Posted onBad Cops

Where’s Dino?

by 13 Comments on Where’s Dino?

 

Three long months ago FFFF updated the story of FJCs rogue “Campus Safety Officer”, Dino Skokos. You remember Dino, right? He’s the former LA Deputy Sheriff, who, while enjoying a $48K annual disability pension courtesy of LA County taxpayers, and while costing us $75,000 per year us as a guard at FJC, was caught on video assaulting some skinny kid for refusing to identify himself. Be sure to watch the video if you need to remind yourself.

That was over a year ago. Yes, the Earth has made an entire revolution of the Sun, and then some.

Skokos was placed on administrative leave way back on October 14, 2016. And what has been going on in the twelve month interim?

There was confusion on campus…

FFFF has serially reported that the North Orange County Community College District orchestrated some sort of “investigation,” conducted by their own special government defense lawyer. But FJC President, Greg Schulz ain’t saying anything after all this time except for spouting some embarrassingly contradictory double talk.

So what’s the status of Dino Skokos? And has there been any legal action by the kid who he choke slammed up against a wall and then threw to the ground? Who knows? Not the public, that’s for sure.

Remember when Schulz promised the college’s full dedication in reaching a conclusion regarding the incident? I guess that never included letting the public know what was going on.

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Posted onBad Cops

Felz Gets a Trial Date

by 7 Comments on Felz Gets a Trial Date
I’ll drink to that!

It’s been almost one year since former Fullerton City manager, Joe Felz, embarked on his infamous Wild Ride after an evening of drinking at election night parties in the Downtown Fullerton gin mills he worked so tirelessly to protect.

We all know how the drive home went wrong: Felz lost control of his vehicle on Glenwood Drive, drove over a tree, and tried to get away – in violation of the law. We also know that the Fullerton cops gave Joe a free pass and a ride home, many believe on the instructions of outgoing Cop-in-Charge, Danny “Gallahad” Hughes. That would be a crime, too – obstruction of justice, which is exactly what is asserted by District Attorney investigator, Abraham Santos.

Anyway, Felz has been charged with drunk driving by the DA, but the collusion to protect the City Manager has not been addressed and it never will be. That would set a very bad precedent, wouldn’t it?

On January 16, 2018 it looks like Wild Ride Felz is going to get his day in court as he has pleaded innocent to the charges. And since there is no evidence of his inebriation we all reckon the deal will be “dry reckless” driving, and case closed.


Rest assured, FFFF will be present to record and report the court proceedings.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Useless Conferences

by 17 Comments on Useless Conferences
I love going to conferences!

 

New procurement card policies are being implemented at City Hall this week.  That’s a good start and something to be cautiously optimistic about.

Until such changes extend to the merits of things like conferences and travel, any such reform will be of limited value because it’s all interrelated.  Employees from all departments have had a reputation of being sent to conferences, staying for a couple hours, then skipping out on the rest to play tourist, play golf, or be entertained.  Some have joked about these trips being “paycations” — as in the City pays them to go on vacation.

CalNENA is the California chapter of the National Emergency Number Association, a trade organization for 911 dispatchers.  Without any consideration for the City’s bleak financial outlook, or the value of such a trip, the Police Department sent two dispatchers to the annual conference in San Diego.  That shouldn’t be too expensive, right?

$1,467 for hotel rooms and parking, $1,200 for conference registration, $93.84 for mileage reimbursement, and probably $4,000 to 6,000 in wages, benefits, and potential overtime paid out to other employees to cover their absences.  Their union agreement has a provision that considers it a full workweek if they attend training for 3+ consecutive days.  I assume that provision applies here.

Ballpark cost of attending = $6,500 to 8,500.  So what did the City of Fullerton gain from this trip?  You tell me…

(more…)

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Posted onAbout Us

WHY YOU SO MAD AT MILO BY T-REX

by 6 Comments on WHY YOU SO MAD AT MILO BY T-REX

We’ve asked our infamous commentator “T-REX” to share his ancient wisdom with our readers. After agreeing to provide T-REX with two large broom handles stolen from Fullerton Public Works, the Friends are proud to present the first in a regular series of dino related thoughts.

TODAY T-REX GET PHONE CALL FROM LADY AT HIGH SCHOOL.

LADY SAY MANY OOO-MANS WORRIES ABOUT “CONSERVATIVE PROVOCATEUR” AND SCHOOL FOR LITTLE OOO-MANS CLOSE EARLY.

T-REX THINK THIS SILLY.  OOO-MANS USED TO WORRY ABOUT CONSERVATIVE ROCKS FALLING ON HEAD OR CONSERVATIVE SHARK EATING DANGLINGLY BITS.

SOMETIMES OOO-MANS WORRY ABOUT CONSERVATIVE DARK, BUT OOO-MANS MAKE CONSERVATIVE FIRE, SO NOT WORRY NO MORE.

MAYBE OOO-MANS WORRY TOO MUCH.  MAYBE THEY FOCUS ON CONSERVATIVE READING AND CONSERVATIVE MATH FOR LITTLE ONES.  MAYBE BEING TOO CONSERVATIVE AND CLOSING SCHOOL EARLY IS STUPID IDEA THAT TEACH LITTLE OOO-MANS TO BE AFRAID.

MAYBE YOU REACH OUT WITH THOSE BIG OOO-MANS ARMS INSTEAD OF HIDING IN CAVE OR CACKLING LIKE RABID CHICKEN.

JUST SAYING.

RAWRRRRRR!

 

 

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Posted onCSUF

Goons, Goblins, the Alt Right, and Antifa Oh My!

by 20 Comments on Goons, Goblins, the Alt Right, and Antifa Oh My!

The CSUF Republicans have invited controversial conservative pundit Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on campus Halloween evening, creating quite a bit of anxiety for CSU educrats, liberal activists and local police.

Why? Here’s what happened when Yiannopoulos tried to speak at UC Berkley earlier this year:

That’s a lot of potential chaos for Fullerton, and local agencies seem to be planning for the worst case scenario. Nearby Acacia Elementary School has announced that it will be sending kids home early that day. Some CSUF students have said they are afraid to go to school. The Fullerton Police Department is working with “local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies” to plan security for the event.

Perhaps stoking the flames, student and faculty groups have denounced the event and called for the school to prevent Yiannopoulos from speaking. These efforts seem to embolden Yiannopoulos’ followers, driving media attention leading up to the event and reinforcing his assertion that conservatives’ right to free speech on campus is being threatened.

Anyway, here’s hoping that Fullerton residents won’t have to rely on the FPD’s finesse in tactfully de-escalating a Halloween riot.

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Posted onBad Cops

$3900 Mini Freezer

by 21 Comments on $3900 Mini Freezer

Another day, and another reason to question the fiscal insanity at the City of Fullerton.  The Police Department paid over $3900 for this freezer which is a mere 3.9 cubic feet in size.  The typical residential refrigerator-freezer holds anywhere from 18 to 25 cubic feet, so this unit is far smaller than it appears.

The police will be quick to say how essential this is to preserve forensic evidence like DNA.  I can’t fault them for buying a unit with temperature alarms, but you know what’s funny?  Medical grade freezers used by pharmacies, similar in size and features, cost anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 the price, maybe even less.

Wasteful spending is nothing new around here, but this serves as a great opportunity to look at the City’s flawed procurement policies.

The freezer was not purchased by the City’s Purchasing Agent.  The Police Department doesn’t think the City’s procurement rules apply to them, so they bypass City Hall in most cases, and order whatever they want themselves.

“Reasonable effort shall be made to obtain three or more competitive bids for procurement of goods or services.”  This sounds like a good policy except that it allows a City employee to solicit bids for their preferred piece of equipment, and preferred manufacturer, no matter how unnecessary or overpriced.

They didn’t get bids for a small freezer sufficient to store forensic evidence.  They got bids for this specific Follett FZR4P-00-00 freezer, which was already leaps and bounds more expensive than comparable options from other manufacturers.  Basically, we acquired the Mercedes-Benz of freezers, but that’s all fine and dandy because the Police Department got three bids as specified in the procurement policy.

There’s no excuse to overpay because somebody is too lazy to research alternatives perfectly acceptable in a similar work environment, and yet, the City of Fullerton does this over and over and over again.

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Posted onDowntown Fullerton

The Quick Brown Fox

by 22 Comments on The Quick Brown Fox

Governor Jerry Brown paid a visit to downtown Fullerton on Wednesday, where it looks like he took a tour of the still-unfinished Fullerton Fox Theater with a rabble of current and former local officials in tow. Surely he was impressed.

OK, maybe not.

But why would Jerry Brown fly down to Fullerton to look inside some flopped redevelopment project?

One could guess that battleground Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva invited Brown to pitch some sort of state subsidy to rescue the project; a thinly veiled attempt to buy voters in one district with the rest of the state’s resources. You can tell an opportunity is at hand by the way the local bush league politicos are salivating all over Brown’s loafers. Hopefully someone had a towel handy.

But all of that is just fine. Why shouldn’t residents of Escondido, Bakersfield and Elk Grove pay for decades of Fullerton’s redevelopment screw ups? Mr. Brown, if there’s money to burn on a movie theater, maybe you can fix our decrepit roads and crumbling bridges, too?

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Posted onBad Cops

Our Wallets Are Getting Tased

by 24 Comments on Our Wallets Are Getting Tased

Axon, formerly known as Taser International, is the manufacturer of tasers and body cameras worn by officers of the Fullerton Police Department.

In 2014, Felz and Hughes went before the City Council to beg for $650,534 over a five-year period to pay for body cameras from Taser International.  The actual cost will far exceed that amount, but that’s unfortunately typical of the false assurances made by those two.  You can read the agenda letter here where Dan Hughes did his best impression of a salesman for Taser International.  There was never any competitive bidding process for those body cameras, which is obscene given the large price tag.

Fast forward to this past June.  Gary Sirin of the Fullerton Police Department was sent to the Axon Accelerate Conference Fleece-A-Thon in Scottsdale, AZ.  We paid $899 for him to attend the conference, $580.87 for lodging at the Westin, and it appears another $363.19 for travel expenses.  I presume he was also on the clock and being paid for his time.

So what actually took place at this conference?  Axon did a write up themselves that talks about demonstrating new products and strategies to prevent disclosure of body camera footage to the public.  Once again, an insulting waste of City funds.

The Police Department apparently never got the memo about Fullerton having a fiscal crisis, or else they just don’t care.

I think it’s the latter, but in any event, these ridiculous conferences all over the United States and Canada on the City dime need to stop.

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