Here’s a clip that might be helpful to those who are still unaware of just how much public employee entitlements are costing us. Fullerton resident Jack Dean discusses bounteous union pensions and the careless drive towards financial ruin.
The much-maligned and much-praised Human Relations Commission is still alive, although life signs may be diminishing.
On Tuesday, as part of its annual budget process, the County Board of Supervisors voted to eliminate an unfilled position in the department, thereby reducing its budget by about $100,ooo.
Without anymore editorial comment I have to note that many of the organizations that sent in their kudos for the good offices of this Commission, consistently refuse to contribute a dime from their own budgets to support it.
Well of course they do. That’s what they know.
In the most recent edition of the squalid rag (page 1, 20% recycled paper) known as the Fullerton Observer, an unnamed editorial writer bemoans the fact that “City businesses fees” (sic) “may be outdated and too low.”
Well of course they are too low – for taxers like the Yellowing Observers, whether they are outdated or not.
Then there’s this gem: “While city (sic) employees and residents are being required to help out through layoffs, furloughs, increased fees, and reduced services, nothing has been asked of the business community.”
Huh? If anybody in Sharon Kennedy’s family had ever owned or run a business they would know that the business license is not a “fee,” it’s a thinly veiled tax, levied on businesses, and that it confers absolutely no service to the business owner. It’s just a revenue grab. Then of course the whole thing is pitched in the obligatory “look how small the increase per business is and look how many jobs it will keep!” routine.
If anybody is dumb enough to buy into I’d sure like to hear from them. And thanks Observer for a 2010 campaign issue! Let’s hear it. Whose for the new Observer tax increase?
Don’t feel so bad. The consultants, lobbyists, con men, and other assorted rip-off artists are pushing the multi-billion high speed rail in other places, too. Here’s an article from the Fresno Bee that tells all about how the local gentry are trying to grab their share of the HSR gravy that they think will be a big deal for the raisin capital of the state.
The common denominator, of course, is Anaheim’s termed-out Mayor-For-Hire, the irrepressible Curt Pringle who figures to make big bucks as a “consultant” for this boondoggle when his days as a conflicted politician are over. The Fresno crowd wined and dined hizzoner and he was clearly impressed with the show of unanimity – much more than he’s getting down south these days. He even promised them a 2012 start for the project.
Come December Pringle will be out of office, and will no longer be able to pull the strings at OCTA either, although it sure looks like he’s getting his ducks in a row, puppet-wise there and at Anaheim’s City Hall.
By Friend Helen Logan.
Our $300,000 tax dollars a year working hard for us?
I found this article in the PR Newswire, United Business Media dated 17th June 2010.
“This was an invaluable opportunity for our mediators to experience the common physical and emotional challenges that are a part of the aging process,” said Mike Finkle, Human Relations Specialist for OC Human Relations. “For awhile, our mediators were able to, nearly literally, ‘take a walk in the shoes’ of seniors and others who live with such challenges every day.
To simulate experiencing the difficulties of living with arthritis, for example, program participants were asked to don heavy, clumsy gloves and then button their shirts or open medication bottles and handle small pills. Participants also put popcorn in their shoes and walked around to simulate the feeling of painful joints.”
The Orange County Human Relations Commission, a dinosaur agency foisted upon tax payers for thirty years, again shows how negligible its services are to our community.
Orange County Human Relations Specialist Mike Finkle, an employee of this commission, earns his tax dollar subsidized paycheck by walking around a room with popcorn in his shoes and attempting to button his shirt and open pill bottles while wearing, thick, clumsy gloves.
When will our county government leaders wise up to this sham agency and pull the plug on funding this silly tax dollar subsidized commission and its executive director who pulls down a six figure salary.
Our economic crisis that experts predict will be a double-dip recession, forces our county government to cut needed police and fire protection to Orange County’s residents. Yet, our county’s board of supervisors is afraid to stop funding this piece of fluff called the Orange County Human Relations Commission.
I believe most will agree with me when I say I would rather have more police or fire protection in Orange County than a person walking around with popcorn in his shoes who puts on thick, clumsy gloves to button his shirt.
For our county board of supervisors to have credibility with the voters, they must sensibly act and trim the real fat from government by cutting funding to the Orange County Human Relations Commission.
Aha! Our old acquaintance Doug Chaffee has announced he is running again for Fullerton City Council. He must feel that the number of vacancies this fall will improve his chances. His two prior forays into elective politics were expensive and disastrous.
Anyhoo, here’s the announcement:
NEWS RELEASE
FROM: CHAFFEE FOR COUNCIL
Contact: Paulette Marshall, (714) 529-4513; chaffeemar@earthlink.net
CHAFFEE WILL SEEK SEAT ON FULLERTON CITY COUNCIL
Fullerton, CA, June 22, 2010. Doug Chaffee will file papers with the Fullerton City Clerk indicating that he will seek a seat on the city council. The general election is scheduled for November 2, 2010. In announcing his candidacy, Chaffee said that he is extremely concerned about the city’s financial situation, which has resulted in diminished city services.
“My campaign will emphasize sustainable financing for the city and restoring a sense of inclusiveness, openness and civility among the people who work, live, and serve our city. There are many challenges facing Fullerton. I want to hear from the community – residents, homeowners and businesses. I’m a good listener and welcome everyone’s ideas. Working together, we can create common sense solutions to the economic and social challenges that face Fullerton.”
A business attorney who has practiced law in downtown Fullerton for more than 40 years, Chaffee is a graduate of Fullerton Union High School, University of Redlands (BA Economics), and Northwestern University School of Law. He lives in Fullerton with his wife, Paulette, and sons Marshall and Adam.
Chaffee is vice chair of the Fullerton Planning Commission and past president of Fullerton United Way and Sunrise Rotary Club. He serves on the board of directors, North Orange County YMCA and the Advisory Board of Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Service. He is a member of Friends of Jazz and the Sierra Club.
He can be reached at (714) 726-0521 or chaffeemar@earthlink.net.
END
We received this notice in an e-mail from a Chaffee volunteer who hopes FFFF will be fair to Mr. Chaffee.
Well, hell, we’re always fair.
Anyway, about Chaffee: he is one of those unrepentant liberals who almost always seems to believe government knows best. On the other hand his position on the City’s doling out entitlements on massive projects with gleeful abandon has been better than others.
In the past some of us meanies have singled out Chaffee as the recipient of our acerbic affections. This time? Who knows? We’ll have to see how good, or bad, the ultimate crop of candidates is.
Okay Friends, fight the gag reflex as you peruse this column written in something called The Washington Examiner under the by line of Hugh Hewitt, sanctimonious repuglican blabbermouth. I say “under the by line” because we recently disclosed how this allegedly literate yakmouth had stuff written for him by Children and Families Commission Scribe/Flack and $200 an hour Toothbrush Distributor, Matthew J. Cunningham, and it would now be risky to assume Hewitt writes anything for himself.
“Enough!” Hewitt loudly admonishes his ignorant readers at the end of his drivel. Ignorant? How so?
If they are reading anything attributed to this hypocrite they are almost certainly unaware that he serves on the biggest Tax and Redistributionist Commission in the history of California – the OC Children and Families Commission; and no doubt unaware that his words may very well be written by someone else – Cunningham, perhaps – his protege, and the fellow whose $200,000-a-year PR contract with the Commission Hewitt annually votes to approve.
Yuck.
Check out this video from Marty Burbank’s Fullerton City Council campaign and be sure to let us know what you think about it.
FFFF has documented how the Orange County version of Meathead Rob Reiner’s First Five Commission known as “The OC Children and Families Commission” has squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years on PR and lobbying contracts to political operatives. We have shared how the Riverside County chapter of the Tax and Redistribute Society was busted for numerous conflicts of interest and was finally corralled by the RC Board of Supervisors. Here’s a link generously provided by Friend “Max” to a news report in May about the Contra Costa County Grand Jury about more misbehavin’ by their First Five Commission.
The key recommendation is the employment, by competitive bid, of an independent external auditor (i.e. not hired by the staff and Chairman with a wink and a nod) to clean up the cronyism and self-interest.
I really have to wonder what would happen if all 58 county grand juries did their jobs vis-a-vis the First Five Commissions. Would a single county emerge unscathed from political corruption and “jobs for the boys” kickdowns of the sort we’ve seen right here in OC? Or Riverside? Or Contra Costa?
Doubtful. The corruption is probably endemic.