Unchained Melody…
And what they are saying is pretty pathetic.
Yahoo News led off today with the doings in little Fullerton, California, here, related to the stories of police brutality against Veth Mam and of course, Kelly Thomas. Here’s somebody called Mike Ritto, President of the Downtown Business Association, moaning about the hurt put on local retailers:
“They’re telling people, ‘Don’t go to Fullerton.’ Nobody here did anything wrong. Why should the retailers suffer?” said Ritto, speaking of the protesters who have packed public forums and marched outside the police station every Saturday for a month.
Ahem. Nobody here did anything wrong? Why should the retailers suffer? Uh, dunno, Mike. Maybe it’s the bad karma associated with devil’s deal downtown Fullerton has made with an out of control police force.
Naturally we hear from FPD spokeszit Andrew Goodrich, who, inexplicably, remains spokeszit despite a string of lies and half-truths that would have made a NAZI Ministry of Propaganda functionary’s heart sing:
Goodrich, the police spokesman, said allegations that the officers in the Mam case perjured themselves were false because they believed when they testified that they had arrested the right person.
Oh, really? False charges of perjury? Really, Andy? You really want to go there? Of course the charges are perfectly true; either that or your union pals are so f-ing incompetent that they belong in institutionalized care somewhere. Which is it?
And here is Deputy DA Rebecca Reed, casually explaining that the whole Mam story told by the cops was pluasible:
“I thought it was reasonable that Veth Mam had been involved in this altercation before filming,” she said. “The video did not show the whole story.”
Say what? No, Becky, the laws of time and space were not suddenly suspended by the evil Mam. What she meant to say was: “we are told to go along with the cops story, no matter how ludicrous it might be; we have no compunction about charging and prosecuting an innocent man; we don’t give a damn about justice; my only concern is that this loss is going to hurt my record.”
Attorney Garo Mardirossian followed through with his promise yesterday, and now Fullerton is facing a new federal lawsuit from that guy who was wrongfully arrested for filming the police last year.
The suit alleges that Officer Kenton Hampton wrongfully assaulted Veth Mam and that officers Jonathan Miller, Frank Nguyen and Daniel Solario falsified police reports in an attempt to convict Mam for an assault against a police officer that he did not, in fact, commit.
The DA and the FPD had attempted prosecution of Mam earlier this year, despite viewing this video of the event which completely conflicts with what the officers wrote in their reports. A jury has already sided against the FPD and determined that Mam was innocent.
Chief Sellers is also named in the suit for willfully refusing to discipline or hold accountable any of his officers for felonies they allegedly committed against Veth Mam. He is also accused of allowing his department to “cover up acts of misconduct and abuse, “ that he “sanctioned a code of silence by and among officers,” and that the FPD “threatened, intimidated, demoted and fired officers who reported acts of abuse by other officers.”
Mardirossian says that if Chief Sellers had taken appropriate action against officer Kenton Hampton (one of the officers involved in the death of Kelly Thomas) at the time, Kelly Thomas might still be alive today.
The other day FFFF noted the eerie silence of the offspring of former Fullerton activist Ralph Kennedy when it came to the bludgeoning murder of the homeless man, Kelly Thomas at the hands of the Fullerton Police Department. We cynically noted that Rusty Kennedy’s OC Human Relations Commission relies upon the goodwill of police departments to lobby County government to continue funding this useless organization. Sharon Kennedy, who continues to publish the moribund and yellowing Fullerton Observer seems to have lost her moral compass, too.
The Kennedy siblings are not important themselves except that they are representative of Old Liberalism in Fullerton, and its total disregard for the killing of a completely helpless human being by the cops.
Here is Rusty expending three minutes of verbal gas saying absolutely nothing and trying as hard as he can to avoid speaking the truth: that the Fullerton Police deliberately killed a harmless, mentally ill man. Enjoy the end where Mr. Kennedy offers the services of his impotent operation, as if the cops who committed this crime against Kelly Thomas simply needed some sensitivity training courtesy of the Human Relations Commission.
Rusty, like his Collaboratin’ pals, obviously have been bought and paid for. But I promise one thing. When Kennedy comes hat in hand to the Board of Supervisors next spring I will be there to help pull the financial plug on this worthless hypocrite.
Looks like lawyer Garo Mardirossian has the City of Fullerton squarely in his sights. He is representing the Thomas family in the beating death of their son Kelly. Here’s the CNN interview including a snippet from Michael Gennaco. Interestingly Mr. Mardirossian is now also representing the man who was thrown around by FPD officer Kenton Hampton and subsequently jailed and wrongly prosecuted by the DA based on fraudulent evidence from the Fullerton cops. We reported about that here and here. That prosecution was rejected by a jury because the cops demonstrably perjured themselves. Garo has no apprehensions about naming Kenton Hampton as being present at both incidents. The clip is a bit long but worth viewing in its entirety.
Although it’s going to end up costing everybody in Fullerton to resolve these cases, you can bet on one thing: none of our so-called “leaders” will take personal responsibility for this total failure of civilian oversight of a police department that is manifestly out of control.
The public meeting starts at 6:30 PM. On the agenda tonight are the issue of hiring contractor Michael Gennaco to “investigate” the FPD. Those of us who have been around City hall awhile know that these contractors always do what the City Manager wants since he’s the guy that got them hired. VOTE NO!
Speaking of the City Manager, Joe Felz, who has overseen the corrupt FPD and who has totally bungled the Kelly Thomas affair is up for a $35,000 raise. Yep, you heard that right. That was bad timing! It’s on what’s called the “Consent Calendar” so unless a member of the public asks the City Clerk to pull this item for discussion it will go through on the nod. VOTE NO!
Also agenized are some more ridiculous “affordable housing” projects of the kind that cost twice as much to build as regular housing. These are being pimped by lobbyists who also happen to be some of the biggest repuglicans in Orange County who are counting on Jones, Bankhead and McKinley to line their pockets. VOTE NO!
Of course you can also make your voices heard in public comments, too, at the start of the meeting.
Fullerton City Hall is located at 303 W. Commonwealth, Fullerton at the intersection of Highland Avenue.
See you all there!
The city of Fullerton’s website seems to be offline at the moment, but just before it went down I noticed that Tuesday’s agenda included a new employment contract for Joe Felz, the guy who’s been managing the city during the Kelly Thomas catastrophe.
If approved, the new contract would boost Felz’s annual salary to $201,400 plus pension and benefits. His current salary is listed at $166,250. That’s a raise of $35,000 per year, as recommended by the HR department (which ultimately reports to Joe.)
That’s not a bad haul for the man who was steering the ship while Kelly Thomas was beaten to death, not to mention his oversight of the globally embarrassing aftermath.
The Fullerton School District administration hires Rudy. Because sometimes ya just need $2000 bucks worth of little clear focus, inspiration and motivation.
Or they could have just rented the movie from Netflix for a couple bucks.
Thanks to Friend Tony Serra for providing a link to a Sac Bee story about Anaheim’s former Mayor-for-Hire Kurt Pringle quitting the California High Speed Rail Board.
Could it be true? Sure looks like it. According to the story he wants Governor Brown to be able to appoint someone who represents his point of view. I wonder what that point of view might be. Ethics? Brown, who as Attorney General took note of Pringle’s conflicts of interest over many years may have asked him to go.
So Der Rat is jumping off Das Sinkingboot; timely, too, now that all the revelations of incompetence, waste, misinformation, and decreased funding are dragging the HSR to a well-deserved grave.
The funniest thing in the piece is the glowing valediction to Pringle from fellow HSR barnacle, Tom Umberg, who in the past has proved there is no moral morass too low for a politician to sink into, and who recently penned a pro-HSR op-ed piece in the Register that was so incompetent I’m not going to link to it to save Umberg any more embarrassment.
Tuesday night’s City Council agenda is set and among the many items for consideration by council members is a water rate increase.
The increase would raise water revenue by 7.8% but it is not clear how that increase would be spread among different rate classes. Some will feel the increase more than others. This cloud is just one of the many reasons I oppose this rate increase.
Other reasons include the hidden water tax, economic timing, city management’s long-standing philosophy on infrastructure, the likely law suits due to improper notice by the City, shortsighted conservation efforts, and the general feeling of distrust by consumers.
10% of every water bill gets diverted or skimmed from the water fund and transferred into the City’s General Fund. 80% of the General Fund goes to cover public safety employee benefits. Outside of City Hall only a handful of people know about this tax. In my opinion, it gives the appearance that the unions are embezzling public funds. The General Fund does not contribute any funds back into the water system. Removing this hidden tax would allow the water system to retain about $2.5-million for pipe replacement.
Fullerton residents and businesses are struggling to survive. The elderly and disabled have never had this magnitude of cuts in services and funding now on the table and being debated in Washington. There are other measures yet to be instituted which could provide a financial buffer for the next year or two. City management must exhaust all avenues before resorting to a rate hike in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
For decades, city management has turned a blind eye to the infrastructure. Unless the repairs or replacement was in a redevelopment district, the City would put off any work. Instead, the city sought to spend $6-million on moving a McDonalds 200 feet, $30-million* in bonds for housing (*will amount to more than $50-million when paid off), and more than $12-million to revamp the Lions Field athletic complex. Meanwhile, our water lines are failing, our roads are crumbling, our streetlights broken, and who knows what else is in disrepair. The proven ability of city officials, from council members to department heads, to go along with whatever hot new trend presented itself despite the obvious deficiencies in our infrastructure is unforgiveable. While some were getting bronze plaques with their names on it, the rest of us are left to foot the bill. Enough already!
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has indicated that the Proposition 218 rate increase notification received by some water customers last month does not comply with the requirements of the law. Fullerton’s notice is insufficient according to Timothy Bittle, Director of Legal affairs for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “[T]hey can’t tell anyone yet what the new amount of their fee will be. That’s not compliance with 218!” says Bittle.
A recent survey of 122 public agencies by the Sierra Club shows Fullerton’s water conservation efforts sadly on par with the infamous city of Bell. The survey gives Fullerton 8 points out of 20. Out of the 122 agencies surveyed, only 16 scored worse.
Finally, people have lost a great deal of trust in their government at all levels and why wouldn’t they lose trust once they realize the City has been charging them with a hidden tax that does not benefit the water system. Most people who do not deal with City Hall regularly get frustrated at the run around they receive. One person tells them to do one thing and someone else tells them to do something different. Many are simply discouraged by driving on Fullerton’s poorly maintained streets. Others, like me, have watched the same section of water line replaced three or four times in just 24 months.
For these reasons and more, I strongly oppose this water rate increase and believe that our city can and should do better to serve the public before considering any rate hikes.