FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
We just received an e-mail from the Friendly proprietor of a Fullerton blog that promotes cookery in Our Town. It’s called “The Altruist’s Cookbook.” Here’s the link.
This individual goes by the blog moniker “Kattus Petasatus” which we think is a Latin translation of “please don’t eat the cat.”
Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu surfaced last year in this image used in his scampaign for 4th District Supervisor (a district in which he didn’t and doesn’t live).
He seems to be in a kiddie library listening to an unseen story teller. Unfortunately our guess is that the rest of the class learned a lot more about communication than their older classmate Sidhu, whose garbled syntax and undecipherable gobbledygook dropped the jaw of many a campaign event attendee.
Those children are probably still wondering about that big, dumb kid who showed up for story hour.
Tracy Woods at The Voice of OC has written a post about the slick salesmen of the Cal High Speed Rail Authority, and a supposedly meaningful poll that shows 77% of Californians supporting their massive boondoggle. Apparently Anaheim’s Mayor-for-Hire and HSR Authority Chairman Curt Pringle is going to use the poll on a trip to Washington today to grease up some of the DC skids.
Most telling is the fact that the CHSRA didn’t release the poll questions so we’ll never know how hard the respondents were pushed. My guess is very hard.
Meanwhile, the City of Orange has passed a resolution opposing the HSR morass.
Where, or where is Fullerton?
Have you ever wondered how we got ourselves into this financial crisis? In California and in Fullerton we have an out of control public employee pension crisis – a crisis where thousands of retired public employee end up receiving mammoth retirement payouts, in some cases tens of thousands more than they ever made while they were actually working.
Well, one candidate for Fullerton City Council is a posterboy for this system run amok, and his name is Patrick McKinley. Before the next time you cast your ballot, check to see that the person your are voting for is not a retired government worker that would be making any decisions affecting out of control public employee retirement pensions.
Dear Friends, the video clip below is another in the series in the “must watch” category. Please watch and listen to Leslie Dutton of Full Disclosure Network interview Orange County Supervisor, Tax Fighter and Friend John Moorlach on the topic: Will Unions Destroy California?
For those interested in obscure Fullerton history, Louis Valasquez lived in the Wishing Well apartments at 466 West Valencia Dr. while serving as the Mayor of Fullerton in 1979.
Those more curious about modern-day Redevelopment Agency boondoggles, may be interested to learn that this past week the Fullerton City Council voted to sell the Agency owned Wishing Well Apartments to an out of town “developer” for $100.
The Fullerton Redevelopment Agency purchased the ol’ Wishing Well for $1,993,433 and paid an additional $60,930 to kick out (relocate) all the tenants that resided in the 16 unit building. On top of that the Agency is going to give the out-of-towners an additional $184,347 to “rehab” the apartments, provided the developer rents the apartments to low income tenants. Here in Orange County “low income” is 50% of the median income – which for a family of 3 is $70,890. This means that people that make around $35,445 will be living in the Brand Spanking New Wishing Well. I’ll bet ya the previous tenants made less than $35,445 per year. So in reality the city kicked out the poor folks in order to replace them with richer poor folks.
Now that’s not very good is it?
And if the units were so dilapidated, why didn’t City Code Enforcement simply cite the landlord and require the units to be standard units?
I think I’ll do a follow-up post and focus on code enforcement failures under Don Bankhead’s and Dick Jones’s years of “leadership.”
I received this post from a Friend who wishes to remain anonymous for reasons that you may understand after you read this post.
Think historic neighborhoods. Immediately, one’s mind goes to such places such as Bungalow Heaven in Pasadena, Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia and others where houses, landscape, and layout reflect a distinct architectural coherence.
What we don’t think of is the hodgepodge of homes built over a span of more than fifty years within the boundaries of Skyline, Frances, Luanne, Canon and Lemon here in Fullerton. True, the neighborhood has a sort of charm. But this four block area (oddly denuded of trees) doesn’t fit the definition as historic.
Yet, for over twenty years, this neighborhood has been besieged by a small but persistent group to designate itself as such. The original movement came about when a neighbor (who has since moved away) decided the mix of 60’s ranch homes, 30’s Spanish Mediterranean and 80’s boxes needed to be protected.
Why? Because the empty lot behind her house, which she had enjoyed as her own personal open space, was going to have a house built upon it. This led to a movement asking for historical designation, with one very vociferous neighbor putting out a letter decrying such crimes as pink flamingos in yards. It ended when a flock of roving pink flamingos went from yard to yard, to rebuke this snobbishness. It was clear then, as it is now, that the historic designation is more to control everything from the color of homes, the installation of skylights, solar panels, to pink flamingos in yards.
In more recent years, the issue was raised again when a member of the Fullerton Heritage group moved into the neighborhood. This woman could often be seen taking photographs of her neighbor’s homes. She personally crossed the boundaries of neighborliness by posting a photo of one on their website as an example of “muddled and conflicted” architecture. Battle axes were raised when during a neighborhood meeting, an argument ensued. This busybody sat in the back, mute –rendering herself all but invisible. At no point did she offer any explanation why this issue meant so much to her that she was willing to pit neighbor against neighbor.
The reasons for not wanting this ridiculous designation are simple.
1. There’s no consistent architectural coherence in the boundaries of Lemon, Skyline, Frances, Luanne and Canon. While there are individual examples of historically significant architectural styles, as a neighborhood – it lacks consistency and coherence.
2. It would give Fullerton Heritage – and the City Planning Department far too much power over our neighborhood. Note, they already have ultimate veto power over designs submitted to the city for everything from new development to remodeling in other neighborhoods designated as a historical zone. In one neighborhood, they vetoed the homeowner’s request to install a skylight. Such oversight is petty, and subject to the changing whims of the board.
3. This will lead to more “fake old” McSpanish architecture. Another uninformed member of the Fullerton Heritage group noted at a meeting at Hillcrest Park that she thought the predominant style in the neighborhood should be “Spanish Mediterranean,” whatever that means.
4. The $1000 fee for the designation doesn’t even begin to cover the costs of actual staff time. In addition, this doesn’t cover the costs of ordered revisions by the owner’s architects or engineers. Fees like this are never gotten rid of, rather, the fee could be raised and the neighborhood would have no control over the amount they have to pay.
5. The city of Fullerton has a permit process already in place. This is an added layer of bureaucracy with not only more additional staff time needed, but oversight from an outside organization (Fullerton Heritage).
6. A small cadre of neighbors has already been vociferous to the point of rudeness about things they don’t like: the color of a neighbor’s home, plantings, flamingos, and more. Worse, their gossip has hit people in ways that have become personal. While we realize they are voicing their opinion, we’d hate to give them permission to authorize or disapprove on any official level.
At some point one must work with and trust the neighbors. Most of the neighbors who support this notion have lived in the area for 40 years without the intervention of the city. Why they think they should leave future generations with a law to be enforced long after they have enjoyed their own latitude –is for reasons of ego. While the notion of a historic neighborhood seems appealing, in reality it is cumbersome, vague and will leave future homeowner’s with no choice but to deal with more government and bureaucracy. It was clear twenty years ago as it is now: these people need to get a life.
All we can do is work with one another, and be neighborly but not meddlesome.
Join Martha Montelonga live and her guest Fullerton Tax Fighter Jack Dean of Pension Tsunami, tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 10:00A.M. to noon on Outlook with Martha, possibly the name for her new show, on CRN Digital Talk Radio on the story about the $800,000.00 annual salary for the City Manager of the City of Bell, CA. Could this be the story that breaks the public employee compensation and pension abuse of the public trust and budgets? Will it be the match that lights a fire under the taxpayers, to cause a productive and revolutionary revolt?
If Bell City Manager retires now, he stands to reap over $30 million dollars in retirement funds. He’s not the only one with outrageous pensions. He’s just the worst case by far, but we’ll look at the more common, and yet still, very unjust overcompensation awarded to various officials and ex-officials, all on the dime of the taxpayer, who is on the hook to pay, no matter what.