Some of our loyal readers have asked about the 3 @ 50 pension formula that many, if not most “public safety” employees receive. It’s pretty simple. You get to retire at age 50. The 3 is a multiplier applied to the number of years you have been employed. The guy or gal who works for 30 years would get 90% of his or her highest salary as a pension. For life. Pretty sweet gig, eh?
Go ahead have three. Somebody will pay for them later...
Many public agencies also tack on other benefits as income, boosting pensions even higher. The worst scam of all is foisted on the public by the agencies that consider the taxpayer’s payment of the employees’ share of pension paycheck deductions as income counted toward their pensions. This charming little ripoff is known colloquially as “PERS on PERS,” PERS being an acronym for Public Employee Retirement System.
So, what is the tie in to Fullerton?
Well, let’s start with the Three Dyspeptic Dinosaurs, Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley. Back in 2001, at the behest of Andy Goodrich and his union, these two voted to give the 3 @50 formula for the Fullerton Police and Fire Departments. The decision was voluntary and wittingly done. If that weren’t bad enough, of course the benefit was applied retroactively, meaning that many cops and firemen who had worked for decades under the previous formula were suddenly handed a titanic bonanza of taxpayer confiscated wealth, with the single stroke of Mayor Don Bankhead’s pen. And that single stroke of glaring incompetence has contributed to a massive unfunded pension liability that Fullerton citizens will have to carry indefinitely.
Yep, that's me!
And who is one of the principle beneficiaries of this generosity with the public purse? You guessed it. Former police Chief and current councilman Pat McKinley, who has picked up the moniker “Pat McPension” for his $215,000 a year pension – far more than he ever made working.
They may be dumb but they sure are slow...
Now this profligate behavior with public funds is typically the sort of behavior attributed to liberal Democrats. In Fullerton the heist was perpetrated by allegedly “conservative” Republicans who believe wearing stupid lapel pins is what really matters. Well, they sold us out, folks.
Just give me a year or two. I'll come up with something...
Could be. These things are decided by the City Council behind closed doors in what is called “Closed Session.”
It would be a pretty neat and convenient trick to be able to sweep a whole lot of nasty crap under the carpet that might otherwise be more closely scrutinized during a public trial. And when that nasty crap reflects directly on your own incompetence, ignorance, and misfeasance, so much the better.
So it is with Fullerton City Council recall target and former Chief of Police, Pat McKinley. See, Pat is the guy who personally hired all the FPD goons, thieves, pickpockets, druggies, perjurers and killers who have been in the news lately. He says he is proud of all of them (but two – presumably the “aliens” Cicinelli and Ramos). And he apologizes for nothing
Consider this: as a City Councilman McKinley can get to decide how much money is paid out to the victims of those low-life hires he is so proud of. The conclusion that some of these payouts give off the stink of hush money is inescapable. A $350,000 payout was made just recently in the Albert Rincon sexual assault cases; and new plaintiffs are already forming a considerable conga line. What was McKinley’s role in this settlement? What will his role be in future FPD-caused civil suit settlements?
The most embarrassing issue of all (and potentially the most costly), will be the fact that then Chief McKinley knowingly hired and happily deployed to the streets of Fullerton a one-eyed cop whom the Chief of the LAPD wisely rejected as unfit for duty; and McKinley did it knowingly and happily as a favor to an old crony. Obviously no thought was given to the safety of the very public McKinley had sworn to protect.
This appears to me as a blatant conflict of interest and so, one hopes, it would also appear to McKinley. But unfortunately McKinley’s sense of ethics and sense of self-entitlement are a lot different than mine and yours.
Are you comfortable with McKinley having anything to do with settling a case that would shine a spotlight on his own corrupt misfeasance? The embarrassing details of the sexual predator Albert Rincon will never receive the public scrutiny of a public trial; nor will the fact that this was just another of the many miscreants hired and let loose on the public by McKinley.
Will McKinley recuse himself on the Quinonez and Veth Mam cases? Or the Kelly Thomas case? What about possible employee decisions with regard to Hampton, Wolfe, Blatney, Klein, Mejia, et al? If not, he is putting his lack of ethics on display; if he does it begs the question of how he can serve on the Council at all. See where I’m going with this?
Maybe you would just feel more comfortable if he weren’t in office anymore, at all.
Last Tuesday’s council meeting included a comical orchestration in which numerous recipients of taxpayer subsidies ambled up to the microphone to heap praise upon the Three Blind Mice. They have millions of reasons to do so, as you will see in the accompanying video clip to which I have thoughtfully added text explaining who these people are and how much they have to gain by backing the present corrupt and incompetent regime.
Well we say it’s way past time for a regime change!
The Old Boy Network of the Fullerton establishment held a fundraiser for their old boys at the Villa Del Sol the other night. We will be sharing our own video later if our boys in the White Van ever recover from their serial ingestion of raw opium poppies that admin now grows in his backyard.
Lookin' good in yellow! (Photo by Marisa Gerber OC Weekly)
In the meantime, here’s a story on the event from Marisa Gerber of the OC Weekly. She mordantly describes the anti-recall attendees:
a rather homogeneous crew of sexagenarians and older — gathered at a pricey fundraiser tonight to support three beleaguered city leaders.
As usual the best quote of the night come from high school graduate and architect of the Culture of Corruption in the Fullerton Police Department, Pat McKinley:
He can handle it, he said, adding that what frustrated him most was hearing people “who probably never graduated high school” bad-mouth the mayor, who used to be a doctor.
Oh, oh. The literary She Bear who gets $215,000 a year courtesy of the taxpayer for doing nothing is taking shots at the academic accomplishments of the recallers. Bad idea Chief. Some folks might start asking about the scholastic level of your police force!
IMPORTANT UPDATE: This post was published a little over a year ago. The title, “Just A Matter of Time” was spot on; another example of what happens when city funding for things like trees and such get diverted to things like public employee pensions and the obscene debts that they cause:
And there you have it...
Original Post, September 8, 2010:
200 Block of W. Valencia Dr.
In allegedly tree-friendly Fullerton, trees are more a liability than an asset when the city has no funds, or no inclination to prune the trees. Let’s consider the case of Valencia Dr. (Redevelopment area, of course) between Harbor Blvd. and Highland Ave., where the residents of this block, which features 70 year old jacaranda trees have recently witnessed a near fatal accident when a huge limb broke off and almost squashed an innocent woman and her two kids while she was driving down the street.
Unfortunately for barrio residents and motorists, there’s no money in the Redevelopment budget to trim the trees after the Agency blew its wad buying up all the low income apartments just 2 blocks to the west. And similarly, the City blew its wad on its public employee retirement plan that pays guys like Fullerton City Council candidate Pat McKinley and former disastrous Planning Director, F. Paul Dudley, over a hundred thousand bucks per year just to stay at home and watch “As the World Turns” and “ALF” reruns.
It’s only a matter of time before both the jacaranda trees along Valencia and the public employee’s retirement fund comes smashing down causing loss of life, liberty and the of pursuit happiness.
It’s been a year since the election of 2010. But let’s take a moment to reflect upon those who were endorsed by the public safety unions in Fullerton:
Right. Bankhead, McKinley and Roland Chi. What a crew!
Bankhead, the brain shift-slip octogenarian; McKinkley, the bad cop who littered the Fullerton Police Department with thugs, goons, pickpockets, pill-popping con men, sexual predators, perjurers, and of course murderers; and Roland Chi, the food poisoner from Garden Grove who only escaped prosecution by handing over his DNA to the DA.
Like the unionistas themselves, huge pension recipients Bankhead and McKinley could be safely counted on to curry favor with labor; and oh, they tried so hard after the brazen Kelly Thomas murder at the hands of six Fullerton cops to protect their campaign benefactors. Roland Chi was just a contemptible scofflaw who never should have come out from behind the rancid squid display in the first place.
And all three were safe bets to impose the annual and illegal 10% tax on your water, a tax that goes to pay their own pensions!
Seems as if the mass exodus of LAPD cops gave McKinley the opportunity to take his pick of his former colleagues and put them on the streets of Fullerton.
Fullerton: a veritable jobs program for ex-LAPD cops. And it’s interesting to connect the dots in this Bilblical succession of miscreants: Armstrong hires McKinley; McKinly hires Cicinelli; the cop who never should have been on the street bashes in Kelly Thomas’ face like a piñata.
We’ve written about the control freak Armstrong before, perched as he was, atop an incompetent pyramid of his own construction. When Shakespeare said, “the evil that men do lives after them” he said a mouthful.
Here’s an eye-opening story from last winter by Greg Sebourn about one of the most hare-brained Redevelopment boondoggles ever proposed. The fact that it was suggested by Don Bankhead a mere six weeks after his umpteenth re-election is ample evidence that either 1) his mental gears have slipped completely; or 2) he really never had any judgment in the first place. You decide if you really want this king-sized boob in office any more.
– Joe Sipowicz
Mayor Pro Tem Don Bankhead seeks to use Redevelopment Agency funds, originally set aside for combating blight and providing low-income housing, to prop up the Fullerton Civic Light Opera (FCLO).
We're off to see the wizard...
In an article penned by Eric Marchese of FullertonStories.com, Bankhead indicated he is “…investigating the use of Redevelopment Agency funding to assist the Duncans and FCLO.”
What would prompt this Republican and self-proclaimed conservative council member with more than 22 years of elected service under his belt to conclude a necessity for a taxpayer bailout of the FCLO?
Bankhead was quoted as saying, “It would be a blow, a terrible loss, to the city if [the Duncans] can’t figure out some way of saving [the company].”
And therefore taxpayers must somehow bailout this private endeavor??
Infrastructure lying in ruin from continuous neglect.
What about the public employees who have taken significant cuts in pay (and service hours) to help shore up the financial debacle created by a city council with their collective heads in the sand? Should the Redevelopment Agency also bail out these other departments and public employees?
The short answer: NO! Before the Redevelopment Agency existed taxpayer funds were meant to go toward all of our public services from engineering and education to public safety. But after the Redevelopment Agency was created and expanded, taxpayer funds were redirected to combat blight and fund low-income housing. Meanwhile, our infrastructure lays in ruin from continuous neglect and habitual misappropriation of public funds.
I like the flying monkeys.
If we use Redevelopment Agency funds to bail out the FCLO we will have effectively robbed all of our public agencies so that a select few can be entertained.
Yesterday I talked to the Fair Political Practices Commission regarding the complaint filed against Tony Bushala by Tony Florentine. This complaint is actually posted as “Breaking News” on the anti-recall crowd’s ugly website.
So what’s the status of this Breaking News? Tony Florentine’s “complaint” was flatly rejected by the FPPC.
Truth was a concept that eluded him...
In effect, the complaint never made it past the receptionist. It seems that Tony Bushala’s actual transgression was over-reporting! The assertion was that an individual, major donor must file a brief Form 461. Bushala actually legally reported all of his activities using the more comprehensive Form 460 in forming General Purpose committees. In other words, Bushala worked harder than he needed to fully disclose all of his political activities.
The FPPC was not amused by Dick Ackerman's latest clownery.
The FPPC representative actually seemed amused that such a complaint would be filed and made it clear that she personally had fully explained all of these circumstances to somebody calling themselves a treasurer for the anti-recall.
In fact, the only reason to even look at the complaint would be to enjoy some of Florentine’s “evidence,” including humorous mailers leveled against his RINO pals in years past.
I can hardly blame these guys for throwing this worthless claim against the wall and then lying about the results. I would have no idea how to defend three RINO council members who have spent us into the enormous financial hole that we find ourselves in while pumping up the staffing, salaries and pensions of their primary supporters.
After several posts detailing the falsehoods and comically bizarre statements made by former Fullerton Police Department chief Pat McKinley, FFFF decided once again to call upon the good offices of Dr. Reinhold Ott, of the Institut fur Psychologie at the University of Tubingen. It appears to us that Mr. McKinley is desperately in need of professional help. And of course, we’re always here to help.
The penetrating gaze of Dr. Reinhold Ott; M.D., Ph.D
So, let’s hear from Dr. Ott.
I have reviewed the information you have provided me on the subject of your former police chief and city councillor, Mr. Pat McKinley, including the invaluable videos. I can say that the latter were particularly useful in developing a personality profile on this individual. While necessarily speculative without further in-depth analysis, I can assert that the available evidence leads me to some fairly confident conclusions.
Narcissism is a condition of excessive self-centeredness that entails the inability to critically assess one’s self and others from a rational perspective. When it attains a serious enough level it is manifested by an effective denial of reality, an inflated sense of entitlement, and an almost complete lack of empathy for others. The narcissist sees himself as perfectly formed and thus he must ascribe blame to others for his own failures and shortcomings.
I believe this description fits Mr. McKinley quite well, as evidenced by his refusal to even offer a token apology for all the serious problems in your police force, a force that he appears pleased to have assembled. I notice that lawless police officers that he hired and trained himself are deemed to be “aliens;” the concept of extra-terrestrials invading this man’s police department sounds ludicrous to us, but not to him. Since the idea that poor decisions on his part is not conceivable to him, the only explanation must be supernatural. And please note how he casually dismisses the victims of sexual assault by one of his policemen – a criminal act – by degrading the target of the crime. Thus the victims of his police force (those ladies…, etc.) are characterized as somehow to blame for events that are seen to be things that “just happen.”
In one interview I notice Mr. McKinley’s use of the first person plural pronoun. “When we came to Fullerton.” This is not merely casual misuse of language. It indicates the very real possibility of dual or perhaps even multiple personalities; at the least, the good cop/bad cop duality that is closely connected to the police psychology may here be in evidence. This possibility should not be dismissed lightly.
Furthermore, I must note a strong impulse to authoritarianism in our subject, the staunch defense of physical abuse of people who assert themselves at the expense of his authority, and, once again, a propensity to blame the targets of this impulse, such as the other worldly attributes he absurdly imputes to anti-abortion protesters.
People such as our subject are invariably drawn to the military, as well as crypto-militaristic organizations, and while they may be useful for limited tasks, such as full frontal battlefield assaults, crowd and traffic control, and the like, they must be constantly monitored by a competent civilian authority. The penchant to assert their control over others while evading responsibility for their own misdeeds can be disastrous. History is replete with this sort of megalomania with its attendant horrors: pogroms, wars, concentration camps, etc.
I should note that the narcissist may present himself in an attractive, even charming manner so long as he attains his desires. But in the face of resistance to his charm, and, more importantly, to his authority, the narcissist will likely drop any facade of congeniality and become belligerent; however the denial and dissimulation will persist.
The personality profile of Mr. McKinley cannot be considered complete without consideration of statements made by the subject for which he possesses no professional qualification, such as the nature of the head injuries suffered by Mr. Thomas; and by his attempt to psychoanalyze protesters and even criminals. Exercising what can only be deemed incompetent opinion under the guise of informed knowledge is typical behavior.
For the true megalomaniac it is insufficient to be merely an armed minion in service to the state. He craves an authority outside his rather narrow vocational limits; an authority that he can claim personally. This explains the production of a self-published book in which he presses his years of experience into service for the good of his fellow man. It matters not that his advice in this oeuvre is good or bad (it is likely to be highly dangerous or lethal to follow any advice the narcissist may proffer); what matters is that our subject is an author!
It is easy to smirk at the title and text of our subject’s literary endeavor, but some compassion should be exercised: the “She Bear” is obviously indicative of serious unresolved maternal issues, and very likely a distant or abusive father.
