Watch Your Wallet Archives - Page 77 of 83 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

July 23, 2010July 23, 2010About Us

Martha Montelongo on the Air Live with Jack Dean

Join Martha Montelonga live and her guest Fullerton Tax Fighter Jack Dean of Pension Tsunami, tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 10:00A.M. to noon on Outlook with Martha, possibly the name for her new show, on CRN Digital Talk Radio on the story about the $800,000.00 annual salary for the City Manager of the City of Bell, CA. Could this be the story that breaks the public employee compensation and pension abuse of the public trust and budgets? Will it be the match that lights a fire under the taxpayers, to cause a productive and revolutionary revolt?

If Bell City Manager retires now, he stands to reap over $30 million dollars in retirement funds. He’s not the only one with outrageous pensions. He’s just the worst case by far, but we’ll look at the more common, and yet still, very unjust overcompensation awarded to various officials and ex-officials, all on the dime of the taxpayer, who is on the hook to pay, no matter what.

July 13, 2010July 13, 2010Downtown Fullerton

Metrolink Expanding, But Where Are The Riders?

by Travis18 Comments

The following commentary was sent to us by a friend who is concerned about a questionable Metrolink service expansion from Fullerton to Laguna Niguel.

A fourth track is currently being built at the Fullerton Station, exclusively for Metrolink’s new Orange County service — dubbed Metrolink Service Expansion Program (MSEP) by the folks at OCTA. I believe the concept is flawed from the start, and last I heard it is costing taxpayers at least $417 million.

metrolink_spokeshole — Anyone up for a ride to Laguna Niguel?

I’ve asked numerous people at Metrolink how OCTA justifies the demand for this service. Nobody has an answer. Since it will run between Fullerton and Laguna Niguel only, it’s totally useless for commuters needing to get to Los Angeles. In my experience riding Metrolink, there are very few passengers riding such short distances in Orange County. If a person can afford $14 for a round-trip ticket Fullerton to Irvine and back, there’s a very good chance they already have a car and won’t bother to ride the train.

Furthermore, this service won’t appeal to bus riders unless OCTA drastically reduces the fares. That won’t happen… they just raised the fares again on July 1st. OCTA’s pipe dream to operate this service “every 30 minutes” makes a stupid idea all the more ludicrous.

There’s an angle to this which will affect the Fullerton Station (and the surrounding area) in a big way. Since the northbound trains terminate at Fullerton, the station area will become a layover terminal (akin to an airport) for people needing to get to Los Angeles. Suppose somebody takes the wrong northbound, thinking it goes to Los Angeles, and finds themselves in Fullerton having to wait HOURS for the next train to Los Angeles. There will be people sleeping on benches, sleeping on the ground, leaving their trash all over the place, etc, etc. The local restaurants will have to deal with freeloaders using their bathrooms. It just won’t be a good situation.

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?

July 10, 2010July 10, 2010Don Bankhead

Ever Get The Feeling…

by admin3 Comments

…that somebody is loading you up with a pile of road apples?

Manure — Be sure to pour it on nice and thick...

Good thing Sharon Quirk-Silva knows when to call for a tow. Had it not been for Quirk-Silva the city may have broken the law (again). Watch and see for yourself when Mayor Bankhead asks the police captain how he is supposed to break the law after the tow truck drivers explained to the city council the state law pertaining to private parties towing vehicles.

The city attorney Elena Gerli sure expends a lot of words, but she manages to evade the main issue: her proposed code amendment was created in a vacuum.

So how much per hour are we paying for this mumbo jumbo?

July 9, 2010July 10, 2010Parks and Trails

News Flash From Hillcrest Park Pals

by Fred L. Olmsted1 Comment

On Saturday morning from 9:00 to noon, the City of Fullerton and landscape architect Mia Leher will present two alternative master plans for the restoration/preservation of Hillcrest Park. The meeting is open to the public and will be held at the picnic pavilion near the recreation center.

Recently the north hill of Hillcrest Park was raped of it’s natural grade and historic landscape. For those of you that don’t know, the city of Fullerton Landmarks Commission is required by law to review and approve (or disapprove) of any changes to local and/or National Historic Landmarks. Hillcrest Park is both. To this day, the Fullerton Landmarks Commission has never addressed the issue of the Lyons Field renovation which included the north hill of Hillcrest Park.

This may be the last chance for real public input. If you want to be heard, the time is NOW. Please show up at the meeting on Saturday. If you can’t make it, you can still join Hillcrest Park Pals by sending an email to: HILLCRESTPARKPALS@GMAIL.COM.

July 8, 2010July 8, 2010Big Brother

Another DUI Checkpoint

by Travis19 Comments

Tomorrow night hundreds of law-abiding citizens will be stopped and questioned at a Fullerton DUI/license checkpoint while a few dozen officers stand around drinking coffee and earning overtime pay.

Unlike the previous checkpoint in May, the location of this one is being kept secret. If you want to know where the checkpoint will be, try hanging out at the local bars, where word of the location will spread immediately.

We’ve talked about how these checkpoints are extremely ineffective, nabbing only a couple of drunks while deploying a huge amount of police resources at our expense.

The police department has struggled to explain the lack of significant arrests, and has resorted to justifying the checkpoints as mere “safety education.” Our highly trained and well-compensated police officers have been reduced to handing out M.A.D.D. flyers in the middle of the street, one car at a time. That’s a task that could easily be done for free by M.A.D.D. volunteers in the bar parking lots. Of course, that approach wouldn’t be very lucrative for the police department.

These checkpoints are ineffective, invasive and expensive. It’s time to replace them with regular DUI patrols.

July 1, 2010July 1, 2010Union Goons

Jack Dean on the Growing Wave of Public Pension Debt

by Travis3 Comments

Here’s a clip that might be helpful to those who are still unaware of just how much public employee entitlements are costing us. Fullerton resident Jack Dean discusses bounteous union pensions and the careless drive towards financial ruin.

June 29, 2010June 29, 2010Brick Veneer, Fake Old, And Other Horrors

Look Up In The Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No It’s a Pringle!

by admin3 Comments

MTD_JRW_RAIL_HELICOPTER_2.mi_embedded.prod_affiliate.8 — The boondoggle takes to the air

Don’t feel so bad. The consultants, lobbyists, con men, and other assorted rip-off artists are pushing the multi-billion high speed rail in other places, too. Here’s an article from the Fresno Bee that tells all about how the local gentry are trying to grab their share of the HSR gravy that they think will be a big deal for the raisin capital of the state.

PringlePower — You are becoming very sleepy...

The common denominator, of course, is Anaheim’s termed-out Mayor-For-Hire, the irrepressible Curt Pringle who figures to make big bucks as a “consultant” for this boondoggle when his days as a conflicted politician are over. The Fresno crowd wined and dined hizzoner and he was clearly impressed with the show of unanimity – much more than he’s getting down south these days. He even promised them a 2012 start for the project.

Come December Pringle will be out of office, and will no longer be able to pull the strings at OCTA either, although it sure looks like he’s getting his ducks in a row, puppet-wise there and at Anaheim’s City Hall.

June 29, 2010June 29, 2010Boohooism

OC Human Relations Commission Working Hard, But For Who?

by admin4 Comments

By Friend Helen Logan.

Our $300,000 tax dollars a year working hard for us?

I found this article in the PR Newswire, United Business Media dated 17th June 2010.

“This was an invaluable opportunity for our mediators to experience the common physical and emotional challenges that are a part of the aging process,” said Mike Finkle, Human Relations Specialist for OC Human Relations. “For awhile, our mediators were able to, nearly literally, ‘take a walk in the shoes’ of seniors and others who live with such challenges every day.

To simulate experiencing the difficulties of living with arthritis, for example, program participants were asked to don heavy, clumsy gloves and then button their shirts or open medication bottles and handle small pills. Participants also put popcorn in their shoes and walked around to simulate the feeling of painful joints.”

The Orange County Human Relations Commission, a dinosaur agency foisted upon tax payers for thirty years, again shows how negligible its services are to our community.

Orange County Human Relations Specialist Mike Finkle, an employee of this commission, earns his tax dollar subsidized paycheck by walking around a room with popcorn in his shoes and attempting to button his shirt and open pill bottles while wearing, thick, clumsy gloves.

When will our county government leaders wise up to this sham agency and pull the plug on funding this silly tax dollar subsidized commission and its executive director who pulls down a six figure salary.

Our economic crisis that experts predict will be a double-dip recession, forces our county government to cut needed police and fire protection to Orange County’s residents. Yet, our county’s board of supervisors is afraid to stop funding this piece of fluff called the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

I believe most will agree with me when I say I would rather have more police or fire protection in Orange County than a person walking around with popcorn in his shoes who puts on thick, clumsy gloves to button his shirt.

For our county board of supervisors to have credibility with the voters, they must sensibly act and trim the real fat from government by cutting funding to the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

June 22, 2010June 22, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Pacific Strategies – A Few Days In The Life

by Grover Cleveland14 Comments

fartboy — Hey, I got kids in expensive schools!

Check this out. Here are a few days in the life of supposed conservative pontificator, Matthew J. Cunningham as he dishes out his stellar wordsmithing on behalf of the uber-liberal Prop 10 funded “OC Children and Families Commission.”

I’ll let you tally up the big bucks this hypocrite pulled down doing battle with the forces of…well, forces like the “Flash Report” of which he was a blogger, its editor Jon Fleischman, and of course those insensitive beasts at the OC Register.

And be sure to enjoy that monthly $800 catchall bill for, well, who knows what it’s for? Just stuff. But Hell, when you’re milking the cash cow be sure never to leave anything on the table, right?