Author Steven Greenhut delivers a dismal report for those looking for pension reform to come out of the state legislature: It ain’t gonna happen. Cities and schools must save themselves.
But we are still the masters of our fate. If we move quickly, there are things that can be done to prevent this financial disaster from passing on to our children, although they will require unconventional courage, wisdom and action. So who’s going to step up to the plate and rescue Fullerton?
This just came in from city council candidate Barry Levinson:
This Tuesday night at 6:30 PM, September 21, 2010 at city hall, the culmination of 7 months of hard work by my wife Susan and myself should result in a victory for all children and their parents and grandparents, etc. in the city of Fullerton. An ordinance presented and recommended by the Fullerton Police Department will be brought before the city council for a vote. The ordinance will make it a misdemeanor crime for a convicted pedophile to live within 2000 feet of a school, park or day care center. The penalty is up to one year in jail! Almost 4 years to the day that the voters in California spoke through their support of Proposition No. 87, known as Jessica’s Law will there be an actual penalty attached to the above actions.
This is just the start. I have been working with and getting the cooperation of the County District Attorney’s Office to make sure that a similar law is presented to our Orange County Board of Supervisors. We want the same protections for our kids throughout the County.
Please attend the Tuesday night meeting! Send a firm and clear message to all our current council members. A full house will provide leverage to make sure that the council does the right thing by passing this ordinance to provide additional protection for the weakest and most vulnerable among us, our kids.
The folks who write stuff for the Fullerton Observer are either really dumb, or really….
Aw, Hell I can stop right there.
Here’s a bit from page 5 of the recent edition of the bird cage liner noting the reconstruction of the McDonald’s outlet on Chapman and noting that the Council’s failure to blow six million bucks to move it a couple hundred feet has caused the Fox Block project to go belly up and implies that somehow this put the renovation of the Fox Theater in jeopardy.
Wrong! The council finally acted responsibly last summer when they pulled the plug on an emergent disaster of their own creation. And wrong about the “renovation” bullshit, too. Notice how the Observer casually insinuates the idea of “renovation” into the “Fox Block.” Apart from the theater there is nothing to renovate, of course. But the two things were never tied together – except to manipulate the under intelligent.
The whole monstrosity was tied to the Fox Theater restoration to tap into the emotional support for that and gin up support for another downtown monstrosity of corporate welfare. Of course the crew of the S.S. Observer is devoted to the idea that keeping Redevelopment bureaucrats and parasites employed is job one, and common sense be damned.
What? I can't hear you.
Added to the unintentional high-larity is the writer’s assertion that the developer “spent hours” designing a new Mickey D’s that matched the FHS architecture. Well, he may very well have spent a few hours. The product looked like it.
Instead of bewailing the loss of a sure-fire failure, the Observer should be asking what sort of accountability is going to be demanded of the idiots who cooked up the Fox Block mess in the first place – bureaucrats and electeds, alike.
On Tuesday the Anaheim City Council voted on a new tax increase and a new government bureaucracy. On a vote of 4-0 they approved a new ordinance to create and spend a 13% increase on their city’s transit occupancy tax to create a new “tourism improvement district.”
4-0, you ask? But surely there are five members on the Anaheim City Council, yes? Well, Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu, who aspires to be our 4th District county supervisor, wasn’t there. Where was he? At home in his Anaheim Hills (3rd District) estate?
He skipped out on the meeting, no doubt at the behest of his campaign manipulators John Lewis and Chris Jones who no doubt informed him that voting in favor of a tax during a political campaign would be political suicide. What a dilemma! Voting against a tax would make his puppet master, Anaheim’s mayor-for-hire Curt Pringle look bad; after all much of the new tax revenue is earmarked for the allegedly conservative Pringle’s fabulous ARTIC boondoggle. Better just to duck the whole thing.
But wait a just minute, Hairball fans. According to minutes of the July 27, 2010 Anaheim City Council meeting, Sidhu had already voted with the rest of the council on a formal resolution (2010-125) to create both the tax and the new bureaucracy. Ouch, indeed!
In other words, when he thought nobody was looking, Hide and Seek Sidhu voted for the tax increase; when the campaign spotlight shined a little brighter Sidhu cut and ran. But it was too late: the ever slippery Sidhu had already left his pro-tax, anti-business spoor trail. I can see the hit piece already.
Now let’s see Pringle and his stooges at the hilariously named OC Business Council spin this one for Sidhu.
Clown college tuition finally pays off...
The only question remaining in this election is how deep Sidhu’s assclownery can run. I have the feeling the answer is very.
When you put your name on the ballot, you’re asking voters to trust you with hundred million dollar budgets and the power of a government office. Therefore, it is a duty of the public to make sure that each candidate is qualified to handle this burden of responsibility. Anybody with a financial history that cannot stand up to basic scrutiny should not put themselves out in front of the voters.
On that note, Aaron Gregg should not be running for Fullerton City Council.
Okay, creditors to the back of the line!
You see, attorney Aaron Charles Gregg filed for a $107,000 bankruptcy about 10 years ago, discharging over $75,000 in federal and state back taxes and $30,000 in other debts to individuals and businesses, all while claiming $8,000 a month in income from his business.
It’s all laid bare in these papers that were filed in federal bankruptcy court, which show that Aaron Gregg neglected to pay his taxes for most of the years from 1992 through 1998. When the debt piled up, he hired an attorney and let it all go.
Among the more curious items in the filings, Aaron Gregg listed assets of $25 dollars cash, $200 in clothes, $75 wrist watch and some office supplies. Times must have been tough for this professional attorney of 21 years. Fortunes were about to change, however, when he realized that he would be able to dump his debt but keep his leased $5,000 Savin copier. I bet that will come in handy some day.
I'll need that when I run for city council.
The documents also show that halfway through the bankruptcy process, Aaron Gregg discovered that he might also owe money to a family in San Pablo City, Philippines. What could that be for? Well they’re never going to vote in Fullerton. Might as well get rid of that debt too.
It was a bad investment.
In the end, it looks like Aaron was able to dump over $100,000 owed to nine different creditors, two of which were government agencies. When the tax man doesn’t get his revenue, guess who gets to make up for it? That’s right, you and me. And somehow I have a feeling that Aaron Charles Gregg made it out of this financial mess and has been doing just fine ever since. But that’s no reason for him to think he’s a valid candidate to run our city.
On second thought, Aaron’s keen ability to get himself out of unwieldy financial commitments may come in handy when it’s time for Fullerton to escape our massive redevelopment and pension debts. But it’s probably safer to just call him in as a consultant.
California Fair Political Practices Commission reports show that Fullerton City Council candidate Roland Chi contributed $1,000.00 to the Friends of Mike Carona during the first quarter of 2006. Carona was barely re-elected to a third term in June of that year.
Yes, it’s a big list of contributors, but you won’t find the name of Bruce Whitaker on it.
How about a big round of applause for Roland Chi, recently of Garden Grove, for helping now convicted felon Mike Carona to squeak by with 50.9% of the vote, enough for Carona to avoid a runoff in November of that year. Carona was indicted while in office the next year, exposing the OCSD to needless upheaval and Orange County to national ridicule.
What does this contribution say about Mr. Chi’s ability to judge character? Do we want someone willing to fall in to line with Mike Carona on the Fullerton City Council?
The latest Mickadiet column gave Fullerton candidate Barry Levinson a chance to tell us what he really thinks of mayor Don Bankhead, and Barry did not disappoint.
See, Barry contacted the mayor when he learned that a sex offender was about to move into his neighborhood, which should have been protected by Jessica’s Law due to it’s proximity to Laguna Lake park.
Barry Levinson
The way Barry tells it, Bankhead did nothing to solve the neighborhood’s sex offender problem. Well actually, it’s worse than that. Bankhead launched a typical delay and distract strategy to avoid facing the issue, doing nothing while telling Barry that he was working on it. In Levinson’s own words:
He said Bankhead “assured us he was ‘on our side’ and would get back to us within a few days with more information.” Ten days went by, “no call from Mayor Bankhead.” When they finally talked, he says, Bankhead “had no answers for us but assured us he was still working the problem. That was the last time the mayor ever spoke to us … He did absolutely nothing. This mayor always touts his police background … What a total disappointment.”
What?
City staff told Bankhead that Jessica’s Law had no teeth, so there was nothing that the police could do about it. Great. Responsibility absolved, right? Rather than pursue the issue by pushing for a new ordinance (a task that Levinson ended up taking on himself), Bankhead opted for the do-nothing-and-hope-Barry-the-citizen-goes-away approach.
Major backfire. Now Barry is challenging the Burger King’s 22-year rule.
Proud to call Fullerton home. Said the same thing about Garden Grove two years ago.
Living in Garden Grove, apparently.
Okay, first things first. Never heard of Roland Chi, before? There’s probably a real good reason for that.The Fullerton City Council candidate running to replace Supervisor Shawn Nelson has lived in Fullerton for less than three years. At most. Here’s a snippet from the minutes of the Garden Grove City Council that was thinking about a replacement for Janet Nguyen:
April 16, 2007: It was moved by Mayor Dalton, seconded by Council Member Nguyen, that Roland Chi be appointed to fill the vacancy on the City Council. Council Member Nguyen spoke about Roland Chi’s many achievements at a relatively young age, including the Garden Grove Farmer’s Market. Council Member Broadwater moved a substitute motion to appoint Steve Jones to fill the vacancy on the City Council. Council Member Nguyen seconded the motion. Council Member Rosen commented that Mr. Chi is too young, needing real life experience that comes with age.
As Roland coyly puts it on his own website: During this time, he was appointed to a city planning commission and later chosen by his peers to serve as Chairman.
Well that’s pretty sneaky, not informing his readers that he never served on Fullerton’s Planning Commission. It was in another city, and less than three years ago.
But Roland’s a real climber alright, and has recently joined up in the right Fullerton Rotarian/Chamber crews. But will it make up for no real accomplishment?
Hmm. A candidate pops up out of nowhere looking for a political future.
I love you all...
And who does this remind you of? How about Julie Sa, who popped up like a weed in 1992, bought the election, embarrassed the City for eight years, and who finally pulled out in 2000 when it was discovered that she was actually living in Chino Hills?
Well, Hell, anybody can legally run for office in Fullerton so long as they actually live here; but has the political process become so cynical that some guy with almost no history of residency here is willing to put his name on the ballot alongside people who have served the community for years?
The article discusses a report from an un-named source that shares data on response times from reserve firefighting and medical units in Orange County. According to the article, there are 495 reserve positions with only 291 positions filled. Of the 291 positions, 41 will be laid off or fired.
Let’s put it in perspective. The Orange County Fire Authority employs 841 full-time firefighters/fire management personnel. They have budgeted 495 reserves for FY2009-10. That means that nearly 1/3 of total first responder capabilities rest in the hands of reserves. Fullerton has no reserve firefighters to help shore up minimum staffing requirements and minimize overtime. For a department which was founded as a volunteer fire department I find it ironic that they now have zero reserves on hand to help.
The OC Register article goes into the asset versus liability of having reserve fire units. Essentially, the report finds that several reserve units failed to respond to calls. That in and of itself is problematic but the real question that is missed is where has management been? You would think that management would notice pretty quickly that the reserves are not responding and then take corrective action. Apparently no one noticed.
Amazingly, the solution is quite simple. By integrating reserves with professionals in the same manner as law enforcement agencies, the reserve can be better managed and will have the opportunity to receive peer mentoring.
Why has management allowed reserves to have their own volunteer units and not an integrated approach? My guess is that the OCFA union would not allow it through their MOU or no one cared enough to explore the use and utility of having reserves. For that matter, why do we still have firefighters being paid to sleep in regional firehouses? No other public agency outside of fire service, would allow employees to sleep on the job.
I realize the thought of working an 8- or 12-hour shift might terrorize some firefighters but it would certainly make better sense than having dozens of high-paid public servants sleeping on the job. Other communities have already implemented 8-hour shifts. It would also address the argument that firefighters deserve their high pay and pension because they are away from their family more than other public employees. With that argument one would think our soldiers are millionaires considering the time they spend away from their families.
Firefighting has its own culture based largely on tradition. When those traditions negatively affect taxpayers, it is time to think if we want to continue down this costly “traditional” road or cut a brave new path that leads to improved services and lower costs.
Over at the Red County blog, repuglican scribe, Matthew J. Cunningham, has once again gratuitously passed along a new and typically comical Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu press release touting new endorsements for his waterlogged campaign for county supervisor.
One is none other than Fullerton’s own cracker barrel nutsy-cuckoo philosopher F. Richard Jones. No surprise there. Old Doc HeeHaw endorsed Sidhu last time around, too – for all the good it did either one of them. Having the kook Jones brag about you is, well, not exactly a badge of honor.
I voted for Sidhu! Have you voted yet?
The really fun new addition to Hairball’s stable of endorsers is none other than Fullerton Collaborative scammer, and soon to be forgotten ex-councilwoman, Pam Keller, whose image, in a fervent embrace with the overly deodorized #2, was recently shared on this blog.
Old Spice?
Pam’s contribution to the Fullerton political scene has been a string of comical performances and embarrassing ditzy routines.
Ah, the poor Hairball, relying on the semi-lucid and mentally challenged. Last week it was the deranged creep Richard Faher; this week it’s Jones and Keller. The next seven weeks are going to seem like an eternity for the almost pathetic Sidhu.
And speaking of semi-lucid and mentally challenged:
