FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
This time it’s a story by the LA Times featuring former OCTA boss Art Leahy and others questioning the dedicated tracks, the impacts, and of course some of the basic operating assumptions of the California HSR.
Meantime we’re not holding our collective breath for the release of Curt Pringle’s “business plan” that seems to be at least 5 years late.
As Bill Hunt’s candidacy for sheriff is building momentum, the previously unreleased Attorney General report on the Greg Haidl incident has begun to surface. FFFF has obtained the report now we pass it along, although it has been slightly redacted to protect the identity of a minor (view the report).
The report was allegedly leaked to the press by Carona’s pal Michael Schroeder back in 2005 but was never completely released to the public. Why not?
Perhaps because the 21 page document is primarily an indictment against a department culture created under Carona himself, along with Jaramillo and Haidl back before Carona became a convicted felon and was forced to resign. The report also reprimands several subordinates, including Lieutenants Downing and Hunt for showing “poor judgment”. Somehow even blogger Jon Fleischman managed to receive a slap for his complete lack of accountability as PIO for the department.
So how will the report affect candidate Bill Hunt?
It’s not quite the indictment on Hunt that his detractors claim it to be. Hunt’s involvement in the controversy centers around whether Hunt ordered his deputy to remove opinions and facts from an incident report on the night that Greg Haidl, son of Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, was stopped with some friends who were found in possession of marijuana back in 2003.
The report does accuse Hunt of ordering the police report to be edited in a “questionable fashion,” but what does that mean? Were facts removed, or just opinions?
In our interview last month, Hunt indicated that he asked his deputy to remove only an opinion that contradicted both the evidence and a confession.
Additionally, a sworn statement made after the report that was issued by Hunt’s sargent asserted that the involved deputy’s report was “too opinionated” and so Hunt asked Deputy Roche to remove the opinions. Hunt reportedly said “you need to put the facts – the elements of the crime” into the report.
Five years later, Hunt is still standing behind his actions. In our interview, he told us that he violated no law, no policy and he still maintains that he did the right thing.
I am told that forthcoming federal court testimony will be revealing. But will it conflict with what Bill Hunt told us?
It’s also important to note that the AG report was not part of an independent investigation – for some reason Carona specifically requested that an investigation not be performed (see page 2). Rather, the Attorney General based the report primarily on Carona’s own internal investigation as conducted by Assistant Sheriff Jo Ann Galisky.
Back in town for a few days from wrangling wild horses outside Pioche, Nevada, I decided to traipse around downtown Fullerton last night to check out the new Fullerton “Art Walk.” I dragged along my husband Joe who has never gone to an art gallery without the kicking and the screaming.
The idea seems like a good one: walk around and see what local artists are doing, and by doing so help inspire and cultivate art. I didn’t take any notes so my comments are just impressions – and you can feel free to take them for what they’re worth.
While we didn’t get to all the places on the map, I think we stopped at enough places to get a sense of what was happening. The Fullerton “art scene,” if such a term can be used, (and I devoutly hope it can’t) seems to be dominated by the usual avant-garde collage/mixed-media, assemblage creep art that is supposed to be either thought provoking, or unsettling, but that almost always seems to be humorless, self-important and always makes me wonder if the perpetrators can even draw. The target for such stuff is invariably younger people, which is good, but there remains the now-hackneyed Tim Burton-esque mindset behind this stuff that really makes me wonder if 20-somethings even appreciate traditional artitistic expression. The Hibbleton Gallery on Wilshire seems to have staked out this territory, especially.
The Violet Hour on Santa Fe is a pretty interesting place – an old industrial space converted into a performance art studio/gallery – and while going for a hard-core non-traditional ambiance included some interesting photography of a place called Zyzzx.
I have to note one exception to this avant-garde trend is evident at the Village Art Center (we didn’t make it that far north last night) where the gallery is full of simply stunning pastels by Brad Faerge and oils by John Hunzicker; plus paintings and even sculpture from some other really exquisitely talented artists. Philistines like me know it’s good when we couldn’t possibly conceive of doing it ourselves.
We also stopped by a place called the Graves Gallery on Amerige, of which I had some hope; alas, much of it was dedicated to some truly awful acrylic paintings. This is really too bad since this place was by far the best space for exhibiting art.
And I have to mention another stop: the Fullerton Museum Center where a woman named Lora Lingl had a couple of “kinetic” sculpture pieces made out of wood on display. One was an interactive hammer/metal plate device operated by a crank and gears; the other was a motor driven contraption that manipulated leaves on tree branches via monofilament fishing line. This piece had a strange, mesmerizing effect as it juxtaposed the mechanical and the natural. Watching this piece was really engaging.
The highlight of the evening may have been a stop at an office suite over on Malden where they had put up a bunch of paintings some guy had collected over the years from garage sales. It actually made a pretty ironic and persuasive statement about the world of local art galleries.
Next time I hope to stop in at some of the other venues to see what direction they are going in. Overall, the idea is good one and I congratulate and encourage the organizers.
My two-cents worth is that a lot more attention needs to be dedicated to finding and presenting the work of first-rate artists. They are out there, all over the place, in fact – professionals and amateurs alike.
Just checked out this article at the new Voice of OC.
Read Pringle’s quotes and try not to barf. Of course he’s pimping this monster hard, after all, he plans to reap big dividends personally when his Mayorship in Anaheim comes to a slimy conclusion.
Here’s the money quote:
But Pringle said “when the whole system’s up and operating, we’ll have a tremendous operating income” to keep it going. He said specifics will be spelled out in future business plans.
In other words, he has no idea what the operating income is and he doesn’t want anybody to know that. If he can’t give us the facts now he’s just gambling with our money. But the House always wins. And Pringle is the House. Sweet. For him.
According to a post by Liberal OC blogger Chris Prevatt (image above), yesterday.
Here’s an interesting e-mail chain that I initiated while contacting Mayor Bankhead about making sure Fullerton has a representative on the OC Vector Control Board.
I got an e-mail from good old Dick Jones himself accusing FFFF of innuendos and lies! Naturally if there’s a different tale than the one told to us by other board members, we’d sure like to hear it! So I invited Jones to write it out and send it in to show us where we are lying. Of course I’ll publish any old thing he writes – just so long as he writes it himself.
I have to admit I got a kick out of the “helping fellow citizens” routine.
In a message dated 3/30/2010 12:26:27 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, tony bushala writes:
Dear Mayor Bankhead – I have confirmed with a member of the Vector Board that at Vector Controls last board meeting (closed session) held on 3/18/10 Dick Jones lost it and “declared” that he “quit” the Vector Board.
Would you please place this matter on the city’s next agenda so the residents of Fullerton are assured that we have a representative on the Vector Board?
Thank You,
Tony Bushala
________________________________________________________________________________
Wed, March 31, 2010 8:05:15 AM
Tony what is your problem???? The Council, the OCVCB Director, and Board Pres were informed by me last month that I was considering resigning because of ongoing problems at the OCVCB. When I left several others walked out also–a quorum just barely remained. Why must you and your blog attack with innuendos and lies those who are trying to help their fellow citizens? Would you like to meet with me and see if we could improve your concerns?
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Wed, March 31, 2010 11:46:12 AM
Would you like to write up your version of the Vector Board event and explain where I’m “lying”, I’ll even publish it on the blog.
Trying to keep up with the FFFF juggernaut isn’t easy, but Repuglican hackling Matthew J. Cunningham seems to want to give it a go.
Maybe he took umbrage at us last week for posting the fact that he tried to do a public records strip-search of Republican County Clerk candidate Hugh Nguyen. After all, Cunningham is still trying to pitch the concept that he represents some sort of conservative ideals. Working as a flack for Democrat Tom Daly isn’t going to help sell that fable.
Today we learned that our old friend has made a request at the County to see our public document requests! It seems Cunningham has requested a County-wide search for any document requests made by our own fearless Travis Kiger. Well, turn about is fair play, of course, and we always play fair.
And because we’re so helpful, we’ll make it easy on him. We’ve requested Tom Daly’s and Rene Ramirez’ County issued blackberry and credit card records for the past couple of years. Why? After the discovery of the $48,000 sports hall of fame fiasco, the $1700 per month do-nothing retainer, and the $2.1 million building purchase disaster, we’ve been wondering what other fiscal misadventures have been swept under the County Clerk’s rug during Tom’s tenure.
Of course one has to wonder why The Jerb is so interested in finding out what we are looking for, and the curious wouldn’t have to waste a lot of time guessing. He’s obviously working for Tom Daly’s campaign, no doubt through the direction of his boss and political soul mate John Lewis. Still, a County-wide search?
Those guys seem to be terrified that more crooked skeletons will soon be a tumblin’ out of Tom Daly’s closet, and it looks like maybe it’s Cunningham’s job to run interference and perhaps preemptively wordsmith them away.
And it may also be that Cunningham just wants to see what we’re up to so he can find out if he has any other buddies under our scrutiny. Or maybe he just wants to learn what real, disinterested citizen bloggers do.
In any case we’re flattered to have somebody check out and even publicize what we’re doing. See, unlike Cunningham, we aren’t front men for crooks, influence peddlers, and perjurers. We’re just funny that way.
Sandra Hutchens found it difficult to garner applause at the OC Young Republican’s Sheriff’s candidate forum last night, but she did have one shining moment. Unfortunately it came when she implored gun owners to vote for her opponents if they desire to see less restrictions on concealed weapons permits in Orange County.
We’ve heard that 4th Supervisorial candidate Shawn Nelson was a no show at the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs’ interviews this morning.
According to an informed source, Nelson had previously decided not to seek the sheriff union endorsement, and he didn’t want to waste their time interviewing him.
The AOCDS is a relatively powerful public employee union that has often demonstrated its willingness and ability to involve itself in local and County elections. How this may play out for Nelson is uncertain, although their endorsement was probably unlikely in any case given Nelson’s history as a pension watchdog in Fullerton.
Certainly adhering to the new no-union endorsement policy of OCGOP boss Scott Baugh should help Nelson among those Republicans who believed that Baugh meant what he said, and that what he said meant something.
Well, we’ll see.
And now, a year and a half after Fullerton Councilman Dick Jones was re-elected to a fourth dreadful term it only gets worse.
During the fall of 2008 FFFF shared Joneses’ mastery of the rude, ignorant, nutsy outburst. We even got creative. Last year we chronicled Jones’ comical misunderstanding of Redevelopment, as well as his crazy melt down at a Vector Control meeting. And just last week we related the story of Jones standing up during a meeting, walking out, and quitting the Vector Control Board.
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt on the female cop derriere incident, I wonder how long the people who have propped up this asinine buffoon can continue to look the other way.
Well, enough is enough, already. This guy has spent 14 years making himself a laughingstock, and it seems he won’t be satisfied until he does the same thing for Fullerton.