Hooray! Something from the News Tribune we can all agree is meaningful!
It’s been almost a year since we published the original list of retired Fullerton public employees earning over $100,000 per year in pensions.
Since then we have learned that our state’s unfunded pension liability has grown to over $500 billion dollars. Our Friends over at California Pension Reform have updated their list of CalPERS pensions, bringing on fifteen new “hundred grand” members from Fullerton this year. That’s an increase of 40% in a single year.
So let’s see who is getting the most from largess from taxpayers. New members are in bold:
| Name | Annual Pension | Position |
| JAMES “JIM” REED | $166,781.88 | Fire |
| GEOFFREY SPALDING | $149,852.88 | Police |
| GREGORY MAYES | $148,889.40 | Police |
| MICHAEL MAYNARD | $140,317.20 | Police |
| DANIEL CHIDESTER | $139,416.72 | Fire |
| FRANK PAUL DUDLEY | $133,821.00 | Development Services Director |
| ALLEN BURKS | $133,782.36 | Police |
| DOUGLAS CAVE | $130,761.36 | Police |
| GLENN STEINBRINK | $127,533.00 | Administrative Director |
| ANTONIO HERNANDEZ | $127,402.20 | Police |
| H SUSAN HUNT | $126,970.80 | Director of Park and Recreation |
| STEVEN MATSON | $126,430.68 | Police |
| RONNY ROWELL | $125,168.40 | Police |
| TERRY STRINGHAM | $123,482.28 | Fire |
| GEORGE NEWMAN | $121,410.60 | |
| RICHARD RILEY | $121,113.36 | |
| MARK FLANNERY | $120,934.68 | Director of Personnel |
| DAVID STANKO | $120,279.84 | Police |
| ROBERT HODSON | $119,956.08 | Director of Engineering |
| ROBERT “BOB” RICHARDSON | $119,720.88 | Police |
| PATRICK MCKINLEY | $118,446.48 | Chief of Police |
| DANIEL BECERRA | $116,917.20 | Police |
| NEAL BALDWIN | $116,740.68 | Police |
| PHILIP GOEHRING | $115,076.04 | Police |
| BRAD HOCKERSMITH | $115,053.84 | Fire |
| JEFFREY ROOP | $113,618.88 | Police |
| KURT BERTUZZI | $109,255.08 | Fire |
| LINDA KING | $108,168.84 | Police |
| DONALD “DON” PEARCE | $107,972.76 | Police |
| CAROLYN JOHNSON | $107,179.80 | Library Director |
| TIMOTHY JANOVICK | $106,330.44 | |
| PAUL TURNEY | $105,747.12 | |
| RONALD “RON” GILLETT | $105,499.56 | Police |
| ARTHUR WIECHMANN | $104,153.76 | Police |
| JONATHON “JON” MCAULAY | $102,034.80 | Fire |
| RICHARD HUTCHINSON | $101,822.16 | |
| JOHN PIERSON | $101,524.92 | |
| HUGH BERRY | $100,488.84 | Assistant City Manager |
| WILLIAM KENDRICK | $100,194.48 | Police |
Remember… public employee pensions are negotiated between the unions and our city council. It’s time to figure out who has been representing the taxpayers and who has been sticking up for the unions.
On Tuesday the Fullerton City Council split from its own policy and procedures when it appointed Paul Webb to the OC Vector Board – to replace the ever- increasingly brittle Dick Jones.
The City Council’s policy has been to publicly advertise when a position is open for a committee or a commission. In this case, it should have either gone to Pam Keller who wanted to serve on the Vector Board or it should have been selected through an open and competitive interview process. Bankhead, Jones, and Nelson gave the job to Webb after an obvious behind-the-scenes arrangement. Once the obvious fix was in then Keller and Quirk went along for the ride. No bueno!
Anyway just for fun, listen to Paul Webb’s loopy statement about why he doesn’t have a conflict, and decide for yourselves if this is someone you think should represent Fullerton on a County board.
“It’s good to be king!” Indeed, if you are Cal State Fullerton’s president, Milton Gordon, you are living the good life at the old Chapman family property known as the El Dorado Ranch at 225 West Union Avenue. Gordon’s residence is a sprawling 4+ acre palatial estate sitting high in the Fullerton hills overlooking the commoners eking out a living below and no longer appears to be a working ranch despite its name.
The 8+ room mansion may be slightly dated from the 1950s but the age is compensated for by the 8 bathrooms! The nearly 6,000-sqft palace was a gift to Cal State Fullerton back in 1989 from C.J. Chapman, Jr., Mary Anne Baine, Elizabeth E. Bowman. They also gave the Cal State Fullerton Foundation $159,000 for maintenance. Currently, this enormous public property is valued at $3,351,724 for tax assessment purposes (although the property is exempt from actually incurring property taxes). I would guess the value to be more like $4,000,000 in a “normal” economy. The secluded compound is an excellent destination for Fullerton residents and tourists alike to visit although there is no formal docent to guide you.
The real kicker is that the Chapmans stipulated in an agreement with the State that we, the taxpayers, have to house the university president there and maintain the houses and property. Notice that I said “houses”? That’s because there is also a guest house on the property to house the president’s assistant. Nice perk for being an assistant to a university president.
It would have been nice if the Chapmans would have sold the property out-right and used the proceeds for a scholarship endowment. The money would go to those who need it the most. Milton A. Gordon is among the highest paid public employees earning $302,042 according to the Sacramento Bee! I guess it’s hard to afford a Fullerton home on $302,042 per year.
The Chapman family has given and given and given to Orange County residents in one way or another, for many years. We have all benefited from them in several ways. Every time I have someone from out of town visit me at my college, I have to specify “Chapman Avenue in ORANGE, NOT FULLERTON.” Then when I have out-of-towners visit mom, I have to specify, “Chapman Avenue in FULLERTON, NOT ORANGE.” They still get it wrong… In 1954 the Chapman’s were nice enough to build that nice university bearing their name where your son or daughter can attend for $18,750 per semester.
Here is an interesting fact: Milton A. Gordon was named CSU Fullerton president in August, 1990. So it seems that the Chapman’s and Gordon timed it just right to get the El Dorado Ranch in the hands of Gordon. Gordon being a mathematician could do the math and see the sweet deal, leading me to wonder what more there might be to this back story. For Gordon, it’s still good to be king!
The other day I described how Republican Mayor Curt Pringle made some big bucks as a lobbyist for the so-called Children and Families Commission, a by-product of the 1998 liberal feel-good Proposition 10 that placed a new tax on tobacco and redistributed the dough to the Government Kiddie Bureaucracy. I promised to shake the branches of this tree to see what other strange fruits might tumble out. Well, Lo and Behold.
It turns out that Matthew J. Cunningham who masquerades as a local “conservative” blogger may be the biggest big government gravy slurpers at the Children and Families Commission trough.
As he pontificates about the joys of small government on his blog, Cunningham is making a killing as a PR flack for the ultra-liberal Commission and it’s professional do-gooders. And why not? His buddies Bill Campbell and Hugh Hewitt are/were on the Commission when he started his lucrative shill-meistering and wordsmithery for a government bureaucracy, and it’s hard to conceive that his uberboss, John Lewis wasn’t somehow responsible for directing this huge windfall to its rather unlikely recipient.
Here are the fun facts of the Cunningham contracts with the Commission:
Contract 230 July 6, 2005 $ 25,000
Contract 227 May 2 2007 $100,000
Contract 227A May 7, 2008 $195,000
Contract 264 June 3, 2009 $185,000
Hey you poor hungry kids out there: that’s almost half a million bucks in just three years to a guy who couldn’t even proof read his own website! And let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of dollars dished out to Pringle and the White House Writers Group.
And if you look at the Exibit B scope of work attachments you’ll come away hard pressed to see how the scope of work amounts to more than a handful of hours a week, flack-wise. No wonder Intrepid Boy Journalist has so much spare time for his blogging and political punditry.
The biggest challenge for Cunningham appears to be to get conservatives to buy the spin on all this hogwash. And naturally a lot of his “scope” is the usual nebulous “assist the staff” bullshit. Of course we can only wonder at the selection and bidding process at work here.
It’s perfectly clear to me that this opaque and over-funded commission needs complete outside scrutiny with fiscal and performance audits. Maybe Cunningham’s pals at the Grand Jury might want to delve into the doings of this public agency.
And the next time Matthew Cunningham preaches at you that you must believe in the joys of small government and lower taxes, or when he suggests whole village child rearing is Obama socialism, just give him a wink and a nod and try not to stare too hard at the giant scarlet H on his forehead.
This picture of our esteemed City Council done by some kid was recently featured on The Fullerton Observer’s “April Fool’s” back page. There was some sort of attempt at a joke that I didn’t get – probably because the Yellowing Observers are not known for their senses of humor. If you read the stuff you’ll see what I mean.
What I really don’t get is how come of all the council members, Pam Keller’s head appears to be photo-shopped on to this picture from a real photo. You can even see the stitching at the neck.
There’s a story behind this pic. Anybody know what it is? Now I’m really curious to see the original picture to see how the artist captured our Pam.
UPDATE: A version of this item is back on the agenda for tonight’s council meeting. Council denied the $69,997 expenditure last year. Now the Redevelopment Agency has broken the project into smaller increments, hoping that it can slither its’ way through in 2010.
A POST UPDATE FROM A FRIEND:
This item failed on a split vote last night. Keller and Quirk against, Jones and Nelson in favor, with Bankhead absent.
I read the state laws regarding business improvement districts. The process is that business people sign a petition to the city council. It is not the job of redevelopment to gin up a petition to give the appearance of support for this new taxing agency.
Cameron Irons did a survey February 2008 and got about 10 responses regarding a BID, mostly negative.
Sharon Quirk as councilmember said in 2007 that people should pay for the privilege of doing business downtown.
Maybe you want the money for city improvement, but it is not RDA’s place to create a demand for a taxing agency business people rejected in a private survey–the appropriate kind for a BID–last year.
Please do not waste money on this ill-advised venture. Vote no on Item 17 on May 19.
Yours truly,
A downtown business person,
Judith A. Kaluzny, Mediator and Lawyer
149 West Whiting Avenue
Fullerton, California 92832
Okay. We know there’s a lot of money in lobbying. That’s why lobbyists contribute so much to political campaigns – to influence legislation and win government contracts for their clients.
But who knew there was so much taxpayer gravy to be slurped up in and around opaque local government districts? The other day we looked at Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle’s massive windfall lobbying for the little-known OC Children and Families Commission, here. But Pringle has not only scored big bucks lobbying for the Heathy Kids Bureaucracy, he’s also made some serious green lobbying for the dead!
Yep. That’s right. In 2008 Pringle was awarded a $6000 per month annual contract to find new burial grounds for something called “The OC Cemetery District” and to do some sort of educational outreach to the community. He was also supposed to be some sort of “consultant” on developing the existing Lake Forest bone yard. You read right. $6000 per month is $72,000 per year. With a $25,000 bonus if he actually managed to accomplish something.
According to the General Manager of the Cemetery District, Tim Deutsch, the contract was extended to cover the balance of fiscal year 2009-2010, so presumably Pringle failed to deliver in year one, and was naturally rewarded with a contract extension.
So we have several problems as far as I can see: one is a pretty vague contract with completely disparate elements, awarded without any sort of competition; and then there’s the amount – what seems to be an exorbitant sum of money with no guarantees of actually accomplishing anything; and finally, there seems to be a lack of any sort of quality control or financial oversight in the management of this District.
It’s pretty obvious that the District has more money than it knows what to do with. But the real question is: why didn’t they simply engage a commercial realtor to find them more land – at zero cost? And while we’re contemplating embarrassing questions, what qualifies Pringle’s PR shop as a cemetery planner or a cemetery entitlements developer? Isn’t that what the District pays it’s general manager to do?
And finally, why on Earth does the Cemetery District need anybody to do community outreach? Isn’t that why the phone book has the Yellow Pages?
Here we are in April with no real change in the City’s business practices. View the agenda for April 6th.
In the Redevelopment Agency’s Closed Session we find three properties being negotiated for. Everyone’s favorite land Czar, Rob Zur Schmiede, wants to spend your money to buy 345 E. Commonwealth, 147 W. Santa Fe, and 324 W. Valencia. What could our Czar want with these fruited lots? Certainly the transaction will bring tremendous revenue to the City’s general fund, will it not? NO. Once again, we get the short end of this stick, too. Hopefully, one of our Friends can enlighten us with details as to what the Czar has planned.
In the Open Session, the Council will consider an appointment to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
There are 7 items on the consent calendar. Aside from the minutes there are a few items worth commenting on.
Item 2 seeks to raise the speed limits on a few streets. I noted on my March 16th comments:
“Now you get to punch that gas pedal and really feel the wind in your hair! Item #15 seeks to change the speed limits on Sunny Ridge and Pioneer Avenue. The PD asked Traffic Engineering to conduct a traffic study. The results: RAISE, that is correct, the speed limit! Here is the breakdown:
Pioneer Ave (Sunny Ridge to Gilbert) Increase from 25mph to 30mph.
Pioneer Ave (Gilbert to Parks) Establish a speed limit of 40mph
Sunny Ridge Dr (Malvern to Pioneer) Increase from 25mph to 35mph
Sunny Ridge Dr (Pioneer to Roscrans) Increase from 25mph to 30mph
All other speed limits remain unchanged”
Why do you suppose the PD would want to raise the speed limit? Surely they aren’t concerned with traffic congestion. The text of the ordinance states that these speeds are “…for the safe operation of vehicles…” Perhaps it is because the PD cannot enforce the speed limit with radar at their currently posted speeds. Raising the speed limits to as much as 40mph would likely result in more citations which equal more revenue. So, maybe don’t punch that gas pedal too hard.
Item 3 could change the way the City does noticing for public hearings. It seems the newspapers are just too expensive. Staff will have four places to post notices of public hearings: City Hall, Maintenance Services Yard, Museum, and the Main Library. It’s odd that they would use the main library (all of about 150 feet from City Hall) and the museum (about two blocks over from City Hall) for the notices. It seems a broad approach including certain parks or perhaps schools would have been considered.
Council wants Fullerton designated as a “Recovery Zone”! Read item 4. The Redevelopment Agency, lead by everyone’s favorite land Czar, wants to go after some financing opportunity available if only council adopts this resolution. This looks to be a 30-year bond worth initially $2,705,000. I’m not much of an accountant so someone needs to do the math and find out what it will really cost. It sounds like another way to waste our money. After passing this resolution, we will all need to get checked into recovery… We can start with a few council members!
Item 5 states that the PD wants the City to accept some federal and state grant funding worth $93,782. The individual grants vary and all have strings attached. Some include $44,652 for DUI checkpoint-related costs, body armor costs that have doubled and approved of at an August 5, 2008 council meeting, and an FBI reimbursement of up to $12,680 in 2009-2010 and $16,903 in 2010-2011 for overtime, training, and equipment for an officer to be assigned to the Orange County Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory.
Item 6 is a maintenance declaration between Engineering, the Land Czar (a.k.a. Redevelopment Agency), and the Walter N. Johnson Family Trust. The idea is to get the alley to be maintained by someone other than the Engineering Department which is broke as is the alley.
Pay more for your water! Item 7 says that Engineering wants you to pay more for your water so they can fund the city’s League of Cities slush fund? WTF? Approval of this item gives staff the go-ahead to mail out notices of a PROPOSED rate hike. According to the staff summary, the proposal is for a $2 per month per customer increase in the service charge. So, if we take every residential water meter and add $2 each for each month, staff thinks it will add up to $700,000 in to the Water Fund for the 2010-2011FY. If my math is correct, which it rarely is, that means we will have 29,167 water customers paying an additional $2 per month for a 12-month period. Good luck Bankhead and Keller when the voters find out about this little scam!
Item 8 of the Regular Business is the Land Czar’s recommendation to Council that they re-agendize (it’s a made up word on the agenda, likely means “to place on the agenda again”) the proposal from the Business Improvement District’s consultant Urban Place. The proposal is for $3,100 for “initial Business Improvement District explorative community outreach.” Give me the $3,100 and I’ll give you a shiny report with glossy photos and a little exploration of reaching out to the community…
You have to love the way Item 9 is stated: “AFFORDABLE HOUSING RFP SELECTION CRITERIA DISCUSSION”. It’s quite laughable if you consider that the Council and Land Czar always say we need more affordable housing. Doc HeeHaw likes to proclaim that by golly it’s the law. In the unlikely event you believed old Doc, he likes to lie. Affordable housing quotas aren’t law, they are the strings attached to some of the silly grants our city staff chases after. Remember, Doc’s best years, if he had any, were gone long before he set foot in the council chambers. Anyway, if you think council needs to have certain selection criteria for their affordable housing RFP’s, then chime in.
And lastly, old Doc made news when he Hee-Hawed is way off of the Vector Control Board’s meeting last month. Item 10 states: “Recommendation by City Clerk’s Office: Appoint a representative to the Orange County Vector Control .”
The key word is REPRESENTATIVE. I’m sure the OCVC Board will be happy to have anyone but Doc around. I would really like to know what set him off. Maybe we could do it at the next council meeting and get him to quit…
In summary, if tax dollars were turds, this agenda might represent more waste than even the Orange County Sanitation District could handle.
As always, if you have any information to contribute or if you feel I missed something important, please give us your comments.
Taxes takin’ my whole damn check, junkies makin’ me a nervous wreck, the price of food is goin’ up, an’ as if all that shit wasn’t enough, this Tuesday evening the city’s considerin’ a water rate increase.
Furthermore, the city is going to use the rate increase to pay for the League of Cities baloney. The two spendthrift promoters of this idea are Don Bankhead and Pam Keller who in 2008 attended the League of Cities conference in Long Beach here and here, a mere 25 miles from their front doors and racked up $400 per night waterfront hotel bills.
The League of Cities is a do nothing operation run by bureaucrats for the purpose of promoting their own policies. Fullerton’s annual membership budget is $75,000 – not an inconsiderable sum, exactly why the City of Orange quit the League.
NO new taxes, NO bogus water rate increase. We all know Bankhead and Keller are going to vote for this tax increase and I suspect Dick “RINO” Jones will, too.
We’ll find out tomorrow night.