Newman has been handed yet another bill to pass off as his own in his race against the recall – SB714. It allows the state to use eminent domain to take Coyote Hills by force, turning it over to something called the “State Coastal Conservancy” at great expense to California taxpayers. Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva has put up a matching bill that provides taxpayer funding for some of the takings.
Fullerton property rights advocates are warning about the loss of local control and lamenting the potential undoing of 40 years of development compromises (sunk costs, perhaps).
On the other hand, preserve purists like the folks at Save Coyote Hills love the bill, which has the potential to take land from a developer and use it to expand the Robert E. Ward Nature Preserve.
Whatever your take, this warning applies – A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have. Handing this issue over to Sacramento bureaucrats may not get you what you want.
Although the results have yet to be certified, and the Democratic Party is doing their best to invalidate the petition gathering effort (even going so far as to sue individual College Republican signature gatherers) the recall election of State Senator Josh Newman is likely proceeding. And now the Republican party has a candidate for the special election.
This morning, Fullerton City Councilmember Bruce Whitaker announced his intention to run in the special election to replace Newman, when it takes place.
Whitaker, a Republican, has been on the City Council since 2010, when he won a special election to replace Shawn Nelson. Whitaker has a long record of fighting tax increases prior to his election to the City Council, including his opposition to Measure R, the proposed county sales tax proposed to deal with Orange County’s bankruptcy in the mid 1990s. This will be the second recall election Whitaker has been involved in, as he was also part of the successful recall of three Fullerton City Councilmembers over a utility tax increase in 1994.
Whitaker’s announcement will hopefully put the final nail in the nascent candidacy of Ling Ling Chang, who was the Republican Party’s candidate in the 2016 election and who many (myself included) believe blew what should have been a winnable race. Whitaker is not the first candidate to announce however, as FFFF contributor Joshua Ferguson announced his intention to run for the race earlier this week.
The state Democrats are desperate to save State Senator Josh Newman from recall, so the tax-and-spend Newman needs to look real busy doing good things for his constituents. So the party in Sacramento has been throwing him all sorts of feel good bills to “author” so he can raise his public profile.
One of those bills is SB442, which requires homeowners to limit pool access with multiple layers of safety. Here’s Newman waxing about the importance of pool protection. As usual it’s all about the children.
But wait! We sent the FFFF spook drone over Newman’s ultra-posh Fullerton residence.
Casa de Newman
Guess what? It turns out that Josh Newman himself is deficient in pool safety.
Newman’s house on Domingo Road lacks any sort of pool fence or pool cover, which are strictly required by his own proposed law.
“Multiple layers of protection and multiple barriers of protection are critical,” said Newman at a June press conference.
He has a small child. He’s selling the bill on the safety of small children. Typical liberal. At least implement the most effective measures yourself before you legally require them of others.
Remember when FFFF noted the deplorable conditions of Fullerton’s paving – the worst in Orange County? Well that status has snagged the attention of the Big Boss Man at OCTA, Darrel Johnson, as documented in the very diplomatic communication to our $100 per hour Interim City Manager, below. For those savvy in the foamy soft-soap of bureaucrat-speak, the letter is a ringing condemnation of our City’s infrastructure management.
In the early morning hours of the very same day that six FPD cops harassed, attacked and left Kelly Thomas to die in the gutter, four of their bad apple brethren had a run-in only a few yards away with the Ortiz brothers – Luiz and Antonio – a couple of downtown Fullerton bar patrons.
Here are the names of the four cops: Bryan Bybee, Billy Phu, Emanuel Pulido and Matthew Martinez. Remember the names. According to the complaint Bybee began the July 5, 2011 altercation by attacking Antonio with a baton while his colleagues joined in the fun and also went to work on Luiz. The beat down ended with the usual ride to the Fullerton Jail, lack of medical attention to the beaten Antonio, refusal to pursue an internal investigation following Antonio’s formal complaint, and the eventual filing of criminal charges by our illustrious DA – who never seems to tire of prosecuting citizens based on fraudulent FPD reports.
Miraculously, Luiz was acquitted 11-1 by an OC jury in 2016, and the DA dropped the charges against Antonio – giving plenty of credence to the allegations made by the brothers in a civil suit against the taxpayers of Fullerton, a suit that was recently settled for the tidy sum of $280,000, only about $1.90 of which will come out of the pocket of Jan Flory, or Jennifer Fitzgerald or Pat “I Hired Them All” McKinley, or any of the other vocal cop apologists who bask in the warmth of Fullerton First membership.
Four more demerit badges for former Chief Danny “Galahad” Hughes’ boy scout sash, even as he rakes in a $20K per month pension.
Here are the relevant documents. Read ’em and weep.
There’s a five-mile expanding industrial waste plume under Fullerton – mostly the result of industrial run-off from mid-century industrialists. The OC Water District says that it has already begun to contaminate Fullerton’s water supply, projecting that the damage will eventually be catastrophic if not addressed immediately.
As one of the largest polluters, Northrop Gruman has been defending an OCWD case against it for years.
The expanding toxic plume
Last month the OCWD asked the Fullerton council to support a request to bring the EPA in to resolve the issue. That would be bad news for Northrop, but good news for Fullerton residents.
Take a look at the video of the council discussion. The topic seems to be of particular interest to Fitzgerald, who is unusually familiar with the characters involved, although she seems to take on an adversarial posture against the OCWD representative. Ultimately the council agreed to send off the letter, 4 to 1. Fitzgerald voted against the recommendation that would help protect taxpayers from paying the price. I wonder why? No I don’t.
What Fitzgerald failed to mention is that Northrop Gruman is or was a client of her employer, Curt Pringle and Associates. Here’s an exposé from the Voice of OC in 2012.
You’ll get used to the smell.
In a later article about her various conflicts of interest, Fitzgerald claims that Pringle’s firm never worked directly for Northrop, but that they were hired through an attorney who worked for Northrop. I guess we’re supposed to believe that this degree of separation clears up her conflict of interest. It doesn’t. I wonder where else this strategy is employed?
Anyway, we’re also supposed to believe that the relationship between Pringle and Northop terminated in 2012. Maybe it did. Who can be sure? But for some reason Fitzgerald is still oddly passionate about Northrup Gruman, fighting against efforts to make them pay for the clean up of their own waste that threatens the health and safety of Fullerton residents.
Why is Jennifer Fitzgerald voting in favor of a Curt Pringle client, in direct opposition to the Fullerton residents who she is supposed to be representing? This is a severe and blatant conflict of interest – one that has lasting health consequences for all of Fullerton.
The effort to recall California State Senator Josh Newman, our local representative here in CA’s 29th District, has reached massive numbers in what is likely record time. The recall effort was initiated after Newman threw his fiscally responsible campaign rhetoric into the circular file and opted to vote with his caucus to raise taxes on the working poor. He knew full well that the voters would never approve such a scheme were it put to a vote but little did he know that voters would retaliate by seeking to remove him from office.
With nearly 85,000 signatures, well above the 63,000 required, having been submitted for the recall it look as if Josh Newman will be facing another vote much sooner than he anticipated.
The Tax Bear Cometh
We’re still waiting on word for how SB96, the budget trailer bill that cynically tries to change the recall laws mid-stream, will play into this whole scenario but expects lawsuits to be filed and candidates to come out of the wood-work to claim credit for something they likely had zero to do with thus far into the process. As things move forward we’ll keep you updated because this is sure to stay interesting.
Quadrangle of Casual Corruption and Fullerton First brain trust. Gretch’ is the one in the middle. The rest you already know.
Apparently Gretchen Cox, reactionary pal of J. Flory and J. Fitzgerald has become weary of “malcontents” wasting everybody’s time at City Council meetings. She seems to think all this attention to city employee malfeasance, misfeasance and dumbassfeasance reflects poorly on our great town, using the usual “blame the messenger” routine always deployed by people who have something to hide: like shoddy construction, unnecessary and mind-blowingly expensive boondoggles, drunken city managers, a corrupt police department and a budget that’s a few years away from going supernova.
Quick, get clear of the impending collapse…
Her strategy is to drown out the cries off honest men and women with hosannas of praise for everything Fullerton. But she needs a choir. So she started a facebook group laughingly called “Fullerton First” where she limits the membership to folk of her own stripe. And what a membership list it is. Here you will find a lot of familiar faces, including sad sack stooge Larry Bennett, incompetent planner Paul Dudley, serial liar-cop Andrew Goodrich, and dim-bulb government apologist Jan Flory, who is w-a-a-a-y past her stated expiration date. That alone should tell you all you need to know about Fullerton First.
The closer you look, the worse it gets…
But that’s not the interesting part. Not surprisingly, lobbyist city council creature Jennifer Fitzgerald is an enthusiastic member of this tribe; but, very tellingly, so is the ethically flexible Matthew Cunningham, whose job is proprietor of “Anaheim Blog” where he runs interference for uber-lobbyist Curt Pringle’s interests, praises Pringle’s political tools, and denigrates Pringle’s political opponents.
It’s pretty obvious that Pringle has set his slimy sights on Fullerton now that his Anaheim well is running dry. We are the pigeons he wants to pluck. Just think “College Town” and other possible gold mines where influence peddling moves things along.
And when Curt Pringle says “Fullerton First” what he really will mean is “Fullerton Next.”
I just got wind that preteenage girl-silly Anaheim carpetbaggtress, scammer, and dubious charity operator, Lorri Galloway, has endorsed carpetbagging union executive and Coto de Caza resident, Joe Kerr for County Supervisor for our 4th District. That’s pretty funny – first that anybody would value this endorsement of this ethically challenged nincompoop, and second because Galloway set a record in 2010 for fake addresses – three of them – in her own comical run for the same job. A lot of comedy came out of that scampaign, but not a dime’s worth of substance.
I wonder how many of these people are going to sue me…
Here’s a snippet from some sort of press release:
Brea, CA – Former Anaheim City Councilmember Lorri Galloway announced her endorsement of Joe Kerr’s campaign for Orange County Supervisor today. Galloway joins a growing list of local leaders rallying around Kerr, which already includes Congressman Lou Correa and State Assemblymember Tom Daly.
“Joe Kerr is an effective problem solver who will bring new energy and new ideas to county government,” said Galloway. “Joe’s experiences, as both a fire captain and an advocate for first responders, will serve him well on the board. I am excited to announce my endorsement of his campaign.”
Lorri Galloway served on the Anaheim City Council between 2004 and 2012. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Eli Home, which provides shelter for abused children and their mothers.
I always love those fake, canned endorsements, written by campaign consultants for endorsers who are too lazy or illiterate to scribble their own. Lorri would have us believe that Coto Joe, a public employee union president is going to bring “new ideas” to county government. Really? Like what? Fire Heroes retiring at 40 with 100% of their pay?
Rumors of increased criminal activity are wafting out of city hall again. A few employees of the Public Works department are in hot water for some sort of embezzlement/kick-back scheme down at the city yard. Criminal charges are in the offing.
Something stinks.
It’s not clear to us who was involved or what was stolen. City leaders are keeping quiet right now, but hopefully they will inform the public soon.
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