Category: Watch Your Wallet

Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Why Public Works Projects Cost So Much

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If you build it they will come.

Well, paying legally required “prevailing wage” to union workers, for one thing. This adds from 33-50% to the straight labor costs.

But there’s a more insidious cost to reckon with. And that’s the often overlooked administration costs tacked on to construction projects by the City Engineering Department. By gouging these projects with inflated bureaucratic costs, the Engineering Department can pad its own budget without leaning on the General Fund. The monies for capital projects comes from CDBG funds, Redevelopment tax increment, Gas Tax revenue – a whole crazy Byzantine funding network that fortuitously disconnects the payer from the beneficiary.

Yesterday our blogger Christian noted that a contract to upgrade traffic signals at three intersections was let out to a contractor for about $102,000; but that the City’s Engineering Department tacked on a whopping $39,000 for its own administration and inspections. That’s about a 38% increase, and is anomalously high – even for a typical project in Fullerton. Smaller projects get disproportionately nailed. But the point is that actual infrastructure improvements – the very stuff that everybody says they want to promote – is getting, and has gotten robbed by featherbedding in the Engineering Departments.

Of course this has been going for years and years and years. It’s a standard practice. Probably everywhere. So why haven’t the politicians ever cottoned on to this sleight of hand? Maybe they have. But its just so much easier to go along with the “experts” and not ask any questions; or if you do, don’t demand any cogent answers.

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Posted onOrange County Government

$1.4 MILLION – THE COST OF CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY’S CRONYISM

by 25 Comments on $1.4 MILLION – THE COST OF CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY’S CRONYISM

Dear Friends, we have just received this essay from one of our long-time readers. Enjoy.

If the election for Clerk-Recorder had anything to teach us, it is that the best candidate doesn’t always win the election. And we wonder why we have the ineffective government we have. I guess all I can say is that we deserve the government we vote for.

As the County budget approval meeting approach we found even more government waste by election victor Tom Daly.  If you look at the previous three years you’ll become aware of yet another way in which this inept “Manager of the Year” continues to waste the taxpayer’s money. In the past three years, Tom Daly has doled out more that $1.4 million for “temporary help” and “extra-help.” This is easily verifiable by looking at the County’s Proposed Budget Book for 2009-2010.

We have previously reported that Tom Daly likes to give non-competitive “extra-help” jobs to his friends and the relatives of campaign donors. But in a time in which the County is laying off employees and forcing furloughs on other agencies, Tom Daly is getting away with budgetary murder. His budget is at the same levels they were when recording and revenues were at an all time high. Property recordings have declined to almost half of the all time mark in 2005, yet Daly seems to believe he is still entitled to hire his friends and relatives of campaign donors at a whopping cost of $1.4 million. This essentially means the County General Fund is being deprived $1.4 million over the past 3 years.

How come? From what we have heard, most of his cronies are in non-essential jobs so if these useless bodies were to go home tomorrow, the department and the County would be just fine with more money in the General Fund. Tom loves to claim that he has reduced his budget by 26% but really that isn’t true – all he does is cook-up the numbers or overspends and draws from his piggy-bank account known as 12D.  He is not supposed to use this fund for plugging his over-spending, but he does, and the County does nothing. He loves to claim that he has only 102 staff but if you count all the extra-help and temp help he is closer to 110 employees. Maybe someone needs to go to the state agency responsible for investigating this fleecing of the county.

Daly’s needs to give back more to the county General Fund; and he can start by letting go of his friends and crony’s relatives like Bruce Mathias, Jennifer Lowe, Steven Oftelie, Dulce Cuevas and a more; and not the extra-help that are not his buddies.

We will be watching who he lets go and hope that the Board of Supervisors deny his request for these extra-help and temporary help expenses. Hopefully with Shawn Nelson now elected to the Board, Tom Daly will be under more scrutiny. Let’s hope for the right thing to happen soon.

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Posted onBoohooism

Doc Jones Brings Ashes to the Christmas Tree?

by 5 Comments on Doc Jones Brings Ashes to the Christmas Tree?

Always a memorable quotation in every box. That’s the Doc Hee Haw product line. And ya never know what’s going to pop out.

Here is his ‘poneness wringing hands (or finger wiggling?!) about the heart-breaking budget cuts. You wouldn’t think you were dealing with  a conservative, here, would you? Actually he sounds a Hell of a lot like a big gummint Dem; which is basically what he is.

A real conservative would relish taking the opportunity to cut back inflated salaries, bloated pensions, and silly services that are always “popular” with somebody or other. But no. I really believe him when he says how terrible it is to cut the budget.

And here is one of the basic conflicts we at FFFF have with our local Republican leaders who keep backing RINO nitwits like Jones simply because they are registered as Republicans.

Anyway go ahead and enjoy.

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Posted onShawn Nelson

Fullerton’s Pension Watchdog Endorses Shawn Nelson

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The Fullerton Association of Concerned Taxpayers (FACT) just sent us the following endorsement of Shawn Nelson for County Supervisor in Orange County’s Fourth District:


“During his 8 years on the Fullerton City Council, Shawn has demonstrated that he is a true friend of the taxpayer,” said Jack Dean, president of FACT. “He’ll make an outstanding County Supervisor.”

Dean noted that FACT was especially impressed with Nelson’s willingness to blow the whistle on a secretive attempt to boost the pensions of Fullerton’s city employees by 25% in 2008.

“Had Shawn not let us know that such a deal was in the works, I doubt that we could have stopped it,” said Dean. “And in light of the subsequent economic meltdown and huge market losses experienced by CalPERS, Fullerton would be in much worse financial shape today.”

“We’re going to need him on the board of supervisors to help maintain the impressive momentum the county has been making on pension reform,” added Dean.

FACT has a special interest in the public pension issue. In 2005, the group successfully blocked an attempt by the Schwarzenegger administration to issue nearly $2 billion in bonds to make the state’s pension payments. The state appealed, and in 2007, FACT won an appellate court ruling that enforced the California Constitution’s ban on unapproved state debt. Article XVI, Section 1 of the California Constitution requires voter approval for long-term state debt exceeding $300,000; FACT won a decision from the Third District Court of Appeal that issuance of a pension bond should not be allowed because it had not been submitted to the electorate. FACT was represented in both cases by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) in Sacramento.

Next month FACT — once again represented by PLF — will be filing an amicus brief in support of the County’s lawsuit on retroactive pensions (County of Orange v. Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs and Board of Retirement). The goal will be to protect the landmark legal decision that FACT and PLF secured in the pension obligation bonds victory (Pension Obligation Bond Committee v. All Persons Interested).

“FACT has a direct interest in protecting and enforcing the precedent it established,” said Dean, “that is, the  constitutional principle that major government indebtedness must receive voter approval.”

Under the auspices of FACT, Dean publishes a website called PensionTsunami.com that tracks the growing public pension crisis on a daily basis. He is also vice president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility — a watchdog organization that plans to conduct a ballot initiative to reform the state’s pension system.

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Posted onHarry Sidhu

Nelson and Sidhu; Divergent Philosophies On Public Employee Unions

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Watch this clip. First you’ll hear from 4th District Supervisor candidate Shawn Nelson and then Harry Sidhu. Both talk about public employee unions.

Remember that Sidhu actually lives in an elegant estate in the 3rd District and faked an address at the Calabria Apartments (2230 W. Lincoln Ave. West Anaheim). Even though he never lived there, Sidhu claimed he did under penalty of perjury (twice).

Sidhu has become the darling of the OCEA and OCSD unions, who poured in over 1.3 MILLION dollars into mailers, radio and TV ads telling us the opposite of what we have already seen for ourselves.

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Posted onOrange County Government

URGENT (UPDATE): Message to Republican Voters… Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly is NOT a Republican.

by 30 Comments on URGENT (UPDATE): Message to Republican Voters… Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly is NOT a Republican.
My nose gets longer with every lie, hehe...

POST UPDATE: DALYS NOW A DEMOCRAT PER DEMOCRAT VOTER INFORMATION GUIDE MAILER BELOW.


OK WHICH PARTY DO YOU BELONG TO TOM? PICK ONE ANY ONE JUST STOP LYING TO THE VOTERS.

Two-faced Tom Daly is busy lying to voters and is  trying to pass for  a Republican in slate mailers. By now I’m sure you have received a slate mailer describing Daly as the “Tax fighter who cut wasteful spending” or a “proven leader for reform”  or that he “defeated a local utility tax”.  Really?  As the Clerk-Recorder?  He even places his 15-year old portrait next to prominent Republican candidates or incumbents.  He surrounds him-self with Repuglicans like John Lewis and Bruce Matthias.  But no matter how hard Tommy boy tries to look Republican, we all should know that he is a pro-big government, free-spending, tax-wasting, lying, liberal Democrat and has been since his days in Anaheim.  Remember, this is the guy responsible for the election of Loretta Sanchez!

True, Tom has the right to buy any slate mailer he wants to but has he no loyalty to his fellow Democrats. There are plenty of slate mailers he can be on that are owned by Democrats but Team Tom Daly knows better.  He knows Orange County is a majority Republican county so Team Daly opts to play a Republican.   It appears that Daly is willing to do anything, including lying to voters to win this election.  If I were a Democrat I would be fuming! Tom doesn’t want you to know that he received money from unions or that he is endorsed by unions.  He doesn’t even list any union endorsements on his re-election webpage.  But if you scrutinize his campaign finance statements, you will see what a blue –blooded Democrat he really is.

Tom Daly is simply a two-faced opportunist willing to jump on any team to get the win.  We recently became aware of a slate mailer in which Tom’s portrait is next to Democrat candidates like Jerry Brown, and Gavin Newsom.  In the slate, he claims to be endorsed by none other than Loretta Sanchez and even Jose Solorio.  The back-stabbing truth is that he doesn’t mention these endorsements in his re-election webpage.

Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, I believe you would vote for the candidate who represents your party’s values and for a candidate who is proud to be part of your party. Tom Daly fails both ways.  Let’s send him a message and vote the opportunist career politician out of office.

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Posted onHarry Sidhu

“Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” Got Lost in Sidhu’s Bermuda Triangle

by 9 Comments on “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” Got Lost in Sidhu’s Bermuda Triangle

Harry Sidhu likes to blather on about jobs, jobs, jobs, but maybe he would be well-advised to remember that government shouldn’t be in the jobs business and that lots of things government does destroys jobs. Sidhu should know.

In Anaheim he’s been Curt Pringle’s right hand man in the (over development) of the much lauded, now ghost town like “Platinum Triangle.”

Pringle, Sidhu and Company changed the zoning to benefit the big developer who comes in and clears out lots of businesses who employ people in order to over build monster apartment and condo blocks. Where’s the outrage from Lucy Dunn and the OCBC when their golden boy Curt Pringle led this charge?  Who benefited from the loss of jobs, surely not the city of Anaheim.

The fact that Curt Pringle was employed as a lobbyist for Lennar while Lennar was buying up several industrial buildings in the Triangle while Curt and Sidhu were secretly planning to rezone the “Platinum Triangle” does not sit well now that the entire project is a flop, jobs are gone and the property is vacant, or a shit-load of condos are in default. Where’s the outrage Ms. Dunn? Can’t hear you.

If there ever was an example of what not to do in planning and business this is the model project for it.

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