The Culture of Corruption Archives - Page 37 of 49

July 29, 2012July 29, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Out With Old, In With The…Old

Well they finally did it. Our pathetic county Board of Supervisors finally got rid of their pathetic excuse for a CEO, Tom Mauk. Of course they let him call it a retirement and they gave him $270,000. And it took about nine months after he helped cover up the sordid details of Carlos Bustamante’s sex assaults on female County employees.

Of course the Supervisors should have fired both their HR director and Mauk when news of the 20 page report that detailed the behavior (that has earned Busty a total of 12 felony charges courtesy of the District Attorney) came out. But they didn’t. The sad Supervisor from the Third District, Bill Campbell actually commended Mauk for a job well-done. The female members of the Board, Pat Bates and Janet Nguyen, who should have been most shocked about the whole thing, made no public statements, perhaps hoping the thing would just go away.

It didn’t. And the embarrassment got so bad even Mauk and his allies knew the jig was up – many months later.

Just in case you were wondering who would take the helm of the county ship of state in the time of crisis, scandal, turmoil, and erosion of public trust, the selection by the Board seems underwhelming, the present Finance Director, Robert Franz. He will be Acting CEO until an Interim CEO is chosen until a Permanent CEO can be discovered. It’s government, get it: and a completely dysfunctional one at that. The whole place needs to be cleaned out, and the sooner the better.

July 26, 2012July 26, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Well, That Figures

by Mr. Peabody200 Comments

Once and a while I do a Public Record Act request search, ya know, just to see who’s been digging into Fullerton’s records.

And look what I found:

Some person named Greg Diamond, who lives in Brea, is interested in a report about a domestic dispute incident involving State Assemblyman Chris Norby. This issue is not new and quite some time ago FFFF tagged former police spokeshole and union boss Andrew Goodrich as the most likely leaker of the now discredited insinuation of spousal abuse that was helpfully passed along to the public by a union-sponsored blog.

Good news. Hopefully the City will hand over any internal documents on the topic, and especially the possible external communications sent by a helpful PIO to the Voice of OC(EA). Perhaps our new council will make sure that happens.

I am informed that this drone is working for Sharon Quirk in her cardboard cut-out bid to beat out Norby for the new 65th Assembly District seat in the Assembly.

If she thinks this sort of dumpster diving is going to help her campaign, she’s got another think coming. Instead, I hope in the coming months Quirk will expend her energy articulating her positions on increasing taxes in California, explain why the schools are so screwed up, how JCs and state universities squander billions every year with ridiculous bureaucracies and opine on the idiotic environmental master planning embodied in AB32 and SB 375.

Do I hope in vain?

July 24, 2012July 23, 2012Chris Norby

Message to Norby: Kill POBAR

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy74 Comments

Um, Chris Norby, you are a State Assemblyman, right? You stand for something, right? You ran for office for some reason, right?

So now that you’re up in Sacramento, why don’t you do something about the hideous union scam known as POBR – the Police Officer’s Bill of Rights – that grants special protection to cops good and bad. It seems that POBR keeps honest, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens from knowing which crooked cops have been preying upon the very citizens who pay for their salaries and exorbitant pensions. Are you in favor of this? Do you care? Are you worth a dehydrated ostrich turd?

You’ve been in Sacramento for over two years and so far have accomplished nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. So how about finally showing some guts by doing the right thing. Make it legal for all police departments to release all relevant information on cops who have been separated from their police force. If they’ve done nothing wrong the facts will bear this out. If they have violated policy, or worse, if they are criminals, the public has a right to know.

And Sharon Quirk, if you’re reading this (and I know you are) what do you have to say about fixing POBR.

July 23, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Life is Good

by Jan Florys Dog101 Comments

What’s this? A former Fullerton Police Chief Mike Sellers sighting! Here is Iron Mike confabbing with Placentia Police Chief R.A. Hicks in the booth of a cozy Yorba Linda eatery.

Perhaps Sellers is dispensing wisdom about how to bail on one’s professional responsibilities and duty as soon as times get tough; perhaps he is explaining how to run a clean, efficient department.

We do know that for Sellers, who is able to squeak by on a pension of $20,000 a month, life is indeed good.

July 21, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Compulsive Liars Lie

by The Fullerton Harpoon85 Comments

bankhead-crown — The closer you look, the less there is.

They lie about stuff big and small. They just can’t help it. Last year FFFF nailed former councilman Don Bankhead in a bald-faced lie here, when he denied saying Fullerton would be a ghost town without Redevelopment.

Here he is denying to Fullerton Stories that he had pulled papers to run for the city council (after having been recalled just six weeks ago). Possibly Bankhead is unaware that not only does the City Clerk keep track of who has pulled papers, but they list it on their web page.

Of course Bankhead has run so many times that he should know this, unless the teeth are just worn away and the old gears are spinning aimlessly.

July 21, 2012July 21, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Adios, Cicinelli!

by Mr. Peabody176 Comments

The OC Register is reporting that Jay Cicinelli, the man we watched smash Kelly Thomas’s head with the butt of his taser is no longer employed by the people of Fullerton.

According to his dear old stepdad, John Huelsman, he was fired for policy violations and excessive force, a charge Cicinelli will be fighting.

Of course for those who watched the snuff video, and later heard Cicinelli’s admission that he smashed Kelly’s face “to Hell,” this action was a no-brainer. Even though the DA charged this creep nine months ago with manslaughter, the Fullerton Police Department and the Three Bald Tires permitted the investigation sham drag out for over a year before cutting Cicinelli loose.

July 20, 2012Behind Closed Doors

He’s Baaaaaack!

by Joe Sipowicz81 Comments

Bankhead3-226x300 — Tanned rested, and ready

Just in case there were any doubt about the state of Mr. Don Bankhead’s mental faculties, I am pleased to report that the recently recalled councilman has pulled papers to run again for the city council, just like he did in 1994 after being recalled. Bankhead is only one of two office holders in the history of the United States to be recalled from the same office twice, and the only man in the 152 year history of California.

This dunderhead snoozed while the FPD sank into a Culture of Corruption, while the water rate payers were ripped off, and as he handed out millions to his campaign contributors; and yet he seems to think himself still worthy of somebody’s trust.

Still, running for the office you were recalled from a mere six weeks ago takes a lot of gall, or disconnect from reality, or both; especially when you got your sorry old ass whipped 2-1.

I have no idea if this doorknob actually plans on running; but I doubt if he has a single friend of family member with the sense or decency to tell him no. But if he does, you can certainly look forward to some fun.

July 17, 2012July 17, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Adios, Wolfe.

by Joe Sipowicz209 Comments

According to the OC Register, Joe Wolfe, one of the instigators of the fatal confrontation between six Fullerton cops and a mentally ill homeless man in July 2011, is no longer in the employ of the good people of Fullerton.

Naturally the cops won’t say squat about the separation because the public is not to know about any of the bad things cops do under the color of authority. Wolfe was either fired or permitted to resign, perhaps so he could go be an upstanding cop somewhere else.

Included in the story was a typical Lou Ponsi whopper:

Wolfe was placed on unpaid leave since just after the fatal confrontation.

Incorrect on two counts. Wolfe was never placed on unpaid leave. He has been on a paid vacation for almost a year; and remember, it took a month to get the cops involved off the streets. Of course Wolfe allegedly re-injured his bad shoulder beating Kelly Thomas’s with his club and elbow, so it is likely he is the cop that was not back on active duty. Of course since these sorts of details are all hush-hush we’ll never know – although we can almost certainly expect a disability claim from Wolfe.

Does this mean there’s an impending charge from the DA against Wolfie? Maybe, if he was fired, but I wouldn’t bet a plug nickel on that possibility. If he was quietly permitted to resign he will still be expecting a call from Garo Mardirossian.

Other nagging questions: is who is Corporal Tim Kandler, what happened to OJ jailer Jeff Stuart, and why in the hell does Fullerton still have an FPOA member acting as public spokesmen?

July 15, 2012Behind Closed Doors

Rats Jumping Off Sinking County Ship. Fingering Each Other

by The Fullerton Shadow45 Comments

The Voice of OC(EA) on Friday posted a story about yet another high-level crony of County CEO Tom Mauk bailing out of the creaky tub that is taking on water fast in the wake of the Carlos Bustamante sex-assault case. This person’s name is Alisa Drakodidas, and she was in immediate charge of the patsy who just got canned last week, and about whom I wrote about, here.

Drakodidas was a Deputy CEO of Infrastructure (whatever that means) and apparently a close confidant of Mauk. She has taken a medical leave until the end of August, and of course is still being paid. She has got herself a lawyer, too, and according to Voice has sent the County a nasty letter blasting various individuals, including Supervisors, most specifically Pat Bates. According to the Voice’s source, the letter accuses Bates of getting one of her office flunkies a high paying job and generally botching things up. Other Supervisors, collectively, are blamed for interfering with contracts (I think this is probably code for doing favors for fund-raising lobbyists). It’s obvious that Ms. Drakodidas is not planning on coming back to work.

Apparently the County is not releasing any details of the letter via the Public Records Act, but it’s clear somebody at the County has leaked the general outline of this document. It must provide some interesting reading. Hopefully all of this finger pointing will result in a clear picture of why Bustamante was employed at all, and who let him get away with his twisted pervy sex attacks.

July 15, 2012July 15, 2012Behind Closed Doors

It’s Broken. Fix It.

by Joe Sipowicz199 Comments

And let’s start with someone named Dana Fox who supposedly is an attorney for the City of Fullerton – a holdover from the Old Regime of Incompetence and Denial.

Here is a story by the never helpful Lou Ponsi of the OC Register that includes an interview with said Mr. Fox. It’s all about the the lawsuit filed by Ron Thomas against the City of Fullerton for the murder of his son by the Fullerton cops July 5th, 2011.

First Fox pops off about the irrelevance of previous bad behavior by some of Fullerton’s Finest:

Responding to the lawsuit Thomas filed last week, alleging officers’ misconduct in multiple incidents apart from the July 5, 2011 incident involving his son, attorney Dana Fox said many of the allegations deal with “extemporaneous” and “irrelevant” matters.

“All of those other matters have nothing to do with the events of July 5, 2011, and are irrelevant to determine if there is liability, and if so, if there are reasonable compensatory damages that Mr. Thomas is entitled to recover,” Fox said.

I think the history of malfeasance and cover-ups is very much germane to the Culture of Corruption that permeated the FPD. Of course I’m not a lawyer. But Garo Mardirossian is. I do know one thing: I want the history of FPD abuses addressed, admitted to, and corrected, and through a court proceeding, if necessary.

Later on Fox dangles the tasty carrot of an easy settlement:

“As the city and Cathy Thomas were able to do, which is put aside their differences … the city is more than willing to sit down with Mr. Thomas and his attorney,” Fox said. “Otherwise, it will be a lengthy case.”

Differences? Hell, we all saw the video. Who in the hell gave this assclown permission to speak to the media on behalf of the City. Bankhead, Jones, and McPension have been fired by the people of Fullerton. Who is giving this bozo direction in dealing with Ron Thomas, or any other of the long line of plaintiffs against the Fullerton Police Department? Again, I only want a settlement after a court trial, in public, details the facts of the Kelly Thomas murder on top of those the DA will not touch.

Finally, I would like to know who gave Lawyer Fox permission to open his yap to the media in the first place. Was it Old Regime City Manager Joe Felz? Was it Old Regime City Attorney Richard Jones? Was it Mayor Sharon Quirk? Whoever it was, one thing should be made abundantly clear – nobody speaks for the City of Fullerton except the city council; this means no more happy press releases issued by staff, no more government self-promotion, and no more obfuscation meant to protect city employees and meant to sweep embarrassments under the rug.

And let’s hope the new council gets on with the business of clearing out the holdovers from the corrupt, stupid, incompetent, and negligent council majority that preceded them.