Looks like John and Ken got an earful.
Yesterday teachers launched another demonstration along Harbor Boulevard to promote higher taxes (yours) to pay for higher pay and bennies (theirs). FFFF was once again on hand to remind folks of the hundreds of teachers in Fullerton pulling down more than 90K for nine month’s employment.
KFIs John and Ken were there too to engage in an intelligent conversation with the protesters as only they know how to do. And guess who was there to defend the indefensible? That’s right – Pam Keller – the prototypical Fullerton Boohoo out of whose mouth hardly anything intelligent has tumbled in living memory. But that has never kept her from opening it. Wide.
Photos by OC Register.
Yesterday Norberto Santana of the Voice of OC (EA) did a post on a report by a group called OCCORD that accused the cities of Santa Ana and Anaheim of “rubber stamp” planning. Among other things the planning commissions in these towns were identified as living preponderantly in small enclaves and it notes the undue influence of out-of-town developers.
I’m having a little trouble separating the message from the messenger. See, the troubles are real all right. We’ve seen the same operation in Fullerton, as with the creeps who are trying to ram Amerige Court and the hideous Jefferson Commons down our throats. Our electeds got their drinkies, and their boat rides and their thirty pieces of silver from slimers like Steve Sheldon; and we got the shaft. Yet while I can’t disagree with thing the obvious OCCORD conclusion that development in Anaheim and Santa Ana is all tied up by goons with financial ties to people like Kurt Pringle and Miguel Pulido, I have to wonder what it is OCCORD is really promoting.
A quick trip to OCCORD’s website rewards visitors with a list of boardmembers and contributors that reads like a veritable who’s who of leftist, labor, and low-income housing advocates. Here’s what they say they are about:
In Orange County, California, top-down economic development policy and institutionalized anti-immigrant sentiment have served to exclude low income, immigrant communities from government decisionmaking processes, and in many cities, rapid demographic changes have created a political environment in which people are increasingly disconnected from their elected representatives. As a result, income inequality is growing faster in our region than in the nation as a whole, and our sense of community is declining.
I notice with satisfaction the name of Lorri Galloway who not only has approved just about every developer-wet-dream megaplex put in front of her in Anaheim, but also supported SunCal’s mammoth project on Anaheim Boulevard with its sham veneer of “affordable housing.” And that may be a telling.
So what’s the real deal? OCCORD seems to be promoting authentic, popular participation in land use decision, of the sort promised by Pam Keller when she first ran for Fullerton City Council in 2006. Pam ended up voting for a bunch of megaprojects, herself, so maybe the whole thing is just some sort of make-people- feel-good-about-looking-like-they’re-trying-to-do-something-anything, scam. Or maybe they actually want “immigrant communities” to have input into decision making land use processes – especially the development of subsidized housing projects.
I think the mistake of swapping “top-down” development policy driven by developers, and that driven by the professional houseacrats and do-gooders, and social conscience hand wringers is a distinction without much of a difference. Overbuilt, overbearing, subsidized, architectural monstrosities built on public debt are bound to follow either way. Will OCCORD ever come out against the idiotic Redevelopment housing policies and ethnic cleansing pogroms? Not likely if there’s a jaw-droppingly expensive “affordable” project of some kind, any kind, at the end of the bureaucratic rainbow.
Friends, we just received this e-mail from one of our readers who calls him/herself “Disillusioned Ex-hippy.” We publish it verbatim, although the images are our contribution.
I have it on excellent authority that Pam Keller and her posse threw a going away party for themselves the other evening in which pity pots on which to sit were handed out at the door. I was invited but chose not to attend.
Well, I’m not sad. Good riddance. Keller accomplished next to nothing in her four year term. That’s why a lot of us are celebrating her departure – even many of us who supported her in 2006. In fact she turned her back on her promises to Fullerton about developers and their undue influence. That’s was just a big lie.
And BTW, Pam the meanie blogs aren’t the the cause of divisiveness in Fullerton. What is the cause of divisiveness is a city council that just ratifies the decisions put in front of it by the staff; a city council too lazy, too stupid, or too supine to think and act for itself – unless a weird, erratic outburst is called for.
One of our Friends observed this banner near the intersection of Harbor and Brea today giving thanks to mercifully soon-to-be former council member, Pam Keller.
How touching. A “job well done.”
But, really? Since we can’t count on the Yellowing Observers and Pam’s Dingbat Posse to give an accurate look back on Keller’s four years in office, I will oblige by helping out a little.
First we’ll give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge her support of Prop 215 and the law of the State while the other four cowards on the council showed their true colors.
And now I’m done reciting Keller’s accomplishments – the wrong end of one 4-1 vote.
And lest you forget, I’ll remind you about some of her dubious activities on the council. How about the lobbyist boat ride and dinner care of slimeball Steve Sheldon and her subsequent support of the completely indefensible “Jeferson Commons” monstrosity? And let’s not forget her support of the equally god-awful Amerige Court, brought to us by contributors to her Colloborative. Both these votes were a total sellout to her supporters and her 2006 campaign promises as she came to realize the challenges of “governing.”
Speaking of the Collaborative, is there really any need to rehash the manifest conflicts of interest, the mobilizing of Collaborative grantees for political purposes, of gad-abouting taking credit for other people’s efforts? There, I just did it.
My favorite Keller self-besoiling was the twelve hundred bucks of public money she wasted going to the 2008 League of Cities meeting in far-off Long Beach, as cavalier a waste of taxpayer dollars as you will ever see.
And only this year Keller crowned her career by supporting the fraudulent, carpetbagging campaign of Harry Sidhu for 4th District Supervisor.
Not much to show for four years work, but of course commenters are welcome to augment the list of any real accomplishment on Keller’s part. Now don’t get me wrong. Keller’s lack of any really achievement is in no way different than any other councilpersons anybody can remember, so at least she’s got that going for her, legacy-wise.
Well, now she can assume her idiotic grin and bat her eyes for the benefit of the Fullerton School District trustees – as they consider renewing her contract and her, ahem, peculiar role as Philanthropist on Our Dime.
Looking down from doggie heaven on you folks I get some interesting perspectives on things. Like right now Fullerton has not a single female liberal running for the city council.
Back in 1982 & 86 it was everyone’s fave featherhead, Molly McClanahan; in 1988 it was Maryevelyn Bryden, a humorless old bat who was trounced by the still marginally cogent Bankhead; in 1992 it was my former broomstick wielding mistress, Jan Flory, who was chain-whipped by the incomprehensible Julie Sa; in 1994, 1998, and 2002 Flory ran again and actually won a couple of times. In 2004 and 2006 Sharon Quirk and Pam Keller emerged, right on cue to claim their liberal XX chromosonal birthright. In 2008 it was the hapless Karen Haluza.
But now, in 2010? Nobody. The closest thing the Fullerton liberal crowd can point to is Doug Chaffee. And he isn’t a woman.
But wait! All is not lost! There’s always the hand-picked Ed Royce candidate and darling of the Dick Ackerman/dim-bulb Federated Republican Women crowd: Patrick McKinley.
On September 7, Jan Flory gave McKinley $200 – more than she spent on dog food for me in ten years. McKinley’s website also boasts the endorsement of McClanahan, too. So what gives?
Are the Fullerton Dems so sad and pathetic that they have to go along with Royce and Ackerman tools, the same repuglican goons who have worked so tirelessly for decades to undermine Democrat candidates and electeds? Remember that Ed Royce was the sole creator of Leland Wilson who knocked off the liberal beloved Flory in 2002.
And you know, now that I come come to think of it, I have to wonder if these endorsements don’t say just as much about McKinley as they do Flory and McClananhan. Hmm.
As the Davis Vanguard does, here.
Here’s a fun repeat-post from last spring – featuring two of 4SD Observer’s favorite idols: emergency service providers and the dim-witted Pam Keller. For sheer fat-headedness, selfishness, and fiscal irresponsibility, you just can’t beat the ESP union.
– Joe Sipowicz
Pam Keller was the only city council member who did not have the guts to impose a %5 pay reduction on members of the Fullerton firefighter’s union after negotiations failed on Tuesday. The union refused to accept a deal similar to those offered to all other Fullerton employees.
The union says the pay cut is unfair. Is that true? Let’s see what firefighters actually took home last year:
View the 2009 Fullerton Fire Dept payroll
In addition to the gross pay numbers above, firefighters receive the following estimated benefits at the city’s expense:
Pension contribution: ~30% of base salary. Ranges from $15,000 to 28,000/yr, not including unfunded liabilities
Medical: $5,460 to $14,748/yr
Dental: $588 to $1,128/yr
Not a bad gig. It’s no wonder there are hundreds of applicants whenever a position opens up.
Does Keller really think that asking this highly compensated group of public employees to take the same pay cut as everyone else was “unfair?’
Or perhaps Pam is just sticking to what Pam does best: Helping folks suck as much as possible out of the public trough. By any means, at any cost.
Over at the Red County blog, repuglican scribe, Matthew J. Cunningham, has once again gratuitously passed along a new and typically comical Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu press release touting new endorsements for his waterlogged campaign for county supervisor.
One is none other than Fullerton’s own cracker barrel nutsy-cuckoo philosopher F. Richard Jones. No surprise there. Old Doc HeeHaw endorsed Sidhu last time around, too – for all the good it did either one of them. Having the kook Jones brag about you is, well, not exactly a badge of honor.
The really fun new addition to Hairball’s stable of endorsers is none other than Fullerton Collaborative scammer, and soon to be forgotten ex-councilwoman, Pam Keller, whose image, in a fervent embrace with the overly deodorized #2, was recently shared on this blog.
Pam’s contribution to the Fullerton political scene has been a string of comical performances and embarrassing ditzy routines.
Ah, the poor Hairball, relying on the semi-lucid and mentally challenged. Last week it was the deranged creep Richard Faher; this week it’s Jones and Keller. The next seven weeks are going to seem like an eternity for the almost pathetic Sidhu.
And speaking of semi-lucid and mentally challenged:
In its page one retelling of events at the last Fullerton School Board meeting, Yellowing Observer Jan Youngman spun out this yarn about the District’s unconscionable arrangement with The Fullerton Collaborative for the services of FSD employee and soon to be ex Fullerton Councilwoman Pam Keller:
Five spoke in opposition to
continuing the relationship,
including the president of FACT
(Fullerton Association of
Concerned Taxpayers), a group
responsible for vicious hit mailers
in past school board and council
campaigns. (The group’s major
funding comes from Bushala
Brothers Inc. Tony Bushala heads
the group FFFF (Friends for
Fullerton’s Future) which has
made both Pam Keller and the
Fullerton Collaborative frequent
targets. FFFF is currently suing
the City of Fullerton.).
Hoo boy! Now there’s a mouthful of tripe, even for one of the Observer crew who can’t discern the difference between editorial and news reporting. We haven’t made Keller or her illicit arrangement with the Collaborative a “target.” Oh, no. That was all her doing – by a multiplicity of conflicts of interest as a councilmember, by skipping out without having to account to anybody for her time, and by remaining an FSD employee with the attendant benefits without having to set foot in a classroom. We only shed some light on the whole rancid deal.
Bad girl. Bad, bad girl.
But back to the egregious Youngman. Important fact, hon. FFFF sued the Redevelopment Agency, not the City. I know it’s next to impossible for you people, but next time do please try to get your facts right. By the way, why is that even relevant to your story?