Friends For Fullerton's Future – Page 302 – FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County

January 6, 2010Friends Around the World

Greenhut Launches Watchdog Website

Steven Greenhut just launched The CalWatchdog website (www.calwatchdog.com), a journalism project designed to provide investigative coverage of the state’s increasingly dysfunctional government.

This project could not have come at a better time, considering how the California budget is facing unprecedented shortfalls while the power and size of government continues to grow.

CalWatchdog’s first major story describes some upcoming state bills that allocate $11 billion to water projects which may not even be feasible. The story describes a “ready, shoot, aim” approach to water bonds that is destined to fail much like Gov. Jerry Brown’s geothermal “ghost” plants from the mid-1980s.

We hope that Steve’s new venture will bring some long-missing accountability to our negligent state legislature.

January 5, 2010January 5, 2010Boohooism

The OCCCO Scam

by The Desert Rat7 Comments

Earlier today a Friend tipped us off to this self-serving video produced by OCCCO (Orange County Congregation Community Organization) touting its alleged accomplishments. The whole thing is really embarrassing. Trying to take credit for Anaheim’s “$100,000,000” housing policy is just laughable.

But when this group of group of lefty do-gooders bragged about their successful petition to the Fullerton City Council for west Fullerton to be included in the fraudulent Redevelopment expansion, some of us in the editorial room got pissed off. Cut to the 7:30 mark of the youtube clip to avoid a lot of uber-mind-numbing drivel.

Pam Keller4 — Oh yeah, I got a posse and man are they dumb...

First, we have already demonstrated the not too coincidental elevation of some woman called Lee Chalker to the Board of Directors of the Fullerton Collaborative with her sudden interest in Redevelopment issues, here; could any reasonable human being believe that Chalker and her OCCCO pals weren’t persuaded by Collaborative Executive Director and City Council woman Keller to go to public meetings and pimp something they knew absolutely nothing about? They got $26,000 bucks a couple of years ago for “community organizing” from Keller so maybe they figured they owed her, quid pro quo.

But to take credit for their stoogery in a fraudulent political act as an accomplishment not only suggests a complete lack of real accomplishment, but it also suggests a moral bankruptcy, too. Either that or a really low level of intelligence.

Well, really, what did you expect?

January 5, 2010January 5, 2010Behind Closed Doors

A Good Article, By George!

by Mr. Peabody4 Comments

I've never even been to Fullerton — Fullerton? Where's that?

Although George Will can be stuffy and, well, fat-headed on occasion, there is nothing off the mark about his opinion piece in the Washington Post the other day about the Atlantic Yards eminent domain scandal occurring in Brooklyn, New York. Read it here.

Sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it? Trumped up findings of blight that justify the creation of a government-as-developer zone. In Fullerton we have the proposed Redevelopment expansion – leveraged off a completely fraudulent finding of blight. There are no massive projects in the expansion area – yet, but the idea of securing property tax increment and using the expansion to extend the life of the existing Redevelopment project area foreshadows all sorts of problems with government overreach and the misdirection of public revenue.

January 5, 2010January 5, 2010Fullerton BooHoo

Pam Keller: Funneling Grant Money Into Liberal Activism for Fun and Profit

by The Fullerton Shadow23 Comments

We’ve burned quite a few pixels explaining how Pam Keller’s is using her non-profit, The Fullerton Collaborative, as a vehicle to peddle influence, fund political activists, and profit Keller herself through excessively convoluted financial relationships.

But some of our loyal Friends still don’t get it.

That’s admittedly understandable, since the entire contraption is remarkably complicated. But to help everyone wrap his or her cerebral cortex around the many conflicts of interest, we present this valuable flow chart to demonstrate where The Fullerton Collaborative’s money comes from and where it goes. Naturally the nexus of the whole tangled web is Pam Keller. And that’s the big problem.

Fullerton-Collaborative-Illustrated — Click for an eye-opening experience...

Enjoy following the arrows. After perusing this chart there really is no excuse for not being concerned about the manifest conflicts of interests on the part of our City Council woman Pam Keller.

Unless, of course, you are part of the web.

January 4, 2010January 4, 2010Behind Closed Doors

“Fiscal Conservative” Pam Keller Blows More Than $1200 Bucks At Local League Of Cities Meeting

by The Desert Rat40 Comments

If it's in my interest, it's in the public's interest, too! — If it's in my interest, it's in the public interest, too!

Hoo Boy! So this is how a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative squanders our money.

In the fall of 2008 Pam Keller attended the California League of Cities Annual Meeting, a useless agglomeration of bureaucrats and bureaucrat lovin’ electeds who like to micromanage everybody’s life while we pay for it.

The event was held at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, a luxury hotel, exactly 26.1 miles from Fullerton. The distance is so vast that Pam decided to stay at the hotel for three nights and amassed a bill of $1236.10. Check out the payment vouchers, the hotel invoice, and even a handwritten request for nine buck’s reimbursement for parking, here.

Seems Pam also took along a guest, and, among other treats, they may have availed themselves of a trip to the LB Aquarium that was included in the deal.

Even if we disregard the questionable usefulness of attending one of these taxpayer funded boondoggles, what on earth was the need for Keller to stay at a hotel whose drive-time distance Mapquest lists at a mere 28 minutes?

And I have to wonder how all of Keller’s lefty knee-jerk supporters could possibly countenance this sort of profligacy of public money. $1,200 could be used collaboratively to feed a lot of homeless people, right?

Now to be perfectly fair (I am a very fair person), Fullerton’s two RINOs, Don Bankhead and Dick Jones also attended this conference and also racked up big bills. At least Jones went alone.

Friends, this is likely not the only Keller taxpayer-funded junket and rest assured, we will be providing examples of others in the very near future if we find them.

January 4, 2010January 4, 2010Boohooism

Babs Giasone Hits New High in Low

by The Fullerton Shadow7 Comments

And by low we mean a really, really, rock-bottom sort of low.

A helpful Friend shared this link to a Barbara Giasone News Tribune, er, “article” from 12/21/09 about some former florist delivery boy and long-mustache contest award winner who showed up at the Fullerton Library impersonating Gene Simmons of the 1970 rock band KISS. This seems to be his current means of employment. Good thing Barbara was on the scene to relay the crucial breaking news to her readers. What if we had missed this? Ha! Just think of all that time other reporters have wasted going to journalism school!

But seriously (!) now, Friends, we’re a city of 140,000 people and this is the sort of thing the Register/News Tribune newshawks think Fullertonians want to see:

Another scoop for Babs... — Another big scoop for Babs...

But what do we know? This is the same “journalist” who was recently recognized by some sort of “Women in Leadership” event for her achievements. And Pam Keller has publicly praised her as “our wonderful Barbara Giasone.” Perhaps this is exactly the kind of thing Fullertonians want to see! If so, it is the kind of thing we deserve.

Well, maybe not all of us.

December 30, 2009December 30, 2009Fullerton BooHoo

Pam Keller for Congress in 2012?

by admin9 Comments

It’s a politician’s nature to be ambitious, and Fullerton City council person Pam Keller is a politician. Maybe even a pretty good one. She’s part of a fairly wide local network of activists and do-gooders and has, seemingly already put some of them to political use.

So what higher office might beckon? The idea of cracking into the exclusive club of congresscritters, a la Loretta Sanchez, has probably crossed her mind. Ed Royce is getting up there and the GOP is shrinking. Is that feasible? Dunno. Ed probably thinks so, but he’s afraid of his own shadow.

State Assembly? State Senate? Paradoxically these may be even more difficult for Keller to crack than the Congress nut – simply because she would no doubt find herself running against other Democrats in primaries, including, perhaps even Sharon Quirk-Silva, who toyed for a bit with a run to replace Mike Duvall.

Well, we speculate for the fun of it. Keller’s first challenge is to get herself re-elected in 2010. And a big part of that challenge will be fighting off the inevitable OC GOP attack orchestrated by Royce that may likely target her unique, um, talent at mixing government, philanthropy and personal ambition.

Stay tuned!

December 29, 2009December 30, 2009Dead heads

This Isn’t News

by admin7 Comments

One of our eagle-eyed Friends has noted that for the past two weeks The Fullerton News Tribune’s Barbara Giasone has written articles about a fellow named Marty Burbank doing good deeds, here and here.

Well good deed doing is fine, and we applaud good deed doers, but really, were either of these newsworthy in any real sense?

See, the problem we’re having is that Marty Burbank has shown himself to be a big City Hall cheerleader in the past year, here. And on top of that he’s running for Fullerton City Council in 2010. So is it more than just the coincidence of a local minor philanthropist getting his name in the paper? Hmm. Since we had never even heard of the guy (or any previous good deeds) until last summer may we be forgiven a little cynicism? But really, wouldn’t the same thing have occurred to Giasone? Maybe it did. And maybe she’s just passing along stuff from a campaign PR guy.

December 29, 2009About Us

Funny Google Searches From 2009

by TravisLeave a comment

FFFF gets thousands of visitors from Google, each searching the web for bits of Fullerton knowledge. Usually those searches are related to local politicos, civic minutiae or nasty rumors. Visitors are led deep into our cyber lair, where they are either offended, entertained or mind-bent, depending on their disposition.

But sometimes folks come to our website after searching for some pretty strange stuff. Below we have categorized the most interesting FFFF searches of 2009.

You’re In the Right Place

These Googlers probably found what they were looking for:

fake3392135869_b2ae8a32751 — The Original Tarantula Building

is linda ackerman a irvine carpetbagger or not? – This one was settled
county clerk campaign slogans – How about “Preserving Your Vital Records“?
“tarantula building” fullerton – Yes, we have one of those.
friends of fullerton golden hill interesting weird website – We’ll take that as a compliment.
how to get of roach infestion – Ask the city
government doesn’t follow its own laws – Ya don’t say?
define the word “mcspanish” – Fullerton is McSpanish
i want this school district to buy my products – Better idea: district forces parents to buy your products.
intelligent word for “bull shit” – Those were lost at sea with the Harpoon
city manager blunders – Yeah, we’ve got ’em.
i want to live without loud music. can city council help me? – Not in Fullerton
pam keller fraud – How blunt!

Scary Thoughts

You went there:

don bankhead for assembly – Not funny.
ackerman will beat norby – did not pan out
brick veneer good idea – probably not
fullerton activities funded by taxpayers – That would be a big list.

Who is this?

We know who you are:

ceqa exemption for stadium – Ed Roski, is that you?
“chris;norby” “dirt” – Mickadeit, you’ll have to try harder than that.
how to keep brick from falling off building – Chamber Star?
how does a school district close a 7.5 million dollar gap? – Mitch, you can’t Google your way out of this one

We Couldn’t Find It Either

Maybe they just don’t exist:

what does the fullerton police department do right?
fullerton blighted areas
tom daly for orange county supervisor website – Nevermind, found it.
chris norby asleep photo at fullerton city council dais
chris norby sleeping in park

Straight Answers

…to tough questions:

Fiscal Conservative?

is pam keller a republican? – No, although she claims to be a “fiscal conservative“.
is “rutan & tucker” a good firm? – See Jeff Oderman
is a blight designation a good thing? – Only in the Redevelopment business.
is fullerton interfaith emergency services a government agency? – Well, sort of.

Googling Vicious Rumors

john laing +bankruptcy +receivership
jpi development bankrupt
steve sheldon bankrupt
city of fullerton building department-the worst
city of fullerton community development-the worst

Just Plain Crazy

huell howser drinking game – Tell me more…
ed roski says chris norby is a woman – What???
fart boy blogs – I think you’re looking for Red County
how much is a public urination ticket in fullerton – You might have a problem.
Kharakastan – Out with a bang.

December 28, 2009December 28, 2009Boohooism

Just One, Big Happy Family

by The Desert Rat14 Comments

I just came across this youtube clip from last summer. It is about our congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and her performance at some sort of “prayer vigil” organized last August, ostensibly to supplicate the Good Lord for the provision of universal health care.

As you can see, Loretta’s not real interested in praying, or even in keeping her big bazoo shut, but rather in the worst kind of political self-promotion. But Ms. Motormouth and her relationship with the Almighty is not the main topic here.

Instead I direct your attention to the promoters of this alleged “prayer vigil,” the Orange County Congregational Community Organization, known as OCCCO. Sound vaguely familiar? Last summer some of its members popped up out of the blue at a city council meeting to speak in favor of the proposed Redevelopment expansion. FFFF subsequently discovered that Pam Keller’s “Fullerton Collaborative” had bestowed $26,000 on the OCCCO for “community organizing.” Fullerton Harpoon wrote about this stuff here. The blog has already noted that Collaborative director (and Fullerton City Councilwoman) Pam Keller is a paid employee of the Fullerton School District.

You can see by the video that despite the presence of a somebody who looks likes he’s got a mitre on his head (A bishop?) these folks are really all about politics, too.

Apparently some folks in Fullerton such as Sharon Kennedy see nothing wrong with this happy intertwine of religion and the politics of cash, the laundering of government funds that ultimately find their way into overt political causes, and finally with the obvious attempt by Pam Keller to use the tangled network to help promote fraudulent and misguided “economic development” policy by the City. Actually these people seem to like the web.

I don’t like it, and neither should you. There is an insidious process going on here and it ain’t good.

Comments?