Posted onBoohooism

The End May Be Near for Rusty Kennedy’s Human Relations Commisssion

by 16 Comments on The End May Be Near for Rusty Kennedy’s Human Relations Commisssion

An evanescent smile?

Talk about a hold over from a different era. No, not Rusty Kennedy (above), but the OC Human Relations Commission that has given him employment for Lo these many years.

But the final curtain may be about to ring down upon a typical 1970s “feel good” venture –  a government operation that has no specific metrics for performance and no objective criteria for success. In other words, a typical lefty government program.

At their preliminary budget hearing on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors broke 2-1-1 on whether to keep this dinosaur around any more. Nguyen and Campbell who seem to want to cater to the unquestioning liberal vote want to keep this dinosaur; Campbell, whose adherents describe as conservative, was actually moved to tears by the very though of it. John Moorlach voted no. Pat Bates abstained for reasons that only Bates could possible explain.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Which means that when he votes on June 29, Shawn Nelson’s first budget decision may well involve pulling the plug on the comatose patient. Well, we say do it. Do Not Resuscitate!

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Posted onBoohooism

Pacific Strategies – Normally Loquacious Hugh Hewitt Needs, Gets Help Organizing Thoughts

by 12 Comments on Pacific Strategies – Normally Loquacious Hugh Hewitt Needs, Gets Help Organizing Thoughts

I was just too doggone busy to be bothered with it.

UPDATE: Gustavo Arellano has weighed in over at the OC Weekly.

Here’s a compilation of  invoiced time Matthew J. Cunningham spent ghost writing for the supposed conservative Hugh Hewitt,who is a proud member of Rob Reiner’s Children and Families Commission.

Hewitt is Cunningham’s blog mentor who encouraged him to start what is today called “Red County”.

As noted above Hewitt is also a commissioner on the CFCOC, and thus Cunningham’s boss.

It’s odd that the presumably literate Hewitt can’t write his own letters and “op-ed” pieces if he believes so strongly in the Commission. He needs his buddy Cunningham to do it at a cool $200 an hour; and he’ll do it too, dammit, no matter how many hours it takes.

Hugh believes in the Commission almost as much as I do! I know because I wrote it.

Of course it’s also odd that Hewitt is on this ridiculous commission in the first place, unless one recognizes it as a platform to dispense patronage to old pals.

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Posted onBoohooism

Important 4th District Election Report

by 24 Comments on Important 4th District Election Report

4 may not be your lucky number

In a stunning reversal of fortune, 4th District Supervisorial candidate Lorri Galloway has leaped back in front of now 4th place holder Art Brown by two dozen votes.

“We told you this would happen,” exulted campaign front man Dan Chmielewski. “Third place is great. 4th place would be a disaster. This really proves that Galloway lives in the district and that her heart lies here. I can’t tell you how proud we are of Lorri. This is all about relevance. I gave Lorri two hundred dollars and I am very relevant.

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Posted onDead heads

Matthew Cunningham, Big Government Leech, Lauds “Rising Star” of GOP

by 8 Comments on Matthew Cunningham, Big Government Leech, Lauds “Rising Star” of GOP

I am not an annelid.

I couldn’t help but notice that Red County’s resident hypocrite, Matthew J. Cunningham, who makes his living off of Rob Reiner’s massive income redistribution scheme called Prop 10 did a post today on Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio who delivered the big speech at last night’s GOP Flag Day party.

Sweet Lord. Did Rubio praise Republicans who make their living sucking at the teat of the Welfare State? Maybe he did. I wasn’t there.

Here’s a Cunningham tribute:

“I think Marco Rubio is a true heir to Reagan conservatism: a rock-ribbed dedication to a smaller, restrained federal government,”

Well that’s great for Rubio, but where does Mr. C. from Suite C. fit into this vision of a smaller, restained government?

It’s amazing that this creep who makes his living from a huge, liberal tax and income redistribution project that defines “whole village child rearing” would have the gall to even go to the diner, let alone opine about it.  I heard his candidate Harry Sidhu was there, too, so maybe they let anyone in.

What a complete and utter disgrace.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Why Public Works Projects Cost So Much

by 9 Comments on Why Public Works Projects Cost So Much

If you build it they will come.

Well, paying legally required “prevailing wage” to union workers, for one thing. This adds from 33-50% to the straight labor costs.

But there’s a more insidious cost to reckon with. And that’s the often overlooked administration costs tacked on to construction projects by the City Engineering Department. By gouging these projects with inflated bureaucratic costs, the Engineering Department can pad its own budget without leaning on the General Fund. The monies for capital projects comes from CDBG funds, Redevelopment tax increment, Gas Tax revenue – a whole crazy Byzantine funding network that fortuitously disconnects the payer from the beneficiary.

Yesterday our blogger Christian noted that a contract to upgrade traffic signals at three intersections was let out to a contractor for about $102,000; but that the City’s Engineering Department tacked on a whopping $39,000 for its own administration and inspections. That’s about a 38% increase, and is anomalously high – even for a typical project in Fullerton. Smaller projects get disproportionately nailed. But the point is that actual infrastructure improvements – the very stuff that everybody says they want to promote – is getting, and has gotten robbed by featherbedding in the Engineering Departments.

Of course this has been going for years and years and years. It’s a standard practice. Probably everywhere. So why haven’t the politicians ever cottoned on to this sleight of hand? Maybe they have. But its just so much easier to go along with the “experts” and not ask any questions; or if you do, don’t demand any cogent answers.

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Posted onOrange County Government

$1.4 MILLION – THE COST OF CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY’S CRONYISM

by 25 Comments on $1.4 MILLION – THE COST OF CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY’S CRONYISM

Dear Friends, we have just received this essay from one of our long-time readers. Enjoy.

If the election for Clerk-Recorder had anything to teach us, it is that the best candidate doesn’t always win the election. And we wonder why we have the ineffective government we have. I guess all I can say is that we deserve the government we vote for.

As the County budget approval meeting approach we found even more government waste by election victor Tom Daly.  If you look at the previous three years you’ll become aware of yet another way in which this inept “Manager of the Year” continues to waste the taxpayer’s money. In the past three years, Tom Daly has doled out more that $1.4 million for “temporary help” and “extra-help.” This is easily verifiable by looking at the County’s Proposed Budget Book for 2009-2010.

We have previously reported that Tom Daly likes to give non-competitive “extra-help” jobs to his friends and the relatives of campaign donors. But in a time in which the County is laying off employees and forcing furloughs on other agencies, Tom Daly is getting away with budgetary murder. His budget is at the same levels they were when recording and revenues were at an all time high. Property recordings have declined to almost half of the all time mark in 2005, yet Daly seems to believe he is still entitled to hire his friends and relatives of campaign donors at a whopping cost of $1.4 million. This essentially means the County General Fund is being deprived $1.4 million over the past 3 years.

How come? From what we have heard, most of his cronies are in non-essential jobs so if these useless bodies were to go home tomorrow, the department and the County would be just fine with more money in the General Fund. Tom loves to claim that he has reduced his budget by 26% but really that isn’t true – all he does is cook-up the numbers or overspends and draws from his piggy-bank account known as 12D.  He is not supposed to use this fund for plugging his over-spending, but he does, and the County does nothing. He loves to claim that he has only 102 staff but if you count all the extra-help and temp help he is closer to 110 employees. Maybe someone needs to go to the state agency responsible for investigating this fleecing of the county.

Daly’s needs to give back more to the county General Fund; and he can start by letting go of his friends and crony’s relatives like Bruce Mathias, Jennifer Lowe, Steven Oftelie, Dulce Cuevas and a more; and not the extra-help that are not his buddies.

We will be watching who he lets go and hope that the Board of Supervisors deny his request for these extra-help and temporary help expenses. Hopefully with Shawn Nelson now elected to the Board, Tom Daly will be under more scrutiny. Let’s hope for the right thing to happen soon.

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Posted onFullerton City Council

On the Agenda – June 15th, 2010

by 7 Comments on On the Agenda – June 15th, 2010

With the Primary Election over and candidates licking their wounds we jump into Tuesday’s Council Meeting to see what STAFF has in store for our elected representatives. View the full agenda

In closed session there appears to be some labor negotiations going on. First is a discussion regarding Chris Meyer’s position which I hear will be vacated soon. Second, Fullerton Municipal Employees Federation (FMEF) is meeting with Council to determine what they will meet and discuss in the future regarding lay-offs. At least that is what the agenda says. Actually, it says, “Discuss meet-and-confer topics related to layoffs”. Amazing! A meeting to talk about a future meeting! That’s government bureaucracy and waste for you. Why can’t these be public? I don’t think they are talking about a specific person or maybe they are. Either way, I would like to see just how spineless the council can be when it comes to the public employee unions.

There is a plethora of presentations planned which will probably draw the usual hapless attempts at wit from our mayor and perhaps Texas colloquialism which won’t make sense to anyone but the person saying it.

(more…)

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