Fullerton City Council – Page 62 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

March 1, 2011Fullerton City Council

91% Water Rate Increase, WTF Is Next?

Let’s hope the city council comes to its senses and votes NO on raising our water rates and associated taxes 91% over the next 10 years. Friends, I’d like to thank Greg Sebourn for bringing this issue to our attention. As many of you may remember, Greg ran for Fullerton city council last year and received 6,375 votes. Here is Greg’s take on the proposed rate increase:

Fullerton Water Rates to Double

This Tuesday night the Fullerton City Council will direct staff on the implementation of a water rate study. Based on the proposal from the City’s consultant, Municipal & Financial Services Group (MFSG), the new rates will be increased by 10% for 5 years then 3.5% for another 5 years amounting to a 191% increase by 2021.

The reason for the tax hike is clear. MSFG says, “It should be noted that the planned spending on mainline replacement over the projection period is significantly more than the City has undertaken in the past. At a cost of approximately $190 per linear foot of line the City plans to replace approximately 6 miles of mainline per year at a cost of over 6 million per year. At this pace it would take the City 400 years to replace the entire system (which consists of approximately 420 miles of pipe).”

MFSG’s proposal spells out how exactly we got into this mess in the first place. Unfortunately, this proposal and the implementation should have been undertaken decades ago. Oddly, the proposal notes that the City could just ignore the problem (like they have been doing for so many years).

Read the rest of “Fullerton Water Rates To Double”

March 1, 2011Fullerton City Council

Quick, Hide Your Assets!

by The Fullerton Savage22 Comments

Tuesday night’s city council meeting includes an agenda item asking the council to approve transferring all assets owned by the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency to the City of Fullerton. Agenda item number 12 asks the city to take ownership of a soup to nuts inventory of everything the Redevelopment Agency has been using our bond money to buy for the last few decades.

In an urgent sounding letter to the council Acting Redevelopment Director Romona Castaneda explains that the council may only have a few weeks to move these assets from one pocket to the other if the state adopts Gov. Brown’s budget plan to eliminate redevelopment agencies. If this happens, it seems, the agency will be forced to sell the properties “expeditiously” and turn over the proceeds to the county.

One has to wonder what would happen if Redevelopment was indeed forced to sell all eighty of its properties, including the Fox Theater, the empty lot where four craftsmen era houses were torn down just east of it, Union Pacific Park, the site of Costco, a 2001 Chevrolet Malibu (?), the Santa Fe Depot, and some fencing around the Police Department. It’s a fun list.

The city would still be required to move forward with projects already approved for these properties, including affordable housing projects. Anybody have a guess about how legal this maneuver is?

February 4, 2011February 4, 2011Fullerton City Council

Levinson Calls for Outsourcing Bids Against All City Employees

by Travis18 Comments

Check out this clip of resident Barry Levinson challenging the city council to tackle our unfunded pension liability problem at the February 2nd council meeting.

Once he gets past the dreary numbers, Barry suggests that the city manager obtain outsourcing bids to create a dollar baseline as a heavy bargaining chip during the next set of negotiations with the unions.

The lumbering Mayor Pro Tem, both a recipient and perpetrator of the ridiculous pension scheme, became agitated and cut Barry off several times, but Barry got his point across in the end.

January 25, 2011Fullerton City Council

Bruce Whitiker?

by Jan Florys Dog11 Comments

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…

Read the letter

January 20, 2011May 6, 2011Don Bankhead

Mayor Pro Tem Makes Sexually Suggestive Remark At Council Meeting

by Greg Sebourn23 Comments

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.

January 18, 2011Fullerton City Council

Pensions, Utility Taxes and The People of Fullerton

by Travis9 Comments

The following commentary was sent in by Fullerton’s own Barry Levinson.

——-

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.

January 2, 2011Fullerton City Council

On the Agenda – January 4, 2011

by Christian33 Comments

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

January 1, 2011January 1, 2011Former Fullerton Councilmembers

Things to Look For in 2011

by The Desert Rat10 Comments

Dinos — They were large and slow with a mean streak.

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!

December 30, 2010December 31, 2010Arts & Architecture

Fullerton SRO Developer Under Federal Investigation; Is It Even Safe?

by admin12 Comments

Ajit Mithaiwala — Some day we will all have a cup of coffee and laugh about it...

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.

December 15, 2010December 15, 2010About Us

Chaffee Surrenders to Chiefee

by Mr. Peabody22 Comments

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.