Remember the assertion by dithering dinosaur Don Bankhead that without Redevelopment, Fullerton would be a ghost town?
Or, to put it another way:
Is Fullerton doomed to become a ghost town? Bankhead thinks so or he wouldn’t have said it, right?
Or could Fullerton become an incubator of interesting and profitable businesses run by people whose ideas are not grounded in government subsidies and write-downs, gifts, and grants? Old big-government liberals like Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley have more faith in central government economic intervention and subsidy than they do in any free market ideals. And that’s how we ended up with a saloon in every other building in downtown Fullerton.
Yesterday the California State Supreme Court pulled the plug on the scam known as Redevelopment. The agencies that were created under the Health and Welfare Code to eliminate urban blight had taken on lives of their own, of course, and became sinkholes of waste, abusers of eminent domain, handers out of corporate welfare, and implementers of aesthetic fascism.
Good riddance. Despite stout defense by big government addicts like Don Bankhead, Pat McKinley and Dick Jones, the sad truth is that for every paltry “success” of Redevelopment, there have been a hundred failures – failures for which there was no accountability, and no responsibility. The Redevelopment klown kar had no rearview mirrors.
The Court unanimously found that the Legislature does indeed have the power to disband that which it created – common sense to you and me, but a horror-in-the-making to all the lawyers, bond salesmen, grifters, con men, housecoats, no-talent architects, and design Nazis who make their livings off of the property tax increment theft.
What will happen to all the recently approved projects in Fullerton is uncertain, although there is little doubt that McKinley, Bankhead and Jones will try to keep building over-dense low-income housing for the benefit of their handlers, especially anti-recall team leader, Dick Ackerman.
Nevertheless, the result of the decision is crystal clear: victory for the people of California; defeat for the Unknown Government and its Invisible Empire.
Guess so, but it seems to be oddly short, and it doesn’t appear to be for loud, sloppy drunks.
Image swiped from OC Weekly
Yesterday, Brandon Ferguson of The OC Weeklyposted a story about how he has been banned from the Slidebar bar, presumably for sharing the allegation that it was a Slidebar employee who made that fateful call that somebody appeared to be breaking into cars in the parking lot. That call, whoever made it, led to the cop torture and beating death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man, last July 5th .
Of course no evidence has ever been presented that anybody was breaking into cars, and no evidence linking Thomas to any illegal act.
Incidentally, the other day Brandon Ferguson noted that The Weekly was getting the cold shoulder from FPD spokesphincter Andrew Goodrich, apparently because of Marisa Gerber’s Fringie® winning expose on the rampant Culture of Corruption in Goodrich’s department: you know, all that garbage he neglects to inform his employers (us) about. That got Marisa hollered at by the arrogant swine.
Here’s a story from CNN about how Egyptian military authorities subjected arrested women protesters to strip searches and “virginity tests.”
Here’s the money quotation from one of the charming gentlemen generals who run that unfortunate land:
“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,” the general told CNN at the time. “These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs).”
Those girls weren't credible, either...
Now does that sound familiar? Oh, yeah, right. The She Bear at the Soroptimists. Maybe we should invite Amnesty International to Fullerton to check up on Chief McKinley and his She Bear.
So reports the Register, here. Seems a serious accident took place. Wednesday, at 1:45 in the morning.
Never saw it coming.
Apparently some pedestrians (i.e. jaywalkers) were crossing mid-block on Harbor between Santa Fe and Commonwealth. They were smacked by a northbound vehicle into the southbound lane, where injury was added to injury. The victims were reported to be in critical condition at UCI, favored treatment locale for DTF trauma victims.
In what must have been an attempt at deadpan humor, the register’s Denisse Salazar’s writes:
The investigation is continuing, and it’s not yet known if alcohol played a role in the accident.
Of course we will be told that the open air booze-a-thon created by the Fullerton City Council played no part in the accident.
Everybody who goes to church is familiar with the concept of tithing – literally giving one tenth of your income to support the church and its good works. Of course the act is voluntary.
The people who pay for water from the Fullerton Water Works have been paying a tithe, too. You see, since 1970 the Citycrats have decreed that ten percent of the cost of a monopoly supplying you with water will be added to your bill, and then be immediately re-directed to the City’s General Fund.
In the early days, when water was dirt cheap it was a way to help pay for certain indirect costs of employees who were considered overhead support for the water works. It was called an “in-lieu franchise fee” like the ones the City charges other utilities to operate in Fullerton. Still, there was an immediate problem that nobody addressed: it was bad management, and bad accounting, and opened the door for all sorts of abuse. Decades later, in 1997, Proposition 218 was passed that specifically addressed the scam of governments charging “fees” that were nothing more than hidden taxes – just like Fullerton’s 10% in-lieu fee. It was now required that fee amounts be established through objective supportable analysis that was conducted transparently, in the light of public scrutiny. No longer could governments legally charge for more than any service was worth.
But Fullerton did. For 15 years the City continued to charge, then rake off a ten percent tribute from the Water Fund that went to pay for things like pensions and pay raises for all Fullerton city employees, stuff that had nothing to do with providing water to you. Not only did the city councils know about the scam, they heartily approved the slight-of-hand, year after year.
Meantime, the cost of water skyrocketed, increasing nearly 350% between 1997 and now, jacking up the illegal tax from $700,000 a year in 1997 to over $2.5 million a year now. That’s a rate of about 23%a year, just in case you’re inclined to keep track. A staggering total of almost $27 million has been surreptitiously extorted from you since Proposition 218 went into effect.
Those who support this cheapjack end run think it’s right and proper for you to pay this tithe without your knowing it, and without your consent. After all they’ve had plenty of opportunity to insist, at least, that notification of the 10% diversion be made on each water bill. But they never have. And that’s because their first priority is continue funding six-figure pensions, automatic raises for employees, and all the other things that constitute business as usual in their Church of The Almighty Bureaucrat. It’s their church, and as far as the High Priests and pharisees are concerned, you taxpayers can just sit in the back pew, way, way back there in the dark, and keep your mouths shut.
The City of Fullerton bookkeepers have provided us with a summary of the money illegally added to our water bills over the last 15 years, and boy does it add up. You see, 10% has been added on to our water rates, then immediately siphoned off to pay for non-water related expenses.
Where does the money go, you ask? Well, among other things it goes to pay for Pat McKinley’s bloated pension, stays at four-star hotels for Don Bankhead and Dick Jones, etc., etc., etc. Feel violated by the scam? You should.
Last night my compadre the Harpoon penned an angry response to words attributed to outgoing “Acting” Chief Kevin Hamilton that Fullerton was “a town under attack.”
It was a good try, but Harpoon missed the point. Fullerton is under attack!
Fullerton is under attack by a rogue police force that couldn’t control its own uniformed hoodlums, even if it wanted to. And apparently it doesn’t.
Fullerton is under attack by a sclerotic trio of antiquated imbeciles who will never take responsibility for their own failure of leadership.
Fullerton is under attack by a bureaucracy that has fraudulently duped the water rate payers for at least 15 years by tacking on a 10% tax on their water bills without a single effort to inform them about it. Every step of the way in this squalid scam the City Council nodded agreement, and said nothing.
Fullerton is under attack from the Redevelopment Army of jobbers, fixers, bag, men, whores, and other assorted camp followers who want to divert funds from necessary public use into the pockets of favored “developers,” consultants, and lobbyists. And our Three Sclerotic Tree Sloths? Bamboozled? Of course not. These supposedly staunch conservatives are hooked on the smack of Central Government Economic Planning like a street hype is to his junk.Jones even referred to Redevelopment money as candy to be handed out to deserving kids.
Think the threat is false? Even now the Three Dry Wells are pursuing a legal battle to illegally broaden Fullerton’s Redevelopment zone into areas where there is no blight, a basic legal requirement.
Fullerton is under attack by an ignorant, somnolent, rude, self-righteous Turgid Trio that has left the city’s infrastructure a mess, the citizens in fear of their safety, and budget reserves depleted.
Yes Fullerton is under attack. Harpoon got one thing right. We are Fullerton. And we’re fighting back
In case you missed it, the City Hall cheerleading Fullerton Stories website did a typical fluff post on the departure of Sylvia Palmer-Mudrick, the person who has been writing all those propaganda press releases that Jackie Brown, Barbara Giasone, and Lou Ponsi have been re-typing under their own names for the past twenty-five years. Good-bye Sylvia, enjoy your pension.
What caught my eye was the remarkable quote by four-month old “Acting” Chief (and soon to be massive pension recipient) Kevin Hamilton, who coughed up this oily hairball:
“Sylvia loves this town with all of her heart. She’s (recently) seen a side of Fullerton she’s never seen before … a town under attack.
“She continues to defend the reputation of this city, and she would give her life for this town,” Hamilton said.
A town under attack? Really?
And just who the in Hell do you think you are you jackass? It was your police force that robbed, beat up, perjured, sexually assaulted, and murdered innocent citizens. How goddam dare you claim that the City is under attack.Your filthy, corrupt department is under attack – by us, the citizens of Fullerton. We are the City, not you and your gang of thugs, hoodlums and pickpockets.
As if they didn’t have enough problems already, the Fullerton Police Department may have a new issue to grapple with: the wrath of the Almighty. According to Brandon Ferguson of the OC Weekly, a couple of Fullerton cops rudely broke up an annual celebration in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe over in an east-side alley. According to a witness one cop was heard to yell “I don’t give a fuck. You have to end this, or you’re getting arrested.”
Hmm. Nice community relations there.
¡Ay caramba! As they say, ¡No bueno! What’s next for FPD? Breaking down the doors of the church because the music is too loud?
The best part of the story is that apparently FPD spokes-stool Andrew Goodrich has decided to play hard to get with the Weekly in retribution for Marisa Gerber’s magisterial story of FPD law breaking and goonery. Important job tip, Andy: angering the media is no way for an under-employed PR jerk-off to make friends.
