Ahmad Zahra have been on the council longer without appointment – supposedly the criterion for getting the job.

Zahra and Jesus Silva Quirk are no doubt angling to grab the mayor titlee when they run for re-election in 2022. They aren’t too bright, but they’re smart enough to count in four-year increments.

But the nasty machinations of our talent-free council are not the point of this post, merely a rolling introduction. What I really want to share is the completely self-serving and fraudulent mayoral bio Ms. Fitzgerald has placed on the City’s website, the first two paragraphs of which I reproduce here:

Mayor Jennifer Fitzgerald was elected to the Fullerton City Council in November 2012 and served as Mayor Pro Tem in 2014/2015 and Mayor in 2015/2016. In her first three years in office, Mayor Fitzgerald played a key role in several significant accomplishments, including a $3.5 million retroactive refund of water rate overcharges, public safety reform, a substantive increase in funding to repair the city’s aging roads and water infrastructure, and adoption of new transparency measures for public employee labor negotiations.

Mayor Fitzgerald represents the City of Fullerton on the Board of Directors for the Association of California Cities-Orange County Chapter and she is a Member of the Board of Directors for the Orange County Taxpayers Association. She is a former Metropolitan Water District Director, Past President of the North Orange County Chamber (formerly Fullerton Chamber of Commerce) and past Member of the Board of Directors for the Fullerton Historic Theater Foundation. Previously, she served the City of Fullerton on its Planning Commission and General Plan Advisory Committee.

It’s pretty bad that Fitzgerald is trying to take credit for the water refund she fought tooth and nail to minimize. It’s worse that she is trying to get gullible folks to think she has done anything about police reform , when in reality she has been an ardent defender of cover-ups for eight years –  including hush-up settlements and even being implicated in hiding the drunk hit-and-run perpetrated by her buddy Joe “Wild Ride” Felz. The unkindest cut of all may be her bragging about “increased funding” for street and water infrastructure that she and her comrades let sink into a deplorable mess – the worst in Orange County.

At least this go ’round she omits her oft-repeated lie that she has balanced budgets, but her re-election campaign material will no doubt rectify the omission. I’ll be checking into that.

And finally I direct your attention to paragraph two, wherein the tone deaf Fitzgerald blithely recaps all the public money laundering agencies she has consorted with, peddling her wares as a lobbyist for one of the greasiest operators in OC – Curt Pringle.

Fullerton’s Veritable Serpico Problem

Serpico

Fullerton, like most departments, has a problem reminiscent of Serpico and this problem is years in the making. This problem is part of the story of the sordid “Culture of Corruption” that was documented after the Kelly Thomas beating. This veritable Serpico problem is a cancer within the system where once in uniform even good people turn a blind eye to corruption and stand idle as their unions and water carriers work to stomp on both people working towards and laws aimed at transparency.

For those unfamiliar with Frank Serpico he was an officer in the NYPD who stood up against widespread corruption and suffered for this crime against the Blue Wall of Silence. When he was shot in the face in the line of duty his fellow officers went so far as refusing to call for help.

This reverse Serpico problem is the common issue of Officers refusing to speak out, refusing to stand up and refusing to be good ethical humans for fear of reprisals from their brothers and sisters in blue.

Today I want to tell a story that should have been told some time ago – the tale of how ethics can get you fired at Fullerton PD.

I’d like to tell you about one Corporal Paul Irish.

You see, Corporal Irish was fired for dishonesty. A year or so ago I spoke to Paul and I was given copies of the files related to his termination. Honestly I didn’t know what to do with what he gave me and I sort of let it sit waiting for the time to really dig into it. Life, kids, you know the drill. That box sat in my garage patiently waiting for me to have time. Skip ahead and, well, the city cost me my job recently and I find myself with more time on my hands. So I got to reading.

To sum up hundreds of pages of paperwork — what Corporal Irish DID was, allegedly, tell his supervisors he was giving a talk on seat belt safety when he actually gave a talk on ethics. When they hammered him for his dishonesty on what his talk was about they ran a full investigation into the issue which ultimately led to his termination for more alleged dishonesty.

The transcript of the talk is [HERE] and the actual audio as recorded by Corporal Irish is here;

According to the information I have seen, these are the charges for which Corporal Irish was fired:

PSB #2014-72​IA Investigation
Corporal Paul Irish
Potential Policy Violations:
​340.3.5 (g) – within policy
​340.3.5 (h)
​340.3.5 (i)
​340.3.5 (l)
​340.3.5 (n)
​340.3.5 (z)
Recommendation to Staff: Not within policy – Termination Approved

FPD Manual Conduct

That’s a bunch of jargon so I’ll allow the Fullerton Police Department’s Policy Manual chapter on Conduct explain all that legal speak:

(h)Knowingly making false, misleading or malicious statements that are reasonably calculated to harm or destroy the reputation, authority or official standing of the Department or members thereof.

(i)The falsification of any work-related records, the making of misleading entries or statements with the intent to deceive, or the willful and unauthorized destruction and/or mutilation of any department record, book, paper or document.

(l)Any knowing or negligent violation of the provisions of the department manual, operating procedures or other written directive of an authorized supervisor. Employees shall familiarize themselves with and be responsible for compliance with each of the above and the Department shall make each available to the employees.

(n)Criminal, dishonest, infamous or disgraceful conduct adversely affecting the employee/employer relationship, whether on or off duty.

(z)Any other on-duty or off-duty conduct which any employee knows or reasonably should know is unbecoming a member of the Department or which is contrary to good order, efficiency or morale, or which tends to reflect unfavorably upon the Department or its members.

Remember, this all stems from Corporal Irish giving a talk on ethics that his supervisors didn’t approve of him giving and being mad at being “lied to” about said briefing.

Here’s the pertinent part of the Hearing Officers Report:

Irish Allegations

This should be put into some context with current events in order to explain the aforementioned Serpico problem. When some cops are fired for seemingly trivial issues while others are given a pass for egregious conduct it sets bad examples. It tells Officers who to follow, which lies are okay and where things stand in regards to the Blue Wall of Silence. This is how a cancer grows in a department. A blind and subservient government is how it remains untreated and metastasizes.

This year, thanks to this blog, we learned that Fullerton PD and Fullerton City Hall worked to enter into an agreement in order to shield Lieutenant Kathryn Hamel from the disclosure of her crimes. The city was willing to stop investigations in order to protect her, the wife of Irvine Police Chief Mike Hamel, from any sustained findings of dishonesty which would have made her crimes public records under the CA law known as SB1421.

Currently there is an also an officer, Jeff Corbett, being charged with a felony for falsifying his reports as related to the drinking and driving of former Fullerton City Manager Joe Felz in November 2016. That Sergeant was only terminated after a friend of this blog filed a citizen complaint which triggered an investigation which led to a sustained finding of dishonesty. Only AFTER that investigation was concluded in September of 2017 did FPD open their own investigation and terminate Corbett.

These are current issues at the Fullerton Police Department as ignored by our current City Council, City Hall and police brass.

The hearings over Irish’s termination went through 2016 and well into 2017 while Sergeant Corbett was being given a pass for clearly violating department policy during the Felz incident. This is at best an inconsistent application of policy and a strong indicator of favoritism in the department – ergo, cancer.

If you think I’m being hyperbolic about comparing Paul Irish to Frank Serpico in premise, in the notion that the Department will crush one of their own to cover their corruption or incompetence – remember that I’m being sued, along with David Curlee and this blog, for allegedly clicking links and posting stories that showed police misconduct. Stories that showed the Kathryn Hamel deal. A story about a pervert cop at Fullerton High School that FPD and City Hall wanted kept secret. The city has never disputed those stories, or others – they’ve just demanded we remove the truth from this site while defaming us as thieves and hackers.

Your tax dollars are being used to punish us not because we allegedly clicked links and thus broke a federal law in the process. We’re being sued because we, yet again, embarrassed Fullerton PD by pointing out corruption and malfeasance and my records requests, if fulfilled as required by law, would embarrass them further. They’re using your money and the courts to intimidate and attempt to silence us because we again stepped out of line. We got in the way of the Blue Wall of Silence and both those in uniform and those in charge at City Hall are too self-interested and too cowardly to stand up for what is right. Too worried about their pensions, campaign dollars and cronyism to be ethical. They preach integrity and practice treachery.

Sadly the tale of Paul Irish is just another in a long line of such stories. A story of the government using it’s weight to silence dissent. A story about government arrogance crushing a voice even when it comes in the form of an officer talking about the things the Police Department hypocritically displays on their own walls. Ethics used during times of convenience are no ethics at all.

Friends for Ferguson Family’s Future

Many of you have asked how to help our named bloggers sued by the City of Fullerton for doing nothing more than telling the truth. In addition to being absurd, the City of Fullerton also decided to be cruel and named one of our blogger’s employers in their ridiculous lawsuit without cause or merit, which resulted in said blogger’s unemployment. It’s likely the city’s onslaught will continue for months if not years.

The First Amendment exists to prevent this exact occurrence: Government using its considerable resources to destroy the life of individuals who criticize those in power. Here we are in 2019 watching it happen. Joshua Ferguson and his wife have three children. As a result of the city refusing to accept responsibility for its actions and instead accusing Ferguson of being a criminal; rent payments, Christmas, and the basic necessities of life are all under serious duress.

Fellow Fullerton Friend and Fullerton Parks and Recreation Commissioner Erik Wehn established a fundraising page for Joshua Ferguson this morning. We encourage all of you who value speaking truth to power and our fundamental American liberties to donate to the Ferguson cause. I don’t have to tell those of you who know this particular family that the Fergusons value their own hard work and being put in a position to accept charity is extremely difficult, but desperate times call for corresponding measures.

Joshua Ferguson has taken on corruption in the city of Fullerton and needs your help!

Last week Joshua Ferguson announced he had filed suit to get access to documents Fullerton is legally required to produce (thanks to CA Senate Bill 1421) concerning police lying, cheating, stealing, molesting, and beating of people. Guess what he received a week later as a direct consequence of standing up to the entrenched and belligerent interests at city hall? A retaliatory, anti-First Amendment lawsuit including Joshua and his employer, who had no involvement in what the suit alleges.

Not wanting to cause harm to his employer of ten years, Joshua resigned.

Now Joshua has a very expensive fight ahead of him and a family to feed.

Out of concern for his family, Joshua hesitated to take this fight on, but he wants his three kids to learn to stand up for what’s right, no matter the risk.

Now it’s our turn to do our part, uphold that principle, and remind others that if you fight the good fight you won’t be alone.

Please consider donating what you can to help Joshua fight the culture of corruption in Fullerton.

Erik Wehn

We often take for granted the cost of defending our right to free speech. It’s hard to miss the young men and women fighting for our country, but it’s easy to miss the patriot at the podium during a town council meeting who gets abused by the state for exercising a fundamental right.

Not all of us are brave enough to stake a personal cost in the fight for freedom. Joshua’s wife and three kids will personally bear this burden for us, the very least we can do is lighten the load.

Donate, help Ferguson fight back, and share widely.