Orange County Government Archives - Page 2 of 28 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

Last night the City Council voted to appoint Bruce Whitaker To the OC Water District Board of Directors. The term of the previous incumbent, Ahmad Zahra had expired at the end of 2020.

The vote was 3-1-1, with Whitaker, Jung and Dunlap voting for Whitaker; Zahra nominated and voted for himself; Jesus Silva decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and abstained.

It was not for lack of trying to keep this paying gig that Zahra relinquished his job. No, Indeed, for a line of scripted commenters tried valiantly to praise Zahra to the Heavens, why, Good God! The man practically invented water!

The funniest commenter was none other than Fullerton’s Mistress of Disaster, Jan Flory, who joined in to share in the hosannas for Zahra. She read her script okay, but it included her statement that Zahra had actually authored articles about water,,,for the Fullerton Observer.

Whitaker was clearly the better choice. The water board has jurisdiction over the aquafer on which we sit. The district has massive financial reserves paid by us in ad valorem taxes. And in the past decade the OCWD has been at the center of a massive rip-off called Poseidon, a desalinization scam meant to provide more water to OC county for the purposes of south county development.

Unlike Zahra, Whitaker will not posture on the board for publicity and to be able to pretend some imagined expertise. He won’t use the agency to promote his own agenda and his own political prospects. And Whitaker is not currently charged with crimes by his own police department; nor is he under threat of recall by his district constituents.

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020A Step in the Right Direction

Say Goodnight Paulette

by Joe Sipowicz20 Comments

Yesterday a lot of chickens fluttered home to roost for sign thief and fake carpetbagger Paulette Marshall Chaffee. After spending hundreds of thousands of bucks for a part time job on the county’s Board of Education, she was defeated, and defeated badly. The job goes to La Habra’s Tim Shaw, another candidate who unloaded a boat load of dough.

Dr. Vicky waiting for Paulette at the finish line…

But the most humiliating part of all for Paulette was getting beaten soundly by Vicky Calhoun, a woman who spent almost nothing.

And that’s where I put the sign in the back of the car…

Have we seen the last of Ms. Marshall? Hard to say. The woman is oddly unaware of her own unpopularity and the stigma with which crime decorates the perpetrator.

It looked good from far, but it was far from good…

One thing is certain, however. The tale of the little web of phony “community news” websites that were concocted by the Chaffees without any Fair Political Practices Committee requirements isn’t over by a long shot. Ms. Paulette can look forward to yet another day in court.

February 24, 2020February 24, 2020A Step in the Right Direction

Fullerton Observer Steals Chaffee Story From FFFF

by The Fullerton Harpoon10 Comments

Well, at least the truth is getting traction which is rare in Fullerton and even rarer within the yellowing pages, paper or electronic, of the Fullerton Observer. If you go to their on-line site, here, you’ll see what I mean. FFFF’s post about Paulette Marshall using fake websites as political advertising vehicles – in violation of FPPC rules – is repeated with minor rewriting. Even the images are the ones we published first.

No attribution, no nothing. Not even thanks for discovering something they never could have figured out on their own.

Anyhoo, Observers, thanks for the flattery!

February 22, 2020February 22, 2020Boohooism

Good Golly. Goodbye Molly. Good Riddance

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy11 Comments

According to The Fullerton Observer, North Orange County Community College District trustee, Molly McClanahan has pulled the plug on her career as an alleged overseer of the bureaucracy at the local junior colleges. Her seat will remain vacant until the November election, a rather telling sign of how critical the job is.

Of course Molly didn’t get on the board via an election like her successor will. No she got this job 25 years ago as a boohoo consolation prize for being recalled from the city council by the people of Fullerton in June, 1994. The cause? A completely unnecessary utility tax that was foisted on us to save the city from imminent destruction. Like her two compatriots, Don Bankhead and Buck Catlin she refused to leave the council until a judge forced the City to hold a replacement election. Same arrogance as ever, yesterday, today, tomorrow.

On the council Good Old Molly never veered from a completely predictable path. Always handy with a bubble-headed cliché, she was a constant supporter of Redevelopment boondoggles and expansions, and any other nonsense put in front of her by “staff.” Her supporters always bragged that she “did her homework.” Yet when it came time to take the test there was never anything that remotely smacked of intelligence or the willingness to vote alone, if necessary.

Likewise, McClanahan’s career trajectory over the past two and a half decades on the JC board has not deviated a bit in its pathetic parabola: cover for bureaucrats, never demand accountability from anyone, just do what you’re told. She was caught being wined and dined by bond salesmen who placed the massive bond on the ballot in 2016 under the phony guise of helping veterans, and that pretty much sums up her legacy.

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020Doug Chaffee

What Is The Fullerton Gazette? All Indications Are of Another Chaffee Scam

by Mr. Peabody10 Comments

FFFF recently received an e-mail from something calling itself The Fullerton Gazette. The document touted a list of recommendations for the March Primary ballot yet contained no FPPC number and no political action committee name. Hmm. There among the recommendations was convicted trespasser and thief, Paulette Marshall for OC Board of Education.

A quick trip to the Fullerton Gazette website revealed a very recently concocted site with ridiculous generic “articles” that only an idiot would read. But there buried in the other pabulum was a “story” about Marshall’s interview with some thing called the “Anaheim Education Bulletin.”

A helpful link takes the curious reader to the Anaheim Education Bulletin website, another recently fabricated site with the same sort of crap we discovered on the Fullerton Gazette site. And once again, buried in the other trash is the interview with Marshall, nothing other than a political advertisement.

Another Chaffee con job. Sick of it, yet?

But now a name appears to give the thing a tincture of verisimilitude: Deborah Hayter. A quick internet search for this unusual names indicates some woman scratching out an existence as a publicist and PR person, which all makes perfect sense: an Astroturf campaign trying to look like a legitimate journalistic endeavor.

February 20, 2020February 20, 2020Education Uber Alles

A Race to the Bottom

by Joe Sipowicz13 Comments

Riddle: what’s worse, an endorsement by a greasy political bagwoman, or the endorsing of a perjurer, a confessed thief, and a desperate office-seeker?

I don’t know, and I don’t need to.

Here is our lobbyist mayor, the ethically challenged Jennifer Fitzgerald endorsing the equally unspeakable Paulette Marshall to her fellow female Republican cohorts.

Whoa! What’s this? Endorsing a non-Republican?

There are two things we may discern from this cozy relationship. The first is that Fitzgerald thinks she can get her scuzzy self re-elected without local party help, and second, more importantly, Curt Pringle, for whom Fitzgerald plies her wares, is betting the farm on the Chaffee Crime Family.

October 15, 2019Boohooism

Pilfering Paulette On The Comeback Trail

by Mr. Peabody7 Comments

Most people, after having been nabbed committing trespass and theft would at least lay low for a respectable period of time.

Paulette Stolen Sign — Caught Red Handed

But Paulette Marshall Chaffee, the former carpetbagging sign thief who quit the Fullerton City Council race less than a year ago is not respectable. She has decided to run for the Orange County Board of Education, a fairly obscure and almost totally opaque local agency.

One of our attentive Friends actually received a push poll promoting this miscreant. Just in case you don’t know a push poll is one of those phony calls that ask questions like: “if you knew Paulette Marshall invented a cure for cancer would you be more or less likely to vote for her?”

Paulette Sign Thief — Oops, She Did it Again

Well, I have a question of my own: what in the world are this woman’s qualifications? She can’t even steal campaign signs without getting busted.

Paulette and her doddering husband Doug “Bud” Chaffee have a long history of arrogance and indifference to the people of Fullerton, and so this move shouldn’t be too surprising.

And neither should it be surprising that we, the good folks at FFFF, will be conducting our own outreach: if you knew Paulette Marshall Chaffee plead guilty to theft would you be more or less likely to vote for her?

July 23, 2019July 23, 2019Big Brother

All’s Swell At OC Animal Care

by Joe Sipowicz6 Comments

A few days ago we shared a story from one of our Friends about the futility and general dopiness of the house cat rabies protocol at the County’s animal police department. The gist was that if you get bit by your cat a medical facility will report you to the good folks at OC Animal Care, an agency that seems more dedicated to avoiding embarrassment than caring for our four-footed friends.

We noted with some amusement that the department admits that there hasn’t been a case of a cat contracting rabies in OC for 62 years.

One of our commenters, Joel, noted that there is a “Rabies Control Desk.” I didn’t believe it so a made a public records request just to see. Sure enough, there is a desk!

Who knew?

July 19, 2019Doug Chaffee

What is it About OCTA and Bikes?

by Mr. Peabody31 Comments

What is it about the Orange County Transportation Agency and its love of bicycle boondoggles? We know they are obligated to pretend they care about multi-modal transportation, but why the silliness? FFFF readers will recall we talked about the ludicrous $800 per bike ride fiasco overseen by former County Supervisor and OCTA Boardmember, Shawn Nelson.

Sturdy looking, but up to the challenge?

Now it appears that Nelson’s sclerotic successor, Fullerton’s own Prince of Potholes, Doug “Bud” Chaffee is following in the noble tradition.

I just received a self-promoting e-mail from Supervisor Chaffee touting OCTA bike day. For ten bucks you get bike training, a nifty bike helmet, bike lights and a delicious lunch. What the subsidy for these days of fun is the public is not informed. However the impoverished need not worry; for “scholarships” are available on a limited basis although we are not enlightened as to who might qualify, and how. The provided link says nothing about “scholarships.”

Now while there’s nothing wrong with bicycle safety, per se, one wonders why we are paying for classes on how to ride a bike, and on “fun” bike tours and “advanced” bicycling skills. And why does the public have to pay for the political promotion of “public servants?”

July 18, 2019July 18, 2019Big Brother

Lack of Control at OC Animal Control

by Joe Sipowicz4 Comments

Once in a while we here at FFFF like to shine a spotlight on some of the more ludicrous doings down on the County farm, and today’s special comes from a Friend who wants to be known as Stephanie. Apparently, Steph had an encounter with the good folks at OC Animal Control recently and decided to share her story. Here it is:

Dear FFFF,

I’d like to relate an experience I’ve recently had with the county’s animal control people. I was breaking up a cat fight between my cat and a stray when my pet in a real excited state bit my hand pretty badly. Fortunately the nurse at urgent care warned me that they were legally required to report the incident to the County and my cat would have to be quarantined under County supervision, all because of rabies. This was ridiculous because my cat had just got its rabies vaccination.

Sure enough, the Animal Control people started showing up a few days later. I made up a story about getting bit by a stray somewhere and after returning for further interrogation several times they finally sent me this letter:

Wow! Medically cleared by Animal Control! The funniest part of this letter is the reassuring reminder that no cat has contracted rabies in Orange County in 62 years. What’s not so funny is the time, resources, and bureaucratic rigmarole involved in an incident that was nobody’s business but hers.

Category: Orange County Government

Whitaker Re-elected to OC Water Board