Fullerton City Council Archives - Page 53 of 74 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

July 5, 2011July 5, 2011Fullerton City Council

Fullerton’s Fireworks Ban: More Harm Than Good?

The booming and crackling of widespread civil disobedience on the 4th of July is difficult to ignore. Today we received this observation from a law-abiding but frustrated citizen who says it’s only fair to either enforce the ban or eliminate it altogether.

Fireworks-Idiot — Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Hello Friends for Fullerton’s Future,

I am concerned about the amount of illegal 4th of July fireworks that lit up the sky in my neighborhood last night.

I understand the ban of safe and sane fireworks in our city for the benefit and protection of dangers posed to the Fullerton hillsides and open space, we explain this to our children as the reason we cannot light fireworks in front of our own home. My problem is that in response to this ban, we now have illegal fireworks launched above our home all night with seemingly no enforcement of the no fireworks law. This is more dangerous than the safe fireworks sold as fundraisers for local groups in a booth and depletes my credibility as a parent explaining to my children with tears in their eyes why we are following the rules when is seems no one around us is doing the same.

I think is it time for Fullerton to review this no fireworks policy, maybe there are regions of the city that can have legal fireworks, like mine a 1950’s single story home neighborhood near Brookhurst and Orangethorpe where there is not a hillside in site. If the illegal fireworks will be going off over head any way then let my family have the fun of at home fireworks too.

Our family purchased a home in Fullerton just over four years ago; we moved in right before the 4th of July, purchased our fireworks at a booth on Orangethorpe, which as it turns out was Buena Park. On the evening of the 4th, we were all set on the front lawn with our chairs, bucket of water for safety and fireworks, we lit the first one and a Fullerton police car immediately pulled up to tell us that we were breaking the law and could not light fireworks in Fullerton. Now, four years later it’s like I’m living at Disneyland with fireworks fling overhead and M-80’s rocking my windows, not a police car in site.

I am looking for a better enforced ban on fireworks in Fullerton or a change to this policy in the future. That way I can look my kids in the eye and tell them the truth, we are not allowed to light fireworks in Fullerton.

June 7, 2011June 7, 2011Fullerton City Council

How would you spend $193 million?

by Greg Sebourn23 Comments

The City of Fullerton’s Proposed Budget is out and tonight your elected Council will vote to approve it.

$172.6 million represents the “total appropriations” planned for FY2011-12 for the City of Fullerton and the balance, $20.4 million, is what the Redevelopment Agency plans to spend for the same period.

The biennial budget also includes a rough budget for FY2012-13 with $183.2 million in projected additional spending.

If the City had the money to spend, I could see a favorable vote by Council members, however, the 2-year budget falls $8 million short of being balanced.

Unfortunately, this budget is based on the premise that city employees will negotiate and accept a cut in benefits in order to help balance the revenue short-fall or over-extended expenditures depending on your point of view.

5 Council members elected by you to control $193,000,000 and in the end, we get about $4,043,000 to repave our streets and $1,600,000 to fix our water system…

With only 3% of our budget being invested in our streets and water system, its no wonder our water rates will be going up.

May 31, 2011May 31, 2011Fullerton City Council

ABOLISH THE RDRC!

by The Fullerton Harpoon31 Comments

Update from admin: It’s 2011 and we’re still still catching stanky wiffs rising from the bog of mediocrity known as the RDRC. Yep, they’re still slowing and stalling residential additions, nitpicking the architectural details of private projects and using the know-nothing force of government to bear down on hapless homeowners trying to improve buildings that aren’t even visible from the public street. And so again we say…

The Fullerton Redevelopment Design Review Committee (RDRC) must be abolished. The committee was created in the 1970’s along with the Redevelopment Project Areas with the goal of fostering good architectural designs within them.

The trial run period is over. The RDRC and its associated bureaucratic process has failed – failed to improve design in either the project areas themselves, or in the ever growing number of projects in which city staff has required RDRC review. Actually the reverse is true. The failure has been spectacular.

who says affordable housing has to look ugly? — Who says affordable housing has to look good?

The pages of this blog has been nauseatingly filled with examples of RDRC failure-projects dutifully approved by a compliant and complacent RDRC. Rather than promoting innovative and creative work-excellence, in fact, the RDRC has enabled city staff penchant for the phony, stucco, and brick veneered banalities intended to comfort the worst of middle brow aesthetic preferences.

Over the weary years the RDRC has been the precinct of local architects looking to promote their own interests within the city. Numerous examples of conflicts of interest were exposed in the 1990’s. And the city council keeps appointing to the RDRC dingbats, talent-free Pecksniffs, and interior decorators, to whom you wouldn’t entrust the design of a birdhouse. The existence of this committee provides the city council with a little political cover on potentially controversial projects, but accomplishes very little else.

And so we say: Abolish the RDRC! People developing their own property without subsidy or without legislative action by the City should be able to design their projects without city oversight; those receiving subsidy or significant zone changes should be required to use architects who have been published in reputable professional journals. Maybe when this happens we can have increased freedom for private owners and design excellence for City sponsored projects. Presently we have very little of either.

May 6, 2011May 6, 2011Don Bankhead

Don Bankhead & The Crossing Guard

by admin35 Comments

I wonder how this woman felt after Mayor Pro-Tem Don Bankhead unleashed another creepy comment into the microphone, minimizing her work and possibly ruining her moment in the spotlight.

What do you think…embarrassing, innocent or inappropriate?

May 4, 2011May 4, 2011Dick Jones

Attendance Ain’t Mandatory

by The Fullerton Savage17 Comments

What do you call missing one third of your work days? Grounds for dismissal. Since January 4th there have been twelve meetings of the City Council/Redevelopment Agency, including a special or emergency meeting here or there. Our dear Mayor F. Richard “Dick” Jones has missed four of them. That’s a 66.6% attendance rate.

Jones2 — Ain't got no time fer mayorin' 'n suchlike.

Little wonder that the Three Aging Amigos felt the need to install Don Bankhead as Mayor Pro Tem instead of letting the position go to Sharon Quirk-Silva, who was next in line for it. They knew their good buddy was going to miss a few in the coming months, and didn’t want Quirk-Silva taking the helm while the Col. was skipping his watch.

But don’t yah’ll worry! The next city council meeting will reconsider the Coyote Hills development proposal, and you can bet yer boots Dick Jones will be there to ram it home!

April 27, 2011April 27, 2011Fullerton City Council

City of Fullerton’s Proposed Budget Unveiled – $274.9-Million To Be Spent

by Greg Sebourn14 Comments

The City of Fullerton unveiled the proposed budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

The budget appears to be largely a rearrangement of the deck chairs with no real cuts proposed. There are proposed cuts in certain projected spending to help make up for significant increases in employee benefits.

There were no explanations about the benefits increasing which Councilmember Whitaker took issue with.

Councilmember Quirk-Silva reminded staff that last year there were several ideas proposed for generating revenue and increasing fees such as the tow franchise which will be heard by the Council later this year. Quirk-Silva expressed appreciation that the tow franchise was moving forward but would like to know about the other measure proposed last year.

One of my major concerns continues to be the infrastructure. As Public Works Director Hoppe pointed out, we still have a nearly $150 million dollar paving deficit to deal with. The current paving plan does not adequately address this nor does this proposed budget. I hope the council members and City Manager Joe Felz will give serious consideration and address our infrastructure with this budget.

Below are the summaries for the proposed budget. (click on image to read) The big question remaining in my mind is how does $274.9 million in taxpayer expenditures next year benefit my family, my neighborhood, and the quality of life in my community?

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Job Search for City Manager, Or Just Hire That Guy We Already Know?

by The Fullerton Savage20 Comments

At the end of the last City Council meeting on April 5 Councilman Don Bankhead, supported by fellow Councilman Pat McKinely, requested that the agenda of the next council meeting on April 19 include an item to remove the term “acting” from the title of the job currently held by Joe Felz. Joe Felz was appointed Acting City Manager last December following the retirement of Chris Meyer.

Joe Felz certainly has a great deal of experience working for Fullerton. According to the city’s December 2010 press release he began working for Fullerton while still in college. He served as Director of the Parks and Recreation Department in 2007 following a two year stint as assistant to Meyer when he was City Manager.

Is Joe Felz the right person to hire as City Manager, a position that currently pays $166,250.00 per year, plus benefits? Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley seem to think so. McKinley worked for the city for over 15 years himself as Chief of Police, and Don Bankhead has been on the city council for over 22 years and also worked for Fullerton’s Police Dept. for many, many years before that.

Is Felz a good candidate for the job? Maybe, but is he the best person we can get for the money? We may never know, because two city insiders on the council want to hire another one for one of the highest paid and certainly the most powerful position in the city government. Shouldn’t the city conduct a search to find the best candidates for such an important job? They did for the Chief of Police position after McKinley retired from FPD.

Bankhead seems to be in a big hurry to hire Felz permanently because he is “a little tired of using the term acting city manager.” Is it possible that Bankhead is just tired in general and doesn’t want to bother with a job search? Don’t we deserve to know that our City Manager is the best person for the job, and not just the one that has been around for the longest amount of time and knows the most people?

April 6, 2011April 7, 2011Dick Jones

Mayor Jones Phones It In

by admin22 Comments

On Monday I went to Fullerton’s State of the City meeting, hoping to hear the mayor deliver one of his colorful oratories. Imagine how disappointed I was to discover that Jones had done a pre-recorded video instead.

WhenHeeHawAttacks — Weeeeeell, by Golly!

Buzz Kill. Video removed at the request of Davis Barber, Davis Barber Productions.

March 31, 2011March 31, 2011Don Bankhead

Who Does Don Bankhead Blame for Fullerton’s Pension Crisis?

by Travis15 Comments

The other day someone remarked that Don Bankhead has never accepted the blame for any of the bad votes he’s made since the beginning of his 23 year reign on the city council.

Twenty-three years at the helm…surely there must be at least one single thing that even the most narcissistic of government officials would accept partial blame for, right? Well, how about Fullerton’s pension crisis? Don Bankhead voted for every single pension and salary spike put in front of him over the last 23 years, and has done absolutely nothing to curb the excesses that have brought hundreds of millions in debt upon the shoulders of Fullerton Taxpayers.

Let’s see what he has to say for himself:

Who’s fault is it? Oh, it’s the stock market’s fault!

Nobody could have possibly predicted that stock investments carry an inherent risk, and that their value may not increase forever, and that by boosting these pension commitments, Bankhead was dumping ever-increasing chunks of risk onto future generations of Fullerton taxpayers. And of course the unions would never try to talk an unsuspecting buffoon into boosting their benefits at the very peak of a cycle, where smooth sailing into a rich eternity seems practically guaranteed.

Economic Cycle — Up and down? That theory is old fashioned.

Nope, none of this is evident to the dim bulb who went along with the biggest series of heists in Fullerton history. It’s all somebody else’s fault, and there’s nothing that he can do about it now.

Sadly, nobody has had the heart to tell Don Bankhead that the pain of nearly two hundred million dollars in pension debt will be shared by his very own children and grandchildren.

How’s that for a legacy?

March 30, 2011March 30, 2011Fullerton City Council

Some Numbers

by Travis68 Comments

It’s almost April. Our wise and courageous city council is already wading through wage negotiations with the city employee unions for the upcoming budget year. How did we get this far without adding up Fullerton’s total unfunded pension obligation? Oh well, here it goes…

Pension Plan	Total Liability	Market Value of Assets	Unfunded Liability
Fullerton Public Safety	$324,288,070	$197,444,920	$126,843,150
Fullerton Miscellaneous	$202,257,209	$136,167,010	$66,090,199

That’s a grand total of $192 million in what is essentially “pension debt” for which we have no foreseeable plan to pay, even when we include all of our future contributions and expected market gains.

The pension plans are already paying out $9 million more per year to retirees than they are taking in via contributions, so there’s no help there. But our required contributions are increasing significantly, starting this year.

With no perceivable way out of this hole, maybe it’s time to hit the road and put it all on black.

Las Vegas — I think I'm getting the fear.

All of these numbers came from the 2010 CalPERS reports for Fullerton’s Public Safety and Miscellaneous pension plans.