Looks like the City recently purchased some fancy letterhead. Too bad they spelled Bruce Whitaker’s name wrong. Jerry Brown probably won’t know the difference, but we do.
D’oh!
More on Crazy Doc Heehaw’s letter to the Gov later…
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting Fullerton Mayor Pro Tem Don Bankhead said “Mayor, if you need any help, I would be more than happy to help you!” At that moment Mayor Dick Jones had his arm around a Miss Fullerton contestant while the Mayor Pro Tem seemed to study the young ladies. You can watch the exchange here. Forward the video player to 0:20:00.
The unsavory comment, captured on the City’s cable TV feed, reflects a good example of poor leadership and disgraceful public service. Mayor Pro Tem Bankhead was first elected to the Fullerton City Council in 1988. If he can complete this term without a sexual harassment law suit and another recall election, he will have served for 26 years.
The following commentary was sent in by Fullerton’s own Barry Levinson.
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Since the November 2010 elections, I have read two articles on the Friends for Fullerton’s Future site that require further discussion. The first one stated that the rescinding of the utility tax increases of 1994 has saved the taxpayers approximately 150 million dollars since 1994 to the present time. Hats off to Council member Bruce Whitaker and all the people who helped make that rescission a reality. The fact that we were able to elect him to the council indicates that we are making some progress. But this is not a time to sit back and savor our victory locally as well as nationally.
We cannot afford any complacency since another even larger albatross is now facing the fine citizens of Fullerton, namely the unfunded liabilities for public pensions and retiree medical costs.
The second article deals with the reporting by CALPERS that the Fullerton police and fire pension obligations are now facing a 127 million dollar unfunded liability as of June 30, 2009. In other words, we the taxpayers of Fullerton are currently on the hook for this astronomical amount.
If you add the unfunded liability of the miscelleous employees as well as the City’s unfunded retiree health care benefits, it skyrockets up to and probably well over the 200 million dollar mark! Twice the amount saved from the utility tax rescission.
I suggest that the citizens of Fullerton have to be just as irate now as when we were facing the massive utility tax increase in 1994. The one common thread between these two instances is our city council. We must make it clear that we the people are watching very closely the actions taken by our council as they prepare to negotiate with all of the city’s unions! We must speak out loud and clear and demand that the council vote for significant cuts in these benefits coupled with significant employee contribution increases.
I suggest that all fellow readers of this blog attend the February 1st Council Meeting to speak to the council during its Open Agenda Segment to insist that major employee cost savings must be implemented across the board this year. We must demand no less and be ready to take further action if a majority of the council defies the people one more time.
Happy New Year Friends!
We have a council meeting this Tuesday at 4:00PM. The agenda is a little unusual for a few reasons. First, there aren’t millions of taxpayer dollars being squandered away! Second, there are no minutes being approved! Third, it’s a SHORT agenda!
Now that I have your attention, what’s in the agenda and how will it screw up (or possibly improve) our lives?
Item 1 of the consent calendar is the amendment of the St. Jude Medical Center Specific Plan. After reading it and seeing the changes, I think it’s a pretty good plan.
Items 2 and 3 are donations related to the Police Department.
Next, we move into regular business. Item 4 is likely to upset more than one applecart. It seems the Orange County Flyers are looking to move into the pony stadium at Amerige Park , also known as Duane Winters Field. The team has struggled to draw a crowd but some of the blame can go to Cal State who charges patrons for parking during weeknight games. Some patrons have complained that the concessions are equal to a major league event in price only. The agreement states that the cost for any development plans are the Flyers’ alone. That’s good since we wouldn’t want the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency to spend public funds on for-profit entertainment, now would we…
Item 5 might place pianos all over town, much like the sheep and hearts that have shown up over the years.
Item 6 amends the municipal code so that the council can appoint replacement council members in the event a member resigns before completing their term. As you may recall, a few members were dumbfounded by the process and needed significant hand-holding.
The next meeting, scheduled for January 18, 2011, has a full agenda.
- Public Hearing – PPI’s – cont. from Sept. 21
- Direct Appointments to Commissions/Committees
- Presentation – Progress Report by OCTA on SR 57 Widening
- Amend Public Nuisances Ordinance
- Revenue/Fee Recap
- Draft RFQ – Downtown Core & Corridor Specific Plan
- Presentation – Future Farmers of America
- TCC Recommendation – Euclid Street – NSA and Loading/Unloading
- TCC Recommendation – Acacia Ave – NSA & 1 Hour Parking
- TCC Recommendation – Williamson Ave – 30 Minute Parking
- TCC Recommendation – Brookdale at Ford/Jacaranda/Ford – 2 Way Stop Control
- Federal Appropriations Projects (Let’s blow tax dollars from out of state because we done blew through our constituents’!)
- Closed Session – Labor Negotiations
- Amendment to Coop. Agree. – OCFA – FTC Parking Structure
- Fox Theatre – Operation/Maintenance Expenditures
- Outdoor Dining & Public Right of Way Encroachments – Cont. from 12-21-10
- Minutes – December 21, 2010 and January 4, 2011
- Korean/American Festival Update
- Closed Session – Property Negotiations – Muckenthaler (more bailouts)
- Fullerton Police Officers’ Association Donation to Explorers
And for February 1, 2011:
- Advisory Bodies Representation
- Richman Athletic Field Improvements
- Resident Permit Parking – 600 Block East Princeton , Almira Ave , Sycamore Ave , Melody Ave
- Public Hearing – FTC Cost Recovery Fee (Cost Recovery, also known as Justification for Higher Taxes)
- Mid Year Budget Report (we’re broke)
- Fullerton Golf Course Irrigation Project
The Fullerton new year brings with it a strange atavistic political regime: an elderly, under-informed, pro-staff, pro-Redevelopment, pro big government RINO majority. It sort of reminds me of the Ackerman-LeQuire-Catlin axis of ignorance that held sway in Fullerton in the 1980s. Things only got worse when Don Bankhead added his own special brand of undernourished intelligence to the equation in 1988.
So what does the new year portend? One thing to look for is the return to the old method of selection of city commissioners by committee – a committee made up of retired public employees who have the time and desire to weed out the intelligent, the skeptical, the individualistic sorts who might actually make a city commission do something besides rubber stamp whatever nonsense were being peddled by staff.
In recent years the process has been made much more accountable by having personal recommendations made by council members. And folks like Keller and Quirk-Silva who in the old days would never be able make important appointments finally had some real influence in the municipal sausage factory.
Of course this sort of accountability is anathema to the old-timers who understand the value of Fullertonion group-think, fear informed opinion, promote government “stability” and who above all else want responsibility as diffuse and elusive as possible, so that when the inevitable “mistakes were made” mantra is chanted it will be as hard as possible to assign a name to the screw-up.
Will the dinosaurs work hard to keep Bruce Whitaker and Sharon Quirk-Silva from making key appointments? Just wait and see. And just wait for the Jan Flory good-government types to come out of the woodwork to promote the Old Boy Network.
Ah! Just like the good old days!
Last year we posted a magisterial, five-part history about one of Fullerton’s greatest Redevelopment boondoggles, the so-called “City Lights” single-room occupancy project. Our series started here.
As we related, here, in October 2010, questions were being raised about the financial dealings and records of the developer, Ajit Mithaiwala, and the federal government was investigating.
Once again, according to a recent article in LA Times, here, Mithaiwala and his company ADI, are accused of sticking it to the City of Glendale, but good. More evidence is presented suggesting that ADI defrauded the Glendale housing agency out of millions, possibly building substandard po’ folks housing while receiving millions in public subsidy. To top it off, ADI was greasing the axles of local government real well, too, as demonstrated by contributions and favors to city councilmembers in Glendale.
According to the articles ADI has been involved in 40-50 projects across the Southland, so the enormity of the problem is, well, potentially enormous, if in fact, the Glendale experience proves typical.
Which brings us back to Fullerton. When the SRO was built in the late 90s, peculiar construction techniques and prolonged inspection difficulties had some scratching their heads. And now with stories of possible substandard work in Glendale circulating, we are well within the bounds of reason asking our city officials if, in fact, the building is really safe for occupancy.
Where is Mithaiwala? These articles do not say. Maybe the FBI is looking.
And just for fun backwards salute, here’s a timely quote from our current mayor, Ol’ Doc Heehaw who, when the SRO was being proposed in 1997, shot off his big yapper, got threatened with a personal lawsuit by Mithaiwala’s henchmen, and then cowardly changed his vote:
“The city would be at great, I underline great, financial risk if it did not proceed with this project,” Jones said before casting his vote for the settlement. The threatened lawsuit was “a loaded gun against the head,” Jones said.
Risk. Thanks Mr. All Hat and No Cattle.
Word from the OC ROV is that recent council election show horse Doug Chaffee has given up the ghost in his recount against place horse Pat McPension.
It was a forlorn hope to begin with but Chaffee wanted to give it that one last shot. He’ll be trying out for the Dodgers in the spring.
Of course OCs RINO elite is pleased as punch and God bless ’em. It’s been a tough 14 months.
Well, that didn’t take long. In office as Mayor for a few scant days, Doc Jones issued his first diktat: a new sister city for Fullerton to join the ranks of Fukui and Morelia and Yongin.
The new destination for Fullerton international gladhanders is none other than Pilgur, principal metropolis of Kharakhastan. Of course Friends will recall that Jones’s ties to Kharakhastan run deep, and remember his reference in a diatribe against a former Congressman:
Then there was our subsequent research into this exotic corner of Central Asia.
When reached for comment on his unusual decision, Jones minced no words: “As a Airman Basic in the Air Force I oncet had to bail out over that place. And man, I’m telling ya, them gals was friendly! ‘Sides I ain’t partial to no squids and raw tuna ‘n suchlike, ‘n that cabbage slaw done give me some baaaad gas.”
And so for those of you who believed that Good Ol’ Boy Jones was jes’ gonna run out the clock, well, Hell y’all can guess again.
It happened. As predicted. At the behest of the repuglican puppetmasters that helped put him on the Fullerton City Council, ex-police Chief and $215,000 a year pension puller-downer Pat McKinley bypassed Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva for Mayor Pro Tem. Instead Fullerton’s former top cop and election winner by 90 votes went with the feeble octogenarian, Don Bankhead. Gotta keep that winning team intact, right?
Well, goddamit, the ‘pugs weren’t the only people who helped put McKinley on the council. They had help. As noted previously, many of the the Yellowing Fullerton Observers went for McKinley, too, including folks like Molly McClanahan, Jan Flory and….wait for it…Sharon Quirk-Silva! It cost Doug Chaffee the election.
Two years ago these same people helped put the cracker back in the cracker barrel.
Say, guys, hows that strategy working out for ya?
Will councilman elect, retired chief pension plugger Pat McKinley support Sharon Quirk-Silva for Mayor Pro Tem at tonight’s council meeting? After all, she actually endorsed this guy. It’s up to Fullerton’s new three-man Repuglican crew, and things don’t seem too promising for Quirk-Silva.
As we previously discussed, Policy #37 dictates who the next Fullerton mayor and Mayor Pro Tem will be. But the whole thing really boils down to pure politics.
As noted above, Quirk-Silva endorsed McKinley, which helped him beat Doug Chaffee by 90 votes. Will McKinley honor policy #37? Will he even be grateful to Q-S for his new source of income?
Stay tuned to channel 3 tonight at 6:30.