Híjole. Here’s an example of the special treatment that a well-connected developer can get in Fullerton. At Harbor and Orangethorpe, a fast food-type developer has been allowed to monopolize the sidewalk for the last six months. The use of this public space probably saved him a few bucks on construction. How thoughtful of our city planners!
Of course, this sidewalk is heavily used by poor pedestrians, who can’t seem to muster an equivalent offering up at city hall. So they’ll have to walk around. Or up the middle of the lane, as the hesitant abuela does in this video.
It’s only a matter of time before someone is hit by a car. Is this a fair deal for people of Fullerton?
By the way, I’m told this is the future site of Jersey Mike’s, Chipotle, The Habit, and a Verizon store.
We kicked off our relaunch by letting you all know that City Manager Joe Felz was in an alleged DUI accident at the wee hours on 09 November 2016 following some possible revelry in Downtown Fullerton where he was allegedly spotted at three bars before allegedly running down a tree. We showed you some photos of the poor innocent tree that was taken from our fair city far too soon. We showed you gouges in the road that will likely get pushed up the queue for our Mayor’s 8-Mile-Per-Year charade of a repair estimate.
We here at FFFF are trying to piece together what happened and are looking to see if Joe Felz was released with a criminal citation as per the FPD Policy Manual section 420.3.3 but this is where the transparency problems come into play. We aren’t allowed to know much and certainly not in a timely fashion. Even council members are forbidden from talking about pending or current investigations regarding current city employees. They won’t, or can’t, even confirm if such cases are in fact pending or current. The City can take 1-2 weeks to get back to records requests because they under-staff the transparency while going heavy on the revenue generators.
With Chief Dan Hughes on his way out the door to go work as the Mouse’s Top Cop we have an interesting problem on our hands.
You see in our fair city the City Manager makes the appointments to Interim Chief should a vacancy appear. This means that Joe Felz will likely be appointing the very person in charge of the Fullerton Police Department which is tied into a possible pending or ongoing investigation of our own City Manager Joe Felz. How nice it must be to know that you get to choose the guy or gal who could be tasked with sweeping your alleged dirty deed under the rug. While it is true that Chief Hughes cites possibly bringing in the CHP to investigate, owing to a conflict of interest, it is still his own officers who would be called to testify about the scene should this alleged crime go to trial.
I’ve read the Fullerton Police Department Policy Manual on DUIs and I can’t figure out why in this alleged case the Chief of Police needed to be involved in a simple DUI. Notified sure. Directly involved though? According to the Manual, section 514.2.6 specifically, Exigent Circumstances exist with chemical tests because of the non-permanent nature of the chemicals (allegedly alcohol in this case). Taking the time to call the Watch Commander who then takes the time to call the Chief who then has to call back in theory could allow the alleged blood alcohol level of our allegedly drunk City Manager to drop to a point of allegedly legal sobriety.
Of course that brings us to section 514.2.2 of the aforementioned FPD Police Manual. That states;
If the arrested person chooses a breath test and it can be accomplished without undue delay, the arrested person shall first be transported to the jail for breath testing preparatory to booking.
I don’t see any mention of transporting anybody to the Jail, a whopping 0.6 miles away, but I suppose that’s because the “field sobriety test” had nothing to do with actually testing for chemicals in the blood. If a chemical test had been completed that long drive to the Jail would have happened and been mentioned in the Chief’s memo to City Council which it was not.
Expect to hear a lot about the “ongoing investigation” and remember kids that you too can allegedly drive drunk and have the on scene officer call the watch commander who then calls the Chief of Police who then calls back to give the go ahead to the on scene officer to do his/her job. You might even get a free ride home. Oh wait. No. Most of us would simply be arrested and have our cars towed to the impound.
Friends for Fullerton’s Future is now owned and operated by a brand new collection of miscreants, malefactors and truth-tellers. Sure, some of our old Friends will still be here. Some new ones, too.
In 2013, the previous proprietor of this esteemed institution decided to shut it down – after thousands and thousands of posts and hundreds of thousands of comments. In 2010 and 2011 FFFF was named the Best Blog in Orange County by the OC Weekly. Well, guess what? We’re back.
On a hot July night in 2011 a sick, homeless man was bludgeoned and suffocated to death in one of our gutters by members of our own police department. He choked to death in his own blood as the cops that killed him were nursed for their scrapes with soothing words, Bactine and band aids. A supposedly distraught mother and father were bought off with $6,000,000 of ourmoney, in order to keep the truth from us.
And what the Hell has happened in Fullerton the meantime?
In 2012, a new 3-2 city council majority emerged, belligerently determined to eradicate the memory of Fullerton’s second recall; blindly determined to ignore the Culture of Corruption that pervaded the Fullerton Police Department. You remember that culture? Remember the names: Rincon, Mater, Major, Hampton, Nguyen, Mejia? Search our archives, Friends, to remind yourselves.
Jan Flory, Doug Chaffee and Jennifer Fitzgerald replaced the Three Bald Tires – Bankhead, McKinley and Jones – as proprietors and caretakers of the corrupt Old Regime and as custodians of the silence.
It is four years later. Now our streets are choked with traffic that will only get worse with the advent of new massive projects created to enrich a few developers, their “consultants” and their lobbyists.
Lobbyists? Our own mayor is a professional lobbyist. She says she wants us to “participate in building a better future for our city.” How? Apparently, by promoting more gargantuan housing development by her own future campaign contributors, while turning a blind eye to the incredible waste of resources spent policing the downtown booze-fueled free-for-all created by her predecessors and her own current campaign contributors.
Hundreds of millions of gallons of water have been poured into leaky Laguna Lake by the City government as Fullerton citizens have been forced by their own government to let their landscaping die. In the past four years, $45 million dollars have and will be been transferred from reserve accounts to keep the City solvent, as our own mayor takes credit for a “balanced budget.”
Are things changed? You tell me, humble readers.
Oh yeah, we’re back. And we’re kind of pissed off.
We at Friends for Fullerton’s Future can report and confirm that Fullerton City Manager Joe Felz was involved in an alleged DUI accident last night.
Coming home from the Downtown Bar scene where several election parties were taking place, Mr. Felz allegedly lost control of his vehicle.
According to the internal memo below, outgoing Police Chief Dan Hughes was informed of the situation and having allegedly passed a field sobriety test Mr. Felz was driven home by officers and his car was towed.
We are awaiting details as to the length of time between accident, phone call to the chief, field sobriety test and ride home.
Mayor Jennifer Fitzgerald was informed at the time per procedure but no comments have been forthcoming.
Thankfully it looks like nobody was hurt when Mr. Felz lost control of his vehicle as the only injury seems to be the death of an unsuspecting city tree.
Sad Tree
Mr. Felz may have left a piece of his vehicle behind after doing what looks like considerable street damage. There was no word in the memo about potential charges for destruction of property, littering or the like.
A piece of the vehicle
A different car was in his parking spot today at City Hall suggesting the seriousness of the damage to his Subaru.
We will keep you posted as this story evolves.
Oh and in case you missed it the Friends For Fullerton’s Future are back.
Danny says you are either ignorant or misinformed!!!
Friends, last week we received the following e-mail from some guy who ran afoul of the fine fellows who make up the FPD. The story’s a bit jangled but you’ll get the picture:
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013 1:46 PM Subject: FPD
Hi Travis, I was recently arrested by the Fullerton PD. I had a professional recording device on my chest, which was recording for some time before I was stopped. There were 3 camera men and myself. We were basically trying to make a public reaction video. It shortly got out of hand. It was in broad daylight. The officers, myself and the camera man were all at the same intersection… All in plain site. I was eventually taken down, then an officer took my recording device and also an sd card from one of my camera men. I was the only one arrested, even though it was a group activity. I’m being charged with police obstruction, which has resulted in a hold on my employment. I’m also facing 100 days jail time. I’m a full time student and I work two jobs. I have no previous criminal record. No one got hurt, and we explained to the officers, what was going on. I feel like I’m being charged for something that shouldn’t have escalated this far.I also feel that they tampered with the audio… which apparently was 12 minutes long. I haven’t heard any one it.
They went through my cell phone, without any permission…
They didn’t want to give me clean water…
I was shackled and handcuffed, while sitting in a holding cell.
I was held down by multiple officers, while handcuffed. “Claiming I was resisting”
The DA read my case report and was hysterical… The Public Defender was the same way.
“They were joking about it in the court room.” Obviously It was a ridiculous case.I plead not guilty to the charges, and I’m now awaiting the pre-trial.If you have any information for me or any questions, I would appreciate it.
Hmm. Is any part of this story true? Was anything left out? I don’t know, but I’d say the burden of proof now lies squarely on the doorstep of Danny Hughes’ Culture of Corruption.
And now for a recap of this guy’s claims:
1. Likely peaceful situation escalated into a dangerous situation by undertrained or malevolent Fullerton cops. Check.
2. Citizen roughed up. Check.
3. Citizen told to stop resisting. Check.
4. Citizen thrown into jail, mistreated. Check.
5. Citizen’s recording devices confiscated without warrant; illegal search and seizure of evidence. Check.
6. Citizen being prosecuted for getting in the way of the cops. Check.
7. “Truthy” Fullerton cops to be called as witness in order to lock up citizen? Check.
Yes, I do believe I’ve seen this show before, starring Kelly Thomas, Trevor Clarke, Veth Mam, Edward Quinonez, Emanuel Martinez; and of course also the men and women of the Fullerton Police Department.
Good luck, dude. My advice is to go to the next City Council meeting and find out what your Police Oversight Commission can do for you.
Dear Friends, we received the following e-mail from an unhappy resident of the neighborhood around Chapman Park, across the street from the location the County is proposing to buy for $3.15 million to transform into a permanent homeless shelter.
It always interests me to see that those politicians and bureaucrats who support obnoxious land uses of one kind or another always seem suitably removed, geographically, from any undesirable effects of their decisions.
Take the case of the permanent homeless shelter proposed by the County (and possibly our own City Council – nobody really knows what has been agreed to behind closed doors – with zero input from us) on State College. It would be located across the street from the Chapman Park neighborhood where we live. To the north are two story apartments and an elementary school; right next door and to the rear are other commercial properties. But it is a long, long way from any residence of the decision makers. Surprised? Not me.
We will be told that such facilities need to be built where public transportation exists. Okay. But in the next breath we learn that getting the homeless out of downtown Fullerton is required. How come? That is the very heart of the transportation network in north Orange County. La Palma Park in Anaheim is ground zero for the homeless population of north orange County and is located astride not one but THREE bus lines.
Since the County’s only requirements are that their shelter be on a bus route and away from downtown Fullerton, here’s a thought. Let’s build the shelter next to Hillcrest Park, or near the Brea Dam – near two bus lines – on City owned property that won’t cost anybody a dime. Of course it would be pretty near where Jan Flory and Doug Chaffee live. Or maybe it could be built on some open space in Coyote Hills – near the Euclid bus line and not far from Jennifer Fitzgerald and Shawn Nelson’s homes.
Our dear friend Mike Atta, is a founding member of the iconic OC punk band The Middle Class and the owner of downtown Fullerton’s coolest store, Out of Vogue and he needs our help. Hibbleton Gallery at the Magoski Arts Colony will be hosting a benefit art and music exhibit to raise money for Mike’s treatment and for his family. Mike has been an integral part of Fullerton’s art and music scene for many years and Mike and Pam are generous and kind to everyone that walks into their store. All proceeds will go directly to the Atta Family.
We are accepting art and music memorabilia donations up until 7pm tonight, but most of all we want you to be part of something positive and come to the Arts Colony at 223 W. Santa Fe anytime between 6 and 10 pm. You will have fun, see wonderful artist space and you will know that you started 2013 out by helping a wonderful family.
Art for this exhibit has been being donated by:
John M. Sollom
Valerie Lewis
William Zdan
Mike Myers
Roxanna Mostatabi
Ryan Ward
Bongo
Katherine England
Michael Magoski
Hagop Najarian
Christie Yuri Noh
Jonathan St. Amant
Shannon Le Clair
Rene Cardona
Jeñifer Míller Hernández
Alan De Herrera
Katie Perdue
Dave Castr
and more!
Music & More (autographed LPs, t-shirts, posters, etc) by
Signed skateboard by Christian Hosoi
The Adolescents
DEVO
45 Grave
The Middle Class
Sons of Anarchy
Agent Orange
Social Distortion
Jon Doe
Love & Rockets
Manic Hispanic
Rikk Agnew
LIT (J-100 Gibson Guitar)
Stuffed Animal Baby
Stephan Baxter | Organizer/Co-Currator
Art With An Agenda
Mail: 917 N. Ford Ave
Fullerton, CA 92832
Cell: 714/342-3052
email: sbaxter65@gmail.com
Fullerton Stories published a story here about Hampton, Blatney and Craig- the three who participated in the Kelly Thomas killing, being “cleared” by the FBI. The author also quotes an unnamed “source” that 12 to 18 officers received some sort of discipline as a result of their actions on July 5, 2012”.
Of course they got the year wrong. The cop defenders seem to have lost track of the fact that Thomas was killed fifteen months ago.
The article is full of quotations and “inside information” of the sort that normally falls under the heading of POBAR protected, unless, of course it can be used in a self-serving way. Here the whole point is to show that the three accomplices are squeaky clean and deserve to be back on our streets looking for trouble; and that the FPD has meted out discipline and cleaned its own befouled nest. Gee, one of them rolled Kelly on to his side to help him breath; Hampton even got tased, poor chap.
But hey, finally Fullerton Stories actually had some comments! And they reiterated how concerned they are for their family’s safety knowing that three cops who piled on Thomas and who did nothing to save his life are back to work. I’ll summarize the comments here:
Citizens of Fullerton are angry that three coward cops who assisted in the murder of an innocent man and who did nothing about are working the streets of Fullerton as if nothing had happened.
Apparently Acting Chief Danny Hughes is still more concerned with protecting his boys than the value of the life of a human being.
The real heroes in this community are the courageous people who have been protesting every Saturday in front of the police station to have the three fired!
We cannot pretend that Fullerton is serious about reform when those involved in the murder of Kelly Thomas, the illegal arrest and imprisonment of Veth Mam, and the many other documented cases of police misconduct, are still employed by FPD. We contend that you as our representatives at city hall, now being fully aware of the extent of misconduct by certain officers, that it is your duty above all else to protect the citizens of Fullerton, including those that may now feel targeted because of their public involvement in seeking justice for Kelly Thomas. There will be members of the community who will not comply to the orders of Officer Kenton Hampton, Sgt. Kevin Craig and Cpl. James Blatney, as they feel that these officers do not hold any moral authority over them. This reality puts all residents and peace officers in danger, and makes any contact by these men with the general public unwise. The adoption of the attached resolution by you, and the eventually firing of any officer who cannot live up to the ideals of a post Kelly Thomas Fullerton Police Department, will not only benefit all residents of Fullerton, but it shall restore public faith in the department itself. In doing so you will stimulate public trust to the benefit to those other officers who have always conducted themselves professionally. Professional officers with good intentions deserve to work in an environment which is free of the stigma that the continued employment of these accomplices in a taped public execution places on the entire department.
Only by publically setting standards for peace officers which embody excellence in public service and respect for all Fullerton citizens, and by demanding the termination of all those who represent the worst of FPD’s past, can we move forward with confidently that reform and change has resulted from the tragic murder of Fullerton resident Kelly Thomas on July 5th, 2011. The city attorney, while perhaps well intentioned, has an established propensity to filter his advise through the fear that one of these subpar officers may litigate on grounds of wrongful termination. We advise this council to also consider what may result if any of the officers in question, who have now returned to active duty, are again involved the death or injury of one of our citizens. Prudence dictates that they must be removed before they are given another opportunity to harm the public and burden the city with additional million dollar settlements.
Civility and healing will come to Fullerton when our leaders are responsive to the public and we are not required to pry every hint of justice that this case has brought forth over the last 14 month from the clinched fists of a stubborn leadership at city hall, the DA’s office or FPD. Today we present you with yet another opportunity to partner with us in seeking justice. We urge you to take advantage of this opportunity.
