Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 3, 2010May 4, 2010MSM Falls on Face

The Voice of OC Speaks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmwB-oKwk5U

Here’s what the people at the “Voice of OC” think is pressing: Santa Ana tops Anaheim in population. Really? Who the hell gives a damn? The writer tried to make it relevant by noting that some funding is allocated by population. Again, so what? the difference is a few thousand people – and a pro rata share differential is negligible.

C’mon you guys! May we humbly share some real issues? What about the repeated malfeasance by County Clerk-recorder Tom Daly? What about an out of control Children and Families Commission that pays a political operative $200 an hour to hand out toothbrushes? What about the County Cemetery District that paid Anaheim Mayor-for-Hire Curt Pringle $72,000 per year to find a graveyard site? Sweet Jebus, you guys, what’s wrong?

Do you folks really want to be taken seriously, or not?

May 3, 2010About Us

Sidhu Hires High-Priced Defense Attorney, Beats Rap; Not Exonerated

by admin13 Comments

We finally heard back from the District Attorney on the matter of our complaint that Harry Sidhu committed perjury and fraud when he swore on voter registration forms (twice) that he lived at the beautiful Calabria Apartments – instead of his “Elegant Yorba Estate” in the 3rd Supervisor’s District.

HarrysHome — Only problem is that he never set foot in the place...

Their “investigation” (if you want to call it that) concluded that “there is insufficient evidence to prove Mr. Sidhu committed any crimes.” Hmm. Apparently statements from Calabria residents saying they never saw Sidhu there and that the apartment had been empty for a year weren’t persuasive to a DAs office that habitually ignores funny business perpetrated by politicians. Still, it’s important to remember that nobody at the DAs office is in any way saying that there is evidence that Sidhu did live there. So no exoneration for Hide and Seek.

Well, it wasn’t as if anybody really expected Tony Rackaukas’ department actually to do anything, so there’s no reason to be surprised.

Still, the fact are inescapable. In his insatiable hunger for elective office in a district in which he doesn’t live, Harry Sidhu cooked up a fake address in a crummy apartment on Lincoln Avenue in West Anaheim next to a pool hall, and lied about it on voter registration forms – twice.

Ironically, we see at the bottom of this letter from the DA that ol’ Hide and Seek Sidhu employed one of those evil defense attorneys his supporters are always railing against. But they can come in handy can’t they?

May 3, 2010May 3, 2010Fullerton City Council

On The Agenda – May 4th, 2010

by Christian5 Comments

Here we are in May and our spend-happy council is at it again. The closed session has council discussing a law suit with their legal counsel over a law suit by Michael MacDonald. They will also be talking about labor negotiations and who can negotiate what.

We start off the open session with a feel-good presentation by the Fullerton Sister City Association.

Moving onto the consent calendar we find a $750,000 repaving project of Brookhurst from Orangethorpe to the 91 FWY as item #2. The bid came in from RJ Noble at $558,534.50 which leaves $191,465.50 left to cover city overhead and oversight. That works out to be 25% of the total cost of the project to cover the city’s internal overhead.

Item #3 grabbed my attention with a few key buzz words. The agenda has it as “RESOLUTION TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDS FOR THE SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES PLANNING GRANT AND INCENTIVES PROGRAM”. Actually, the whole title is chockfull of buzzwords designed to elicit emotional responses. Buzz words aside, Proposition 84 spells out the purpose of the grant and I cannot understand how it pertains to the Downtown Core and Corridors Specific Plan. The California State Parks Department manages the program and describes Prop 84 as this: “On November 7, 2006, voters passed Proposition 84 by 53.9 percent. The 5.4 billion dollar “Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006” (Safe Drinking Water Bond) is detailed in Sections 75001 through 75090 of the Public Resources Code.” The amount of the grant request is $1,000,000 but could range from $100,000 to $1,000,000. Do you really think California voters planned on using these funds for Downtown Fullerton planning? The text for Prop 84 can be found at http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1008/files/prop_84_text.pdf

Item #4 addresses City Pointe, across Chapman Ave. from the Fox Block McDonald’s money pit, which would like to change their development agreement because one of the partners is selling out. A brief inspection of the staff report only revealed that our Land Czar, Rob Zur Schmiede, is involved. The report and supporting documentation looks more like a Wall Street advertisement. Considering the lengths at which our Land Czar is selling this transfer in ownership, responsibility, and liability, I am concerned that there may be more than meets the eye.

The Parks and Recreation is bringing a policy change to council. Item #5 the amendment of the memorial tree and bench policy. The new policy will specifically help address requests from the family and friends of James Wernke and future memorial requests. This should have been addressed by the Parks and Recreation Commission at the November 17, 2008 meeting. Anyway, I look forward to seeing the Wernke memorial soon!

Next we jump into a public hearing before the council. Item #6 is the 2010 five-year consolidated plan and 2010 one-year action plan. We wouldn’t need to have this hearing but Ol’ Doc Hee Haw keeps grabbing at that Federal HUD money which has this string attached. It’s not a bad idea to have a plan before you act but it seems Ol’ Doc (literally) and others (figuratively) are asleep at the meetings. There are over 200 supporting pages to this single item. How many council members will actually read all of them? Maybe someone should ask them since it is a public hearing! There is a lot of money being considered and loans that need to be repaid. (See page 4 of the 221-page document) Some of the money will to service providers of important services to the community (like Meals On Wheels) but shouldn’t the service providers be going after these grants without involving the City?

Item #7 is the first item of regular business. This is the proposed revised budget for FY2010-2011. The first sentence of the second paragraph of the proposed revised budget says it all: “The General Operating Funds budget is not balanced.”

There is also a lengthy PR/defense piece on tax increments and the Redevelopment Agency. The statement also makes some broad assumptions about the financial lifecycles that occur in redevelopment districts. City staffers imply that the Redevelopment Agency knows best how to generate tax revenue. The staff report closes with the following: “In 2006, the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency merged its four project areas. More recently, the Agency amended the Merged Fullerton Project Area to add 1,165acres. The amendment is currently in litigation.”

The City will still need to cut $3,260,000 from the $184,000,000 budget, if you believe everything you read. Keep your eyes open for the June 1, 2010 meeting and public hearing.

Item #8 is the Memorandum of Agreement with the Fullerton Municipal Employees Federation. Employees will take a 5% cut in pay. Thanks! I didn’t see a pension spike but I also didn’t read all 74 pages of the memo.

Item #9 is more of the same but addresses police and safety. They are also taking a 5% cut in pay to which I say thanks! The memo is 103 pages and I wasn’t able to get every page digested. Please let us know if you find anything in it that we should be aware of.

Item #10 is the fire fighter’s bargaining memo. Unfortunately, the firefighters didn’t want to take a cut in pay like the rest of the world so the fire chief concocted some way to cut shifts that would work out to about a 5% reduction. The City said no thanks. Due to the impasse between the City and the FFA, they will be using mediation as the dispute resolution procedure. I say thanks to the chief for trying and a big NO THANKS to the Fullerton Firefighter’s Association!

Look out for these exciting opportunities to see your tax dollars in action:

MAY 11, 2010 – Adjourned Regular Meeting – 5 pm

Public Hearing – Coyote Hills

MAY 18, 2010 (partial list)

Purchase of Used Fire Truck
Closed Session – Property Negotiations – Fox Block
Fox Block Extension of ENA
St. College Grade Separation Change Order
Public Hearing – State College Underground Utility District
Bid Award Commonwealth Avenue Storm Drain
Bid Award Water Main Sys. Replacement/Sewer & St. Improv. 2009-10
Bid Award Water Main Sys. Replacement 2009-10 (Lemon St.)
Bid Award Refurbishment of Police Department Elevators

May 3, 2010May 3, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Pacific Strategies and the Big Toothbrush Caper

by Grover Cleveland15 Comments

fartboy — Flossing demonstrations are extra...

Apparently part of Matthew Cunningham’s deal as wordsmith to the OC Children and Families Commission is to fill other functions from time to time – such as Ambassador to the Diocese of Orange with Dental Portfolio.

Here, in October and November 2007 we find Mr. Conservative Republican billing the taxpayers $200 an hour as coordinator of toothbrush distribution:

It seems as if the Commission was eager to insinuate itself into Catholic schools, too.

But did it not occur to anybody auditing these invoices at the Commission that it was a wee bit inappropriate to pay somebody that exorbitant rate to talk to somebody at the Diocese about handing out toothbrushes? Was anybody at the Commission even reviewing these invoices at all?

By the way, anybody out there know how many toothbrushes you can get wholesale for $200? Oy vey! Just more lax or non-existing oversight by our friends on the Commission.

Ironically, in the fall of 2007 Mr. Cunningham was hard at work in the trenches as a loyal foot soldier for the Diocese. But that’s a whole other matter.

May 2, 2010June 22, 2010Behind Closed Doors

The John Lewis Poll & The Voice of OC

by Joe Sipowicz8 Comments

I had some hopes for “The Voice of OC” as a source of information in Orange County, even though it was started by a former Democratic officeholder and funded by the County employee’s union.

Then on Friday I read Norberto Santana’s follow up to an earlier post about a poll repuglican John Lewis supposedly did that included results showing Sheriff candidate Bill Hunt within 1% of Sandra Hutchens. The problem was that neither the undecideds nor a % for Craig Hunter were released. How come? Lewis said he was restrained from saying. But it rendered the numbers pretty meaningless.

Instead of telling Lewis to cram his bogus “poll,” Santana gave the guy some more free publicity – whether there was even a real poll or not. And almost no inquisitiveness into who Lewis was working for or even if (as is quite likely) he’s just working for himself.

Well Santa was too incurious to press the matter, but I’ll speculate freely. I’m pretty sure Lewis is not working for Hutchens or he wouldn’t have released the numbers at all; ditto Hunter. Is he working for Hunt? Pretty unlikely since the unindicted members of Team Carona still show little but disdain for Hunt who would be unlikely to pay Lewis to do a poll in any case.

So who has the money and the resources to hire Lewis? The AOCDS union does, and since they are backing Hunt it would make sense – although the missing Hunter data would remain odd indeed – unless he, too were catching up with Hutchens. It would also make sense since the union is also backing a candidate in another important June race.

If Lewis were working for the his old Measure D pals the Lewis poll results in the 4th Supervisor’s race will indeed be interesting. If they are even released, it’s a safe bet that Harry Sidhu will miraculously receive credible numbers despite a campaign marked by perjury, carpetbagging, ignorance, and general buffoonery. Shawn Nelson is bound to come out badly since neither the AOCSD nor Lewis can tolerate a Nelson victory. Or are we too cynical about Lewis doing a phony “push poll”? Maybe. But we do recommend counting your fingers if you ever have to shake his hand.

Anyway, Lewis also has a way of working on spec so he can make lobbying calls later, so maybe he’s just trolling. What his motivations for hiding the Hunter data might be will become clear by early June.

But c’mon Norberto. Why wait?

April 30, 2010April 30, 2010Dead heads

Friday Fun: AOCDS Gives Sidhu a Map and A Compass

by English Major12 Comments

One of our Friends got this dopey generic flier put out by the Sheriff Deputies’ union promoting the carpetbagging campaign of Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu. Talk of navigation with map and compass makes you think Sidhu’s running for Boat Owner Association President.

They made two errors, apart from the lame nautical metaphor.

The map and compass serve to remind us that Sidhu needs a map and a compass to get around the district he doesn’t live in – our 4th District.

The use of the compass is doubly ironic since Sidhu, who perjured himself on voter registration forms to support his carpetbagging, and who happily sought union IE support (though not their money!), seems to have no moral compass at all.

And somebody forgot to tell the union that they are supposed to play up “Harry” and not “Sidhu.”

April 30, 2010About Us

“OC Watchdog” Gets Award; Pats Self On head

by English Major5 Comments

Hooray! The OC Watchdog of the Orange County Register has been given some sort of “public service” award by some newspaper publishing organization or other. Teri Sforza is crowing about it, here, and sharing some of the important watchdoggin’ they’ve been doing. Well, okay, they’re all in a precarious employment situation over there so a little self-promotion can be forgiven.

On the other hand, when we consider the stories that the Watchdogs have serially ignored, we have to wonder with the Roman poet Juvenal, quis custodiet ipsos custodes? or in English: who guards the guardians?

Here’s a partial list of stories missed, dismissed, or glossed over by the OC Watchdog:

Perjury by Harry Sidhu, candidate for Supervisor.

Janet Nguyen hiring staffers for the 4th District office.

Tom Daly talks Supes (including Nguyen) into buying 2.1 million dollar money pit.

Tom Daly puts do-nothing Sacramento statistic-for-hire on $1700 per month retainer, paying out well over $100,000.

Tom Daly gives $48,000 to campaign contributor Brett Barbre to study sports hall of fame (first reported and then ignored – Jennifer Muir distracted by shoes).

Tom Daly turns Clerk-recorder Department into make work office for relatives of campaign contributors.

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle paid $72,000 per year to find new graveyard for OC Cemetary District.

Pringle paid $250,000 to lobby for OC Children and Families Commission; Pacific Strategies awarded contracts of half a million dollars in three years to run a blog and write PR pieces for politicians; Commission gives “The White House Writers Group” $150,000 to proclaim the good works of the Commission on a bigger stage.

Etc., etc., etc.

The main problem seems to be lack of curiosity and/or tenacity. Then there’s the rather disturbing possibility that some folks in authority just gets less scrutinized than others.

April 30, 2010April 30, 2010Boohooism

Pacific Strategies – Won’t Someone Please Think of The Children?

by Grover Cleveland16 Comments

Using kids as a front to support your bureaucratic empire is almost something of a cliche. The educrats and teachers unions have been doing it for years. And so naturally the OC Children and Families Commission sings from the same sheet music.

Check out these billing entries from Matthew Cunningham to the Commission.

Okay, on January 15th, 2010 Mr. Republican is ghost writing an op-ed piece for a Democratic politician – the former State Superintendent of Schools, Delaine Eastin. A dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do do it, right? Besides the money is great.

Then we notice that about five weeks later the beaver-like Cunningham is hard at work disseminating the “Eastin op-ed” to literally dozens of readers via “social media tools”

A little digging and we uncovered this Sacramento Bee op-ed “by” Delaine Eastin dated 2/24/2010. Delaine is fighting hard for the dough that fuels the kiducrat machine, and that, parenthetically pays Cunningham $200 an hour. Is this the very same piece he wrote for the otherwise mute Eastin? Check it out and see if the style isn’t 100% Cunningham schmaltz – including the obligatory quotation from Abraham Lincoln. Be sure to read the comments as a reminder of Eastin’s troubled regime as Superintendent of Schools.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. The OC Children and Families Commission is paying hundreds of thousands a year in PR and lobbying expenses that are handed out to the politically well connected like Cunningham, who is good buddies with Commissioner Chair Bill Campbell and Hugh Hewitt. What is the procurement process for these contracts, and what quantifiable metrics are applied to judge the success and ultimately the renewal of these contracts?

It’s time to open the window on this Commission and let some fresh air into the room.

April 29, 2010April 30, 2010Behind Closed Doors

State Auditor Rains on Pringle’s High Speed Rail Parade

by Mr. Peabody2 Comments

PringlePower — Pay no attention to that man in front of the curtain...

In a comprehensive indictment of the High Speed Rail Authority’s procedures and protocols, and its abilities to manage and oversee spending public bond revenue, the California State Auditor has taken a considerable step in derailing the proposed boondoggle. Read the highlights for yourself.

Although this doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t suspect, it does confirm the worst suspicions about poor planning and lax or non-existent oversight, and raises the worst spectre of all: a worthless, duplicative, hyper-expensive and disruptive system – a mere leg – say from Anaheim to downtown Los Angeles.

Tonight Pringle’s PR consultants are coming to town, not to ask our opinion about anything, rest assured. Rather they are coming to soft sell what’s already been decided. But there’s no reason why we can’t go and share our opinions, and maybe even ask Mayor Bankhead (who’s bound to be there) how come he stood up a couple years ago and told people that the City of Fullerton supports this disaster in the making.

They’re going to be at the Senior Center from 5-8 with a propaganda presentation at 6pm.

April 29, 2010April 29, 2010Behind Closed Doors

MORE MONKEY BUSINESS AT THE CLERK-RECORDER’S OFFICE; TOM DALY AND HIS THREE AMIGOS.

by admin21 Comments

It appears that Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly has mastered two skills in his eight years as head of the Clerk-Recorder Department. First, he has become a top-notch spender and waster of our dough. Second, he has mastered the art of creating jobs at tax-payer’s expense while receiving campaign contributions from the relatives of people he has employed.

Last week Daly hired Bruce Matthias, here. We learned from his campaign financial statements that Matthias’s wife Sonja Matthias had contributed to Daly’s now defunct campaign for Supervisor 2010.

Well, we looked deeper into his statements and found even more good old jobs for the boys (and girls) featherbedding. Look at this list.

In 2006, The Oftelie Company, run by former transportation bureaucrat Stan Oftelie, contributed to Tom Daly’s campaign. Could it be a coincidence that Stan’s son was hired shortly after this contribution and while the County was losing jobs. Stan’s son works in the Archives and was brought in as an “extra-help” employee which means that no competitive hiring process was conducted to bring him on board. I wonder what qualifies Stan’s son to work in the Archives.

The Walt Disney Company has been quite generous in its giving to Tom Daly’s campaigns. Since 2002, Disney and people connected to Disney have contributed more than $4000 to Tom. That’s just as much as the OCEA. Chris Lowe is the Government Affairs Manager for Disney in Anaheim. Well, Lo and Behold, Daly hired Chris Lowe’s wife to work in the Archives as an extra-help employee which, again, means that no competitive hiring process was conducted. And again the hiring was done when the County could least afford it.

In 2003 and 2005, James A. Liberio Realty made contributions to Tom Daly. Not surprisingly, Mr. Liberio’s daughter was also hired as an extra-help employee. So no competitive process was conducted to hire her. I’m unsure of her duties or qualifications.

Even during these tough times at the County, Daly has been budgeting at least $200,000 per year for extra-help hires. Despite revenues and workloads being at their lowest levels ever, Daly feels it is more important to keep his friends employed than to protect the interests of the public. Extra-help employees are basically at-will-employees and can be let go at anytime. I think that time has come now!

And I’d like to know why these these campaign contributors don’t hire their own relatives. Perhaps these people are not employable. Who knows?

Somebody needs to flush out this swamp of cronyism. Isn’t that why we have County Supervisors?