Setting The Bar Low – Page 85 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

January 3, 2011January 3, 2011About Us

Subpoena from an Anaheim Employee

The OC Sheriff’s department staked out an FFFF outpost last week to deliver a subpoena demanding that fullertonsfuture.org produce information identifying one of our anonymous commenters.

Cheryl Sanders, currently a “Real Property Specialist” for the City of Anaheim, is suing (see complaint) one or more John Does who allegedly defamed her in anonymous comments on FFFF and a few other sites. The blog comments claim that the Anaheim planning department is taking bribes under the table, call for an investigation and state that Cheryl Sanders should be “brought to justice.”

anonymous — Faceless Internet meanies strike again

Of course, Sanders’ suit against the commenter claims that all of these statements are false and were made with the intent to emotionally harm her.

But back to the matter at hand: Cheryl’s initial demand for FFFF to identify the commenter was denied. We don’t disclose our logs to anyone. So what should we do with the subpoena?

View the subpoena

The Friends have a soft spot for the anonymous horde of commenters that visit our humble blog and we’d hate to see any of them get pushed around by a litigious public employee. On the other hand, making false statements with the intent to harm is a legal no-no, and the alleged victim should have her day in court. But the actual comment that was left on FFFF was vague, uninspired, and hardly defamatory in my professional opinion (it was removed pending the outcome of the case, but that was pointless since you can now view it on the last page of the subpoena.) Truthfully, this blog is disinclined to acquiesce to the court’s request, but we’d like to consider the opinions of the armchair attorneys that frequent our blog before we proceed.

And it’s worth noting that in over two years and 350,000 words, none of our own bloggers have ever been sued for libel. Why not? Because you can’t sue if it’s true.

December 30, 2010December 31, 2010Arts & Architecture

Fullerton SRO Developer Under Federal Investigation; Is It Even Safe?

by admin12 Comments

Ajit Mithaiwala — Some day we will all have a cup of coffee and laugh about it...

Last year we posted a magisterial, five-part history about one of Fullerton’s greatest Redevelopment boondoggles, the so-called “City Lights” single-room occupancy project. Our series started here.

As we related, here, in October 2010, questions were being raised about the financial dealings and records of the developer, Ajit Mithaiwala, and the federal government was investigating.

Once again, according to a recent article in LA Times, here, Mithaiwala and his company ADI, are accused of sticking it to the City of Glendale, but good. More evidence is presented suggesting that ADI defrauded the Glendale housing agency out of millions, possibly building substandard po’ folks housing while receiving millions in public subsidy. To top it off, ADI was greasing the axles of local government real well, too, as demonstrated by contributions and favors to city councilmembers in Glendale.

According to the articles ADI has been involved in 40-50 projects across the Southland, so the enormity of the problem is, well, potentially enormous, if in fact, the Glendale experience proves typical.

Which brings us back to Fullerton. When the SRO was built in the late 90s, peculiar construction techniques and prolonged inspection difficulties had some scratching their heads. And now with stories of possible substandard work in Glendale circulating, we are well within the bounds of reason asking our city officials if, in fact, the building is really safe for occupancy.

Where is Mithaiwala? These articles do not say. Maybe the FBI is looking.

And just for fun backwards salute, here’s a timely quote from our current mayor, Ol’ Doc Heehaw who, when the SRO was being proposed in 1997, shot off his big yapper, got threatened with a personal lawsuit by Mithaiwala’s henchmen, and then cowardly changed his vote:

“The city would be at great, I underline great, financial risk if it did not proceed with this project,” Jones said before casting his vote for the settlement. The threatened lawsuit was “a loaded gun against the head,” Jones said.

Risk. Thanks Mr. All Hat and No Cattle.

December 29, 2010December 29, 2010Downtown Fullerton

The Bright Lights of Soco

by The Fullerton Savage17 Comments

Have you noticed the ever present searchlight in the sky above downtown each night? Could you possibly miss it? Anyone curious enough to follow this beacon to its source will find it right outside of Joe’s restaurant in Soco:

Say, do you think Joe’s has some kind of permit for that thing? If they do, I’ll bet they didn’t tell anyone they were going to park it in the middle of a sidewalk, blocking access for everyone, including people in wheelchairs. I’m guessing they probably aren’t supposed to have it set up in front of a handicapped parking space either. And I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to cable it to a natural gas meter pipe!

And while you’re there be sure to turn around and wish Rosco’s a Happy New Year!

December 20, 2010Dead heads

The Tongue Bath

by admin5 Comments

We knew it was coming, of course. The last obsequious tribute of the ultimate repuglican lackey to the ultimate repuglican puppeteer. Still, it’s pretty gross even when you knew it was coming.

No mention of incompatible offices, or of directing hundreds of millions to pet projects, or of do-nothing contracts with opaque organizations like the Children and Families Commission and the Cemetery District; no mention of a financial interest Form 700 that’s over 60 pages long; and no mention of “freedom-friendly” up-zoning that cleared out huge swaths of light industrial employers and employees to make way for high-density condos built by buddies.

Well, what did you expect?

December 19, 2010December 19, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Hey, Lucy, Where’s the $75,000?

by admin29 Comments

Back in September, the OC Board of Supervisors approved yet another feel-good layer of government – something called the End Homelessness by 2020 Commission. They even allocated $75,000 towards one (1) executive director; another $75,000 was supposed to come from the “private sector.” The thing was trumpeted as a “public/private partnership” and all the do-gooders were feeling pretty good. Lucy Dunn, head of something called the OC Business Council was there to make sure everybody knew that the business community was on board and meant business.

Lucy-Dunn-300x280 — We were this close to raising a nickle!

Flash forward to December14. On their agenda, the BOS had a agreement with the Children and Families Commission to front the other $75,000, and not only that, but to “recruit, hire and house” the executive director. What was sold a s a public/private deal was now wholly public; and the supes were asked to let another agency recruit and hire a contractor who is supposed to report to them!

Of course Ms. Dunn was there again to shamelessly blather on about her “time and treasure” even though there was none of her treasure, or that of her members, in evidence.

Supervisor Shawn Nelson would have none of it. He had the strange idea that words in a staff report should actually mean something; “show me the money” was what he had to say, indicating his acknowledgment that in almost a year the private sector hadn’t coughed up so much as a nickle and everybody on the inside knew it.

Led by John Moorlach, the crew approved this arrangement 4-1, and provided yet another example of how supposed conservatives in OC can’t throw away your money fast enough. And the Children and Families Commission has new roles – employment agency and homelessness advocates.Wanna bet to whom the executive director will answer? That’s right, Mr. $327K a year Mike Ruane, who runs the OCC&FC “do tank” and who will probably ask for a raise.

And what will happen in 1n 2020 when homelessness is not ended and the Commission has a staff of 23? Well, Hell, that’s easy! Just rename the commission. 2030 will be right around the corner!

December 17, 2010December 18, 2010Dead heads

Scab Pulled off OC Rob Reiner Commission Compensation. Ouch. That Hurt.

by admin13 Comments

The OC Register’s Tony Saavedra penned a nice little piece today exposing the Orange County Children and Families Commission Executive Director’s fabulous salary. Mike Ruane, the guy in question, pulls down a nifty $327K by the time everything is said and done. He has a grand total of 23 employees.

fartboy — If you give me two hundred bucks an hour I'll defend this happy horse shit.

In the past we have explored the huge sums of money this tax-and-redistribute operation has paid out to political PR operations like Kurt Pringle; and we have detailed the idiotic $200 an hour payments to one Matthew J. Cunningham for doing thngs like listen to the radio and publicize toothbrush handouts.

It turns out that Ruane and his well-connected repuglican pals are not the only folks doing well by doing good. According to Saavedra over half of Ruane’s small posse pulls in over a hundred Gs per annum!

billcampbell-240x300 — The bishop made me do it.

So who’s in charge? Well, nobody, of course. This is the worst kind of unaccountable government. The Board members are all appointed, but don’t answer to anybody. They can basically do any damn thing they want so long as the word “child” is mentioned somewhere. Atop the pyramid of power sits Supervisor Bill Campbell. You remember him. The one who actually wept here on the dais contemplating the good works of the Human Relations Commission. The Kids Commission is his pet project and damned if he isn’t going to do his God-ordained good works with your tax dollars.

Campbell’s respone to Saavedra is just comical and suggests that this idiot is probably just as profligate with County resources as he is handing out tobacco tax dough to kiducrats.

December 13, 2010Dead heads

Bankhead Throws Hissy Fit

by Joe Sipowicz10 Comments

Enjoy this clumsy rhetorical diarrhoea on the part of our newly installed Mayor Pro Tem, Don Bankhead as he rationalizes excluding Sharon Quirk-Silva from the officer rotation. If you can figure out his weird justification for doing the wrong thing, and that we ought to return to a rotation (but not by him and not now), then God bless you.

Bankhead says he is tired of blah, blah, blah.

Newsflash, Blanky – we’re tired of crochety, semi-lucid ignoramuses representing the City of Fullerton. You got a pass this election but rest assured every idiocy that comes tumbling out of your mouth will be documented here.

December 10, 2010December 10, 201047th Congressional District

Dannemeyer’s Recreational Vehicle Versus The People of Fullerton

by The Desert Rat5 Comments

Bill Dannemeyer just lost an expensive appeal in an effort to compel you Fullerton taxpayers to pave a dirt alleyway that leads to the back of his property. Why? So that he can park his RV and boat behind his house.

“Who is Bill Dannemeyer?” some of you may well ask. Why, he used to be your esteemed Congresscritter there in F-town before the Little Corporal took over. He was a hard-line conservative who hated queers, and who got his start as – you guessed it – a public employee. A long, long time ago he was a City Attorney in Fullerton. In fact, he spent thirty years on the public dime.

pirate-rv — Dannemeyer's RV, Burning Man 2008

You would think a former congressman, former city attorney and supposed “conservative” would be smart enough to avoid an evident legal morass caused by a selfish grab for public resources, or at least be able to present his case in plausible legalese. Boy would you be 180 wrong!

According to the appeals court that heard the case:

Dannemeyer’s opening brief is confusing and at times completely unintelligible. His brief has 22 separate argument headings, most of which are devoid of legal analysis, citation to relevant supporting legal authority, or cogent explanation as to how he was prejudiced by the claimed error

View the opinion

December 10, 2010December 18, 2016Fringie Awards

The Fringies: Worst Political Candidate of The Year

by Jan Florys Dog14 Comments

Cherry-flavored, glow-in-the-dark, radioactive Jebus! Who could have supposed that 2009 could have been topped when it came to really awful and horrific political candidates? But it was. By 2010. And it wasn’t even close.

2009 brought us the spectacle of Chris Norby running for County Clerk to preserve our birth certificates from the silverfish; and the hideous Linda Ackerwoman, an Irvine claim-jumper whose appalling repuglican candidacy for State Assembly resembled a jail break though a swamp more than a political campaign.

Well, Hell! They were just getting us warmed up.

In the category Worst Political Campaign 2010 we roll out the following rogues gallery of nominees:

Harry'sFriend — Soon you will feel the mighty wrath of Sidhu!

1. “Hairball” Harry Sidhu. A bozo who is so damn stupid his first 4th District Supervisorial campaign move of 2010 was to pretend to live in a roach-infested apartment next to a pool hall in west Anaheim so he could qualify to run. Of course the “mainstream media,” the repuglican ass-kissers, and our do-nothin’ DA ignored this flagrant perjury. But we didn’t. From there on out it was all downhill for Hairbag, including a second fake address, inchoherent statements, more carpetbagging, embarrassing press releases, all around assclownery, and two humiliating defeats. Arf!

lorripic5_sm — You will soon be an object of ridicule...

2. Lorri “Lorraine” Galloway. Another Anaheim Hills denizen who created at least three fake abodes (2 illegal) to run for the same seat as Sidhu. Her manifest idiocies, including the unintentionally hilarious “Lorri in 4th gear” video series (and the now world-wide youtube sensation “Poor Bella”) identified this brain-dead clothes horse as the utter lightweight she is. Her checkered past revealed all sorts of scams that would have made Elmer Gantry weep bitter tears of envy. Oh, Anaheim! I lift my leg on thee!

roland-chi-079-200x300 — Ha, I still have two strikes left!

3. Roland Chi, a creep who by all appearances was run out of Garden Grove and took up shop in Fullerton. His disgusting grocery business was busted for serial health code violations in which numerous people were food-poisined, and he dodged prosecution by giving some of his precious bodily fluid to the DA. Meantime, in Fullerton he organized a political sign theft ring headed up by his own father, violated IRS rules by politically pimping a non-profit, and got a Korean church to illegally promote his campaign. Almost nobody was fooled by this sleazy slime-suck except the Fullerton Police and Fire Unions that recognized a kindred spirit, and that whole-heartedly endorsed his sleazoid scampaign.

Wow. What a year!

December 9, 2010December 9, 2010Dead heads

Mayor Jones Names New Sister City

by The Fullerton Harpoon9 Comments

PilgurMosque — Thass some mighty purty brickwork!

Well, that didn’t take long. In office as Mayor for a few scant days, Doc Jones issued his first diktat: a new sister city for Fullerton to join the ranks of Fukui and Morelia and Yongin.

Kharakh-Wrestlers2 — The Sister City Welcoming Committee

The new destination for Fullerton international gladhanders is none other than Pilgur, principal metropolis of Kharakhastan. Of course Friends will recall that Jones’s ties to Kharakhastan run deep, and remember his reference in a diatribe against a former Congressman:

Then there was our subsequent research into this exotic corner of Central Asia.

When reached for comment on his unusual decision, Jones minced no words: “As a Airman Basic in the Air Force I oncet had to bail out over that place. And man, I’m telling ya, them gals was friendly! ‘Sides I ain’t partial to no squids and raw tuna ‘n suchlike, ‘n that cabbage slaw done give me some baaaad gas.”

And so for those of you who believed that Good Ol’ Boy Jones was jes’ gonna run out the clock, well, Hell y’all can guess again.