Fullerton BooHoo Archives - Page 19 of 28 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

December 21, 2018December 21, 2018About Us

Paulette Chaffee Gets Slap On Wrist for Stealing

Ah, privilege.

Raise your hand if you thought that Paulette Marshall Chaffee getting caught on video, TWICE, stealing campaign signs was going to result in justice.

*Raises Own Hand*

Yup. I really did. I thought that getting irrefutable evidence that the ~~Mayor of Fullerton’s~~ Orange County Supervisor’s wife, a candidate running for office, blatantly broke the law to stifle the right of others to freely express themselves during an election was going to result in some sort of real justice.

I am that stupid.

Paulette Marshall Chaffee pled guilty to two charges of petty theft.

Her sentence? A small fine and a few hours of community service and restitution to the victim of $20.

If this wasn’t bad enough, after completing the terms of her plea, the District Attorney will completely wipe the event from history. Paulette will legally be allowed to claim the incidents never happened.

This isn’t justice. This is a Chaffee getting away with cheating, because that’s what rich well connected politicians do.

Best of all? No one is doing to do a damn thing about this. Because in Fullerton what you do isn’t what really matters. It’s who you know and who you call a friend.

That’s the shallow self absorbed city we really live in. Because if Paulette was a crazy homeless person in a parking lot, she wouldn’t be spending Christmas dinner at her big home in District 2 feasting on roast beef and a side of steaming hot victory.

She’d be dead in a gutter while her husband told the media how fabulous the Fullerton Police are for dealing with the criminal element undermining our beautiful town.

June 11, 2018Chronic Failure

Sad Clowns and Whiny Bitches

by The Fish6 Comments

There isn’t much worse in this world than a sad clown.

I feel for this clown. Something bad happened to him. He’s a clown! He’s supposed to be happy. He’s not. Clearly this is wrong. This is not his natural state.

One could say the same thing about a man. A man who’s not in his natural state is a sad thing to behold. He’s supposed to be something. He’s supposed to exude something. For some men it’s confidence. For others, it’s strength. For a few men, it’s hope or inspiration. Whatever it is, a man’s natural state is something good.

Whatever it is, be you.

Celebrate.

Unless you’re a whiny little bitch.

(more…)

November 7, 2017Doug Chaffee

Please Cap Pic

by Mr. Peabody14 Comments

Someone sent in this image of Fullerton City Councilman Doug “Bud” Chaffee and his mate Paulette Marshall. I’m not sure why. Maybe the friends can shed some illumination on this with a helpful caption.

October 31, 2017Boohooism

Who Is Paulette Marshall?

by Mr. Peabody81 Comments

Good question. She is the spouse of Fullerton Councilman Doug “Bud” Chaffee, and has often been considered the brains of the operation.

She is also rumored to be a future council candidate from the 2nd District once that district comes up for election – now slated for 2020. Here is Ms. Marshall attending an underpass opening ceremony. She’s the one over on the left wearing the purple jacket.

Here’s a close up.

But wait. Why is she even there? She doesn’t hold any official position in the city. And even more importantly, why is she wearing a City of Fullerton badge bearing the official city seal? How did she get that badge and why is she wearing it?

A cynical person might suspect that Ms. Marshall is posing in a photo op like this for future campaign material, projecting the subliminal message of “incumbent.” But that would be extremely unethical and really hard to credit.

July 27, 2017July 30, 2017Chronic Failure

Fhern

by Mr. Peabody13 Comments

Quick, get clear of the impending collapse…

Remember Fullerton First? It’s the feel-good facebook fraud created by one Gretchen Cox, and populated by the usual suspects – whose mission is to run interference for the scamology perpetrated by the likes of our former DUI city manager, Joe Felz, the cops who let him go, and lobbyist-councilperson Jennifer Fitzgerald and her campaign contributors – like the construction manager Griffin Structures that “oversaw” the Hillcrest Stairs to Nowhere ripoff. You might recall that the egregious Fitzgerald is also a proud, flag-waving member of Fullerton First. Well, that sure figures.

Here’s a fun reminder of how the folks of Fullerton First deal with the embarrassment of expensive Fullerton government failure. The strategy is to bury legitimate criticism in double talk and obfuscation.

“Fhern” Alvarez brings up the serious problem of the manifest shoddy workmanship on the Hillcrest steps. Notice how Ms. Cox immediately concocts a made-up “report” that allegedly addresses “point by point every construction concern.” Somehow the worst example of a public works f-up is transformed into a “well-done” project where the contractor went “above and beyond contract and safety requirements” – an outright lie.

When Alvarez persists, Cox hilariously tells her (or him) that people might have rolled down the hill anyway before the $1.6 million steps were built and suggests that somehow child safety on these rickety contraptions is a matter of individual responsibility!

Fortunately, Alvarez will not be dissuaded by the bullshit. And so Fhern, FFFF salutes you.

Gretchen Gregory Cox Fhern- I was writing a response to your comment and accidentally deleted it when some wierd thing popped up. My apologies and please feel free to repost it. In the meantime, there is a report that goes point by point thru every construction concern that has been raised since the steps opened in May. It is actually a well done project where the builder went above and beyond the contract and safety requirements at no additional cost to the city- and came in under budget. Just so you know.
· July 8 at 12:46pm

Fhern Alvarez No worries. But I have been there numerous times and there are spots where the boards are cracking and areas where if a kid is left unattended they can fall down a hill. Doesn’t matter if it’s under budget. In the long run it will cost more.
· July 8 at 3:50pm

Gretchen Gregory Cox People could have fallen down that hill long before the stairs went in. At some point when are individuals responsible for not paying attention? Should the city fence off every inch to prevent that- I don’t mean that to be sarcastic…. just asking what people think would work best.
· July 8 at 4:03pm

Fhern Alvarez Gretchen Gregory Cox it is a city project and people now a days are only looking for an easy way to make money. Just saying
· July 8 at 4:05pm

Peggy Jarman Ciley Really 😳
· July 8 at 9:23pm

Kim Wolfe The exposed wires I saw in a photo by the stairs really concerned me
· July 11 at 9:09pm

Fhern Alvarez Kim Wolfe not just the wires, the big gaps left unblocked, concrete cracking, boards cracking and the danger for splinters. Oh well very poor job in general

May 17, 2017May 17, 2017Behind Closed Doors

Rusty’s Bank Account

by Deadeye28 Comments

A while back some anonymous Friend dropped off what appears to be leaked financial statements from Rusty Kennedy’s non-profit, the Orange County Human Relations Council. The files didn’t receive much attention from FFFF at the time, but this week one of our readers recently pointed out Rusty has been down at the county begging for a new $250,000 infusion to fund additional employees for his private non-profit.

OK, let’s take a look at his financial statements. If you believe that this leaked budget is authentic (I do), an additional $250,000 per year from the county taxpayers would conveniently cover the Council’s projected loss for 2016.

Now that’s not very good, is it? Running a non-profit at a 20% annual loss is cause for concern. But of course this is a private 501(c)(3), so that’s normally a problem for Rusty’s private board members to worry about.

Or is it? What if Rusty is groveling for cash at the county just pay for existing expenses, rather than hiring the three new people as promised? The group already receives substantial funding from the county and local cities. Why should the county give more money to a group that can’t balance its budget? Furthermore, it’s hard to tell if there’s any real value in Rusty’s services, or if his organization offers any sort of efficiency. Program expenses aren’t identified in this budget at all. Why not?

Here’s one clue hidden within the documents: Salaries, Benefits, and Payroll Taxes account for 98.1% of their budgeted revenue. With salaries eating up the entire budget, one might wonder if this whole operation isn’t just some make-work project for Rusty and his friends.

There’s one more concern. Rusty has collected a lot of donations over the years by pretending that his non-profit is actually an empowered county agency. Many of his donors are misinformed, which is why the county recently insisted he stop using the county logo and misappropriating the name of the similarly-named Orange County Human Relations Commission. Furthermore, there is at least one board member who hold seats in both organizations – a glaring conflict of interest that the county has yet to resolve.

Altogether, these documents paint a pretty dim picture for Rusty’s personally lucrative public/private amalgamation. Will county supervisors continue to dump money into Kennedy’s opaque and unaccountable mess of an organization? And how much are individual OC cities paying into Rusty’s perpetual self-employment apparatus? Do Orange County residents receive any real value from this public/private partnership, or is it time to scrape this useless barnacle off the county barge?

May 15, 2017May 15, 2017Boohooism

Rusty’s Trombone

by Joe Sipowicz32 Comments

Brazenly hypocritical? Check. Shiningly self-righteous? Check. Slavishly sycophantic? Check.

Here is the Director of the OC Human Relations Council, Fullerton’s own Rusty Kennedy (in a letter to his sister’s Fullerton Observer) simultaneously congratulating himself and his fellow professional do-gooders, boot-licking the County Supervisors who will soon reflect upon the merits of Kennedy’s operation, and of course, denigrating all the citizens who are rightfully concerned that having several hundred homeless people imported into the vicinity of their homes, schools and businesses are misguided, etc., etc.

Of course none of this semi-literate screed is surprising. In fact it’s all old stuff – particularly the nauseating part about the death of Kelly Thomas being some sort of wake up call. From the very beginning of that saga, Fullerton’s old guard liberals were determined to make the death of Thomas at the hands of six FPD goons a homeless issue, instead of what it really was – the worst example of a police department mired in corruption, incompetence and denial.

For Rusty Kennedy in particular, this distraction was essential and based on his own self-interest. Kennedy’s crew collects income from local police departments who “partner” with him in the aftermath of one of their outrages, ostensibly to calm troubled waters, until the next crisis. He relies upon police chiefs to recommend him and his “council” to be the County’s operator of another useless organization: the OC Human Relations Commission. And that contract is reviewed periodically as part of the County’s frugality theater kabuki.

April 26, 2017April 26, 2017Bruce Whitaker

Comment of the Month, Plus A Taxpayer Funded Movie!

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy12 Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1Deh7PLugA

Here is a recent comment from one of our Friends, Just Off Euclid, in response to watching another one of those super-expensive “State of the City” videos that we buy to make City Hall and the politicians therein, look good.

Thanks for sharing that nauseating bit of municipal self-promotion. I note:

Whitaker sitting in front of Laguna Lake where untold millions of gallons of prime MWD water were lost with no apology, no accountability, no responsibility. Fitzgerald brazenly bragging about the moronic stairs to nowhere. Donwtown stakeholders are committed she says. Committed to what? Profit at our expense. Sebourn, with his ass parked in the Corporate Yard as the streets of Fullerton crumble; “we’re ready” he boasts. ready for what?

And then the images of the vast Joe Felz/Karen Haluza stack n’ pack tenement blocks. Who is the target audience for that? Developers, I guess.

Jesus. How much did this bullshit cost?

We don’t know how much it cost. Not yet anyway. But here are some invoices that indicate the cost of 2015 and 2016 productions:

March 30, 2017March 31, 2017Chronic Failure

Take Care of Your Toys

by Mr. Peabody17 Comments

When you were a kid your parents most likely told you what parents have been telling their children for thousands of years: if you don’t take care of your toys you won’t have any toys to take care of.

Too bad such admonitions are often lost on the custodians of public property. How often have you seen property owned by you and me left without proper maintenance or even abused by it’s supposed caretakers? It happens all the time, and with impunity. But how often have you seen a government actually refused resources because they can’t take care of what they already have? That’s right. I can’t remember a single instance, either.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

FFFF has already opined on the ridiculous waste of money, $4.6 million and counting, being poured into two new elevator towers at the Fullerton Depot – right next to the existing elevator bridge. Why? Because some other government agency was willing to blow the money.

It’s bad enough the new elevators are unnecessary; they are also in the wrong location since so many commuters will use the Harbor Boulevard underpass to get where they want to go – to the bridge that gets them to the huge parking structure west of Harbor.

But the most unkindest cut of all is the brutal fact that the existing bridge is a disgrace to the entire City. The glass elevators have been etched with so much tagging that they are becoming opaque; the paint, where it hasn’t peeled off, is discolored and oxidized; and the steel stair steps are rusted through. The deformed stair treads have been patched here and there with caulking, and that, too, is decaying.

So next time somebody like Jan Flory or Jennifer Fitzgerald sneeringly defends of the “experts” in City Hall, please point them in the direction of the Fullerton Transportation Center; and remind them that thanks to the ever-generous taxpayers nobody in City Hall has to worry about breaking their toys. New ones will always be handed out.

January 25, 2017January 24, 2017Behind Closed Doors

While We Were Away: The Embarrassing Fullerton Bike Share Story

by Joe Sipowicz32 Comments

An acquaintance reminded me the the other day of the ridiculous OCTA “Bike Share” program of a couple years ago – one of the most embarrassing boondoggles on record, and proof that regional government agencies are just as bad as our own city when it comes to throwing our money away.

The OCTA is always ready, able and willing to waste money – some of it comparatively small amounts, and some of it (think ARTIC) monstrously large. The common theme is that hardly anybody knows about it before the dough is blown, or after because the mainstream media is so good at keeping government unaccountable.

This is the tale of Bike Share, a supposedly “green” initiative, and thus free from the constraints of economic common sense.

The Roll Out. Nelson assures a skeptical Flory that the bike is up to the task…

Back in 2012 OCTA invested in a program where people could rent bicycles from a public rack and return them. To somebody it seemed like a plausible idea. The OCTA chose our city as the test lab because of all the college kids who like to take a commuter train to Fullerton.

Pringle’s Krew: It’s dirty work, but someone’s gotta do it…

Surprise! Bike Nation, a client of Curt Pringle and Associates (the current employer of Council-lobbyist Jennifer Fitzgerald) got the contract to run the program. Better qualified vendors were rejected by the OCTA Board. And the cooperative guy who made the motion to approve Bike Nation and proceed with the program? None other than our own 4th District Supervisor Shawn Nelson. According to the Voice of OC, the cost of the program was $700,000; the per bike ride subsidy was an astonishing $800.

The forced, painful smile betrayed the awful truth: the bikes were made for political posing, not for riding.

At the end of a couple years the magnitude of the Bike Share stupidity became clear. Almost no one signed up for the membership subscription and almost nobody was using the bicycles, bikes that were heavy and unwieldy. Some of them broke down after they had been washed. The vendor blamed the OCTA, the OCTA blamed the vendor; but we paid for it.

And Nelson? He didn’t return a Voice of OC call asking for comment.