Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 28, 2010May 28, 2010Arts & Architecture

One Big Happy $23 Million Community Center

Last week, before all of the excitement about Coyote Hills and the one term history of Pam Keller, the Fullerton City Council approved the conceptual plan for a new community center. This eighth wonder of the world is to be built right across the street from city hall and the main library. The existing Boys and Girls Club and the Senior Center will be demolished to make room for it.

This $23 million mostly redevelopment funded project is supposed to be necessary because half of the city’s Parks and Rec programs are farmed out to other cities, and it would be so much nicer to have them under one new roof right downtown, near the new lingerie shop. The fifty plus year old B & G Club is considered to be beyond repair and the senior center, which isn’t really that old in the grand scheme of things is somehow inadequate. OK, so neither is an architectural masterpiece, but is it really necessary to tear them both down for this new combined community center?

The idea seems to have been to somehow “activate” the corner of Commonwealth and Highland, making it more a part of the library/city hall/police station/baseball field district. To that end, the architect has included one of those pretty, and pretty useless medians down the center of Commonwealth, and a little welcoming plaza on the north side. Placing the huge double gymnasium right up against Commonwealth doesn’t do much to activate the corner, however.

The kids, seniors and everyone in between can all interact as part of one big happy community, except that they still have their own buildings, just closer together than the current ones are, for more togetherness, I guess. There is a third building they do get to share, just to teach them all a lesson. You see, it’s a “multigenerational facility”, except that not everyone wants to be so together.

Several seniors have expressed concerns about having to be so close to boisterous young people while they are busy trying to relax with people of their own age group. As far as I know, no youngsters have yet complained about having to be close to old people, but who knows if anyone asked them during the long, long planning process.

Kids enter from the Commonwealth entrance while seniors use an entrance from the larger, southern parking lot adjacent to the senior center. This arrangement makes sense if no old people have to ride the bus to get there. You see, the bus stop is way out on Commonwealth, so seniors would have to walk through crowds of kids all the way down the central axis of the project, to get to the safety of the senior center, which is closest to the railroad tracks.

A seventy-five year old man at the hearing asked why the noisy gym and swimming pool weren’t placed nearest the railroad tracks instead of a facility used by the aged. The ever helpful and certainly senior Dr. Dick Jones suggested that seniors were hard of hearing anyway before voting to approve the plan. Not to be outdone, even more senior Don Bankhead addressed a concern about the new Commonwealth median restricting bicycle traffic by asserting that it is perfectly legal to ride on the sidewalk in Fullerton —presumably right through seniors exiting a bus.

May 28, 2010Orange County Government

Fullerton Taxpayer Group Endorses Bill Hunt for Sheriff

by Travis4 Comments

We just got this press release from FACT:

The Fullerton Association of Concerned Taxpayers (FACT) has announced its endorsement of Bill Hunt for Orange County Sheriff.

“FACT’s endorsement is based primarily on Bill Hunt’s solid position on the Second Amendment and his sound fiscal agenda for the Sheriff’s Department,” said Jack Dean, president of FACT.

FACT is an alliance of business people and citizen activists who advocate for legislative fiscal restraint, constitutional integrity and property rights.

May 27, 2010May 27, 2010Behind Closed Doors

City Clerk Under Fire: Anaheim Covers for the Sidhu Campaign

by Travis7 Comments

Today the city of Anaheim is taking heavy criticism for its failure to providing open public records. Today’s story from the Voice of OC reinforces my own experience in the lack of transparency, accountability and compliance with state public records laws within Anaheim city hall.

A little while back the city of Anaheim was asked for copies of six months of telephone logs for Harry Sidhu’s campaign manager, Annie Mezzacappa, who also happens to be a city employee. There was reason to believe that Mezzacappa was doing campaign work for Sidhu while on the clock for the city. That’s a big no-no.

After 24 days of stalling by City Clerk Linda Andal, the city sent back a list of three phone calls made on the same day back in January.

Phone-Records — That doesn't seem right...

Three phone calls in 6 months. We can either conclude that either Annie Mezzacappa doesn’t know how to use her telephone or the city of Anaheim is covering for her by violating the public records act. So which is it?

linda-andal — Nothing to see here, move along please.

When questioned about the missing records, Deputy City Attorney Bryn Morley did not seem to think there was anything unusual about an employee who only makes three phone calls in six months. The city attorney had no excuse for the missing records and declined to give any further explanation.

Delaying, denying and obstructing public records requests is a hallmark of a government with something to hide. Apparently that’s the way it goes in Anaheim.

May 27, 2010May 27, 2010OC's Fourth District

Shawn Nelson for Supervisor

by Grover Cleveland27 Comments

If you’ve been reading our blog, during the past few months, you will have encountered many posts detailing all sorts of misfeasance.

In the government of Orange County, we have shared stories about cronyism, waste and mismanagement at the County Clerk Recorder’s department; about Rob Reiner’s Children and Families Commission that diverts hundreds of thousands each year to dubious PR and lobbying services provided by well connected political operatives; about a Cemetery District that paid out $60,000 a year just to find a new graveyard site; and of course these tales of waste are accompanied by the day to day operations of various county agencies, including the sheriff’s department that are propelled along by their own inertia, year after dismal year; no matter how many times they change its name the County Planning Department remains a model of inefficiency, complacency and incompetence.

All this is just a prelude to the point of this post, which is that we need, finally a county supervisor who is able and willing to actually supervise something and that person is Shawn Nelson.

Nelson’s record on the Fullerton City Council, while not perfect, has demonstrated his recognition that elected office holders are there to represent the constituents, not the bureaucracy, and that governments must be held accountable for what they do and how they do it.

The county government is a contraption glued together by patronage and by its own dead weight. It’s a 19^th century edifice in a 21^st century reality. Nelson realizes this and he realizes the need for not only an overhaul but for a complete re-evaluation of the structure.

On June 8^th, you have a chance to actually affect real change at the county; make the most of it because you won’t get too many chances.

Shawn Nelson for 4^th District County Supervisor.

May 27, 2010Harry Sidhu

Sheriff’s Union Sends Sidhu a Dictionary

by admin5 Comments

Harry cant spell — How do you spell "pension?"

It looks like the Sheriff’s union has been watching the same video clips that we have. You know… the ones where Sidhu stammers incoherently and fails to answer simple questions about union pensions.

That must be why they sent out this mailer with a photo of Harry sifting through a dictionary, as if to tell voters “Harry knows pensions. See, he looked it up!”

What a bumbling buffoon! It’s no wonder county unions can’t wait to sit at table with Harry Sidhu and negotiate their next pension spike.

May 26, 2010May 27, 2010Pam Keller

Pam Keller’s Big Announcement

by admin24 Comments

short version above, long version below, we’d love to hear your comments.

May 26, 2010May 26, 2010Coyote Hills

Coyote Hills Development Denied

by Greg Sebourn18 Comments

Shawn Nelson voted to kill Chevron’s West Coyote Hills development – but not for the same reasons that Keller and Quirk-Silva noted. At Tuesday’s City Council Meeting Shawn Nelson said of staff, “It’s like everybody got their Christmas list out.”

Nelson was referring to the extraordinary list of demands that the City of Fullerton has placed on the developer that include all-terrain vehicles, trailers, an interpretive center, school fees of more than $10 million, a $5 million endowment, and park fees. Nelson said “There’s only 760 units planned in this development and that would be $265,000 per unit. And they haven’t graded one spec of dirt, haven’t put in a street, a sewer, a street light. I’m embarrassed. I mean that’s shameful. Whether you approve it or not, that’s a problem.” He went on to ask, “How is that [list of demands] their [Pacific Coast Homes] or anybody’s responsibility that comes to town?”

Nelson made it clear that he supports the rights of developers. He said, “Chevron has a right to build.” But he was not happy that the development agreement showed up on his desk at noon, not leaving sufficient time to scrutinize the details. One major concern was over water rights. When he first took office, Nelson said he had inquired about other issues that have yet to be adequately addressed by Pacific Coast Homes, such as parking.

The councilman appeared to be most irritated that, “These people have been run through the ringer”, referring to the developer, Pacific Coast Homes – a subsidiary of Chevron and the list of unreasonable demands by city staff.

Shawn Nelson is running for the Orange County board of Supervisor’s 4^th District seat vacated by Chris Norby after Norby’s election to the California State Assembly. To no one’s surprise, Shawn Nelson is endorsed by Congressman Ed Royce and Assemblyman Chris Norby, among others.

Before the meeting was adjourned, Councilwomen Pam Keller made a lengthy statement that she would not be seeking reelection.

May 26, 2010May 26, 2010Orange County Government

The No Account County

by Grover Cleveland5 Comments

One of the things we here at FFFF stand for is the idea of government accountability.

So naturally we were pretty sore when we saw the memo from County CEO Tom Mauk to the Board of Supervisors downplaying the disastrous purchase of the money pit at 433 W. Civic Center Dr. here.

Dark-Clouds-looming-500x375 — Those clouds seem to be getting darker

Mauk finally produced the smoking gun—three years too late—an RDMD analysis estimating the needed cost to make the building functional. The amounts reached into the millions but for some reason this critical information, which was known to staff in June 2007, was withheld from the Board. Any guesses as to why?

View the memo

Evidently Mr. Mauk is not interested in accountability. But we are, so please take note of the names of the people in the County Clerks office and the RDMD who were copied on this June 2007 memo. They are:

Phil Brigandi, Paul Lanning, Jean Pasco, Bob Wilson, Clark Shen, Mark Browning, Tony Ferrulli, Tony Mason, Michael Stein.

See any familiar names ? Jean Pasco in particular stands out since she was the clerk employee who acted as liaison with the Board in the matter of the building at 433 W. Civic.

This is not the story of an inadvertent error; no this was a deliberate attempt to mislead the Board of Supervisors and the evidence lies in the statements contained in the staff reports that deliberately mischaracterized the condition of the building and that were in fact untrue.

Hopefully the Board of Supervisors will be more interested in finding out what really happened and why crucial information that staff had been aware of for many months was intentionally withheld from them.

May 25, 2010Orange County Government

Hunt Helps Defend Innocent Latino While the Union Plays Politics

by Greg Sebourn24 Comments

I was surprised when I heard that the Santa Ana Police Officer’s Association (SAPOA) pulled their endorsement for Hunt. Something in this story just didn’t sound right so I called Bill this morning to get his take:

Bill Hunt was hired by attorney Ricardo Nicol to help look at a criminal defense case of Victor Manuel Lua who is charged with a Santa Ana assault and robbery. Early on Nicol and Hunt found holes in the prosecutor’s case. The suspect was a known gang associate of the Santa Ana street gang known as F-Troop who has a prior conviction on his record. Right there most of us would say case closed, guilty as charged. However, the justice system doesn’t work that way.

In this case, Nicol and Hunt had to look a little deeper. The suspect had completed his four years of probation without any further legal troubles and appeared to be getting his life together. Ok, no violins please. At the time the crime occurred, the suspect was not in the vicinity. Hunt says the cell phone records don’t lie.

Further the original description was of two shaven head Latinos in blue jeans on a single bicycle. The suspect on trial was wearing basketball shorts and slippers (us older folks might remember them as thongs or shower shoes). A gun was used during the crime and no gun has been found since. Lua was in his truck just 400 feet from the crime scene when the officers decided he looked like he could be one of the described perpetrators because his head was shaven much like many other Latinos in Santa Ana and he had a criminal record. Also worth noting is that Lua was “caught” in what many describe as a rival gangs turf, implying that Lua isn’t actually in a gang nor was he associating with a gang at the time the assault and robbery occurred. Simply put, this is a case of mistaken identity which the evidence in the case reportedly proves.

R. Scott Moxley reported via OC Weekly that “But Hunt disputes the assertion, saying that he was hired to work on a robbery case and recently attended a preliminary hearing but did not testify. He also says that his client, Victor Manuel Lua, is innocent of the charges based on evidence he’s developed and that the gang allegation is tenuous at best: The 20-year-old Lua, he says, grew up in a Santa Ana neighborhood controlled by a criminal street gang and thus knows members but is not one himself.”

Hunt goes on to connect the dots for us. He thinks the DA began getting nervous when he started putting the pieces together and blowing up the prosecutions sure conviction. And we all know who the number two person at the DA’s Office is: Susan Schroeder, wife of Mike Schroeder.

Yes, the same Mike Schroeder that gave us convicted felon Mike Carona; the same Mike Schroeder who is pushing hard to give us Craig Hunter, an Anaheim PD deputy chief. It’s obvious at this point that it looks like the Santa Ana PD dropped the ball with their due diligence and investigation. And everyone knows when the PD looks bad the chief looks bad and so enters SAPD Chief Paul Walters, the possibly still disgruntled former sheriff’s candidate who appears to have finally given up on running and is now supporting Hutchens. You heard me correctly, he supports Sandra Hutchens.

Moxley reports this quote, “Our members are very upset with Mr. Hunt,” one officer told the Weekly on condition of anonymity. “He testified against us in court.” Why do you suppose the anonymity? Is he or she afraid of something? What could a police officer be scared of?

No doubt Santa Ana police officers are upset and embarrassed for being called out in court over what appears to be a rush to judgment by the officers and investigators.

The real irony rests in two final thoughts. First, Bill Hunt has caught a lot of flack from immigrant rights folks who say he is a racist and anti-Mexican. This case alone clearly debunks that myth. Second, SAPOA provides assistance to its members who are charged with breaches in departmental policy and crimes. Their defense attorneys rely on private investigators to dig for the truth and protect them from wrongful prosecution and punishment. It seems highly hypocritical that this association would use their misguided logic to fulfill the political agenda of a handful of miscreants who are only concerned with their consulting contracts and political livelihood. You would think that it would have occurred to someone in the SAPOA that Hunt, as a PI, might work on criminal cases. But I suppose the SAPOA board members were too wrapped up in other matters or just didn’t care to know.

An interesting side note to the SAPOA and Chief Walters is that the SAPOA supported Hunt and the Walters supports Hutchens. Why not endorse the same candidate? Assuming the SAPOA endorses another candidate, who will they choose? Will they go against their chief by supporting the card-carrying union member Craig Hunter or will they fall in lockstep with their boss? You would think the SAPOA would realize the error of their decision and help the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs (AOCDS) elect their candidate, Bill Hunt. I suppose the various OC law enforcement associations, though, are truly disconnected from one another and don’t see eye to eye except where wages and retirement are concerned.

May 25, 2010Coyote Hills

Will the West Coyote Hills Saga End Tonight?

by Travis1 Comment

After 30 years of debate, the city council is expected to vote tonight on the fate of West Coyote Hills. The “Save Coyote Hills” crowd will surely turn out in force, but can they stop the development completely? Unlikely, although council may have enough concerns to cause further delay.

And even if council passes the proposed re-zoning and plan revisions, it’s unlikely that the battle will end here. One commenter has asserted that court action to further delay the project is guaranteed.

Rather than re-hash the multitude of arguments around Coyote Hills, I direct you to Cindy Cotter’s West Coyote Hills blog where she has a decent summary of the most recent council discussions on the subject.