November 23, 2016July 29, 2017Behind Closed Doors

The Sound of Silence

I would have done it even cheaper... — I would have done it even cheaper…

Not much has come out of Fullerton Junior College lately on the case of cop-turned-security guard Dino Skokos who handed out an unwarranted beat down on an undernourished FJC student in October.

A writer for The Hornet named Madalyn Amato, reports that although an “independent investigator” has been engaged, nothing else has been forthcoming. The fact that the investigator, a law firm called Currier & Hudson, solely specializes in acting as defense counsel for government agencies, should send out appropriate warning bells. See where this is going?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KyMyo-fcA

In the aftermath of outrage, the bureaucratic playbook is being executed as expected.

First, ignore any criminality on the part of the district employee and announce an independent investigation, with the goal of diverting responsibility, or even better, procrastinating ’til everybody’s forgotten about the incident.

Naturally, the independent investigator is really just a carefully selected government defense pettifogger, hired to relieve the agency of as much liability as possible and absorb any leftover PR issues. Of course, hiring a law firm comes with desirable effects, such as the benefit of attorney client privilege. See, it’s easier to control an investigation if the investigator can’t actually reveal any findings detrimental to the institution.

And now we wait. The employee takes a paid vacation, the real police fail to deliver a criminal investigation, and NOCCCD eventually pays out a quiet settlement to the victim who will make a deal in a civil courtroom. Nothing to see here.

And now let’s let Fullerton Junior College President Greg Schulz take us home via The Hornet article:

President Greg Schulz promised the college’s full dedication in reaching a conclusion regarding the incident.

November 23, 2016November 23, 2016I Aint a Swallerin That

Photo Fun

by Joe Sipowicz17 Comments

A Friend forwarded this image to us a couple days ago. I’ll be golderned if I can figure out what to scribble about, so it’s up to Friends. Yes, that’s right! It’s the old FFFF “we’re to lazy to write” game called PROVIDE US WITH A CAPTION!

November 18, 2016November 19, 2016Brick Veneer, Fake Old, And Other Horrors

Do Not Trust the Trustees

by Sean Paden25 Comments

On Thursday, November 17, the North Orange County Community College District held an the Environmental Impact Report scoping session for the Measure J funded improvements to Fullerton College.

As you know from our previous report on this matter, the proposed improvements include a football field (estimated during the presentation to cost $4 million to build, so consider that a low floor to the likely final cost) but does not include improvements to the Veteran’s Center. When this discrepancy was addressed, Fullerton College President Greg Schultz gave the following explanation:

We have to understand that the NOCCCD cannot do everything it would like to do with Measure J funds, so they have not been able to make the improvements to the Veteran’s Center at this time;
The stadium will be funded through other funds, not Measure J money and he promises to not use Measure J money to build the stadium.

Let’s take these two responses one at a time, shall we?

First, the characterizing of the veteran’s center as just one of many improvements that the NOCCCD would like to perform is extremely dishonest. Let’s re-wind the clock again to back when NOCCCD sought voter approval for their $574 million construction bond:

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November 17, 2016November 17, 2016Behind Closed Doors

The Odd Case of the Client Newsletter

by Mr. Peabody13 Comments

richard_jones

Okay, you may have painfully listened to the five-minute drone of Fullerton City Attorney Richard Jones on a previous post, explaining why no information was forthcoming in the Case of the City Manager and the Dead Parkway Tree. Sorry to inflict that on you, but no pain, no gain, as they say.

If your cerebral synapses are sufficiently recovered, reflect back on what Mr. Jones, Esq. said, and what he was asked to repeat twice by our Mayor, about electronic records generated at the scene and how they could not be released via PRA request because they were part of an “ongoing investigation;” but moreover, because they were somehow part of some sort of double-top secret “personnel” proceedings.

But wait! A quick trip to Jones and Meyer’s website newsletter to clients (we are clients, aren’t we?) reveals some interesting case law that seems to show exactly the opposite of the malarkey Jones was pitching to a remarkably incurious Council the other night. Here’s the synopsis:

mav-evidence

See? The video was created before any administrative investigation, or internal affairs investigation even started.

So let’s get this straight. A “client alert” sent out less than four months ago seems to contradict what Jones said, and reiterated twice on Tuesday night. Hmm. Hopefully someone can drop by to explain why the case of City Manager Joe Felz isn’t covered by the Greenson case finding by the Court of Appeal.

November 16, 2016Behind Closed Doors

The Culture of Cover Up?

by Joe Sipowicz37 Comments

You, know some people have the remarkable habit of speaking a whole bunch of words without saying anything. Fullerton City Attorney Richard Jones has been doing it for years and years as compliant councils sit there silently during his mind-numbing droning.

In the clip below, from last night’s Council meeting, he explains why the public need be told nothing about the City Manager, Joe Felz, driving home after a party, running off the road, trying to leave the scene of an accident, smelling of liquor, and most likely flashing his Get Out of Jail card.

jail-card

First listen:

There’s five minutes of stuff that could have been said in about 40 seconds but Jones needs to make sure he has touched all the bases of possible objection, added some mumble-words in the service of phony legal propriety, and his accomplice, Mayor Jennifer Fitzgerald is on hand to make sure some of the points are reiterated – twice.

Yes, the bases are touched.

The matter is subject to an “ongoing criminal investigation” by FPD, possibly to be turned over to the do-nothing DA, so mum’s the word! But what’s this? Who has committed a crime? No one was arrested no one was even cited. If not then, when, and how? Sure seems like a bogus smoke-screen.
The issue is a “personnel” matter. But wait. Felz was not acting as an employee at the time of the crash. He was undoubtedly a private citizen. So how on God’s green earth is this a personnel matter? Another dodge to avoid response to legitimate PRA requests?
The issue of the body cameras is noted as governed by some statute that is not elaborated, merely cited. The incurious Council let that one sail by. In the end, Jones informs us that Mr. Felz has privacy rights, too, which is awful sweet, but begs the question – if any of us were detained in similar circumstance can there be any doubt at all that the video would be turned over to the media by Andrew Goodrich before the first rays of morning sun had warmed the walls of the police station tower?

In the end some word nuggets tumble out that do lead into the direction of actual meaning, if only unintentionally freed from the bondage of this pettifogger’s mental jail.

One bit of this statement is very interesting. At 4:08 Jonsey mentions the investigation of the poli…the City Manager. Maybe I’m too cynical, but could this be the real source of investigation – how the cops deliberately violated their own policies and ignored violation of the Vehicle Code? That would sure make sense if a cover-up of the whole embarrassing mess was being orchestrated. After all, they could try “miscommunication in the chain of command” or some such nonsense, Gennaco-style, and if all else failed, toss the rat on conveniently departed Chief Dan Hughes who is now over the wall and making tracks southward.

November 14, 2016November 15, 2016About Us

The Yellowing Submarine

by The Fullerton Harpoon19 Comments

Things never looked better for Fullerton.

An alert Friend directed our attention to the Fullerton Observer’s “reporting” of the recent Joe Felz/Danny Hughes Glenwood Ave. Road Rally. Here’s the article. As usual the Observer does its level best to downplay the incident – since for the Yellowing Observers City Hall can do no wrong. If you want, you can see it here. Below is a facsimile.

Journalism at it's finest! — Journalism at it’s finest!

Let’s enjoy some of the unintended hilarity.

First notice that neither the chief player in this drama, nor even his august title are mentioned in the headline, a rather glaring omission, one would think.

It is not until the end of the second paragraph that we discover the tree killer is our beloved city manager; and it wasn’t until the next sentence that he is identified – only as “Mr. Felz.”

None of the pertinent facts are shared: that Felz had been drinking; that he had tried to drive away; that he had been given a pass on the breathalyzer test that would have been forced on you or me, or even Sharon Kennedy, editor of this mess.

Ironically, Page 6 contains a saccharine farewell to Chief Dan Hughes, whose last official task as chief was to make sure his boss got a safe ride home and tucked into bed without the worry of an annoying and embarrassing DUI rap. Thanks for the solid, man!

“Leaked to a local blog.” Ha ha! Yes, indeed! But no mention of the evil FFFF, where original and dangerous attitudes prevail! Jeez, even Sappy McTree got more shine than we did.

And finally: “…witnessing a driver (you mean THE driver) trying to maneuver his vehicle off the causeway.”

Causeway? Just like The Observer of old: error riddled, incompetent, supine and illiterate.

November 14, 2016November 16, 2016Behind Closed Doors

Karma Can Be A Bitch

by The Fullerton Shadow21 Comments

The topic of drinking and driving has been in the Fullerton news the last few days. We all know the story involving City Manager, Joe Felz, by now so there’s no point in rehashing the details. Instead, I want to direct the Friends’ attention to the irony that surrounds us in life, sometimes almost like there’s some sort of cosmic plan.

Way back in August, 2012 at the start of the fall election campaign, Fullerton City Councilmen and candidates Travis Kiger and Bruce Whitaker, along with Greg Sebourn voted to turn back a $50,000 grant from the state to pay for those ridiculous DUI random checkpoints that are probably the least effective ways to corral drunk drivers.

The bars stayed open and the band played on...

Let’s let Fullerton’s in-house shrew, Jan Flory, herself a candidate that year, fill us in from an August 30, 2012 facebook entry:

OKAY, so let’s get this straight, our Tea Bagger councilmen (Kiger, Sebourn and Whitaker), voted to reject a $50,000 grant and send it back to the state because it was to be used for DUI sobriety checkpoints that they believe are unconstitutional. They did this without walking across the street and talking to Police Chief Dan Hughes, or Captain George Crum who wrote the grant application.

Whoops! They find out after the fact that $146,222 in additional grant funds were tied to the $50,000 for the sobriety checkpoints, soooo, if the $50,000 is rejected, then the $146,222 has to be turned back too. It’s not like our understaffed police department could use the money, right? Maybe they thought the state would know how to use the money better than we do at the local level. Massive miscalculation!

Miscalculation? Certainly, but not by Kiger, Whitaker, or Sebourn. The fact of entangling grant funding (if in fact it existed at all) was never shared with them by their own $200,000 City Manager, Joe Felz, or by $200,000 Police Chief Danny Hughes, both of who were just sitting there during the meeting. Why not? Possibly because they had every reason to try to embarrass them and help get Flory elected. The consequent to-do with a MADD mob orchestrated by the FPD, and quite likely with the approval of Felz and Hughes themselves, was quite entertaining. Whether they knew about a link at the time, they sure found out fast, so fast that one might suppose a little back-room political shenanigans.

So now, let’s return back to late August, 2012 and hear again from the vinegary Flory as she regales us with her demagoguery :

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November 14, 2016July 29, 2017About Us

Don’t Kneel to Fullerton College’s Football Stadium Demands

by Sean Paden14 Comments

So who’s up for a proposed construction project that could “substantially degrade the existing visual character or quality of the site and its surroundings” and could “create a new source of substantial light or glare would adversely affect day or nighttime views in the area” according to the Environmental Impact Report?

Doesn’t sound appealing? Well, you may want to attend the scoping session on Thursday, November 17, 2016, at 6 pm, at the Fullerton College Student Center, Rooms 224, 226 and 228 (don’t ask – I’ll be wandering around campus myself) and let them know.

I should note that this little boondoggle is not the City’s doing, for once. For this we can thank the North Orange County Community College District and their Board of Trustees. The Master Plan Initial Study, which discussed the Environmental Impacts on Section 6.3, can be found here: )

fc-map

Pictured: Sherbeck Field. Not pictured: Rooms 224-228. Also not pictured: The football stadium that already exists across the street.

Some time ago, the NOCCCD Board of Trustees were considering the idea of building a football stadium on campus, thus sparing their football team the humiliation of playing football at <gasp> a high school stadium – and one that’s less than 100 yards away from the campus proper, to boot. Residents of the Princeton Circle neighborhood objected, and the plans for a football stadium appeared, to the residents at least, to be scrapped. Now the trustees are looking to add 4,500 stadium seats and field lighting that could remain on until 10 pm. In addition, while I have not independently verified this, nearby residents contend that the proposed lighting would consist of six 100 foot tall LED towers, which if true would cause a significant amount of light pollution.

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November 11, 2016November 13, 2016I Aint a Swallerin That

Drum Roll, Please

by Joe Sipowicz43 Comments

Since we’ve been gone things seem hardly to have changed at all in Fullerton.

As a public service announcement I forthwith present the compensation of Fullerton employees – the people that keep our streets safe from drunk drivers and make sure development is intelligent and appropriate, and that Laguna Lake stays full of Grade A MWD water – among other important responsibilities. It is up to you, Friends, to determine if we are getting our money’s worth, and to reflect upon four straight unbalanced budget years of tapping into the City’s reserve funds to pay for all this valuable peoplepower.

Numbers 1 and 4 have been in the news a bit, lately.

Courtesy of FullertonWatch and Transparent California:

2015 salaries for City of Fullerton

Name	Job title	Regular pay	Overtime pay	Other pay	Total benefits	Total pay & benefits
Danny E Hughes	CHIEF OF POLICE Fullerton, 2015	$206,779.04	$0.00	$19,819.43	$131,805.35	$358,403.82
Wolfgang Knabe	FIRE CHIEF Fullerton, 2015	$203,999.64	$0.00	$4,643.28	$112,745.11	$321,388.03
Julie A Kunze	FIRE MARSHAL/DEP CHIEF Fullerton, 2015	$172,217.81	$9,935.65	$4,547.08	$114,060.22	$300,760.76
Joseph B. Felz	CITY MANAGER Fullerton, 2015	$212,000.82	$0.00	$17,449.64	$67,789.57	$297,240.03
Adam R. Loeser	BATTALION CHIEF(DEP CHF-OPER) Fullerton, 2015	$156,943.52	$15,818.12	$720.20	$105,774.06	$279,255.90
Pedram Gharah	POLICE SERGEANT Fullerton, 2015	$103,224.05	$58,931.61	$16,348.16	$85,104.82	$263,608.64
John D Siko	POLICE CAPTAIN Fullerton, 2015	$139,739.36	$0.00	$18,017.60	$101,853.43	$259,610.39
Rodger Jeffrey Corbett	POLICE SERGEANT Fullerton, 2015	$109,359.74	$29,001.64	$29,080.34	$90,144.86	$257,586.58
Andrew S. Goodrich	POLICE LIEUTENANT Fullerton, 2015	$131,622.40	$1,280.71	$21,982.90	$102,304.08	$257,190.09
Name Redacted	POLICE SERGEANT Fullerton, 2015	$109,359.68	$29,780.18	$29,255.12	$88,606.65	$257,001.63
Kenneth D. Edgar	POLICE CORPORAL Fullerton, 2015	$90,995.45	$76,626.67	$10,885.90	$74,944.85	$253,452.87
Scott A Rudisil	POLICE CAPTAIN Fullerton, 2015	$139,739.37	$0.00	$22,127.76	$91,508.62	$253,375.75
John R. Stokes	BATTALION CHIEF Fullerton, 2015	$121,373.86	$35,725.81	$9,910.43	$85,885.82	$252,895.92
Michael A Chocek	POLICE LIEUTENANT Fullerton, 2015	$119,385.46	$16,304.14	$21,062.41	$95,254.80	$252,006.81
Jonathan S. Radus	POLICE SERGEANT Fullerton, 2015	$99,191.35	$49,367.37	$20,047.12	$82,715.78	$251,321.62
Michael J. Chlebowski	POLICE LIEUTENANT Fullerton, 2015	$131,622.40	$4,757.50	$12,714.05	$100,924.01	$250,017.96
John Richard Zillgitt	FIRE CAPTAIN Fullerton, 2015	$91,823.87	$52,971.51	$20,343.80	$84,384.03	$249,523.21
Javier Avelar	FIRE CAPTAIN Fullerton, 2015	$91,871.14	$58,855.64	$17,249.44	$81,413.43	$249,389.65
Timothy J. Hartinger	FIRE CAPTAIN Fullerton, 2015	$91,823.88	$62,408.63	$15,068.59	$79,874.37	$249,175.47
Karen A. Haluza	DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY DEVELOP Fullerton, 2015	$177,580.31	$0.00	$5,824.00	$65,768.42	$249,172.73

More. 653 more.

February 24, 2013December 16, 2016Boohooism

A Streetcar Named Desire

by Mr. Peabody101 Comments

Last week the ever helpful Fullerton City Hall scribe Lou Ponsi scribbled a story about how Fullerton needs a transit dedicated line from the CSUF area to the Fullerton “metro center.”

No, I am not kidding. “Senior” Planner Jay Eastman believes Fullerton has a metro center.

A cynic might conclude that the sole purpose of this venture is to more efficiently direct college kids into the open air saloon that downtown Fullerton has become.

Trolley? Bus? Light rail(!)? The world is Jay Eastman’s oyster, just so long as somebody else is picking up the tab. In this case the OCTA is going to pay 90% of the cost of a “study” to determine just what Fullerton needs: $270,000 worth, with us paying the other $30,000.

All of which goes to show that OCTA has an awful lot more money than they know what to do with.