Setting The Bar Low – Page 97 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

July 30, 2010July 30, 2010Boohooism

Fullerton Observer Takes Dump On Self. Again.

the-observer-ostrich4-300x225 — On a clear day you can see forever...

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?

July 29, 2010July 30, 2010Harry Sidhu

Harry at the Library

by admin4 Comments

Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu surfaced last year in this image used in his scampaign for 4th District Supervisor (a district in which he didn’t and doesn’t live).

He seems to be in a kiddie library listening to an unseen story teller. Unfortunately our guess is that the rest of the class learned a lot more about communication than their older classmate Sidhu, whose garbled syntax and undecipherable gobbledygook dropped the jaw of many a campaign event attendee.

Those children are probably still wondering about that big, dumb kid who showed up for story hour.

July 28, 2010Behind Closed Doors

High Speed Bullshit

by Mr. Peabody10 Comments

Tracy Woods at The Voice of OC has written a post about the slick salesmen of the Cal High Speed Rail Authority, and a supposedly meaningful poll that shows 77% of Californians supporting their massive boondoggle. Apparently Anaheim’s Mayor-for-Hire and HSR Authority Chairman Curt Pringle is going to use the poll on a trip to Washington today to grease up some of the DC skids.

Most telling is the fact that the CHSRA didn’t release the poll questions so we’ll never know how hard the respondents were pushed. My guess is very hard.

Meanwhile, the City of Orange has passed a resolution opposing the HSR morass.

Where, or where is Fullerton?

July 28, 2010July 28, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Conflict of Interest?

by admin16 Comments

Smilin' Chief — Smilin' all the way to the bank

Have you ever wondered how we got ourselves into this financial crisis? In California and in Fullerton we have an out of control public employee pension crisis – a crisis where thousands of retired public employee end up receiving mammoth retirement payouts, in some cases tens of thousands more than they ever made while they were actually working.

Well, one candidate for Fullerton City Council is a posterboy for this system run amok, and his name is Patrick McKinley. Before the next time you cast your ballot, check to see that the person your are voting for is not a retired government worker that would be making any decisions affecting out of control public employee retirement pensions.

July 26, 2010Repuglicanism

On The Hog

by Travis2 Comments

July 25, 2010Big Brother

The Wishing Well, Once A Mayor’s Crib; Now A Bottomless Money Hole

by admin11 Comments

IMG00037-20100723-0855 — The Wishing Well Apartments. Someone's wish just came true.

For those interested in obscure Fullerton history, Louis Valasquez lived in the Wishing Well apartments at 466 West Valencia Dr. while serving as the Mayor of Fullerton in 1979.

Those more curious about modern-day Redevelopment Agency boondoggles, may be interested to learn that this past week the Fullerton City Council voted to sell the Agency owned Wishing Well Apartments to an out of town “developer” for $100.

The Fullerton Redevelopment Agency purchased the ol’ Wishing Well for $1,993,433 and paid an additional $60,930 to kick out (relocate) all the tenants that resided in the 16 unit building. On top of that the Agency is going to give the out-of-towners an additional $184,347 to “rehab” the apartments, provided the developer rents the apartments to low income tenants. Here in Orange County “low income” is 50% of the median income – which for a family of 3 is $70,890. This means that people that make around $35,445 will be living in the Brand Spanking New Wishing Well. I’ll bet ya the previous tenants made less than $35,445 per year. So in reality the city kicked out the poor folks in order to replace them with richer poor folks.

Now that’s not very good is it?

And if the units were so dilapidated, why didn’t City Code Enforcement simply cite the landlord and require the units to be standard units?

I think I’ll do a follow-up post and focus on code enforcement failures under Don Bankhead’s and Dick Jones’s years of “leadership.”

July 22, 2010July 22, 2010Dead heads

A Power Grab By Madam Chair

by Mr. Peabody4 Comments

The Voice of OC is reporting on a plan by County Board of Supervisors Chair Janet Nguyen to create a redistricting committee of which she will be Chair, and Supervisor Bill Campbell, Vice Chair. The remaining three positions will be filled by appointment by the other Supes.

Apparently this little plan was not well-received by the three dissed supervisors – for obvious reasons. Although Brown Act issues have been raised, the real question seems to be how the Empress thought she’d ever get this ticket validated: the Census won’t be complete and published until 2011 when she won’t even be Chair any more; she is also running for re-election in 2012 and the idea of her manipulating this process to shed unwanted Latino votes from her district must have occurred to just about everybody.

Supervisors Shawn Nelson and John Moorlach proposed the redistricting model pursued in 2000 which seems to have been the only one in recent memory that avoided legal challenge, and in which supervisor’s staff members participated with the public in designing new districts.

This issue isn’t over. Next week the County Counsel Nicholas Chrisos will report back on Brown Act implications and the full Board will take up the matter again.

July 21, 2010July 21, 2010Boohooism

FSD Renews The Shameful Keller Contract

by The Fullerton Shadow16 Comments

Pam Keller4 — Let a smile be your umbrella...

Wow. It’s sort of weird. I spend a few months in eastern Nevada and when I get back it seems like nothing has changed. It was way back in February that Joe did a recap on the doings of Pam Keller – and what a recap it was. We had over 130 comments, most from some pathetic Keller apologist calling him/herself 4th SD Observer.

And today I learned from a pretty reliable source that last night the Fullerton School Board renewed the Keller/Collaborative contract. You remember, the contract that permits Keller to be an FSD employee while in actuality she goes gallavanting around Fullerton, latte cup in hand, hobnobbing with other professional do-gooders, and taking credit for real philanthropy performed by others.

Anyway, I gather that the vote was 3-2, with Bev Berryman and Lynn Thornley, to their credit, dissenting. As usual Ed Royce liberals Hilda Sugarman and Ellen Ballard voted yes; and of course our old friend Minard Duncan had to go along, too. That figures. He has popped up here occasionally to inform us of how hard Pam works.

July 17, 2010July 17, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Kiducrats Love to Pat Selves on Back

by Grover Cleveland15 Comments

One of our observant friends passed along this iridescent pearl from Rob Reiner’s under scrutinized Tax and Redistribute OC Children and Families Commission:

July 15, 2010

The Children and Families Commission of Orange County was awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). This achievement is the highest form of recognition among government finance and is given annually to promote high quality finance reporting in the public sector. More than 3,500 governments participate in this program each year.

This self-congratulatory item was no doubt scribbled by Chief Commission Wordsmith and $200 an hour toothbrush hander outer, Matthew J. Cunningham, and is typical of government accountants passing out accolades to each other.

Too bad nobody has done a real external performance audit, including investigating how exorbitant PR and lobbying contracts are being handed out to Commission member Bill Campbell’s political running buddies like Curt Pringle and Cunningham himself.

Well, not to worry. Something tells me that come 2010 Fringie Award time we’ll be recognizing the Commission with our own special brand of recognition.

July 12, 2010July 11, 2010Dead heads

Who Should Pay To Clean Up The Mess in Downtown Fullerton?

by admin10 Comments

hooligan — Welcome to Downtown Fullerton

Surely not the businesses that don’t sell booze.

Last year a few downtown Fullerton property and business owners lobbied the City Council to impose an tax assessment on downtown Fullerton. The purpose of this “Business Improvement District” was to raise money to clean up the mess introduced into Downtown by the numerous booze joints and illegal dance clubs.

The first step was predictable: hire yourself a “consultant” who will tell you what you want to hear. But the price tag was too steep and the promoters couldn’t get a clear majority of the Council to go along.

But apparently now Councilwoman Sharon Quirk-Silva has changed her mind about hiring a consultant to meet and greet and spread the BID propaganda.

The direction here is all too clear: build up some momentum toward the idea and then rely on the self-interested parties to vote their interest and hope that the other property owners don’t catch on.

Well I think this stinks. Why should all the downtown property owners pay to fix the problems caused by the bar owners and their out-of-control customers, not to mention a City policy that has enabled all these problems? And let’s not forget – former police chief and council candidate Patrick McKinley who liked to look the other way.

And why should the taxpayers keep footing the bill?