The City of Fullerton’s General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) took a bold step at their meeting last night to include West Coyote Hills as a Focus Area in the City’s new General Plan update. The Coyote Hills area was not included as a focus area in the last General plan update that was done in 1996. In a packed meeting room, a motion was made by Richard Lambros to uphold a prior “gag” order relating to discussing Coyote Hills. The motion failed. After several members of the audience voiced their opinions the Committee voted to create a new Coyote Hills Focus Area.
The Fullerton City Council will make a monumental decision at this evenings City Council meeting. A decision that will impact the future of Downtown Fullerton. The question the Council must answer is: does the master plan for the Transportation Center include a First Class Railroad Attraction that could attract thousands of visitors into Downtown Fullerton or does the master plan call for more Morgan Group apartments to be built on public land. The Railroad Attraction would require a $22 million public subsidy.
However, the Morgan Group officials have raised thousands of dollars for Dick Jones who may be voting on the final plan. Railroad Attraction supporter and longtime Fullerton businessman John Phelps says “it should be all or nothing”.
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Despite the efforts of Friends For Fullerton’s Future, 12 year incumbent Dick Jones was re-elected. Also winning re-election were Shawn Nelson and Sharon Quirk. Our campaign to inform the voters of Fullerton about Mr. Dick Jones, although ultimately unsuccessful, proved valuable in many ways. Apart from the demographic information we have gathered, our efforts arguably cost Jones several thousand votes from his 2004 election count when he gained over 20,000 votes and received the top number of votes; in 2008 he came in a distant third.
The campaign of Karen Haluza ended a few thousand votes behind Mr. Jones. One of the most interesting questions of this election is how Haluza failed when her main opponent was subjected to a strong, independent opposition. We believe the answer lies in the efforts of The Fullerton Observer to undermine Shawn Nelson’s campaign, an effort that included its endorsement of Mr. Jones. The endorsement of The Observer, whatever its intellectual merit, has been worth around 2500 votes in General Elections over the years – just about the difference in the vote total between Haluza and Jones. One can only speculate on the outcome of a Quirk/Haluza “bullet vote” strategy by the Observer and its kindred spirits. The Observer could have gotten its own favored liberals elected and rid Fullerton of a an incurably rude buffoon.
One thing is certain: FFFF will continue to monitor important issues – most importantly, land-use issues in the coming months and years and will continue to hold Fullerton’s politicians accountable for their words and actions, and those of their staff. We have begun the promotion of the idea of term limits in Fullerton, and are now contemplating a petition drive to begin the local referendum process. 12 YEARS IS ENOUGH!
2008 has been a great experience for FFFF. And the fun has only just begun.
Who’s accountable for this junky clutter put on public land (the downtown plaza) using public funds? Think about the wasted space, materials, money. Think about how much effort it takes to keep these monsters clean, the paint is constantly peeling on their Cone Heads, styrofoam is popping out of it’s thin skin of stucco, the dirt streaks are becoming permanent. It’s time to remove the clutter.