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Yes, Dear Friends, it’s that time of the year when young bloggers’ thoughts turn to love – love of the sublimely ridiculous, of course. And so we will bring you the 2nd Annual Fringie Awards.
You don’t deserve the abuse that is coming your way. Oh wait. You elected Chief MC Pension and Don Bonehead for the umpteenth time. You deserve exactly what you’re going to get.
Maybe our La Habran neighbors to the north do. Their school board is now facing a strike by the La Habra Teachers’ Association, a body of both the CTA and the NEA unions. The issue? Their school board has given them a minuscule 2% pay cut and then refuses to call it “temporary.”
Negotiations had failed after several months and so the board was forced to impose increases in health care contributions as well as a reduction of 2 instructional days in order to deal with a 22% budget shortfall.
Amazing. A 22% budget hole and the teachers only had to take a 2% pay cut, and yet the union still plays the strike card.
Back in Fullerton, Superintendent Mitch Hovey has already articulated grave concern about pending negotiations, and Fullerton is in essentially the same financial straights as La Habra. It will be very interesting to see how our illustrious teachers’ union and our new school board deal with these issues.
Well, they went and did it.
At last night’s meeting the Fullerton City Council elected Ol’ Doc HeeHaw to be the political figurehead who leads Fullerton into the Teens. We have already gloated over the endless comedic possibilities this situation will afford council watchers and mean bloggers.
Mayor Jones. Let’s contemplate the advent of mirth.
And let’s consider a one-two punch of Jones and the increasingly distracted Don Bankhead as Mayor pro Tem. Is this really the best a city of 150,000 people that calls itself the education community can do?
Guess so.
It happened. As predicted. At the behest of the repuglican puppetmasters that helped put him on the Fullerton City Council, ex-police Chief and $215,000 a year pension puller-downer Pat McKinley bypassed Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva for Mayor Pro Tem. Instead Fullerton’s former top cop and election winner by 90 votes went with the feeble octogenarian, Don Bankhead. Gotta keep that winning team intact, right?
Well, goddamit, the ‘pugs weren’t the only people who helped put McKinley on the council. They had help. As noted previously, many of the the Yellowing Fullerton Observers went for McKinley, too, including folks like Molly McClanahan, Jan Flory and….wait for it…Sharon Quirk-Silva! It cost Doug Chaffee the election.
Two years ago these same people helped put the cracker back in the cracker barrel.
Say, guys, hows that strategy working out for ya?
Will councilman elect, retired chief pension plugger Pat McKinley support Sharon Quirk-Silva for Mayor Pro Tem at tonight’s council meeting? After all, she actually endorsed this guy. It’s up to Fullerton’s new three-man Repuglican crew, and things don’t seem too promising for Quirk-Silva.
As we previously discussed, Policy #37 dictates who the next Fullerton mayor and Mayor Pro Tem will be. But the whole thing really boils down to pure politics.
As noted above, Quirk-Silva endorsed McKinley, which helped him beat Doug Chaffee by 90 votes. Will McKinley honor policy #37? Will he even be grateful to Q-S for his new source of income?
Stay tuned to channel 3 tonight at 6:30.
Just in case you missed Crazy Dick (our Mayor to be, per Policy #37) Jones’s battle of wits, here with a local resident the first time around, watch again as the poor guy gets the loop-a-doop brush-off by Dick, courtesy of our inebriated Video Alteration and Welding Department.
What kind of nitwit gets into a shouting match with one of his eccentric constituents who started to unravel a bit? Pea-brained Doc HeeHaw, that’s who. As our next mayor there can be little doubt: a youtube sensation is in the making.
Word on the political street is that Todd Spitzer, recently fired Deputy DA, former State Assemblyman, and former 3rd District County Supervisor is serious about running for his old job at the County Hall of Administration in 2012. How serious? Apparently he is locking up political consultants in order to dissuade potential opponents who are not already terrorized by Spitzer’s prodigious campaign warchest.
Two of the consultants are said to be Dave Gilliard who recently worked for Shawn Nelson and John Lewis, who didn’t. You all remember John Lewis, the repuglican who managed the ill-fated Tom Daly campaign behind the scenes. And when that tub went down, he scrambled rat-like up the bow line of the SS Sidhu – that was already taking on water badly. Will Lewis be working for free like he did for Sidhu? Quite possibly. See, Lewis is a campaign guy second and a lobbyist first and foremost.
More word on the street has it that ‘pug sweatheart Orange mayor Carolyn Cavecche has already run screaming into the night, with Kurt Pringle and Bill Campbell, her sponsors not far behind. Geez, that didn’t take long.
Will anybody dare take on Spitzer and his precipitous mountain of dough? He’s got a pretty shaky record on pensions and that’s big right about now. Even so, there’s really no chance. See, Spitzer is running to mark time until he can have at our do nothing DA in 2014. If successful the 3rd District seat would open up and the political bowling pins would be reset.
One of our Friends observed this banner near the intersection of Harbor and Brea today giving thanks to mercifully soon-to-be former council member, Pam Keller.
How touching. A “job well done.”
But, really? Since we can’t count on the Yellowing Observers and Pam’s Dingbat Posse to give an accurate look back on Keller’s four years in office, I will oblige by helping out a little.
First we’ll give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge her support of Prop 215 and the law of the State while the other four cowards on the council showed their true colors.
And now I’m done reciting Keller’s accomplishments – the wrong end of one 4-1 vote.
And lest you forget, I’ll remind you about some of her dubious activities on the council. How about the lobbyist boat ride and dinner care of slimeball Steve Sheldon and her subsequent support of the completely indefensible “Jeferson Commons” monstrosity? And let’s not forget her support of the equally god-awful Amerige Court, brought to us by contributors to her Colloborative. Both these votes were a total sellout to her supporters and her 2006 campaign promises as she came to realize the challenges of “governing.”
Speaking of the Collaborative, is there really any need to rehash the manifest conflicts of interest, the mobilizing of Collaborative grantees for political purposes, of gad-abouting taking credit for other people’s efforts? There, I just did it.
My favorite Keller self-besoiling was the twelve hundred bucks of public money she wasted going to the 2008 League of Cities meeting in far-off Long Beach, as cavalier a waste of taxpayer dollars as you will ever see.
And only this year Keller crowned her career by supporting the fraudulent, carpetbagging campaign of Harry Sidhu for 4th District Supervisor.
Not much to show for four years work, but of course commenters are welcome to augment the list of any real accomplishment on Keller’s part. Now don’t get me wrong. Keller’s lack of any really achievement is in no way different than any other councilpersons anybody can remember, so at least she’s got that going for her, legacy-wise.
Well, now she can assume her idiotic grin and bat her eyes for the benefit of the Fullerton School District trustees – as they consider renewing her contract and her, ahem, peculiar role as Philanthropist on Our Dime.
As Fullerton is forced to face our own massive pension debt this year, it’s helpful to look around to see what others are doing. And then aim higher. Much higher.
The county firefighters’ union just conceded that new members will have to work 5 more years until they reach retirement age, allowing them to retire at 55 instead of 50. OK, so they still get a ridiculous 90% of pay and will retire at least 12 years earlier than the rest of us. But it’s a baby step in the right direction.
To begin addressing the deficit caused by current employees, union members will also pay their own portion of the retirement contributions, building up to the full 9% of pay as required by state law.
Both of these concepts could be applied to Fullerton police and fire contracts. Of course, they wouldn’t come close to solving our pension problems. But if the prima donnas at OCFA will volunteer these concessions, Fullerton should be able to do better. Much better.
Certainly this sets a new minimum for pension reform in Orange County. With soaring pension costs set to take escalating millions out of our budget next year, we must do something NOW.
Of course, we won’t let anyone forget that several of our council members have promised to tackle the issue.
