Shawn Nelson Archives - Page 10 of 21 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

June 3, 2010Harry Sidhu

Frank Mickadeit on Harry Sidhu

Today the Register’s Frank Mickadeit penned an interesting column about Harry Sidhu’s desire to drop the county’s pending lawsuit that would eliminate a retroactive union pension spike. The same pension scheme that’s breaking our government.

The lawsuit, by the way, has already been filed and is pending review by the court. And yet Sidhu says “it’s a waste of money to go further”.

A waste of money? Imagine filing a lawsuit, doing discovery and depositions to the point where all that’s left is for a judge to decide if your case has merit to go to trial… and then you decide to drop the lawsuit?

It makes no sense, but that’s what Sidhu wants. And that’s what the unions want, too.

June 3, 2010June 3, 2010Harry Sidhu

Waste And Deception. So What’s New? They’re Unions.

by admin6 Comments

So far the Orange County public employee unions have spend over a million dollars in this year’s 4th District Supervisor’s election.

Doing what? Calling Shawn Nelson a pedophile supporter; claiming what a virtuous and honorable man Harry Sidhu is. A million bucks.

Lest anybody thinks these goons are going to give up their death grip on the taxpayers without a struggle had better think again. A million times.

Forget issues. They only care about their own selfish interests and Heaven forfend anybody suggests that a County paper shuffler shouldn’t be able to retire at 55 and enjoy most of his pay for rest of his life. Naturally these people are going to do everything they can to distract attention from the main issue of this campaign: unfunded liabilities on the taxpayers caused by public employee union greed and spineless politicians.

And so Hide and Seek Sidhu, carpetbagger and perjurer, the man who doesn’t even know what a defined benefit is suddenly a paragon of virtue; Nelson is an unspeakable monster.

There you have it. Fear and Loathing, and enough to go around.

May 31, 2010Local Media

OC Register Chooses Shawn Nelson

by Travis14 Comments

In addition to Steven Greenhut‘s op-ed on Shawn Nelson a few weeks ago, several other Register editorialists have recently decided that Shawn Nelson is the superior candidate for OC Supervisor.

Brian Calle sized up the Supervisor race in Sunday’s print edition. After looking at all three candidates, Calle determined that Sidhu is weak on pensions while Nelson is committed to bold reforms. Calle concluded that the pension issue is inarguably the most important issue facing Orange County right now, “bar none.”

John Seiler wrote on the Orange Punch blog about the $900,000 that the unions have spent trying to defeat Shawn Nelson. Seiler draws some interesting comparisons to John Moorlach’s election in 2006, when the unions also spent big money in a failed attempt to defeat a candidate who was known for being fiscally responsible. At the time, Nick Berardino called Moorlach “the biggest threat in the county to employees’ personal financial security.” Sound familiar?

We’ve been hearing the same message over and over: this race is about the clash of The Unions vs. The Rest of Us. Will that resonate with voters in 2010? Something tells me the answer is an overwhelming “yes”.

May 27, 2010May 27, 2010OC's Fourth District

Shawn Nelson for Supervisor

by Grover Cleveland27 Comments

If you’ve been reading our blog, during the past few months, you will have encountered many posts detailing all sorts of misfeasance.

In the government of Orange County, we have shared stories about cronyism, waste and mismanagement at the County Clerk Recorder’s department; about Rob Reiner’s Children and Families Commission that diverts hundreds of thousands each year to dubious PR and lobbying services provided by well connected political operatives; about a Cemetery District that paid out $60,000 a year just to find a new graveyard site; and of course these tales of waste are accompanied by the day to day operations of various county agencies, including the sheriff’s department that are propelled along by their own inertia, year after dismal year; no matter how many times they change its name the County Planning Department remains a model of inefficiency, complacency and incompetence.

All this is just a prelude to the point of this post, which is that we need, finally a county supervisor who is able and willing to actually supervise something and that person is Shawn Nelson.

Nelson’s record on the Fullerton City Council, while not perfect, has demonstrated his recognition that elected office holders are there to represent the constituents, not the bureaucracy, and that governments must be held accountable for what they do and how they do it.

The county government is a contraption glued together by patronage and by its own dead weight. It’s a 19^th century edifice in a 21^st century reality. Nelson realizes this and he realizes the need for not only an overhaul but for a complete re-evaluation of the structure.

On June 8^th, you have a chance to actually affect real change at the county; make the most of it because you won’t get too many chances.

Shawn Nelson for 4^th District County Supervisor.

May 26, 2010May 26, 2010Coyote Hills

Coyote Hills Development Denied

by Greg Sebourn18 Comments

Shawn Nelson voted to kill Chevron’s West Coyote Hills development – but not for the same reasons that Keller and Quirk-Silva noted. At Tuesday’s City Council Meeting Shawn Nelson said of staff, “It’s like everybody got their Christmas list out.”

Nelson was referring to the extraordinary list of demands that the City of Fullerton has placed on the developer that include all-terrain vehicles, trailers, an interpretive center, school fees of more than $10 million, a $5 million endowment, and park fees. Nelson said “There’s only 760 units planned in this development and that would be $265,000 per unit. And they haven’t graded one spec of dirt, haven’t put in a street, a sewer, a street light. I’m embarrassed. I mean that’s shameful. Whether you approve it or not, that’s a problem.” He went on to ask, “How is that [list of demands] their [Pacific Coast Homes] or anybody’s responsibility that comes to town?”

Nelson made it clear that he supports the rights of developers. He said, “Chevron has a right to build.” But he was not happy that the development agreement showed up on his desk at noon, not leaving sufficient time to scrutinize the details. One major concern was over water rights. When he first took office, Nelson said he had inquired about other issues that have yet to be adequately addressed by Pacific Coast Homes, such as parking.

The councilman appeared to be most irritated that, “These people have been run through the ringer”, referring to the developer, Pacific Coast Homes – a subsidiary of Chevron and the list of unreasonable demands by city staff.

Shawn Nelson is running for the Orange County board of Supervisor’s 4^th District seat vacated by Chris Norby after Norby’s election to the California State Assembly. To no one’s surprise, Shawn Nelson is endorsed by Congressman Ed Royce and Assemblyman Chris Norby, among others.

Before the meeting was adjourned, Councilwomen Pam Keller made a lengthy statement that she would not be seeking reelection.

May 23, 2010May 23, 2010Dick Jones

A Promise Was Made. Will It Be Kept?

by Joe Sipowicz7 Comments

POST UPDATE: WHY AREN’T TERM LIMITS ON THE JUNE BALLOT?

More than a year (and a half) ago a majority of the Fullerton City Council agreed to put the idea of a three term limit to a plebiscite. Councilmembers Sharon Quirk, Pam Keller and Shawn Nelson were for it; Dick Jones and Don Bankhead were against it.

brontosaurus2-380x249 — Dick and I aren't going anywhere...

At the time we ran this post, which we updated in last October. Well, Friends, with the impending June primary election the time has come to remind Quirk, Keller, and Nelson of their promise. It’s not that we don’t trust them, but folks just get so gosh darn busy and their calendars fill up.

But seriously: now that a year has passed and the cold reality of actually having to do something approaches, will there be political remorse?

We’ll soon find out.

May 21, 2010May 21, 2010Dead heads

Hide and Seek Sidhu On Public Employee Unions

by admin36 Comments

UPDATE: I came across this earlier post today as I was thinking about all the political mail paid for by the “public employee unions” telling you what a great guy Harry Sidhu is and what a bad guy Shawn Nelson is. This video is worth a replay. Sidhu has an almost limitless capacity for clownish behavior — a perfect fit for the union circus.

Here’s another classic “what did he say?” mumble moment brought to you by Harry Sidhu at the GOP Central Committee meeting last week. We think he believes in public employee unions, but not in his ability to say no to them if they give him dough (directly) – so Honest Harry says he hasn’t and won’t take it. Even though he has been taking it ever since he first got elected in 2004!

In any case he says he won’t ‘take their money now. But just a few days before he had gone hat in hand to the Sheriff Deputy’s union to get their endorsement – and a big monetary expenditure via their IE, and he knows he got it. This is perfectly consistent with the profile of a politician without an ethical fiber in his being.

And that makes him a first class hypocritical hair ball and a worthy candidate for the John Lewis crowd to support.

What a guy.

May 21, 2010Shawn Nelson

Saturday: Placentia Precinct Walk with Shawn Nelson

by Greg Sebourn6 Comments

Please join 4th District OC Supervisor candidate Shawn Nelson in a Placentia precinct walk on Saturday.

May 18, 2010May 18, 2010Harry Sidhu

News From The OC GOP Central Committee

by admin20 Comments

We’ve just received a message from our good Friend and former Red County blogger Allan Bartlet.

Hello FFFF readers. It’s nice to write for a blog that appreciates independent thinking. It’s nice not to be told what they can and can’t write about or what stories they can and can’t link to…but I digress. It’s official. I am no longer going to be contributing anything else to Red County as long as the taint of Matt Cunningham shilling for the ultra liberal bureaucracy Children & Family Commission is still over there.

I come before you today though to report excellent news from OC Republican Central Committee. Last night was Scott Baugh’s finest hour as Chairman of our party. It was a short meeting as Central Committee meetings go, but what it lacked in duration, it made up in substance. Chairman Baugh started by making some remarks about how great it was that the party has been vindicated for
endorsing Shawn Nelson last month. He put up on a projector for all the members to see, the over the top/lying hit pieces paid for by the county employee and sheriff unions on behalf of Harry Sidhu & Lorri Galloway. He then proceeded to have an impromptu fundraiser for Shawn right there during the meeting! Someone from the audience shouted he would match the first 30 $50 donations to get the ball rolling. For the math challenged, that’s $1500. It then started feeding off of all the energy in the room to fight back against the government unions. By the end of the night, Scott told me that we had raised and gotten commitments for almost $100k for Nelson for the party to do member communications on his behalf.

I couldn’t help but notice that he kept looking at Matt Holder during his presentation as if to say…”game, set, match Matt”. I think it’s fair to say that the gloves came off last night. You see as everyone knows, John Lewis & Matt Holder are running interference behind the scenes to help Harry Sidhu. If Harry gets elected, L&H and the unions will have one more friendly vote for all their lobbying business, which BTW is very substantial. The campaigns they work on are more or less “loss leaders” for them. They make their money on the back end. If Nelson gets elected, that’s two solid votes against them for any business they wanna try to get through the BOS. They would have to be perfect with the remaining three votes. We know they have Janet & Bill Campbell in their back pocket, but Pat Bates has endorsed Nelson. You see where all this is going? Like someone once said…”follow the money”.

Anyways, I just wanna thank Chairman Baugh for his efforts last night. It’s not been often that I publicly give him props, but I definitely wanna praise him when he deserves it.

Thanks for that, Allan. We’ve been pretty tough on both Baugh and the GOP Central Committee in the past. But it looks like things are really changing for the better and an expression of appreciation is in order!

May 16, 2010Dick Jones

Bullhorn Berardino Backfire

by The Desert Rat5 Comments

Bernardino-2-300x234 — Nick is that a union made garment? Too bad it doesn't hide your Rolex.

There is an old axiom that says all politics are local. Nick “Bullhorn” Berardino, chief union goon of the Orange County Employees Association seems to have forgotten that adage. Maybe he never heard it.

A week or so ago week his union sent out a mailer accusing Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson of voting to spend money on a “red-tagged” building. Too bad the building was Fullerton’s historic Fox Theater, a structure whose restoration thousands of Fullertonians support and to which hundreds, including Nelson, have made personal donations. The mailer provoked this letter that appeared in the mid-May Fullerton Observer:

Oops. Looks like Berardino has really soiled himself this time.

Retraction? Apology? Not very likely, guys. See, Nick Berardino and his crew operate in a whole different environment that you might imagine. In Comrade Nick’s world you grab and grab and keep grabbing all you can get while giving as little as possible in return.

And that’s why Orange County’s finances are so messed up, why County departments are run so poorly, and why the OCEA is absolutely terrified of a Shawn Nelson victory.