A senior CalPERS attorney just told me that the annual pension liability reports for local agencies, which are normally distributed every October, have now been delayed until after the November elections. The delays are allegedly due to furloughs, but conveniently prevent local pension watchdogs from using the data to promote fiscally conservative candidates and pension reform leading up to the November 2nd.
I bury'd it.
This year’s reports would be the first to calculate pension liabilities after the disastrous market crash of 2008/2009 which caused CalPERS to loose a large portion of its holdings, which in turn has caused cities’ unfunded liability and annual contributions to skyrocket. But the damage to each city is unknown until the individual reports are released.
How bad will it be? Here’s one example: rough calculations show Fullerton’s “non-smoothed” unfunded liability for itspublic safety plan will soar past $100,000,000 this year, nearly three times the amount presented last year. Throughout the state, the debts shown in these report are likely to be shocking compared to previous filings.
The data would have undoubtedly been used to draw more attention to the dire pension situation in cities throughout California. The reports would have come just in time for local elections, which makes CalPERS’ stated cause for the delay extremely suspect.
Ouch
The annual “Actuarial Valuation” reports are prepared by CalPERS actuaries for each participating agency to justify annual increases in required contributions. Here is a example of Fullerton’s public safety report for 2008, which is the most recent year available.
In politics somebody is always presenting explanations for things that may or may not be going on beneath the surface. And so we present to the Friends something to think about:
DOUBLE UPDATE: While searching the dark corners of our FFFF blog-vault, deep in the basement of the Fox Fullerton, I just came across this gem: a video moment so pure and wonderful that it must be shared again. And again. Until we can safely say that Hairball Sidhu’s political “career” is over, once and for all.
UPDATE: I came across this earlier post today as I was thinking about “The Joke’s on You” post. This really is too good not to show yet again. Will we see a repeat performance by the Sidhu clan in the waning days of this year’s campaign? Don’t bet against it. Sidhu has an almost limitless capacity for clownish behavior.
Although we don’t get many glimpses of Hide and Seek Sidhu these days, video clips of his performances do exist. And some, like the one I share here, reveal a man who has seemingly missed his calling in life. Instead of a fast food operator and a political aspirant, Sidhu really belongs on a vaudeville stage someplace.
Let me tell you, I renounce negative campaigning. Until I run again. And again. And again.
Here’s a priceless youtube clip starring Sidhu at that golden moment two years ago when Sidhu lost his nerve and started shredding his mailers in his campaign against Mimi Walters for State Senate. It’s brilliant comic performance art, and as usual he drags in his family to perform as extras in his hilarious political theater. Watch them dutifully shred his hit pieces against Walters as he introduces his rag tag collection of political allies – just about the only people who showed up (oh yes, I see you Bill Taormina!).
By the way, this clownishly hypocritical gesture didn’t help Sidhu at all. He was thoroughly pummeled and lost every precinct in Anaheim.
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.
Tomorrow the Roland Chi campaign is inviting supporters to an event hosted by his non-profit. Unfortunately for Chi, using a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to promote a political candidacy is illegal according to federal tax law.
Here is is in the IRS’s own words: “All 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Violations of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.”
If Chi is using his non-profit to pump up his campaign, he could indeed have another run-in with the law. Read this press release and decide for yourself if Roland Chi’s tax-exempt status should be called into question by the IRS:
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NON-PROFIT FOUNDER ROLAND CHI TO AWARD SCHOLARSHIPS TO FULLERTON STUDENTS*Former Fullerton Mayor Buck Catlin and School Board Member Minard Duncan are attending the Fullerton Museum event this Saturday
FULLERTON – Roland Chi, City Council Candidate and Founder of The Sustainable Foundation of Orange County (SFOC), will award $1,500 in scholarship grants this Saturday, October 9, 2010, to the winners of the non-profit’s scholarship program. Chi will be joined by special guest community leaders, former Fullerton Mayor Buck Catlin and School Board Trustee Member Minard Duncan at the Fullerton Museum Center, located at 301 North Pomona Avenue in Fullerton. The event will begin at 9:30 a.m. and is open to the public, offering a free continental breakfast for guests in attendance. For further information and to view the event invitation, please visit www.rolandchi.com/events.
SFOC is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization dedicated to community development and supporting public service minded youth. SFOC Scholarships are available each year during the academic spring semester, inviting all southern California high school seniors to apply. Application and scholarship information can be found at www.scf-oc.org.
The Scholarship Review Committee evaluates candidates by their leadership and involvement in community activities, academic achievement, difficulty of coursework, letters of recommendation, and statement of purpose articulating the student’s future goals.
“We received many qualified applications, and it was very encouraging to see so many young students who had such high ambitions and passion to serve the community. The recipients of these awards all overcame unique hardships, achieved high scholastic marks, and showed exceptional promise for future success in public sector.”
This year, Michelle Cho, a Sunny Hills High School Valedictorian, will be awarded the highest scholarship of $1000. Cho is attending University of California Los Angeles and majoring in Anthropology. A scholarship of $500 will also be awarded to Fullerton High School graduate Ana Coria, who is attending University of California Riverside.
Candidate Chi, on behalf of SFOC, would like to thank all scholarship applicants and the Fullerton community for their support. For further information about Fullerton City Council candidate Roland Chi’s platform, additional endorsements, and upcoming events please visit www.rolandchi.com.
Here’s the ad that Marty Burbank has been running on local cable channels:
Getting government out of the way so businesses can flourish seems to be a popular message this year. Local business owners love to share their city hall horror stories, providing ample fodder for candidates willing to speak out against the bureaucratic nightmare that Don Bankhead has excused for decades.
It’s just too bad guys like Marty can’t extend that “get government out of the way” concept to the redevelopment agency, which harms the local economy in much the same way through economic interference, crony capitalism and the diversion of tax dollars from core services.
Oh well. Getting it half-right is better than nothing.
As he slithers off into sad irrelevance, the former blog proprietor, now blog wage slave, Matthew J. Cunningham, is looking for any sugar daddy he can latch onto. After we blew his cover as a hyper-liberal nanny state teat sucker, he clearly needs work, and scribbling out press releases for the campaigns of Curt Pringle puppets may not even pay the rent.
Cynthia Ward, one of a diminishing breed of honest Anaheimers recently posted on the Red County blog about complaints to the State Attorney General about the incompatible offices held by Anaheim’s Mayor-for-Hire, Curt Pringle, who also holds the esteemed positions of OCTA Board member and California High Speed Rail Authority Chairman.
Right on cue, Cunningham attacked me, personally, instead of explaining why Pringle has been using his chairmanship of the CHRA swindle to try to move state taxpayer resources into his OCTA subsidized Anaheim ARTIC boondoggle.
It's in my interest and that means it's good for everybody...
Oh, yeah, that one. The one that has already misdirected $140,000,000 of County-wide transit tax dollars for the immediate benefit of Pringle’s useless glass Taj Mahal. And let’s not forget the biz the soon-to-be termed out Pringle will be passing to himself when his “consulting” business really gets to some serious greasin.’
A deep thought or a hard stool?
Cunningham has always congratulated himself on his self-perceived powers of thought and argumentation and “credibility,” a credibility that certainly took a shot in the mauve speedos when folks found out he was making $200 an hour passing out toothbrushes for Rob Reiner’s tax-and-redistribute First Five program. Well, lets take a gander at what Mr. Credibility has to say about yours truly. He begins his comments:
You neglected to mention the central in this drama being played by Tony Bushala, who has developed a habit of filing complaints against political enemies — or, at least, against those he perceives to be antagonistic to politicians he supports. Does anyone believe he would have filed a complaint if the Mayor in question wasn’t Curt Pringle? Or more to the point, if Curt Pringle had supported Shawn Nelson for supervisor?
Huh? A habit of complaints against political enemies? Oh yeah, like the serial perjuries of Harry Sidhu? Right well, that was one complaint. A habit? And what does Pringle’s behavior have to do with Shawn Nelson? That’s right, nothing.
This is an attempt to criminalize a policy dispute. Even if a conflict exists — which is flimsy possibility, at best — it will be obviated in two months when Curt ceases being both the Mayor of Anaheim and a member of the OCTA Board.
Attempt to criminalize? Who said anything about “criminals” beside The Jerb? Oops, a Freudian slip? But really: “a policy dispute?! Like fraudulentlybamboozling the public into a deal the perpetrators of which knew or suspected was based on cooked up rideship numbers? No, not fraud, merely a policy dispute!
I know, says Cunningham. Let’s look the other way (obviate – there’s an awful big word for such a small boy) just like Jerbal did by exclaiming that Sidhu didn’t commit perjury because his supposed stay at the Calabria Apartments was a lie of such short duration.
But wait, then there’s this gem:
Bushala’s call? Cynthia, his involvement is hugely relevant. I’m not going into CARRD’s motives — other than trying to remove an effective opponent before mayoral term limits renders the complaint moot — but Bushala has been actively trying to inflict harm on Curt, so his motives ought to be suspect.
Wrong. Pringle is responsible for his own behavior. We’re just shining a light on it. If illumination of Pringle’s activities is harmful, that ‘s his fault! But, come to think of it, why should an honest politician worry about citizens bringing attention to his activities?
Bushala is a land speculator. It’s my understanding he’s trying to get the city to re-zone properties he has so he can develop them.
Oh no! An evil land speculator! Heaven forfend! Free enterprise is breaking out all over and Cunningham’s scared! The facts are wrong, and not relevant to anything he’s talking about but let’s try to whip up a little anti-capitalist hysteria, shall we, comrade, as we try out our old distraction trick.
It’s also my understanding he and his brother are coming into somewhere in the neighborhood of $13 million in an “eminent domain” action by the OCTA. I use quotes when local governments seeking to purchase property for some public purpose, the property owners often want the city to eminent domain them, instead, because of the tax advantages.
“Using quotes” – the humorless Jerb is getting all ironical on us here, and inserting more irrelevant information about which he knows nothing, but weasels his way around that fact by saying it is his “understanding.” Why didn’t he say misunderstanding and at least tell the truth?
Finally, this is an opinion from the Leg Counsel. Opinion. I take it you believe every legal opinion rendered by the Anaheim City Attorney to hold the force of law?
Holy Shit! Now the poor loser has really his rock bottom. Well almost. This motormouth’s not done making a fool of himself, now using numbered paragraphs to give his nonsense the color of authority:
1. Bushala’s motives are absolutely fair game, and it ought to have been noted in the post that one of the filers of the complaint is not only an avowed political enemy of Curt Pringle but someone whose honesty is questionable.
How does he know I am an “avowed” anything? And what in the world do my motives have to do with Pringle’s behavior, including his career of influence peddling under the guise of “lobbying?” My honesty is questionable? Ha! See next item, below.
2. At the end of the day, what Bushala and CARRD have is an opinion of about the applicability of an opinion. Which a far sight sight from Bushala’s claim that Curt is “breaking the law.”
And now an outright lie from Mr. Credibility. I never said that. Here’s what I said: “The credibility of the California High Speed Rail Authority program, and more importantly, both the appearance and substance of fair, open and honest government in California, demand it.”Hmm. Pringle a law breaker? Another Freudian slip by Cunningham?
3. Curt has been on CHSRC for three years. It wasn’t exactly a secret he was also Anaheim Mayor and an OCTA Director. Why only file a complaint now, when he’ll be leaving office in two months and the alleged incompatibility would be a moot point — assuming it even exists?
The fact that I became aware of the Legislative Counsel’s finding only week ago seems irrelevant to Cunningham, but not to me. There’s still a month for this miscreant to call meetings and cast votes. Cunningham, who loves to put time limits on honesty when it comes to his patrons and political clients just doesn’t seem to get it.
Oh, well, the facts clearly mean nothing to Cunningham, assuming he can even grasp them through the waves of desperation that make him cling to a creep like Pringle like a drowning man clings to a rock in the ocean. And I honestly wonder if Pringle sent him a check for that string of drivel.
Get in line, boy. And stay there.
Well, folks, there you have the very essence of repuglicanism: turn looking the other way into a full time business; in fact, try to make some green off of it. Perv priests, Church cover-ups, bogus consulting contracts doled out to fellow ‘pugs, “privatization” of unnecessary functions that benefit only yourself and your pals; ignore the facts; hell, forget your own party and its supposed principles when your crime boss tells you to.
Well, it’s true. Ol’ Hairball really is cruisin’ for another ass whuppin’ courtesy of Supervisor Shawn Nelson. Our sources in Anaheim have received Hide and Seek mailings. His recycled signs from the June election have popped up, too – all faded and worn.
So here’s a re-post in honor of out favorite carpetbagging assclown. Enjoy the youtube clip and see if you can figure out what this idiot is talking about.
– Joe Sipowicz
We’ve been hearing some rumblings from the interior of late – from union controlled websites, mostly – that serial perjurer and carpetbagger Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu is actually contemplating yet another political drubbing this fall in the 4th District Supervisor’s race, his third electoral humiliation in two years.
But humiliation is not a concept that Sidhu easily grasps. He appears oblivious to his manifest assclowneries, obvious as they are to the rest of us. Here’s a reminder of the caliber of public servant that we’re dealing with.
Yes, sadly, the lame, ignorant and incomprehensible bozo must be deaf to the entreaties of his friends who tell him to retire to private life. Oh, that’s right. He has no friends. Just hangers on and political retainers eager to strip his wallet bare.
After months of wondering how Anaheim’s Mayor-for-Hire, Curt Pringle, could get away with pushing through his high speed choo-choo on the folks of Buena Park, Fullerton, Anaheim, Orange County and all of California, I discovered a legal opinion from Legislative Counsel addressed to the Secretary of the State Senate that unequivocally opines that Pringle holds incompatible offices as Chairman of the California High Speed rail Authority, while simultaneously representing the City of Anaheim and the Orange County Transit Authority. He is breaking the law.
"A" is for...
Pringle has already directed the better part of $200,000,000 of Orange County transportation funds to Anaheim’s idiotic “ARTIC” facility, and that doesn’t even include more that will be necessary to accommodate his high speed boondoggle. Is it a coincidence that the first leg of the CHSR will be built in the least necessary or useful stretch of this concept – LA to Anaheim? Is it just as coincidental as Pringle’s lobbying firm being there to “consult” after hizzoner is out of office?
Mr. Curt? He up in the Big House.
Of course, Pringle is the heart and soul of Orange County repuglicanism: he runs the plantation and we all are just his cheap labor.
Yesterday I sent a letter by overnight delivery to our Attorney General requesting a quo warranto opinion from the AG, to wit: if the AG believes that the finding of the State Legislative Counsel is correct then the AG must take action to have the Pringle, and his LA Metropolitan Transit Authority counterflack Richard Katz, removed from their prior public offices to protect us regular folk from the sharks. Eric Carpenter of the register has written about my letter the AG, here.
It matters to Pringle. With a month left in office the influence he can still peddle at our expense is significant.
