Friends For Fullerton's Future
FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Mayor Dick Jones is a councilmember in the City of Fullerton. He is known for using his position on the council to serve out mindless babble and execute revenge on those who have spited him in decades past.
According to the OC Registrar of Voters the sampling of the Fullerton Recall signatures has validated the number needed to recall Bankhead, Jones and McKinley.
Here’s what the sampling projects for totals:
McKinley 13,604
Bankhead 13,355
Jones 14,361
The recall needed about 10,500 to qualify. Not even close.
And now it’s time for the Three Dithering Dinosaurs to certify the signatures themselves and call a special election. This will be agendized for February 21, 2012. Will they do it?
Well, you didn’t think they could do it, did you? Well we didn’t either. But the boys in the White Van overcame their three-month peyote and grapefruit juice-induced haze and picked up an audio recording of a conversation that we think you will enjoy. It seems that one night a few weeks ago they were parked in the neighborhood of the brick veenered and mansarded ranch house of Col. F. Dick Jones, USAF(Ret.), MD.
The transcription from the audio recording that you are about to read is so true to life that you might almost accept it as something that really happened.
(sound of a telephone ringing)
Dick Jones: Hella, this here’s Dick Jones. Doctah Dick Jones.
Dick Ackerman: (grunting noises) Dick, Dick. I got Ellis with me.
Jones: (wheezing noises) Dick Dick? What the Hell you talkin’ ’bout boy? What the Hell’s Elliswithme? Ah say, speak up, boy!
Ackerman: It’s Ackerman and Ellis. We’re running the campaign against Bushala. Protect Fullerton, remember?
Dave Ellis: Hi, Dick. Dick. Just got the check. Thanks a bundle.
Jones: Dick Dick? Aw, coll-sarn it y’all r’ a-startin’ that agin’. Whatcha boys talkin’ ’bout?
Ackerman: (more indecipherable short guttural sounds) Okay, shut up. Who else is there?
Jones: Me ‘n Don and Pat. We been a-waitin’ on yer call.
Ackerman: Okay. We on speaker? Good (three more staccato grunts). Everything’s going great. Got Bushala and those high school doper drop-outs on the run. Heh heh. Dave, give ’em an update.
Ellis: (a distinct sound of ice cubes rattling in a cocktail glass followed by a loud slurping sound. Karaoke in background ) Recission cards are pouring in – thousands, hundreds, millions of ’em. Our mailers are working great. Worth every penny. Bieber’s the best. Haha. Bushala slum lord, Bushala jailbird. Hahaha. Bushala dope-head. This is like taking candy from a baby. Hey, that sounds like fun, too! Haha.
Don Bankhead: (muffled sounds followed by a few snorts) Quite frankly…(indecipherable sounds that appear to be snoring).
Jones: Hey Pat, a-jiggle joggle that boy awake fer me, will ya? ‘Tamnation ah wish’d ah’d just a-quit. That damn Royce.
Ackerman: (a loud bark followed by a protracted low snarl) Goddamit stay focused. We got ’em on the run. The people of Fullerton know their city’s not for sale. This is my city.
Jones: It ain’t fer sale? But we’s open fer bidness! Ye-haw!
Pat McKinley: Pat here, Dick. I’m ready to deploy. Just give me some nun-chucks and some tear gas. Tasers. They enjoy pain. My boys’ll do anything for me. Did I mention that somebody punctured my Kevlar® gas tank? Freaks and hippies. Terrorists. She Bear, oh yeah!
Ackerman: Jesus Christ, you’re all nuts.
Jones: (a phlegmy wheeze followed by a disctinct sound of expectoration) Ah’m a doctah ‘n a kernel. I ain’t a-gonna stand fo’ no mo’ ana-key. Ah’m a fomah Mayuh!
Ellis: We need more money for the next mailing.
Jones: Whuzza? How much we in fer so fah?
Ackerman: Um, er, Dave?
Ellis: About fifty-five.
McKinley: Fifty-five hundred? That’s not bad. I make three times that each month for my pension! Not counting my She Bear royalties for all those books I sold at the Chamber.
Ackerman: (a bark) I wish you’d quit reminding people about that stuff you idiot. No. Fifty-five thousand.
Jones: Sweet Blubberin’ Baby Jebus! Oh Gawd, ah think ah’m a-havin’ a conniption!
Ackerman: (an unmistakable snarl) Settle down, Dick. This is about more than just you. If this recall goes through I’m finished in Fullerton. No more kickbacks, no more fake residences.
Jones: Aww Lawdy, ah’m a-comin’ home! Fiddy-five thousand? (A series of choking sounds followed by a low moan). Aw-w-w-w-w-w-w.
Ackerman: Look, we’re in the home stretch. Do you want to lose your jobs or worry about a few grand? Jesus, most of it came from the cops anyway. Let’s talk about Phase Two.
Jones: Mah repa-tay-shun. Tarnation, MuhKinlay, a-joggle jiggle that boy awake agin’. We gotta get hard, n’ tough and n’ mean!
(muffled noises, coughing and assorted grunts)
Bankhead: Uh, really and truly. Uh. What? What was Phase One, again?
Ackerman: (a grunt) Phase One was where we softened ’em up with body blows. They’re about ready to quit.
Jones: But they got all them signa’ters anyway. Fiddy-five thousand.
Ackerman: Shut up and listen. Phase Two. Dave?
Ellis: Phase Two is to alert the media that all those signatures are going to be invalidated. We’re gonna need another five thou, give or take. We need another mailer
Jones: Fiddy-five thousand. Aw Lawd ‘a Mercy! What we need another mailer fer?
Ellis: We’re going on the offensive, take ’em down. Fullerton’s Not For Sale. Bushala the Terrorist. Haha.
McKinley: People keep asking me about the police department and that damn Kelly Thomas video. Jesus, you can’t even blouse up a bum anymore. And that She Bear talk in Brea. Now they keep asking me about Rincon. What do I tell em?
Ackerman: Tell ’em Bushala keeps chickens in his backyard. Heh, heh. Damn Norby’s behind all this (more low growling).
Jones: Whaddabout that watah fee Hitlah thing?
Ellis: Bushala wants to buy your city!
Bankhead: Things of that nature…(snoring resumes).
Ackerman: Okay, just raise more money. Everybody whose ever got a dime off of Redevelopement chips in. And I mean everybody, got it? Hey, what’s that van doing out there? What the? How long…
At this point the conversation was terminated.
Here‘s an article in the Register about Fullerton Councilman Bruce Whitaker asking his fellow councilmembers to vote on whether to see the video of the Kelly Thomas killing at the hands of the FPD. He seems to be suffering from the delusion that Fullerton elected leaders should be intelligently informed.
It’s an interesting article for two reasons. First is the reaction of councilman Pat McKinley, former FPD Chief, and architect of the Culture of Corruption in the force. You would expect him to be opposed to letting anybody see the actions of goons he hired personally and let loose on the streets of Fullerton. But what’s that you say, Pat?:
Councilman Pat McKinley, Fullerton’s former police chief, said he is “violently opposed” to the release of the video.
“I think it’s completely off-base,” McKinley said. “It’s absolutely unprecedented, and it would be wrong to view that before the trial.”
Violently opposed? Now that doesn’t sound like a balanced man, does it? His reaction to a perfectly reasonable request says much about McPension the man. Is he about to go off the deep end?
Mcpension may not want the video released, but I assure you it has nothing to do with any trial, and everything to do with a recall election.
The other thing that struck me as odd is the City Attorney’s alleged request to the DA for permission to view the video and the imbecilic comments ascribed to DA spokesholetress Susan Kang Schroeder, who seems to be just making shit up. The council could watch this video as a closed session personnel issue and nobody else would have to see it. Also, the FPD is bound to have made copies so why ask the DA for permission at all – except to get that “no” answer you want? Acting Chief Hughes, who is neither investigating nor trying anybody, claims to have viewed the video 400 times! I’m starting to suspect everybody has seen this video – except some of the council and of course, the public.
And as a final thought, is there anybody in Fullerton who believed the serial prevaricator Pat McKinley when, after an awkward pause on CNN, he denied seeing the video himself?
We’ve had a lot of fun exposing the waste and incompetence of our three Jurassic councilmen, Bankhead Jones, and McKinley, although the indecent exposure hasn’t been pretty. The Redevelopment scams, the Water Fund fraud, and the Culture of Corruption in the Fullerton Police Department all point to sclerotic ineptitude of Biblical proportions.
But nothing that came before prepared me for the Protect Fullerton expenses identified on their Form 460.
Somehow these dopes managed to spend $55,000 in a few months mounting a pathetic opposition to the Fullerton Recall signature drive. $55,000 spent on a gang of fixers and political prostitutes assembled by OC’s number one bag man, the “Honorable” Dick Ackerman. The childish website, the dumb mailers, the rotten political advice cost the Three Sluggish Sloths plenty. And what do they have to show for it? A handful of recission cards from people who probably never even signed the Recall petition in the first place.
But, lest you feel sorry about the poor boobs who had their hard-earned contributions wasted by these dodos, consider the source: over half the dough came from the Fullerton cop union and a few other police agencies across the state – including the cop slush fund that is fronting the money to pay for Ramos and Cicinelli’s lawyers.
And to wrap the package in a pretty bow, Friends, reflect on this: if the Three Dimwits can throw their money around to such little effect, just think what they have been doing with our money all these years.
But not before ripping off the taxpayers of yet another $150,000 in the form of a disability claim. Apparently he got sick of his job and two compliant medicos agreed the poor bastard was just too ill to continue. But fear not. On disability half of Seller’s $18,000 a month pension will be tax free.
The City’s lawyer who dealt with the case is satisfied. Well, he’s not picking up the tab, we are. And come to think about I wonder how hard the City really pushed back on this scam.
Here’s the announcement from City Hall pensioner and new-hire Sylvia Palmer Mudrick.
And why not? Life is good when you can get away with grabbing a public sidewalk and build a building on it. “Are you crazy, Joe?” I can hear you saying. No. FFFF shared the story, here.
The sidewalk grabber was Mr. Anthony Florentine, proprietor of the Tuscany Club. Here he is chipping in to save the Three Dithering Diplosaurs:
And the guy that let Florentine get away with the heist was none other than former Fullerton Development Services Director F. Paul Dudley, whose incompetent tenure caused harm to Fullerton that will probably never be fixed. A member of Fullerton’s $100,000 pension club, Dudley makes extra cash lobbying his former employers on behalf of developers. So he’s working to keep the Old Boys in office, too:
Of course Dudley had help in brushing off the sidewalk scam, and then papering it over. And he had help in the persons of Don Bankhead and “Dick” Jones, previously beneficiaries of Florentine’s campaign largess.
What nice people.
Update: Gentle Friends, I forgot to remind you that Pelican Ontario was also shaken down, er, contributed $300 to Pam Keller for her Fullerton Collaborative just ’cause they care so darn much for Fullerton.
Here’s a snippet from the anti-recall Protect Fullerton Form 460 – indicating a healthy contribution from Pelican Ontario LLC.
What is Pelican Ontario? Why that’s the partnership proposing “Amerige Court,” that god-awful downtown Fullerton monstrosity in which millions of dollars worth of land is to be given to the developer for free. What’s that you say? Free? Of course. Because to people like McKinley, Jones, and Bankhead giving public resources to private interests without due consideration isn’t a gift of public funds, it’s being pro-business. We get stuck with the traffic and they get the campaign contributions.
You have to admit it takes a lot of nerve to attack Tony Bushala as a downtown developer when he isn’t, and at the same time take the money from people who have millions of reasons to prop up the Three Dyspeptic Dinosaurs. But these worthies are not bothered by ethical nuisances like hypocrisy.
The Anti-recall squad is boasting of its broad range of fundraising support, including developers, city contractors, and the police union. Naturally the Fullerton cops have given liberally to the defense of the Three Dithering Dinosaurs – a whopping $19,000 last fall. If you peruse the FPOA’s Form 460 you will certainly discover some familiar names. Names like Goodrich, Mater, Tong, Hampton, Nguyen, Mejia, Power, Siliceo, Coffman, Blatney, Craig, Thayer, Wren and other by now familiar characters who have a vested interest in supporting the sclerotic regime that has permitted a Culture of Corruption at the Fullerton Police Department.
But the names that really jump out at you are serial sex pervert Albert Rincon, and the two goons, Manny Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, who have been charged with the murder of Kelly Thomas. I don’t know about you, but I would just feel ashamed having those names on my list of supporters. But apparently shame is not an emotion experienced by Mssrs. Bankhead, Jones and McKinley . These fine gentlemen say they are proud to be supported by law enforcement.
Well, I predict that they are going to come to regret that pride.
Here’s a republication of a post from early November. It details the extravagant pension payouts bestowed upon Fullerton employees. Of particular note are the number of rank and file cops and firemen on the list. How did they get there? Courtesy of enormous salaries and of course the disastrous 3@50 formula approved by Council barnacles Bankhead and Jones. That single decision created a massive unfunded actuarial liability that is the legal responsibility of every citizen of Fullerton.
And there’s Pat McPension, the architect of the FPD Culture of Corruption, who makes $121K off of us each year for doing nothing.
This list will no doubt receive a lot of attention during the recall campaign
– Joe Sipowicz
Originally published November 4, 2011
Another year has passed and another set of City of Fullerton retirees have added to the growing unfunded pension liability that will plague us for generations. In fact, membership has swelled by a startling 41% this year alone.
The most notable new member is retired City Manager Chris Meyer, who has plopped himself in the second spot with a $170,984.52 per year reward for all the time he spent carefully overlooking the mismanagement of the Fullerton PD and the vast expansion of the city’s pension debt.
Meyer was spotted at yesterday’s anti-recall fundraiser, too. That’s no surprise to us, since Bankhead and Jones did attempt a retroactive pension spike in 2008 that would have sent Meyer’s own pension into orbit just a few years before his exit.
| Name | Annual | Position |
| JAMES “JIM” REED | $ 173,524.32 | Fire |
| CHRISTOPHE “CHRIS” G MEYER | $ 170,984.52 | City Manager |
| KAREN LINDSEY-MACDONALD | $ 165,285.48 | Police |
| GREGORY E MAYES | $ 156,047.40 | Police |
| JOHN T PETROPULOS | $ 152,784.60 | Police |
| GEOFFREY L SPALDING | $ 151,770.96 | Police |
| JOHN S GODLEWSKI | $ 145,499.04 | Community Development Director |
| DANIEL F CHIDESTER | $ 145,049.28 | Fire |
| MICHAEL C MAYNARD | $ 144,678.00 | Police |
| GARY M DOMINGUEZ | $ 143,618.76 | Fire |
| ALLEN W BURKS | $ 139,186.44 | Police |
| FRANK P DUDLEY | $ 139,120.44 | Development Services Director |
| DOUGLAS L CAVE | $ 136,626.96 | Police |
| ANTONIO H HERNANDEZ | $ 132,549.36 | Police |
| H S HUNT | $ 131,591.40 | Parks and Rec Director |
| STEVEN M MATSON | $ 130,359.84 | Police |
| RONNY T ROWELL | $ 130,225.32 | Police |
| GLENN L STEINBRINK | $ 129,608.16 | Administrative Director |
| MARK H FLANNERY | $ 125,723.64 | Director of Personnel |
| RICHARD W RILEY | $ 125,304.00 | Fire |
| DAVID J STANKO | $ 125,147.04 | Police |
| TERRY W STRINGHAM | $ 125,062.80 | Fire |
| ROBERT E HODSON | $ 124,810.08 | Director of Engineering |
| ROBERT “BOB” B RICHARDSON | $ 123,441.48 | Police |
| GEORGE E NEWMAN | $ 122,964.60 | |
| DANIEL R BECERRA | $ 121,643.64 | Police |
| NEAL R BALDWIN | $ 121,363.80 | Police |
| DAVID M DUNCAN | $ 121,131.96 | Fire |
| ALFRED R CASAS | $ 120,549.96 | Police |
| PATRICK E MCKINLEY | $ 120,381.96 | Chief of Police |
| PHILIP A GOEHRING | $ 119,719.92 | Police |
| TERRENCE L SCHULZ | $ 118,629.84 | Fire |
| BRAD A HOCKERSMITH | $ 118,629.48 | Fire |
| BONNIE J CLANIN | $ 118,302.12 | Police |
| JEFFREY E ROOP | $ 118,198.20 | Police |
| DONALD R PEARCE | $ 112,341.96 | Police |
| CAROLYN E JOHNSON | $ 111,509.88 | Library Director |
| TIMOTHY JANOVICK | $ 111,069.12 | |
| KURT J BERTUZZI | $ 110,653.56 | Fire |
| PAUL C TURNEY | $ 110,022.00 | |
| RONALD B GILLETT | $ 109,764.48 | Police |
| LINDA J KING | $ 109,553.40 | Police |
| ARTHUR D WIECHMANN | $ 108,368.40 | Police |
| JONATHON E MCAULAY | $ 106,163.76 | Fire |
| JOHN W PIERSON | $ 105,626.04 | Police |
| VICKI L MAGLIOCCO | $ 105,533.40 | Fire |
| GREGORY E ABERCROMBIE | $ 105,351.00 | Police |
| WILLIAM D KENDRICK | $ 105,310.92 | Police |
| RICHARD A HUTCHINSON | $ 104,986.56 | Fire |
| HUGH L BERRY | $ 104,544.12 | Assistant City Manager |
| MARVIN B WILDER | $ 102,941.64 | |
| MICHAEL L BURGES | $ 101,931.00 | |
| MICHAEL L FIELDS | $ 101,318.52 | Police |
| CHRIS P HARRIS | $ 100,730.64 | Fire |
| KENNETH R HEAD | $ 100,526.40 | Police |
| Total Monthly | $568,146.80 | |
| Total Annually | $6,817,761.60 |
Source: CFFR Pension Database
UPDATE:
Sorry guys, I forgot to add this gem from the article:
In the weeks after the July incident, more trouble surfaced: an officer facing charges for stealing an iPad at a Miami airport; another facing termination after reports of sexual misconduct; police raiding the wrong house in search for a probationer.
This sentence sure makes it look like Ponsi is finally starting to lay the facts on the table, until you realize that we broke the Mejia story in June, before, the Thomas murder (Ponsi swiped that from FFFF without attribution); the raid on the wrong house occurred in 2010; Rincon’s debauchery started years and years ago and included the complicity of the entire department. And of course there is no mention at all of incidents that must have involved higher ups, like the Gochenour suicide and the beating, false arrest and phony prosecution of Veth Mam.
– Joe Sipowicz
When you’ve had some practice, it’s amazing how much you can write without saying anything. In fact, between the first sentence and the last, people adept at it can cram all sorts of empty stuff into their essays. The conclusion is always the same. Reading such drivel is like eating a bag of marshmallows.
Here is our old friend Lou Ponsi of the Register doing his usual gig. The story is all about Fullerton’s image in the wake of the Kelly Thomas murder by members of the Fullerton Police Department. To his credit Ponsi finally describes the DA’s version of the actions of Ramos and Cicinelli: a “rain of blows.” Everything else is fluffery designed to avoid the critical main crux of Fullerton’s present problems: that out of control rogue cops have been permitted to prey upon the citizens of and visitors to Fullerton, and the Kelly Thomas episode was not an isolated case at all.
Ponsi’s story includes the obligatory interview with a Chamber of Commerce booster-type – Davis Barber (who also pretends to be a real reporter, yet tips his hand rather badly) and some business owners defending the honor of Fullerton. Oh, and of course there’s the de riguer academic “expert,” who arrives upon the scene to compliment the City for bringing in Michael Gennaco.
As usual you can avoid getting the sort of responses you don’t want by asking all the wrong questions.
Did Ponsi ask Acting Chief Dan Hughes to explain the actions of Rincon, Mater, Power, Mejia, Tong, Hampton, Cross, Goodrich, et al? Has he yet asked anybody to explain the call that came in the night of July 5th; or why the cops involved were permitted to watch the video and coached to re-write their reports? Did he ask those interviewed if they knew about the serial transgressions of all these cops?
Bet not.
The strategy of the FPD and its apologistas now seems to be to make FPDs problems mostly about image and lack of communication with the public. The Kelly Thomas thing? Oh, yeah, mostly about two aliens who didn’t know how to deal with the mentally ill homeless.
Come on in and take the tour. Glad to see ya. Big hugs. Air kiss!