Dick Jones Archives - Page 43 of 50 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

September 17, 2009December 28, 2009Dick Jones

Who Should Be Fullerton’s Next Mayor? Pam Keller?

it's really just a little wood hammer...

The recent edition of the Fullerton Observer did some boohooing and hand wringing about whether or not Pam Keller will get to be Fullerton’s next mayor here . The little article points out some of the nefarious goings on in Fullerton Past and the current council’s refusal to adopt some sort of mechanism to ensure that everybody gets a chance to be mayor.

We believe the person who should be Mayor of Fullerton is the person who can get two other colleagues to vote for him/her. That’s pretty simple. If they can count to three it’s their turn.

Fullerton’s lefties know that come reorganization time (1st meeting in December) local Repuglican bigwigs like Ed Royce make it a point to lean on fellow Repugs (In Name Only) like Bankhead and Jones to keep the gavel away from the Dems. But that’s the way it goes. It’s called politics. Fullerton’s “progressives” like to play politics too, but they just won’t admit it. We wonder if they would be so energetic in the defense of Shawn Nelson’s turn to be mayor.

Is Pam Keller qualified to be mayor? Well, let’s face it – if Jones and Bankhead can do it, so could an orangutan.

But we’re still waiting to get some straight answers from Pam and her Collaborative about who foots their bills, and why the money is drip-dried through the FSD; and we were chagrined, although not surprised, to hear her inane defense of the indefensible blight scam behind the recent Redevelopment expansion vote. So maybe she isn’t the best person to be the face of Fullerton.

September 16, 2009December 30, 2009Behind Closed Doors

City and County Collaborate on $25 Million Bribery Plan

by admin8 Comments

Last night the Fullerton City Council voted to give the County of Orange $4,000,000 of your money. Right now. Right out of your pocket.

well, there she goes — Well, there she goes. Say good bye.

So what’s the reason for this unusual generosity? It was because the County was threatening to sue the City over the diversion of property tax increment from the County through the bogus establishment of an expanded Redevelopment project area where no blight exists as required under State law.

The City lawyers, Rutan & Tucker,sure must have felt they had a lousy case – because they cooked up a deal behind the scenes to buy off the County with a ton of up-front cash plus some hinky lease back deals on down the road. Ultimately the total payout will be $25,000,000. We shared news of the the payoff meetings here . The County knows the Redevelopment expansion is fraudulent, because it has already made that argument publicly; but apparently there are at least three votes on the Board of Supervisors to take the deal and help out a fellow government agency. The County will formally go for the gold next week.

The City Council vote was utterly predictable with Pam Keller, Don Bankhead, and Dick Jones cheer leading the payoff. Dick Jones in particular excelled himself in ignorant idiocy. We’ll soon be showing the Friends clips of Fullerton’s City Council in action.

To their credit, both Shawn Nelson and Sharon Quirk-Silva voted against an action that both robs the taxpayers of Fullerton and violates a basic ethical standard. The other three broke the law, and they know it. But they’re not out of the woods, yet. A court will decide the matter.

September 7, 2009May 6, 2011Dick Jones

Beauty and The Beasts

by The Fullerton Shadow22 Comments

Fullerton School District Trustee Minard Duncan (or someone doing a marvelous impersonation) visited our site a while back and left this observation about City Councilman Shawn Nelson’s wife, Sharon:

Nelson’s wife is a very pretty women as well as pleasant and cordial! It is hard not to drool around her.

Apart from the sharp needle-jump into the red on our FFFF creep-o-meter, it set us to thinking about mature male politicos and attractive, significantly younger females.

Minard lookin' good! — Pretty and cordial, too!

Some politicos avoid having their pictures taken with beauty contest winners for fear that the young woman will get all the attention, and the politician will look rather like an ugly duckling alongside. Others either haven’t learned that lesson, or are so starved for attention that they do it anyway.

Say cheese! — No personal space in this biz. Smile 'til it hurts

And of course some just can’t seem to resist laying hands on the pretty young things.

jones_firehouse2_2008 — Yeehaw! A coupla young fillies in the corral...

August 23, 2009February 7, 2012Dick Jones

A One-Year Look Back: Pam’s Approval of the Amerige Court Atrocity

by The Fullerton Shadow14 Comments

It must have been pretty hard for Pam to try to convince her supporters how much she “respected” them – right before she went ahead and stuck it to ’em. Keller’s campaign promise of 2006 was to have planning be “driven” by public input, blah, blah, blah etc., but you get the feeling watching this clip that she had already long since made up her mind to go with the dee-veloper, and was just throwing some verbal crusts for her loyal subjects to gnaw on.

Pam’s comments were well-received by the Chamber lackeys and downtown Redevelopment toadies in the audience, but those who opposed the monster project and had voted for Keller’s promises to represent them rather than development interests, must surely felt just a wee bit, um, betrayed.

The “I’m so torn” plaint, the goofy half-grins, the eye lash battings, (all part of the “I’m just a silly girl” routine), are a pretty annoying shtick. But Pam had better be careful with the coquette act because some lonely swains like Dick Jones seem to get off on it. Check out the hand kiss at the end of the clip and Pam’s apparent revulsion – and then her flippant threat to take back her vote. Enjoy:

August 20, 2009December 30, 2009Dick Jones

Bankhead & Keller Go A Callin’ For Bogus Redevelopment Expansion

by admin13 Comments

According to our well-placed sources, Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead and council member Pam Keller (hereafter referred to as Pam’nDon) made the rounds of the County Supervisors’ offices last week to try to strike a deal with the County not to sue the city on its illegal redevelopment expansion.

PamnDon

We can’t think of two less informed advocates of an issue, but they would never have been sent out if they hadn’t memorized their talking points as presented by Redevelopment legal promoter Jeff Oderman of the notorious Rutan & Tucker. Or maybe Jeff just wrote a figure on a piece of paper and sent them off with it.

Since the County and its attorneys have already gone on record opposing the expansion, we reckon than Pam’nDon went with checkbook in hand. The County objects to the loss of property tax revenue, especially when the whole scam is based on non-existent blight and the phony findings thereof. And so the County pot needs to be sweetened. A lot. Enter Pam’nDon. Of course it’s supposed to be all hush hush, but you know, these things have way of getting out, especially when the old slushola is being divvied up. Transparency is such a bitch.

We have an indication that the County will take the bait, and that, Friends is a story for another day.

August 19, 2009January 4, 2010Arts & Architecture

The City is Violating Its Own Law in Hillcrest Park

by Fred L. Olmsted7 Comments

If you’ve driven along Brea Boulevard lately you will have noticed that the north hill side of Hillcrest Park has been completely scraped as part of the so-called Lions Field improvements. Well, the hillside was suffering from total (and I mean complete) negligence on the part of the City for decades. What is being built, are large retaining structures to “stabilize” the slope. The only problem is that what the slope needed to stabilize it was appropriate landscaping – a solution that the parks Department ignored for years.

The addition of retaining structures in the park is inappropriate. More than that, it’s illegal. Hillcrest Park is a designated Fullerton Landmark (#6) and as such the types of alteration being proposed should have been reviewed in a public hearing by the Landmarks Commission. This never happened. It’s true that Hillcrest Park doesn’t fit into any of the categories included in the watered-down version of the Landmarks Ordinance passed by the City about 12 years ago. But adherence to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards is one key. Another issue is that of demolition and replacement of historic elements. Even the watered down code has a spirit that has not been observed.

Once again the City has ignored its own laws, laws that you or I would be expected to follow. It has specifically ignored the Landmark Ordinance once again, a part of the Zoning Code that the City has habitually and serially abused over the years (if you want I’ll make a list).

For years the City has turned over the park to pervs and low-lifes while ignoring the historic built environment. And now it seems they are embarked on another form of abuse of an historic resource.

August 8, 2009December 30, 2009Dick Jones

Dick Jones; A Genius on Redevelopment Law?

by admin3 Comments

Watch Dick bobble head his way through convincing himself and Redevelopment agency director Rob Zur Schmeide that he knows all about redevelopment law as it relates to financing, bank loans, collateral, debt, you name it and Dick’s an expert, enjoy!

August 5, 2009August 10, 2009Dick Jones

Dick Declines Handout; “…..I live up on the hill”

by admin7 Comments

This clip is short but meaningful. Claiming East & West Fullerton are “blighted”, Councilman Dick Jones and the Redevelopment Agency wants to take “money” from the schools, police and fire departments, and use it to build “municipal auditoriums, affordable housing, and even homes.” Of course none of this is about good ol’ Dick. He’s doin’ jes fine up on the hill. Enjoy!

August 4, 2009August 4, 2009Dick Jones

Euclid Commons: What Is It?

by The Fullerton Harpoon8 Comments

Yesterday we ran a post on the duplicitous way the City started the ball rolling behind closed doors on a big housing project that promises CEQA impacts on its neighbors. In fact decisions are already being taken that should have been done under the illumination of a public hearing.

The project even has a name, “Euclid Commons” that makes us wish to make a quick pit stop at the West Harbor Alley Improvement Project vomitorium. A couple of comments provided descriptions of what was being proposed that seemed to differ considerably and so we provide la tabula rasa for our Friends to chime in and see if any clarifications are forthcoming.

The issue of starting negotiations is being addressed tonight (Aug 4th) behind closed doors since the public can’t be trusted to even know that a project is now officially (if secretly) sanctioned by the City Council. There will be “reporting out” but no public comment. Really, what have they got to hide?

July 28, 2009December 28, 2009Dick Jones

More Redevelopment Befuddlement By Dick Jones

by The Fullerton Harpoon15 Comments

Some people are determined to talk. They just can’t help it. They believe that the more stuff they say the more informed they appear. Even if it’s just babble to the rest of us.

Well, I've got a heap 'o talkin to do... — Well, I've got a heap 'o talkin' to do...

Take our own Councilman Dick Jones. If we didn’t mine so much pure gold out of this bonehead’s blathering we really would beg him just to shut up – if only to soothe our agitated synapses.

synapses — Oh boy, this is gonna hurt in the morning!

One of his favorite reasons for promoting Redevelopment expansion is that the money can be used to satisfy low-income housing mandates, imposed by the evil bastards in Sacramento, or Karakhastan, or Tanganyisha, or whatever mythical countries exist in his febrile imagination.

The fact is that housing objectives come from SCAG – the Southern California Association of Governments – a bureaucratic local government consortium made up of people like Jones and guided by public employees. The housing targets, by income classification, are contained in the RHNA (pronounced “reena”) – the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, and are divvied up among local jurisdictions. These numbers are merely “goals,” not mandates. The whole thing is a bureaucratic paper chase and hardly anybody takes it seriously except far lefties.

We didn't get much done|But the paperwork was fun! — We didn't get much done, but we built a huge stack of paper.

Which brings us to the point of this post. We wonder what Jones’ Republican backers like Ed Royce and Dick Ackerman think about Jones actively promoting the quasi-socialist RHNA objectives in Fullerton. He is sounding more and more like Sharon Kennedy with each passing meeting. So we have to wonder who’s coaching him on housing issues (well, no we really don’t).

Finally, Jones doesn’t talk about the real mandate; it comes from Redevelopment law itself: the 20% property tax increment set-aside for “affordable” housing, a requirement created to help compensate when city planners and pols rip up lower income neighborhoods to gentrify them. The new expansion area includes little if any residential housing, so no housing stock is going to be displaced. But sooner or later that 20% set aside will start to accrue, and it will have to be used somewhere in Fullerton.

Somewhere in Fullerton. But not in Dick’s zero sub-prime neighborhood in the hills, you can bet the family farm on that. The buck will certainly stop there.