Friends For Fullerton's Future – Page 233 – FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Redevelopment. Yes or No?

The Gov has proposed axing Redevelopment in California and redirecting its revenue back to local municipalities and school districts. Of course the Redevelopment camp followers are squealing like stuck pigs.

Today the Register entertained two essays on whether or not to keep Redevelopment. On the no side was Assemblyman Chris Norby who wrote a pretty comprehensive obituary for this misguided government revenue scam. On the pro side? Some unknown stooge from Brea – one of the most heavily Redevelopment bond indebted municipalities in California, and a poster child for Redevelopment havoc and abuse.

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011Harry Sidhu

Illinois Court Sides with FFFF on Carpetbaggery

by admin26 Comments

We just received the following note from a visitor named “Otis T. Jacksone”:

In a belated blow to Linda Ackerman and Assclown Sidhu supporters, the Illinois court ruled that residency requirements are enforceable and Rahm Emanuel is therefore ineligible to run for mayor of Chicago. After years of rulings that created all sorts of loopholes in the 130 year old Illinois law, the supremes employed a little common sense and removed Emanuel from the ballot due to the fact he had lived in D.C. for the prior year. Illinois law requires a candidate to live in the district for one year before the election.

California should take note. The California constitution has long required a candidate to be a resident of his district one year prior to filing. The Sidhus and Ackermans of the world have ignored the law feeling it was unconstitutional. Maybe Illinois is on to something. No Carpetbaggers!

January 26, 2011January 26, 2011Behind Closed Doors

A Plaintive Wail

by The Desert Rat14 Comments

And now, back to the letter.

Read the letter

According to commenter Art Brown the plaintive Redevelopment wail signed by Mayor HeeHaw on behalf of all of us was actually scribed by the League of Cities and sent out as a boilerplate template for the incompetent locals who, presumably, couldn’t be trusted to mount their own intellectual and philosophical defense of Redevelopment (think: “we neeeed the muh-nie!”)

Of course there is space at the end of the missive to insert one’s community’s dubious Redevelopment accomplishments. And Fullerton did.

Mr. Brown’s claim certainly has the ring of truth to it. It reminds me of a gang of dope addicts defending their habit.

As to the letter itself, observe the following:

The claims that Redevelopment is a job creator and some sort of economic engine is, of course, utter nonsense. It is indeed a massive boon to subsidized corporations and Redevelopment master planners, consultants and bond salesmen. Redevelopment is simply a zero-sum revenue diversion scheme whose manifest failures are immediately forgotten. The funniest part of the letter may be the way one bent branch of government uses the screw-ups of another (SB 375 and AB 32) to justify itself.

Then there is the hilarious claim that Redevelopment is really poverty-stricken, once the bond holders are paid off!

You would think a letter honestly outlining the effects of Redevelopment in Fullerton would have described just a few of the disastrous quagmires that Redevelopment and it organizers have gotten us into: boondoggles amply illustrated in these pages. But no. No Harbor/Commonwealth; no SRO; no Poisoned Park; no endless succession of useless downtown master plans; no attempt to relocate a McDonald’s 200 feet. Wait. Come to think of it they did: cited as an accomplishment is the idiotic Richman housing project!

Affordable housing. Where poor people are cleared out and replaced by less poor people. And this was never one of the rationales for Redevelopment. The housing set-aside was created to protect the poor from dislocation due to the great Urban Renewal mega projects of the 1950s and 60s.

Well, there you have it. An intellectually and morally bereft letter signed by a clown who cannot grasp anything more complicated than a fried chicken.

Are you surprised?

January 25, 2011Fullerton City Council

Bruce Whitiker?

by Jan Florys Dog11 Comments

Looks like the City recently purchased some fancy letterhead. Too bad they spelled Bruce Whitaker’s name wrong. Jerry Brown probably won’t know the difference, but we do.

D’oh!

More on Crazy Doc Heehaw’s letter to the Gov later…

Read the letter

January 25, 2011January 25, 2011Redevelopment

Pillage and Burn. Emergency Redevelopment Meeting Today!

by Greg Sebourn11 Comments

An urgent meeting is scheduled for this Tuesday afternoon at City Hall. While most meetings are scheduled for 6PM or later, this one is set for 4PM, forcing many to leave work early in order to speak at the meeting.

The urgency of the council/Redevelopment Agency meeting comes after Governor Brown announced his intentions of squashing Redevelopment Agencies as component of saving money and redistributing funds to their normally allocated destinations.

This afternoon’s Agenda has only one item:

CONSIDER APPROVING A COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF FULLERTON AND THE FULLERTON REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOR (PARTIAL) FUNDING OF CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS, GRAFFITI REMOVAL SERVICES, AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

In a nut shell, City Hall sees their glass house shattering and is looking to pull out as much money as possible from the Redevelopment Agency in order to install street lights in the Lemon/Truslow area, stabilize the slopes along Harbor Boulevard just below the YMCA, work on Hillcrest Park, and build a parking garage at the Fullerton Transportation Center.

In all, the City/Redevelopment Agency is looking to move $14,100,000 from the Redevelopment agency coffers to the City of Fullerton coffers to help cover some of the upfront costs associated with these projects.

If any of those mentioned sound familiar it’s because just last Tuesday the City Council decided to ask Congress for some money to address them.

This sounds like the scheme of someone who desperately pulls out every bit of equity from their house ($14.1M from RDA’s tax increment), maxes out all of their credit cards ($29M in tax bonds) for that new sports car (town homes and condos and garages) knowing they are about to get slapped by a court-ordered judgment (governor’s proposed budget) that will surely leave them penniless.

Once again, the lack of leadership has manifested itself by the procrastination of City Hall to tackle our crumbling infrastructure. Water-mains continue to erupt forth from our streets like Old Faithful while the ever-expanding potholes begin to resemble the Grand Canyon. At this rate, residents will be able to sell tickets to the spectacle as our city sinks into the abyss of municipal doom.

January 24, 2011Downtown Fullerton

Roach Coach Invasion

by Greg Sebourn10 Comments

The Orange County Register is reporting that the Food Truck Jamboree is coming to the Hyatt Regency Irvine January 27th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Imagine if Downtown Fullerton had something like this but on a weekend. Maybe add some music and activities for the kids.

Unfortunately, many communities do not support food trucks because they compete against brick and mortar restaurants and generally have lower operating overhead. Local government doesn’t like food trucks for a few reasons. Their tax structure is such that they pay their sales tax within the city/county which they’re based and not where the tax was collected. Some cities have began regulating food trucks in an effort to capture tax revenue and level the playing field for local businesses. The fact that the trucks can drive into a city, sell food for an hour or two, then drive out of the city has caused code enforcement officers to take notice and issue citations for not having a city business permit.

Sadly, redevelopment agencies give cheap taxpayer funded loans to new businesses to come into town and compete against long existing and well established businesses, many of which are already struggling under the weight of employee benefits, higher taxes, and a depressed economy.

So, as one arm of a community attempts to level the field, another arm, the redevelopment agencies, cuts deep ruts and pits for the losers while building up a taxpayer funded framework for their chosen winners.

I support food truck operators in their endeavor of the American Dream and prosperity. I don’t see the trucks as a threat to local business so long as everyone adheres to the often cumbersome regulations governing businesses and food safety.

Food trucks may not always be the healthy choice when it comes to food consumption but they will certainly help to spur some healthy competition.

January 22, 2011January 22, 2011About Us

Travis Kiger Gets Under Skin of Loathesome Liberals

by Joe Sipowicz33 Comments

First off, let’s get one thing clear. Some of my best friends are liberals. We go way back. They are confused and misguided, but I like them and they like me (I think).

Then there are some of the local Democrats who are no better than our OC repuglican crew – except that they inhabit a Red County and don’t get to tap into the scratch. You know who I mean: The sad sacks at Liberal OC, for for whom no idiot Democrat is too low or too stupid to dream up outlandish apologies.

idiot-with-saw-774078 — Geez. He uses power tools. He's already smarter than the average Planning Commissioner.

It seems that the chief of this scabrous tribe has got it into his noggin to criticize my friend Travis Kiger for an incomplete and unsatisfactory application to the Fullerton Planning Commission. Dan Chmielewski thinks this is some sort of breech of transparency and takes Travis to task as some sort of hypocrite. Of course, the idea of anyone who prostitutes himself for Boss Agran’s crooked Irvine machine talking about transparency is downright laughable.

Danc1 — It was a slow month for liberal news.

Alas, Travis didn’t list an employer or a single reference. Well so what? The appointment is a recommendation from a City Councilman (Bruce Whtaker) who is personally responsible for the appointment. And that’s what we promote here: accountability. Dan C and his cohorts should try it some time.

Here’s the truth: upon assuming office Travis will have to submit a Form 700 and then Curious Dan and Jerbal Cunningham can have a look at his financial interests. And that’s transparency.

January 21, 2011January 21, 2011Big Brother

The Red Light Skeletons of Harbor Boulevard

by Travis35 Comments

Several years ago this blog documented the shameful saga of Fullerton’s red light cameras, which were shut down after a judge declared that the city had been operating them illegally. That was an embarrassing moment for the mystified members of city council; even more so for the city attorney who lost in court and then stuck us with the bill.

The cameras were removed, but the poles and strobes still hang over Harbor Blvd today.

Should the city take them down?

Nope. Please leave them up forever as permanent monuments to magnificent and expensive failure, driven by a desperate quest for new revenue. Ah, wonderful new revenue streams… usually that means some gimmick conjured up to extract more money from the beleaguered public, promoted by tireless staff (and in this case, an eager red light camera salesman) and then executed by council with little regard for external consequences, all to avoid dealing with the real problem: excessive spending.

Any way, I see no sense in tearing down those poles. None at all.

January 20, 2011May 6, 2011Don Bankhead

Mayor Pro Tem Makes Sexually Suggestive Remark At Council Meeting

by Greg Sebourn23 Comments

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting Fullerton Mayor Pro Tem Don Bankhead said “Mayor, if you need any help, I would be more than happy to help you!” At that moment Mayor Dick Jones had his arm around a Miss Fullerton contestant while the Mayor Pro Tem seemed to study the young ladies. You can watch the exchange here. Forward the video player to 0:20:00.

The unsavory comment, captured on the City’s cable TV feed, reflects a good example of poor leadership and disgraceful public service. Mayor Pro Tem Bankhead was first elected to the Fullerton City Council in 1988. If he can complete this term without a sexual harassment law suit and another recall election, he will have served for 26 years.

January 20, 2011May 23, 2011Behind Closed Doors

On the Water Gravy Train. Prima Ballerina Edition.

by admin7 Comments

Last week the Register’s Watchdog Teri Sforza did a piece on members of the opaque Metropolitan Water District Board who had racked up huge travel expenses soldiering onward for you and me in the great water wars.

Who’s well up on the list? Fullerton’s representative, Jim Blake, for one. Another is Fullerton resident wannabe Linda Ackerwoman who lives in Irvine but tried to carpetbag her way to fame and forune as our Assembly representative. This egregious pair racked up bills of $18,302 and $13,356 respectively, in 2009-2010. The biggest line item was lodging in for both.

It seems that Mrs. Ackerwoman got up on her offended hinders to defend the indefensible – with the usual blather about how hard she works for us, and the rigors of travel to engage herself in all these hyper-complicated issues. Of course the real truth is that if this job were so damn complicated she couldn’t do it in the first place. More truth: these trustees are hand-held and led along by their staff upon whom they are completely reliant. Which is no doubt why Madame Ackerwoman voted to jack up by 20% the rates requested by the aquacrats in the spring of 2009. See, the relationship is pretty symbiotic.

The fun Ackerwoman quote from the Sforza piece? Here it is: “the whole world of water is ballet.”

Wow! Thanks for that, Linda. Now go slip into your swimsuit!

And lest we forget Jim Blake, who has been on the Board since before water was even created, isn’t it time to switch to a more reliable, less expensive model?