Yesterday on our blog, our own intrepid Travis Kiger requested that Fullerton City Council member Pam Keller reveal the names of the parties that have made donations to the Fullerton Collaborative since she first became a candidate in 2006. He also sent the request personally to Ms. Keller who kindly responded.
Here’s the correspondence. First, the request by Travis:
I believe that you are a good person, but I am not able to explain some of your recent council votes. As you probably know, one of our bloggers has been researching your compensation arrangement with the Fullerton Collaborative. For reasons explained on today’s blog post, we are requesting full disclosure of all donations to the Fullerton Collaborative.
We will not back down from this request. I strongly believe that transparency is in the best interests of the public.
Furthermore, if there are any corrections that you feel need to be made to facts posted on our site, please let me know. This is an important discussion to engage in. If you remain silent on this issue, we can only make the assumption that something is wrong and we will amplify our call.
Thank you,
Travis Kiger
Friends for Fullerton’s Future
And Pam Keller’s response:
Good Afternoon Travis,
I will be happy to bring your request to the Fullerton Collaborative Board of Directors at our next meeting which is in September.
Thank you,
Pam Keller
Well there you have it. Let’s hope the board does the right thing – for itself – if for no one else – and let’s see who pays the bills, including the contract with FSD for Keller’s services. We will certainly stay on top of this issue and let the Friends know whatever we find out.
Just in case you thought the North Orange County Community College District couldn’t possibly inflict any more architectural damage to what was once a quite lovely campus at FJC – you’d better think again.
The latest addition to an already overbuilt campus is this multi-storied monstrosity that bears all the hall-marks of the new bond-built FJC buildings: hollow and stuccoed walls, fake arches, and an overbearing presence that sort of sucks the life right out of you. No need to guess what’s coming:McSpanish Dinosaur!
A new monster to contemplate...
Pretty soon all those wasteful hollow metal stud walls will be wrapped in lathing and then plastered to present the appearance of masonry; Styrofoam cornices will be tacked on to gratify the sort of taste that demands a hat on a mannequin; phony wrought iron accoutrements will be lagged into the plaster and then the administration can pat itself on the back for another job well-done.
Another embarrassing erection at FJC...
By the way, if you look carefully you’ll notice some sort of cupola emerging on the roof. Is another foolish clock tower avec dome on the way? We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on the latest architectural embarrassment at FJC.
Yesterday the Shadow exposed some dubious inner workings at the Fullerton Collaborative. We thought something was up since Pam Keller’s penchant for passing bad development projects while proclaiming that she does not take developer money seems madly disjointed. A little digging revealed that a large piece of her non-profit’s donations go right back to Pam’s pocket as payment for her extensive “collaborating” skills, but only after being carefully funneled through the Fullerton School District.
Next came the anonymous whispers – Pam doesn’t take developer donations, but does the Fullerton Collaborative? If so, things aren’t looking so good for Pam’s claims of honesty and transparency.
In light of these findings and on behalf of the public, we request that Fullerton Councilmember Pam Keller release all donation records for the Fullerton Collaborative dating back to the start of her 2006 campaign.
Many non-profits choose to disclose funding sources as a gesture of accountability. Any foundation being run by an elected official should be even more inclined to disclose financial data. Furthermore, if the elected official is being paid by the non-profit, full disclosure is a necessity. Pam claims to believe in the transparency of government, so let’s see if she has a problem showing the public who signs her paycheck.
Some will jump to Pam’s defense because she is generally well-liked. Being friendly and personable is not a reason to give any politician a complete pass. Put your personal feelings aside for a moment. That’s a difficult thing for many people to do and that’s probably why Pam has made it so far without scrutiny. We are merely investigating the motivations behind a politician’s choices. It’s hard to argue that the public is not better served by more transparency.
We received an e-mail a while back from a concerned Friend with a story to tell. In the interest of public information and dialogue we reprint it, below. Take it for what you think it’s worth. Comments on this event are more than welcome:
Sunday night, August 1st 2009, a motor crash involving two trucks occurred on West Union Street. The drivers of these vehicles were apparently racing while under the influence of alcohol. This seems to be less surprising in Fullerton these days, which is not a good thing for those who care about the direction of this city. If you are familiar with this street then you know that most residents park on both sides of the street, and there is no room for reckless driving.
The damage: One flipped truck, one totaled parked car, and consequentially, local residents that are now more concerned than the day before. It was reported that one of the drivers is actually an employee of the bar/restaurant Heroes, located in Downtown Fullerton. Although DUIs are not surprising in this city, the fact that this particular case involves an employee of a popular restaurant, turned popular bar by night, does. On a personal level, I despise Heroes for hiring bar tenders that treat customers with less or the same respect as manure, but that’s a whole other story.
Shouldn’t Heroes be teaching their very own employees about the dangers of drunk driving? Shouldn’t they be emphasizing, “drinking responsibly” not only to the public, but to their very own, as well? I’m not letting drunk drivers in Fullerton, or anywhere for that matter, get off easily, and Heroes shouldn’t either. It’s apparent to me that this establishment needs to have a group meeting about role modeling, employee representation, and accountability… and soon.
Yesterday, Orange County’s original Fart Boy, Matthew Cunningham, the irrepressible toady and Energizer Bunny of boot licks, was hard at work for his de facto boss – the political impresario and lobbyist, John Lewis.
A few days before Lewis had sent out out a Chris Norby for County Clerk politcal contribution solicitation to County workers at their work e-mail addresses. That looked bad because it was (and is) bad, maybe illegal; and County employees are banned from using their computers for this sort of thing – both on the sending and receiving end. Well, yesterday Lewis sycophant Cunningham tried to downplay the episode on his own lame and tiresome “Red County” blog go here at the risk of extreme tedium.
The fact that Cunningham’s blog is alternatively referred to as “Red Klownty” and “Brown County” ought to be a giveaway as to the fringe crazies and paid hacks that blog there. Cunningham’s unfortunate nickname – Jerbal – is another telling clue about his personality.
Cunningham’s pathetic rhetoric once again revealed his only apparent talent: diverting attention from the real issue. But it’s only a talent if someone is dumb enough to fall for it. The issue was not, as Cunningham implied, how many government workers actually felt threatened or coerced by the e-mail, but the impropriety of sending it out in the first place, and the incompetence that let it happen.
Cunningham claims that Norby is not vindictive – part of his sleight-of-hand shtick, since nobody ever said he was. The issue is why the campaign is so screwed up it doesn’t know what it’s doing, and how Norby, who wants to be the County’s chief paper-pusher, let it happen.
John Lewis has created a cute little machine that generates him political consulting income as well as considerable wealth as a County lobbyist – after he gets his boys elected. How much Cunningham gets paid for his transparent efforts at damage control for Lewis is hard to say. He may just be doing it for a warm smile and a wink from his mentor.
Well, you can give it a try. But as of 8/25/09 it doesn’t work anymore. Hopefully the proprietors will have it back on-line soon so that Fullertonians can see what the Collaborative is up to. In the meantime:
Please try this site again later. If you still experience the problem, try contacting the Web site administrator.
Pam Keller likes to talk a lot about her role as Executive Director of something called The Fullerton Collaborative. We didn’t use the word “job” because we’re not sure yet how much actual “work” goes into the function.
We do know that the Collaborative seems to be run by, and for the principle benefit of Pam Keller herself.
Here is the first page from the Collaborative’s 2007 tax filing:
Note that the Collaborative’s expenses exceeded its revenue by 13k, covered by a surplus from the year before. Notice also that the corporation’s address is the same as the Fullerton School District’s headquarters on West Valencia Drive. This latter fact is explained on page 4:
The Collaborative has an agreement with the FSD to provide an “executive director” for 44K. That’s Keller. The only explanation for this is that this way Pam gets to remain an FSD employee with salary and benefits thereof, while doing her good works and self-promotion as a professional do-gooder on the taxpayer’s dime. Instead of a telling folks she’s a public employee, she gets to pretend that she’s the employee for a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Notice that the cost of Pam is the Collaborative’s main expense in 2007. The only other significant expense is a $26,000 contract with something called OCCO for “community organizing.” Rusty Kennedy’s do-nothing Human Relation Commission is in on the gravy to the tune of $4400 for “leadership training,” whatever that may consist of.
Since Keller is listed on the Collaborative’s website as a board member, we wonder whether she’s actually negotiating and voting on her own contract with the FSD. The dialog in the room during those discussions might be fairly amusing. And we also wonder if anybody else on the board is auditing that relationship for vendor performance management. Hmm.
We are a bit curious as to why public funds are being sluiced through this rather elaborate piping in the first place. And we wonder, given the fact that FSD Board member Minard Duncan is listed as a “member-at-large,” how closely the FSD negotiates and manages that contract itself. There is something called The Government Accounting Standards Board; are their rules being adhered to regarding accounting and public disclosure of their financial relationship with The Collaborative?
Of course we are also very interested in where The Fullerton Collaborative gets its funds, especially which private donors, if any, are contributing the wherewithal to cover the FSD contract that pays for Fullerton City Council woman Keller’s services. The Collaborative’s website is strangely silent on the identity of its donors; most charities boast about their benefactors, who generally like to be boasted about.
When we find out we’ll be sure to share the information. And if we can’t find out, we’ll let let our Friends know that, too.
A Happy Meal does wonders for your kid's disposition.
Special Projects
The Fullerton Collaborative addresses the following problems: needs of at-risk youth and families; gang prevention; child safety issues; lack of health care access; childhood obesity and lack of fitness; racial divisiveness and isolation; poor educational performance.
Thus readeth the Fullerton Coollaborative’s website. So it was strange then (or not so strange, given her rather inconsistent adherence to principles), that Pam Keller supported moving a McDonald’s franchise right across the street from Fullerton High School.
Now just about everyone knows that purveyors of “fast food” are one of the prime contributors to adolescent obesity and “lack of fitness,” yet somehow the connection eluded Keller even though she’s paid by the Fullerton Collaborative (through the Fullerton School District) to supposedly do something about it in Fullerton.
Although she changed her vote at the last minute so as not to go down with the rapidly sinking S.S. Redevelopment Boondoggle, she was previously cheering (and voting for) an “upscale” Spanishified MickeyD’s that would “go with” the High School buildings across the street. It was all part of a grand bureaucratic scheme to build another massive apartment block in downtown Fullerton.
Apparently Pam Keller was more concerned about leaving her mark on Downtown Fullerton than on childrens mid-sections!
It must have been pretty hard for Pam to try to convince her supporters how much she “respected” them – right before she went ahead and stuck it to ’em. Keller’s campaign promise of 2006 was to have planning be “driven” by public input, blah, blah, blah etc., but you get the feeling watching this clip that she had already long since made up her mind to go with the dee-veloper, and was just throwing some verbal crusts for her loyal subjects to gnaw on.
Pam’s comments were well-received by the Chamber lackeys and downtown Redevelopment toadies in the audience, but those who opposed the monster project and had voted for Keller’s promises to represent them rather than development interests, must surely felt just a wee bit, um, betrayed.
The “I’m so torn” plaint, the goofy half-grins, the eye lash battings, (all part of the “I’m just a silly girl” routine), are a pretty annoying shtick. But Pam had better be careful with the coquette act because some lonely swains like Dick Jones seem to get off on it. Check out the hand kiss at the end of the clip and Pam’s apparent revulsion – and then her flippant threat to take back her vote. Enjoy:
