Setting The Bar Low Archives - Page 103 of 113 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

April 27, 2010April 27, 2010OC Register

WHY DOES THE OCEA SUPPORT JOB COSTING, FREE-SPENDING, INCOMPETENT CAREER POLITICIAN CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY?

In December of 2008, Nick Berardino and more than 1000 union workers stormed the County’s Hall of Administration to protest the remodeling of the Board of Supervisor’s lobby. The OCEA leader and his supporters were protesting the $300,000 lobby remodeling project because it was the wrong thing to do because at the time, the County was laying off employees due to the budget crunch that hit the whole nation.

That day, Berardino used his bullhorn to make his point well known. He was also quoted by the lame duck O.C. Register as saying that “Labor knows that financial hardships are on the way and say they are willing to share in the pain. But before he has to look a person in the eye and tell them they are out of work in this economy he wants management (the County) to scratch every perk with the aim of saving jobs.”

Well, Nick it is time for you to break out your bullhorn again as you look every association member in the eye and tell them why the OCEA felt it necessary to contribute more than $4000 of their union dues to a free spending, incompetent career politician like Tom Daly. This guy’s spending has cost the County jobs!

According to records at the Registrar of Voters, the OCEA has contributed more than $4000 to Tom Daly’s campaigns since 2002. The most recent contribution was in late 2007 for $1600 – prior to Daly’s purchase of a $2.1 million money-sucking building. Why contribute to a politician who has no legislative duties or the ability to save any county jobs. The Clerk-Recorder is just that – a clerk and a recorder. It is an elected position with little political influence. Daly doesn’t know that or it hasn’t registered yet after 8 years of doing nothing but free-spending and taking care of his buddies like Bruce Matthias and Brett “The Brainstormer” Barbre.

Well, Nick where was that bullhorn when County Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly blew $2,100,000 of public money on a real estate venture that could cost another $7,600,000 to fix the problem? This happened in January 2008, months before the $300,000 remodeling project you vigorously protested.

Where was your bullhorn when Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly decided to give out a $48,000 to a political contributor to “brainstorm” an unnecessary sports hall of fame?

Where was that bullhorn when a $1700 a month retainer to a Sacramento government consulting business with no deliverables was discovered?

Why aren’t you using that bullhorn now? How many jobs does this money represent? Wake up OCEA members! It’s time for you to make Your Voices heard to tell Nick to go after every person who is wasting your association dues and tax-payer money that can be used to save your jobs.

Say, Nick. Where is that bullhorn, anyway?

UPDATED TITLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE TRANSACTIONS AT 433 W. Civic Center Drive deed 2008

April 25, 2010April 25, 2010Chris Norby

Time For Chris Norby to Dump John Lewis

by The Desert Rat14 Comments

Chris-Norby1 — Wow, an opportunity to do the right thing. How many of those am I gonna get?

Now that Chris Norby’s campaign manager John Lewis has not only come out in support of Harry Sidhu in the 4th Supervisor’s race, but is actually working for his campaign, it’s time for Norby to do the right thing – and fire Lewis.

Hold on Matt, there's a white van outside the house. — Hold on Matt, that white van is outside the house again.

Norby has endorsed and supported the candidacy of Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson, and his campaign manager has deliberately placed his own interest ahead of both Norby’s, and the GOP’s, but the entire populace of the 4th Supervisorial District, for that matter.

Harry'sFriend — One fudgecicle per customer, please!

You’ve all seen the facts and the videos. Harry Sidhu is a perjurer, a carpetbagger, and an unintelligible buffoon, who is patently unqualified to be an ice cream truck driver, let alone a County Supervisor. But John Lewis needs a lobbying target and knows that Shawn Nelson isn’t for sale. See, for Lewis it’s all about money and influence, and principle be damned.

So what do say Chris? How long are you going to go with a guy who is working against you? Who’s the boss?

April 23, 2010Boohooism

It’s That Time of the Year for the Children and Families Commission

by Grover Cleveland10 Comments

Yup. The time of the year when this little-known, virtually opaque level of government that was created by Rob Reiner’s tobacco tax hands out its PR and lobbying contracts to well-connected “small government” types like blabbermouth Matthew J. Cunningham and Anaheim’s Mayor for Hire, Curt Pringle.

fartboy — The hell with the kids. It's our turn at the trough!

I have previously documented the big government gravy being slurped up by Pringle and Cunningham here, and here. Were talking really big bucks here, Friends, and you get the feeling that not only is this Commission in existence to dole out the government largess to local repuglicans, but that its proprietors are a lot more interested in smiley face public relations and protecting their flow of tax revenue from Sacramento than they are in helping any kids. See, it takes a village to raise those children but unfortunately the bureaucracy and its spokesholes don’t come cheap.

Anyway, May and June are the months these contracts seem to come due and also seem to keep getting rolled over with almost no public scrutiny, or really any sort of performance audit for that matter. You can bet the family farm we’ll be reporting on the attempts to renew these contracts in the future.

April 23, 2010April 23, 2010Dead heads

More Monkey Business at the Clerk-Recorder’s Office? Why did Tom Daly Hire Bruce Matthias?

by Grover Cleveland16 Comments

Daly Really2 — A creator of jobs. Sidhu, are you paying attention?

While many County departments have to endure furloughs and layoffs big spender of our dough Tom Daly seems to be going in the opposite direction. I learned that he has just recently showed off his newly minted Executive Aide – Bruce Matthias, to his staff.

This new hire has to be costing tax payers a bundle. But most disturbing is that Matthias was recently released by the County’s Executive Office from his job as head of the County’s legislative affairs unit – a sort of in-house government lobbyist. Since Daly hired Mr. Matthias as an “at-will-employee,” he didn’t have to go through any sort of competitive hiring process to bring on board someone who was recently cut loose by the County CEO – in other words, pure cronyism. So what does Matthias know about running anything, let alone a Clerk/Recorder’s office? Just looks like typical jobs for the boys featherbedding corruption to me.

Tellingly, this recent addition to Team Daly used to be Chief of Staff to Assemblyman John Lewis during his first three years in office. Hey, wait! Isn’t the John Lewis Machine running Daly’s campaign? Hmm.

daly-and-lewis — Hey, this guy's got a mortgage.

Maybe Daly is returning a favor. Clearly the Matthias family is pals with Daly. Matthias’ wife Sonja Matthias contributed to Daly’s now abandoned campaign for Supervisor 2010. Or maybe Daly’s doing the favor for Lewis. Who knows?

All I know is that it is very depressing although not really surprising to see more and more so-called conservative Republicans finding ways to profit off of County government.

As for Daly, this blatant cronyism in a time of recession is just par for the course. Remember the $48,000 doled out to a political contributor to “study” a sports hall of fame? And the $1700 a month retainer to a Sacramento government consulting business? Or the $2.1 million flushed on the tear-down building on Civic Center?

We could hope that Matthias has been brought on board to end this cycle of Daly disasters, but what particular skill set he brings to solve any of his new bosses managerial shortcomings is unknown.

Wake up Orange County! We need to get rid of this free spending, incompetent career politician and return the Clerk-Recorder’s Office to a professional operation instead of what it has become – an unaccountable sinkhole of waste.

April 22, 2010April 22, 2010Dead heads

Carpetbagger Galloway Fundraiser Fail

by Joe Sipowicz15 Comments

It’s always ironic when your supporters begin to unwittingly advertise your failures. Such was the case when the Liberal OC’s Dan C posted about a recent campaign fundraising BBQ held at Lorri Galloway’s Address #3 in the 4th Supervisorial District. Dan added some fun photos that demonstrated how few people actually showed up for the party.

Empty house — We're gonna have a lot of food left over...

Dan seems to be really concerned about the fact that his Precious Princess is a carpetbagger and that people might think the house is nothing but a front. Claims Dan hopefully:

And there’s no question Lorri lives here. The home is covered with photos and personal items that clearly distinguish a home from a house.

Uh, yeah, right Dan. Anything you say. With the thirty-year old mismatched furniture and the cheap framed prints on the walls (courtesy of Galloway’s Eli Home thrift store) the place doesn’t even look plausible. Maybe Dan rifled the medicine cabinet and found some toothpaste or deodorant conveniently left for his discovery.

lorrisfortune — No one will be coming to your party...

Well Dan C. has good cause to worried about the carpetbagging issue. Galloway started her campaign cooking up a fake residency in an Office/Professional zone – which is illegal in Anaheim. After an abortive phony “stay” in a loft over a business Galloway had to “move” yet again to yet another cooked up address. That’s three bogus addresses since January, Dan. What tenacity!

The simple, unvarnished fact of the matter is that Lorri Galloway lives in the 3rd Supervisorial District, not ours. If she wants to be on the Board of Supervisors she should have waited until 2012 to run against Harry Sidhu for that seat.

April 20, 2010April 20, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Did Bankhead Shoot Self in Foot? Or have The People Really Spoken?

by Mr. Peabody4 Comments

A Friend just passed along the minutes from a California High Speed Rail meeting back in May 2008. The city of Fullerton “strongly supports the HSR project” per Councilman Don Bankhead. Hey, wait a minute. Did the City Council of Fullerton adopt a formal position on the HSR , and did they appoint Bankhead to be it’s official spokesman on the subject?

And if the Council really and truly already decided that we’re on board the HSR, then why bother with one of those idiotic “work shops” at tonight’s council meeting, and why have another one on April 26th at the Senior Center?

Anyway check this out:

CALIFORNIA HIGH-SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY/ MEETING MINUTES / MAY 14, 2008

The meeting of the California High-Speed Rail Authority was called to order on May 14, 2008 at 9:30AM at Anaheim City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd in Anaheim, CA.

Mr. Bankhead stated the City of Fullerton strongly supports the HSR Project. To date the City, CalTrans and OCTA has invested millions of dollars in public transit services at the Fullerton Transportation Center. Mr. Bankhead stated Fullerton has the busiest rail station between Los Angeles and San Diego along the LOSSAN corridor. In addition, the City of Fullerton is working with CalTrans and OCTA to construct a new parking structure to accommodate up to 1000 rail passengers. There would be a platform adjacent to the parking structure that could accommodate high-speed rail. Mr. Bankhead stated the City of Fullerton supports the Authority’s budget request for $103M towards the development of high-speed rail. Mr. Bankhead stated on behalf of the City of Fullerton that the Authority consider a stop in Fullerton which would serve the region and build upon a previous transportation investment.

April 19, 2010April 19, 2010Dead heads

The Lorri Galloway Residency Comedy Rolls Along

by admin23 Comments

At the WAND candidate forum the other day Lorri Galloway asserted that she has lived in our district for seven months.

Not quite right. According to her voter registration she only started carpetbaggin’ the 4th District a mere 5 months ago. So who cares? She’s a politician and they just love to fuzz up the facts.

GallowayatDoor — Hi, I'm your new neighbor. I know I haven't been around much.

But wait. The really fun fact is that she began her so called 4th District residency by “living” in Anaheim’s O-P zone – on the corner of Lincoln Avenue And East Street. And even if she did actually reside there, which is extremely doubtful, that residency was illegal per Anaheim’s zone code; she was busted (by us) in January and she had to “move.” So even if the most credulous person believes that she is now actually living in the “5 Points” area, she’s only been a legal resident of the 4th District for a couple of months.

April 17, 2010Behind Closed Doors

What Are They Hiding at Anaheim City Hall?

by admin10 Comments

Over three weeks a go we made a public records request of the City of Anaheim to produce the phone log, the work product, and e-mails of a woman named Annie Mezzacappa.

Now you may well wonder who this individual is and what this has to do with anything pertinent. Ms. Mezzacappa is the personal assistant to Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu and she is a part-time public employee. It is rumored that it is she, not the virtually unintelligible Sidhu who scripts his performances. Yet, she is also his campaign employee and she is the contact person on all those e-mail blasts Sidhu sends out touting his endorsement by some dude or other from Stanton. See the potential problem? We were kind of curious to see if a public employee might just be doing Sidhu’s campaign business out of the Anaheim City Hall, and even on company time.

Anyway, our Intrepid Travis just got a letter from the Anaheim Deputy City Attorney. Mezzacappa’s phone log is ready. But after 24 days they are denying the request for 6 months of emails and work product because:

“The request is vague, overboard and uncertain in that it fails to request an “identifiable” record.”

Total BS. They seem to be saying that unless you can tell them exactly the document you want they’ll just say screw you. And they get to determine what is “overboard.” And that really defeats the purpose of requesting public records, doesn’t it?

We’ll be picking up those phone logs and let you know if anything fun pops up. In the meantime, we aren’t giving up on those other records, either.

April 17, 2010April 17, 2010Behind Closed Doors

More Register Fail

by Grover Cleveland4 Comments

Here’s a link to a Register article by Tony Saavedra that starts out with the breathtaking news that the OC Cemetery Board voted to hold a meeting to talk about raising it’s stipend 5%. That’s 5% of $100 per meeting, or a whopping five bucks per member. If they meet once a month that would total a mammoth $300 per year. Thanks for that earth-shattering news, Tony.

In the meantime, not a squeak about this opaque public district paying Anaheim mayor and general fixer/influence peddler Curt Pringle $6000 per month to locate a new graveyard site for the boneyard boys that we reported about here; a task that could have been handled by a realtor for the price of a commission paid by the seller. Of course Pringle was also supposed to grease the skids – which seems to be his only marketable job skill. No word yet on whether he accomplished anything at all, although this seems not to be a requirement to get a lucrative contract with one of these little known but apparently well-heeled public agencies.

But Saavedra seems to think his readers are more interested in the $5 per month scandal that’s he’s trying to brew up into something potable. Sadness.

And by the way, here’s a choice nugget from The Register’s OC Watch Dog, Teri Sforza, inviting whistleblowing news tips that I recently stumbled across. Maybe the Register reporters should (re)read Ms. Sforza’s stirring words. Here’s the kicker: “…we’ll put together a blogroll of local muckrakers like ourselves.”

Yeah. Right. Anything you say, Teri.

April 16, 2010June 13, 2010Harry Sidhu

Thanks, Krusty!

by Joe Sipowicz23 Comments

A commenter calling himself “Krusty” (among other assorted names) asked this morning how come we hadn’t posted anything about some lawsuit filed by some disgruntled investor who bought out Shawn Nelson’s stake in a Brea lounge.

And that reminded me that I did indeed want to post something about it. A story was posted by the Fullerton News Tribune replacement for Barbara Giasone on April 14th about this lawsuit. This intrepid newshound is called Adam Townsend.

I found it very odd that one of the Register’s do-nothing employees would suddenly become interested in Nelson’s personal business affairs, especially during an election campaign. After all, they have serially ignored real stories of political and management malfeasance like Tom Daly buying a 2.1 million dollar money pit or the fact that Harry Sidhu perjured himself twice on voter registration documents; or that Curt Pringle made a small fortune looking for a new graveyard site for the Cemetery District. Nary a peep.

The other shoe dropped this morning (it took a couple of days), when Mauve County blogger Jubal Cunningham, the “conservative” hypocrite who makes his living sucking at the welfare state teat, put this two-day old post on the top of his “Today’s top stories in OC.” Well, okay. Cunningham is just a limp tool who takes his orders from John Lewis and Lewis works for Hide and Seek Sidhu. So I guess for him and Lewis it’s a “top story.”

But why would this Adam Townsend guy let himself get used by the Sidhu campaign to publicize a private business deal of Nelson’s during a campaign – especially when he seems unable to get his keyboard to tap out the words: Harry Sidhu carpetbagging perjuror? Can he really be that dumb? Sadly, it appears so.

Either that, or something fishy going on here. And I really wonder – can we ever expect this Townsend guy to start writing about real public issues in Fullerton?