Plenty of bad ideas were tossed about at the candidate at the forum on Monday night, but this one from council hopeful Doug Chaffee takes the cake:
So according to Chaffee, doubling the hotel tax in the middle of a recession will bring more hotels and visitors into the area. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of logic behind his idea, but perhaps that’s why he calls it “magical.”
Chaffee pushes the idea further by suggesting that Fullerton should “generate” (aka subsidize) a new hotel to compete with Disneyland, the most famous theme park in the entire world.
Gee, another one?
Of course we’re later reassured by Chaffee that the tax would only be tacked on to “other people” who make the mistake of taking brief refuge in our city. That’s the old divide-and-conquer tax scheme that’s plagued California businesses for a long time: levy heavy taxes against each industry, one at a time. Who’s next?
Hey Doug, a tax is a tax, and there has never been a worse time to raise taxes. And quit trying to convince us that we should be more like Anaheim.
This press release just came over from the Greg Sebourn campaign:
With a 2/3 margin, the Orange County Republican Party’s Central Committee voted to give Greg Sebourn the Party’s endorsement. The vote came after a 5-0 recommendation from the Endorsement Committee just two weeks ago.
“The Orange County Republican Party stood up and spoke. Clearly they want to further advance the Party’s platform which speaks of limited government, lower taxes, and the power of the entrepreneur,” says endorsed council candidate Greg Sebourn. “The Party has recognized that being a Republican In Name Only, or RINO, does nothing to advance the conservative movement. RINOs are what have turned off so many good conservatives from the Republican Party.”
The endorsement comes just days after Sebourn received endorsements from the California Republican Assembly (Fullerton), the North Orange County Conservative Coalition, and the Fullerton Tea Party. Greg Sebourn is also endorsed by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, Assemblyman Chris Norby, and Supervisor Shawn Nelson.
Greg Sebourn has distinguished himself from the other 4-year candidates with his promises to not take the City’s pension and medical benefits, to close down the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency, and reform the City’s broken and unfunded pension system.
If you would like to meet Greg Sebourn, please attend the grand opening of his new campaign headquarters, Tuesday, September 28, 5:30PM, at 511 S. Harbor Blvd. , Fullerton 92832 . The headquarters is being shared by Assemblyman Chris Norby, Bruce Whitaker (candidate for the 2-year seat), and Chris Thompson (candidate for the Fullerton School Board) all of whom will be on hand to speak with.
More information about Greg can be found on the campaign website at www.gregsebourn.com.
The charges leveled by the OC DA Tony Rackauckas against Roland Chi were as long as your arm, and stemmed from the tsunami of flagrant and persistent health code violations at a Garden Grove market. The case appears to have finally culminated in a plea agreement reached last April.
The dining experience was not world class...
An alert Friend calling him/herself Vic Tayback noticed that our hapless DA, just a few short months later, has lent his name to the Chi Fullerton Council campaign as an endorser! Wow, that’s setting the bar pretty low, even for Rackauckas, and of course not only makes you wonder what T-Rack’s endorsement is worth, but also to contemplate the composition of the man’s moral fiber – if any exists.
Jesus, it's not like he actually killed anybody...
Rack has been criticized in the past for his inability or unwillingness to pursue political corruption in OC – like Harry Siduh’s blatant perjury. Now it appears he is willing to endorse just about any kind of misfeasance.
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.
