Friends For Fullerton's Future – Page 235 – FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011About Us

Subpoena Squashed

The Friends won a minor victory in the courtroom today as our motion to (s)quash a subpoena was granted by an Orange County Superior Court judge. The subpoena would have compelled us to reveal identifying information of a blog commenter to an Anaheim city employee, who is suing an anonymous John Doe for defamation.

burger-squashed — Quash. Such a cool word.

A series of arguments filed just before the hearing centered on the inherent nature of Friends for Fullerton’s Future itself. Is it a business, an unincorporated association, a global shadow conspiracy, or just an Internet domain? The judge didn’t want to go there. And really, who can blame him?

So we won on a technicality and the plaintiff vowed to serve the subpoena again. Outside the courtroom we implored her to focus on the nasty stuff left on other websites and drop the case against FFFF’s comparatively mild missive, leaving it to whither away into Internet nothingness where is just may well belong.

Will she listen? Doubtful. She seems as hardheaded as we are.

January 9, 2011About Us

Hey! Wait A Minute!

by Joe Sipowicz48 Comments

Yesterday, we received this anonymous e-mail from somebody who obviously reads our humble blog regularly:

I’m sure you heard about the vicious political attack against Congresswoman Giffords in Arizona. It was clearly driven by all of the anger and hate spewed from places like this very blog. This is the kind of event that might happen in Fullerton if you keep up your mean rhetoric and hateful talk. If it does, I hope you go to jail for a very long time.

Yes, this “kind of event” might happen in Fullerton. Or Anaheim, or Azusa, or Cucamonga. Or Timbuktu.

Confused thinking is not uncommon among some of our critics, but this is just ridiculous. Blaming “people like us” for a mass murder perpetrated by a wing-nut with an agenda is absurd. But it is also insidious because this type of argument is clearly used to provide cover for incompetent, irresponsible and unethical local politicians.

Mean rhetoric and hateful talk. Hmm. Mean? Dunno. How about honest? Hateful? Well, anonymous, you got us there. We do hate unaccountable government; and maybe even politicians who say one thing and do another, who waste public funds on junkets and who turn over our city to out of town developers.

And to deal with them we have elections.

January 8, 2011January 8, 2011Chris Norby

The Sudden Relevance of Chris Norby?

by The Desert Rat23 Comments

Norby-gets-roasted-195x110 — Mr. Speaker! Let's kill Redevelopment once and for all!

Way out here at the end of Screech Owl Road the silence is almost absolute – only occasionally ruptured by the stray thump of Marine helicopters in the distance. It gives a man time to think in peace and quiet, and I’ve been thinking about Chris Norby ever since his post the other day about the possibility of a stake in the heart of Redevelopment.

I started watching Norby’s political career in Fullerton back in the early 80s. During his days on the City Council he was effectively marginalized by the various majorities who saw Norby as an annoyance and an irritant. His 18 years saw almost no accomplishment at all; ditto his seven years as a County Supervisor, years in which his colleagues saddled you Orange Countians with a massive unfunded pension liability.

The gods were certainly kind to Norby when they presented him with an unforseen chance to extend his professional political career in the form of an open mike and an open Mike’s mouth. Still, what the gods giveth with one hand… 2010 saw a big Democratic majority and an opportunity to pass a budget with a mere 50%+1 of the Legislature. Total irrelevance for an OC Republican, right?

Well, maybe not. For those sly gods also finally presented Norby with an opportunity to be a Capitol player via a monstrous budget deficit and a Democratic governor who actually seems sincere in willing to dismantle Redevelopment – as well as to divert special taxes away from make-work, feel-good programs like the First Five scam.

Governor Brown will have to fight the entrenched Redevelopment lobby that has tentacles wrapped around members of both parties, and a budget proposal that goes after it may well need to be supported by Republicans, too. And when it comes to pulling the plug on Redevelopment nobody has a better record than Norby. A Brown-Norby alliance? Relevance at last? Who knows?

Better late than never.

January 7, 2011January 7, 2011About Us

The Subpoena: Will It Quash?

by Travis22 Comments

Let’s hope so. FFFF filed an emergency motion to quash a subpoena this morning in the case of Cheryl Sanders vs. John Doe, a defamation suit filed by an Anaheim city employee against an anonymous commenter in which the Friends were compelled by court order to release private records. Our little hearing is scheduled for Monday at 1:30 pm at the Central Justice Center.

View the motion to quash subpoena

Journalists have a right to protect sources who allege corruption within government offices, and we believe that right extends to bloggers, too. Lucky for FFFF, the courts in California seem to agree. Given that, we’d rather punch our own groins than divulge the identity of a potential whistleblower who partakes in the raging digital discussion that happens here.

Here’s the bottom line: Friends for Fullerton’s Future won’t surrender any of our anonymous commenters’ private data to anybody (especially a public employee) without a fight.

January 7, 2011Fullerton School Board

Chris Thompson and Martha Montelongo on the Radio

by Travis7 Comments

Beginning tomorrow, Fullerton School Board member Chris Thompson will be co-hosting a radio show with Martha Montelongo every Saturday night on KRLA 870AM.

You can listen in on AM 870 or at krla870.com on Saturday night from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am. Montelongo and Thompson will be discussing all things political, including education, unions, taxes, limited government and freedom.

Chris Thompson is a newly elected trustee for the Fullerton School Board, a longtime advocate for education reform as well as a member in good standing of both Friends for Fullerton’s Future and the Fullerton Association of Concerned Taxpayers.

Martha Montelongo is a long-time broadcast and internet radio host, writer, blogger and stay-at-home mom. She describes herself as a former Democrat who has seen the light, and now supports limited government and free enterprise.

The show should be a real kick in the pants, so don’t forget to tune in for the premiere.

January 6, 2011January 6, 2011Chris Norby

Redevelopment on the Chopping Block?

by Chris Norby11 Comments

Dear Friends, I just returned for my first full legislative term here in Sacramento, having gained valuable experience serving for the past 10 months since the special election. One announced reform I can embrace is the new governor’s goal of abolishing redevelopment agencies and restoring their funds to counties and schools. As a longtime critic of these agencies, I’ve been called by numerous media outlets and colleagues on issues related to this little understood level of government.

Redevelopment agencies capture 12% of all property taxes statewide-that’s $6 billion annually diverted from school districts, counties and municipal police and fire protection. The funds are largely spent subsidizing private development projects whose promoters acquire land under threat of eminent domain, while 20% pays for low income housing projects.

The government should not be in the business of subsidizing private developers, nor of building housing projects. That’s the job of the private sector. This money needs to be restored to pay for infrastructure and services. Public money should build classrooms, not Costcos.

The agencies cannot be closed, however, until their nearly $100 billion indebtedness is paid off, but a phase-out over time could start, and long-evaded sunset clauses enforced.

While the legislature requires me to be in Sacramento on a weekly basis through June, I’ll keep regular district office hours every Friday. Visit or call 714-672-4734. I’m there for you.

January 5, 2011January 5, 2011Bruce Whitaker

Can Coyote Hills Be Saved?

by admin33 Comments

As part of its project mitigation planning, the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Measure M program has sequestered a huge pile ‘o cash, something in the neighborhood of $200,000,000. The purpose of this dough is to procure sensitive habitat from private property owners who might have development plans.

Naturally, the West Coyote Hills property was on the initial list, until removed by its owners last year. Chevron likely thought their plans for development were in the bag in 2010.

It wasn’t, and now it’s 2011. And apparently the OCTA is re-opening consideration of applications for the first funding from the mitigation fund. Chevron has until Jan 13, to file an application to the OCTA if they want to participate in the program.

Chevron may believe they now have 3 secure votes to approve what the Council denied last June. And they may still prefer to face long years of entitlement, inevitable lawsuits, and two or three embarrassing economic cycles in order to make a big profit. Or perhaps upon further reflection, they might come to realize that selling part or all of their property for a big payday up front without mitigation cost and without dragged out development issues, is preferable.

The Fullerton City Council might want to consider this too, and help persuade Chevron to take this alternate path. Bruce Whitaker, for one, has an excellent opportunity to make this overture.

January 4, 2011January 4, 2011The Crime Beat

Bomb Threat

by Travis15 Comments

The Hunt Branch of the Fullerton Library was quietly evacuated yesterday afternoon as staff told patrons they “weren’t allowed to say” why the library was suddenly closing. Whispers of a bomb threat were heard on the way towards the exit.

Bomb Threat — The homeless clean up team.

Cops and a city crew were still on the scene today, apparently cleaning out a small homeless encampment on the library grounds. A librarian confirmed that there was in fact some sort of bomb threat that caused the library to close yesterday. For some reason the library’s computer system was offline, too.

Is any of this related to anything? Who knows.

January 3, 2011January 4, 2011Behind Closed Doors

Another Pringle Undertaking

by admin20 Comments

Cemetery1-300x225 — Der Pringle is dying to get in...

The OC Cemetery District sure seems to have a morbid fascination with failure.

Last year we reported on how the Orange County Cemetery District had employed Anaheim’s mayor-for-hire, Kurt Pringle as a consultant. Pringle was getting 6,000 bucks a month to find a new cemetery site, do PR, and act as a cemetery developer. Which was really pretty funny since Pringle is not a realtor, is not a landscape architect, and all the publicity the Cemetery District has gotten lately has all been bad.

PringlePower-300x225 — We have something really nice for you in mahogany.

Pringle’s been on the Cemetery District’s payroll for two years now, which seems like ample time to have accomplished a lot. Well, something. Anything.

But in these opaque, special districts nothing succeeds like failure, apparently, for tomorrow the Cemetery District Board of Trustees is being asked by their staff to extend Der Pringle’s contract even though so far he has accomplished virtually nothing for them. Part of the problem is that the Cemetery Board is independent of any real oversight; and the average age of the Board is something like 969 years old, so there seems to be zero sales resistance.

Renew!!?? Sweet Jebus! The Board ought to be suing Pringle and his Associates for breach of contract!

January 3, 2011January 3, 2011About Us

Subpoena from an Anaheim Employee

by Travis59 Comments

The OC Sheriff’s department staked out an FFFF outpost last week to deliver a subpoena demanding that fullertonsfuture.org produce information identifying one of our anonymous commenters.

Cheryl Sanders, currently a “Real Property Specialist” for the City of Anaheim, is suing (see complaint) one or more John Does who allegedly defamed her in anonymous comments on FFFF and a few other sites. The blog comments claim that the Anaheim planning department is taking bribes under the table, call for an investigation and state that Cheryl Sanders should be “brought to justice.”

anonymous — Faceless Internet meanies strike again

Of course, Sanders’ suit against the commenter claims that all of these statements are false and were made with the intent to emotionally harm her.

But back to the matter at hand: Cheryl’s initial demand for FFFF to identify the commenter was denied. We don’t disclose our logs to anyone. So what should we do with the subpoena?

View the subpoena

The Friends have a soft spot for the anonymous horde of commenters that visit our humble blog and we’d hate to see any of them get pushed around by a litigious public employee. On the other hand, making false statements with the intent to harm is a legal no-no, and the alleged victim should have her day in court. But the actual comment that was left on FFFF was vague, uninspired, and hardly defamatory in my professional opinion (it was removed pending the outcome of the case, but that was pointless since you can now view it on the last page of the subpoena.) Truthfully, this blog is disinclined to acquiesce to the court’s request, but we’d like to consider the opinions of the armchair attorneys that frequent our blog before we proceed.

And it’s worth noting that in over two years and 350,000 words, none of our own bloggers have ever been sued for libel. Why not? Because you can’t sue if it’s true.