Here’s a fun match up between pension watchdog Steven Greenhut and the head of the OCEA public employees’ union, Nick Berardino. The subject of yesterday’s debate was “Can pensions be reformed co-operatively?”
Who won?
Here’s something unexpected: the progressive collective of California voters appears to be sick and tired of supporting the exorbitant retirement schemes of our public servants.
A new poll by the Los Angeles Times and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences found that pension reform is supported in this state by a wide margin. Specifically…
- 70% want to cap pensions for current and future public employees;
- 68% say public workers must contribute more to their own retirement funds;
- 52% support hiking the retirement age of government workers.
I wonder how that poll would go over in Fullerton?
If that provides any satisfaction.
It seems that downtown Huntington Beach suffers the same dysfunctional symptoms as downtown Fullerton: drunk driving, rowdyism, vandalism, etc., etc. The cause? Too many bars churning out too many inebriated patrons. Sound familiar?
DT HB has even more bars than DT Fullerton, apparently, and that’s saying something. Looks like some citizens are finally fed up with the trouble and the reputation all the bars bring to town. The City has no idea how to fix the mess they’ve made.
Here in Fullerton we have the answer to the problem: declare victory, legitimize the troublemakers and subsidize their fire sprinkler infrastructure. Why? ‘Cause this is the New West, dagnabit, ‘n we’re open fer bidness!
Project Islamic H.O.P.E and the NAACP paid a visit to Fullerton today to protest at the home of Marilyn Davenport, the OC GOP Central Committee member who has drawn fire from just about everyone everywhere for sending out an email depicting Barack Obama as a chimpanzee.
An outcry against racism? Sure. Calls for Davenport’s resignation? OK. But these protesters seem to have something else in mind:
Does the office of the presidency demand unconditional love and respect? Should Americans not be “allowed” to insult the President?
Today the Register is reporting that Union officials for the Fullerton-based Teamsters Local 747 are taking heat for wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars of union money on luxurious junkets and personal expenses. Even International Teamsters leader James P. Hoffa called the expenses “excessive.”
Amongst other abuses, union officials and employees were exposed for blowing $102,399 at Spadra, an Italian restaurant on Commonwealth in Fullerton (formerly Il Ghiotto, now closed).
Wow, a hundred grand sure will get ya a big pile of spaghetti. I’ll bet there was a little booze involved, too.
Alright, so this fiasco doesn’t involve any public employee unions. But fraud, abuse and excess has plagued the leadership of public and private collective bargaining organizations since the glory days of union thuggery. Maybe this is just just a good reminder to union members: you ought to be checking up to make sure that your glorious leaders aren’t living high on the collective supply.
How about a taxpayer-subsidized McFullerton to compete with non-subsidized local eateries. It’s Fullerton. it’s Redevelopment. It’s not impossible.
Seriously, could our city council really be contemplating a commercial restaurant in Hillcrest Park as part of the new Master Plan?
Well, why not? They’ve shown a total disregard for the park an historic resource over the years; for the Community Services Department Hillcrest Park “revitalization” has merely been an exploitation opportunity over the years, much as Downtown Fullerton has been for the Redevelopment Agency employees. So why not?
This clip was posted to YouTube a few days ago. Warning: explicit content.
Last night the Fullerton City Council voted 4-1 to settle its lawsuit with Chevron in a deal that essentially man-dates approval of the development plan for West Coyote Hills that includes 760 houses, and that was denied 3-2. Last year Shawn Nelson, Pam Keller, and Sharon Quirk-Silva voted no. With Nelson and Keller having moved on, only Quirk-Silva remained to opposed the settlement.
As always, share your thoughts in the comments thread.
Effervescent Emancipator! Dinosaurs, brick veneer, burning money? Yes, Friends, it’s outta here! Touch ’em all!
Congratulations to the Fullerton Savage for the winning entry in our city seal contest. Fullerton truly has much to be proud of.
Savage, your new Nancy Sanchez CD is on the way.
Matthew J. Cunningham is scurrying around the internet trying to plug the holes in his sinking conservative reputation. Amongst other things, he has accused the Friends of posting portions of his invoices “out of context,” whatever that means. Of course he refuses to explain the details of his activities and continues to do the old “look over there” routine.
You want context? Fine. Here are all of the Pacific Strategies invoices that we scanned. Enjoy.
![[ ]](http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/icons/layout.gif){kind=icon} Invoice-2007-10.pdf 73K
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Invoice-2009-03.pdf 232K
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And if you don’t have time to go through all those invoices, just listen to this ‘ol clip from the John and Ken show: