Apparently part of Matthew Cunningham’s deal as wordsmith to the OC Children and Families Commission is to fill other functions from time to time – such as Ambassador to the Diocese of Orange with Dental Portfolio.
Here, in October and November 2007 we find Mr. Conservative Republican billing the taxpayers $200 an hour as coordinator of toothbrush distribution:
It seems as if the Commission was eager to insinuate itself into Catholic schools, too.
But did it not occur to anybody auditing these invoices at the Commission that it was a wee bit inappropriate to pay somebody that exorbitant rate to talk to somebody at the Diocese about handing out toothbrushes? Was anybody at the Commission even reviewing these invoices at all?
By the way, anybody out there know how many toothbrushes you can get wholesale for $200? Oy vey! Just more lax or non-existing oversight by our friends on the Commission.
Ironically, in the fall of 2007 Mr. Cunningham was hard at work in the trenches as a loyal foot soldier for the Diocese. But that’s a whole other matter.
I had some hopes for “The Voice of OC” as a source of information in Orange County, even though it was started by a former Democratic officeholder and funded by the County employee’s union.
Then on Friday I read Norberto Santana’s follow up to an earlier post about a poll repuglican John Lewis supposedly did that included results showing Sheriff candidate Bill Hunt within 1% of Sandra Hutchens. The problem was that neither the undecideds nor a % for Craig Hunter were released. How come? Lewis said he was restrained from saying. But it rendered the numbers pretty meaningless.
Instead of telling Lewis to cram his bogus “poll,” Santana gave the guy some more free publicity – whether there was even a real poll or not. And almost no inquisitiveness into who Lewis was working for or even if (as is quite likely) he’s just working for himself.
Well Santa was too incurious to press the matter, but I’ll speculate freely. I’m pretty sure Lewis is not working for Hutchens or he wouldn’t have released the numbers at all; ditto Hunter. Is he working for Hunt? Pretty unlikely since the unindicted members of Team Carona still show little but disdain for Hunt who would be unlikely to pay Lewis to do a poll in any case.
So who has the money and the resources to hire Lewis? The AOCDS union does, and since they are backing Hunt it would make sense – although the missing Hunter data would remain odd indeed – unless he, too were catching up with Hutchens. It would also make sense since the union is also backing a candidate in another important June race.
If Lewis were working for the his old Measure D pals the Lewis poll results in the 4th Supervisor’s race will indeed be interesting. If they are even released, it’s a safe bet that Harry Sidhu will miraculously receive credible numbers despite a campaign marked by perjury, carpetbagging, ignorance, and general buffoonery. Shawn Nelson is bound to come out badly since neither the AOCSD nor Lewis can tolerate a Nelson victory. Or are we too cynical about Lewis doing a phony “push poll”? Maybe. But we do recommend counting your fingers if you ever have to shake his hand.
Anyway, Lewis also has a way of working on spec so he can make lobbying calls later, so maybe he’s just trolling. What his motivations for hiding the Hunter data might be will become clear by early June.
One of our Friends got this dopey generic flier put out by the Sheriff Deputies’ union promoting the carpetbagging campaign of Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu. Talk of navigation with map and compass makes you think Sidhu’s running for Boat Owner Association President.
They made two errors, apart from the lame nautical metaphor.
The map and compass serve to remind us that Sidhu needs a map and a compass to get around the district he doesn’t live in – our 4th District.
The use of the compass is doubly ironic since Sidhu, who perjured himself on voter registration forms to support his carpetbagging, and who happily sought union IE support (though not their money!), seems to have no moral compass at all.
And somebody forgot to tell the union that they are supposed to play up “Harry” and not “Sidhu.”
Using kids as a front to support your bureaucratic empire is almost something of a cliche. The educrats and teachers unions have been doing it for years. And so naturally the OC Children and Families Commission sings from the same sheet music.
Check out these billing entries from Matthew Cunningham to the Commission.
Okay, on January 15th, 2010 Mr. Republican is ghost writing an op-ed piece for a Democratic politician – the former State Superintendent of Schools, Delaine Eastin. A dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do do it, right? Besides the money is great.
The inability to write is not a partisan political issue...
Then we notice that about five weeks later the beaver-like Cunningham is hard at work disseminating the “Eastin op-ed” to literally dozens of readers via “social media tools”
A little digging and we uncovered this Sacramento Bee op-ed “by” Delaine Eastin dated 2/24/2010. Delaine is fighting hard for the dough that fuels the kiducrat machine, and that, parenthetically pays Cunningham $200 an hour. Is this the very same piece he wrote for the otherwise mute Eastin? Check it out and see if the style isn’t 100% Cunningham schmaltz – including the obligatory quotation from Abraham Lincoln. Be sure to read the comments as a reminder of Eastin’s troubled regime as Superintendent of Schools.
I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. The OC Children and Families Commission is paying hundreds of thousands a year in PR and lobbying expenses that are handed out to the politically well connected like Cunningham, who is good buddies with Commissioner Chair Bill Campbell and Hugh Hewitt. What is the procurement process for these contracts, and what quantifiable metrics are applied to judge the success and ultimately the renewal of these contracts?
It’s time to open the window on this Commission and let some fresh air into the room.
Pay no attention to that man in front of the curtain...
In a comprehensive indictment of the High Speed Rail Authority’s procedures and protocols, and its abilities to manage and oversee spending public bond revenue, the California State Auditor has taken a considerable step in derailing the proposed boondoggle. Read the highlights for yourself.
Although this doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t suspect, it does confirm the worst suspicions about poor planning and lax or non-existent oversight, and raises the worst spectre of all: a worthless, duplicative, hyper-expensive and disruptive system – a mere leg – say from Anaheim to downtown Los Angeles.
Tonight Pringle’s PR consultants are coming to town, not to ask our opinion about anything, rest assured. Rather they are coming to soft sell what’s already been decided. But there’s no reason why we can’t go and share our opinions, and maybe even ask Mayor Bankhead (who’s bound to be there) how come he stood up a couple years ago and told people that the City of Fullerton supports this disaster in the making.
They’re going to be at the Senior Center from 5-8 with a propaganda presentation at 6pm.
It appears that Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly has mastered two skills in his eight years as head of the Clerk-Recorder Department. First, he has become a top-notch spender and waster of our dough. Second, he has mastered the art of creating jobs at tax-payer’s expense while receiving campaign contributions from the relatives of people he has employed.
Last week Daly hired Bruce Matthias, here. We learned from his campaign financial statements that Matthias’s wife Sonja Matthias had contributed to Daly’s now defunct campaign for Supervisor 2010.
Well, we looked deeper into his statements and found even more good old jobs for the boys (and girls) featherbedding. Look at this list.
In 2006, The Oftelie Company, run by former transportation bureaucrat Stan Oftelie, contributed to Tom Daly’s campaign. Could it be a coincidence that Stan’s son was hired shortly after this contribution and while the County was losing jobs. Stan’s son works in the Archives and was brought in as an “extra-help” employee which means that no competitive hiring process was conducted to bring him on board. I wonder what qualifies Stan’s son to work in the Archives.
The Walt Disney Company has been quite generous in its giving to Tom Daly’s campaigns. Since 2002, Disney and people connected to Disney have contributed more than $4000 to Tom. That’s just as much as the OCEA. Chris Lowe is the Government Affairs Manager for Disney in Anaheim. Well, Lo and Behold, Daly hired Chris Lowe’s wife to work in the Archives as an extra-help employee which, again, means that no competitive hiring process was conducted. And again the hiring was done when the County could least afford it.
In 2003 and 2005, James A. Liberio Realty made contributions to Tom Daly. Not surprisingly, Mr. Liberio’s daughter was also hired as an extra-help employee. So no competitive process was conducted to hire her. I’m unsure of her duties or qualifications.
Even during these tough times at the County, Daly has been budgeting at least $200,000 per year for extra-help hires. Despite revenues and workloads being at their lowest levels ever, Daly feels it is more important to keep his friends employed than to protect the interests of the public. Extra-help employees are basically at-will-employees and can be let go at anytime. I think that time has come now!
And I’d like to know why these these campaign contributors don’t hire their own relatives. Perhaps these people are not employable. Who knows?
Somebody needs to flush out this swamp of cronyism. Isn’t that why we have County Supervisors?
I never charge for reading the comics or the sports section.
One of the critical tasks assigned to Matthew Cunningham by the PR fixated and obviously rudderless OC Children and Families Commission is to “review” media, i.e. read newspapers and blogs, which is convenient for Cunningham because that’s what he does anyway – for free. Now he’s a pro at 200 bucks an hour.
Yes, Friends, you read rightly. He’s paid to read blogs.
This is exactly what I had in mind...only they were supposed to be Democrats!
January 25, 2010 was another banner day for Pacific Strategies. $700 for a few hours noodling around on the computer. Plus time for 18 holes in the afternoon after the siesta!
Oh, and look. A phone call to newly minted Assemblyman Chris Norby made from Suite C. Probably to assure Chris that Cunningham really wanted him to win all along and how much he really, really hates carpetbaggers and perjurers.
UPDATE: as one of our commenters pointed out, you can click on the billing fragment, below to get the picture of what happened for the month of July 2009. Enjoy, but try not to retch.
August 17th, 2009 was a great day to be Matthew Cunningham. See, the Red County Blog editor and pretended conservative pulled down $1680 wordsmith pimping for the liberal welfare state via his lucrative deal with the OC Children and Families Commission.
Why this Commission, that was created to help little children, is dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars each year into opinion swaying of dubious value is exasperating. The fact that this money is going into the coffers of well-connected repuglicans also gives off quite an aroma – influence peddling-wise.
How and why these contracts are awarded is certainly a topic that should be addressed by the Commission and their Executive Director Michael Ruane, as well as by the Board of Supervisors, who appoint Commission members.
One thing is crystal clear. This Commission is more interested in PR and lobbying for their revenue than they are actually accomplishing anything.
Here is the billing statement for that day that put a happy face on all the Cunninghams in Suite C. Who knew that revising vanilla versions of op-eds could be so rewarding?
Maybe Cunningham really does believe in the good works of the Commission, although I’ve got to wonder what other tax and spend schemes he will be promoting next.
After second helpings of aloo tikki and tandoori baked nan, our own beloved blowhard Dick Jones seems to be having trouble staying awake during the Indian Independence day celebration held last summer at Harry Sidhu’s “elegant Yorba Estate.” You remember, his home in the 3rd Districtthat he swore under penalty of perjury that he had abandoned for the Calabria Apartments on Lincoln Avenue.
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 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.
