Friends For Fullerton's Future

The other day Mr. Harpoon shared a petulant email written (allegedly) by our new friend, fresh young Elijah Manassero, the young newcomer to Fullerton politics, in which he demands and asserts this, that, and the other thing – just like a spoiled four year old..

The basic thrust of his communication was that the Santa Fe Depot lease amendment was somehow invalid because the tenant, Bushala Brothers, Inc., is in default.

His challenges, were answered by Baron Bettenhausen acting as City Attorney.

Mr. Bettenhausen had let no legal grass grow under his feet in responding. I’m not sure what the hurry was, but respond he did. Here’s what he had to say to the green sprout Elijah:

Yes, sweet sprout Elijah misstated or misunderstood his own Big Issues.

Ouch. Fragile, rootless Elijah might have been whisked away for good by the breeze of this legal rebuke, except that he’s obviously on board as a political operative to make Mayor Jung look bad, and will try to keep doing so until there’s no oxygen left in the room.

But back to the City Attorney.

First, Bettenhausen says, potential breech of leases by tenants involves notification and time to cure the given issue. It’s standard contract language, of course, but Elijah and his legal advisor don’t know this basic fact. And if there’s an issue, it’s probably already been cured by BBI and the City.

The second issue Bettenhausen addresses is the business about the Bushala’s being paid to do restoration and ADA work at the depot, activity that the City clearly accepted as its responsibility as the building owner, a distinction existing between this sort of work and regular maintenance of the property. And there’s nothing in the lease prohibiting the City from doing so.

Sad, misguided Elijah’s other assertions are simply dismissed outright as baseless allegations or policy opinions. The Brown Act violation (unspecified) is dispatched with alacrity. Bettenhausen is unaware of any Brown Act violation in the process. It’s easy to get up in public and make unsubstantiated claims. it’s a lot harder to get any competent adults to agree with your untutored legal opinions.

By now we are all familiar with the sudden emergence of the innocent flower Elijah Manassero, who shot up out of nowhere into Fullerton’s political garden. He’s filed numerous false FPPC complaints against Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap; and he’s written pompous, erroneous and baselessly accusatory articles for the Kennedy Sisters. We are to believe, I guess, that young Elijah is just a civic-minded, well-intentioned young boyo whose interest in community betterment is a credit to him. Sharon Kennedy gushes with admiration:

Sharon K

July 25, 2025 at 6:42 am

Matt – I am so impressed by young people, like Elijah, who have a lively vision for our town. 

Lively. That’s a good one. But Lively Elijah is not a happy young camper. He and his pals washed out badly at the Santa Fe Depot lease hearing on the night of July 15th; and Elijah, in a fit of pique, sent a threatening missive to the City Attorney as soon as he got home that night.

Dear Mr. Jones,

I am writing to formally demand immediate enforcement of the lease default provisions applicable to Bushala Brothers, Inc., the tenant of 120–140 E. Santa Fe Avenue.

At the July 15 City Council meeting, George Bushala openly admitted to subleasing the premises; a clear violation of the lease’s subletting provision. This admission came after staff publicly stated they had no record or knowledge of any such sublease. That alone constitutes a default under the lease agreement. In addition, the City’s own expenditures on building repairs and ADA improvements inside the tenant’s leased space, obligations explicitly assigned to the tenant under the lease, further constitute material breaches.

Despite these unresolved and ongoing defaults, Council voted to approve an amended lease that:

• Extends the term through 2060,

• Grants the tenant expanded rights and rent credits,

• Reduces enforcement mechanisms, and

• Softens penalties for failure to build out improvements.

All of this violates Section 6(e) of the lease amendment, which plainly states that:

“If Tenant is in default (beyond applicable notice and cure periods)… the Third Extension Term or Fourth Extension Term shall not commence.”

Your office is well aware of this language. And yet the lease was approved anyway.

This is not a close call. This is not a matter of interpretation. This is blatant cronyism and gross irresponsibility, putting the City of Fullerton in legal and financial jeopardy for the sake of political convenience. The lease should never have been brought forward in this condition, and certainly should not have been approved. If your office advised otherwise, that itself raises serious concerns.

You are now on formal notice that I intend to pursue all available legal remedies:

• I will submit public records requests for all closed session negotiations and communications related to the lease amendment.

• I am evaluating a Brown Act “Cure and Correct” demand under Government Code §54960.1, which may invalidate the Council’s vote.

• I am exploring a taxpayer lawsuit under Code of Civil Procedure §526a for waste and unlawful gifting of public funds, especially in light of the Council’s knowledge of these defaults at the time of approval.

This lease is not just bad policy. It is legally unsound, ethically indefensible, and politically corrosive. If the City’s legal department cannot uphold the basic enforcement provisions of a lease it approved, then perhaps the public should question whether your office is acting in the interest of the people, or in the interest of donors and insiders.

I expect a formal response addressing the City’s intended enforcement action within ten (10) calendar days.

Sincerely,

Elijah Manassero

Fullerton Resident

Uh, oh. Callow young Elijah intends to pursue all legal remedies! He demands! He notifies! He will submit! He will evaluate! He will explore! He expects a response! What a lively young chap is Elijah.

This is funny. Are we to believe that fragile Elijah tricycled home right after the meeting to tap out this nonsense? Of course we don’t. This was written beforehand, and not by Elijah – of that we may be certain. And the whole Manaserro schtick is now coming into focus a deliberate political maneuver to attack Fred Jung in future campaigns by creating phony “controversial” votes. He isn’t acting alone. Here’s the elder member of the Kennedy Sister Coven, once more, with the rest of her comment:

Sharon K

July 25, 2025 at 6:42 am

Matt – I am so impressed by young people, like Elijah, who have a lively vision for our town.

Unfortunately Jung has been a sad disaster for Fullerton but this article is not about that. There was plenty of criticism of the actions of “Mayor” Jung – long before Connor Traut came into the picture. Jung’s own actions are his worse enemy. We do need someone good to fill the 4th district OC Supervisor position – Jung would fit right in with the majority there who just upped their own salary to more than the governor of California makes per year. I am sick of tricky, self serving, arrogant little politicians. I don’t know Connor Traut but will look into him and hope he is a more fit candidate than Jung –
But – getting rid of him in our town by electing him onto the Board of Supervisors is not a good reason to vote for him.

The comment here is complete with the usual Observer misdirection – “criticism existed long before,” etc.; Jung is “little” and he doesn’t deserve the title Mayor without quotation marks. Kennedy will “look into” Connor Traut because she is sick of tricky, self-serving, arrogant little politicians like “Mayor” Jung. Obviously, the Fullerton Observer is already all in for Traut and is providing a vehicle, even if a lame one, to hurt Fred Jung’s politcal aspirations.

Fullerton’s Queens of Incompetent Reporting, if you want to call what the Kennedy Sisters do reporting, doesn’t trust FFFF! Skakia, the younger sister opines thus in a comment thread with our new hero, Matt Leslie. Then the older sister Sharon rides to the rescue of the younger.

It seems that the settlement agreement between the Bushala brothers, cutting Albert out of the Bushala Brothers corporation doesn’t meet her level of journalistic integrity. Why? Because it might be phony, because, you know, FFFF. Here’s their exchange. First “ED” refuses to acknowledge that the document is “actual.”

The disseminators of gossip, innuendo, outright lies and other assorted falsehoods is questioning the validity of the document signed and dated by the three brothers in question. “Moving parts” bother Sharon, although to her Mount San Gorgonio is a moving part. Of course her comment includes the usual bent opinions instead of facts – just more of the sort of Observer stock in trade we are accustomed to.

She disingenuously asks why the “whole” document wasn’t provided. What whole document? FFFF provided the signed and dated document outlining the payoff for Al Bushala to go away, an agreement that specifically mentions the interest in the Santa Fe Depot. This isn’t good enough for Sakia and Sharon, perpetual purveyors of prevarication. I guess this is easier for them than acknowledging that their Big Argument against the depot lease amendment was cooked up out of thin air.

Meanwhile we may ask ourselves how someone who deliberately ignored the Markowitz perjury conspiracy and who coached her friend Diane Vena, one of the nominators of the phony MAGA candidate into peddling variant and unbelievable explanations of her behavior, can pretend to be anything but dishonest.

A Friend has sent in some images to FFFF of summer wear that may become a fad in Fullerton. Obverso we find pictures of Fullerton City Councilman Ahmad Zahra, the first gay, Muslim councilman in the history of the USA, so he says. Pictured next to him is his one-time wife, Michelle Salmon, the Arkansas woman he married just after coming to the country.

We are reminded of the strange case of a gay, penniless, Syrian immigrant with no job and no prospects hooking up an American woman. Naturally, it didn’t work out.

Verso we discover a facsimile of the happy newlyweds’ marriage license hot off the Pulaski County press.

Will these be appearing at council meetings this summer? They won’t work for me because I have four legs, but they sure look good enough for me to pee on.

FFFF has introduced the Friends to a tender stripling political wannabe named Elijah Manaserro, a recently flowering bud who seems willing to do anything for some politician or other. His quest has seen him file phony complaints to the FPPC and to write nastigrams to Fullerton Councilmembers Jung, Dunlap, and Valencia. He has hitherto restrained himself to writing nonfactual and ignorance based articles in the Fullerton Observer. His calling card says “transparency.”

Elijah’s most recent drum beat is the same as before: the Santa Fe Depot lease to Bushala Brothers, Inc. is fraught with danger due to a massive lawsuit filed by Albert Bushala against all of his siblings and his parents. This non-issue has been the hobby horse of the Observer’s Kennedy Sisters, too, who can’t quite seem to grasp the irrelevance with regard to the City of Fullerton. As long as BBI pays its rent, who cares about the lawsuit, right?

But sweet young Elijah says otherwise. He writes: One of the assets at the heart of the dispute is the lease to the Fullerton Train Station. This is a lie.

Here is the older Kennedy sister playing the same tune in a comment: Plus this property is embroiled in the $400 million Bushala family lawsuit.

George Bushala Jr. addressed this before the council at its hearing last week: Bushala Brothers, Inc. lease is not named in the lawsuit is not in any sort of jeopardy. Apparently the delicate fleur Elijah was not paying attention, and neither was Sharon Kennedy, both of whom believe they have a live issue. They don’t.

Well, there’s more, Friends, information the Observer and sweet Elijah could have obtained by contacting George or Tony Bushala like a real news source would have. It turns out that Tony and George Bushala bought out Albert Bushala’s position in the business in 2004 – 21 long years ago. And guess what? Albert sold his piece of the company’s Santa Fe Depot business by name.

Here’s the document, signed by the brothers:

Uh, oh. There goes that already slim argument. Albert Bushala relinquished any claim to the depot lease for ample consideration, pure and simple.

Can we expect the Observers to quit pulling this frayed rope to their alarm bell? After all they read this blog. Probably not, since in small minds obsessions are a hard thing to eliminate.

One of the curiosities that emerged from the Bushala depot lease hearing at Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting was a letter from the Bushalas’ lawyer demanding Councilman Ahmad Zahra to recuse himself. Why? Because he is biased against them, as indicated by numerous derogatory comments about their supposed negative influence on the Council majority. Here’s the letter, sent to Zahra on Tuesday afternoon.

At the outset of the meeting Zahra innocently claimed his impartiality and lack of animosity to the Bushalas, a claim that his past behavior has shown to be false, and that his behavior that very night was to belie. Anyone watching the charter city hearing, and watching Zahra’s ten minute meltdown, knows this.

Zahra began to question staff about all sorts of details in the existing and proposed lease amendment; about staff’s procedures in negotiating, etc. a strategy never before displayed by Zahra when it came to dozens and dozens of previous lease agreements he approved on the nod.

Zahra’s behavior didn’t escape the notice of two public commenters who took him to task for his blatant bias, observing that he never before showed much, if any interest in the details of lease agreements set before him, most of which were passed on the consent calendar.

Later, Zahra felt the need to defend himself. The subsequent speech explained his constant attention to details and outlined his incredible diligence looking out for the welfare of the “people.” Mayor Jung felt constrained to point out the disastrous “boutique hotel” vote of Zahra and Charles, in which conmen were essentially the beneficiaries of a massive gift of public funds – obviously no due diligence had been performed by either Charles or Zahra before they voted for the boondoggle.

My own favorite Zahra dereliction was the proposed “fish farm” in which a closed public park was to be illegally converted into a private event center with a fish tank in the middle. Remember? The unsolicited proposer had no money to pay rent or even possessory interest tax, and no collateral to get a loan; there was no parking; instead of thinking about the impact on the neighbors, Zahra even dragged up some of his toadies to gargle about trees and green space, not noise and lack of parking. All the details would be figured out later, said Zahra. The Big Idea, not the details were what was important.

At least so they say. Small businesses and local entrepreneurs, “play a significant role in driving community engagement, creating jobs, and fostering a sense of belonging among residents,” intones Saksia Kennedy. They need fairness from the City when it comes to outdoor dining permit fees.

Her model example is Les Amis that rents space from the City on left over property when the old Redevelopment Agency blew an opening from Wilshire Avenue to the parking lot off Malden. Apparently Les Amis is getting hit with back rent that was suspended due to Covid and the rent cost is real big.

Well, okay, we really know this is a backhanded swipe at the Santa Fe Depot Cafe that pays no rent on patio space outside. But we will never be told by the Observer that this is because the space is open to and used by the public, gratis.

Nevertheless, the point is interesting about public space being used for private purposes; in theory, rents should be uniform for similar purposes; but some locations may not be able to support the rents that others do because of location and other factors, a simple truth that supports individual assessments.

But hey, wait a minute. Since when did the Observer Sisters ever give a rat’s ass about businesses? Neither one has ever run a business, let alone an entrepreneurship – what ever the word “entrepreneur” might even mean to them.

For the past year the Fullerton Observer was actively engaged supporting the idiot decision to close West Wilshire Avenue at Harbor Boulevard to traffic and to keep the busy street closed. The resulting “Walk on Wilshire” was a dismal failure to anyone paying a modicum of attention: it was an inconvenience to motorists, hardly anybody used it, it lost money, and worst of all, it hurt the small businesses and property owners in the 100 block of West Wilshire who noticed a decline in business after the street was closed. A “pilot program” became a virtual bureaucratic make-work program with no end in sight.

The Kennedy Sisters made it their mission to save “WoW,” and in doing so even ran ads in their own publication, trying to put public pressure on local businesses to support the scheme. Hardly the behavior of those wanting to advocate for small businesses, is it? They never mentioned to their readers the activities of City Hall employees who deliberately kept Wilshire businesses and property owners in the dark about what they were doing.

“Okay, Joe” I can hear you saying, “so what.” We all know that the Fullerton Observer is locked into ossified ideological boneheadedness, uber alles. I know that’s true. But it’s a little breathtaking to observe people who are so steadfastly free from self-awareness; who have a world-view where practicality is so completely absent; and where it’s always the thought that counts, not the cost – even if the thought is patronizing, nonsensical, or unable to stand the scrutiny of normal people.

At Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting both Ahmad Zahra and Shanna Charles went to great lengths to decry the current rampage of ICE goons in our community. While there should be no support for the current administration’s unconstitutional activities anyplace, Zahra’s oratory struck me as ironic.

How come? Because we know that the openly gay, Zahra came to America from somewhere in the mid 1990s and immediately hoofed it on down to Arkansas where he married an American female, a woman named Michelle Salmon. Zahra told Vern Nelson of the Orange Juice blog that they liked each other but it didn’t work out.

That was a Zahra lie.

The illegal marriage fraud scam did work out, just as planned.

Just contemplate the ridiculousness: here’s a new, gay immigrant without his own address and with no work permit. What a catch for the young Arkansan woman.

Very soon after Zahra’s nuptials, he lit out for California to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker, abandoning his new bride in Little Rock. Five years or so later Zahra divorced Salmon, and with the help of a green card, no doubt, stayed in the country paving the way for ultimate citizenship.

Most immigrants that come here are damn hard working people doing jobs that Americans have become unwilling to do. Zahra, on the other hand appears to be virtually unemployed. Check out his 2023 economic interest Form 700, for example.

It looks as if Ahmad is doing a lot more political schmoozing and manipulating than he has been actively engaged in gainful employment. For a while he was collecting four grand a month going to Orange County Water District meetings, but that gravy train came to a screeching halt four years ago. It’s anybody’s guess how he pays his rent. A real audit of his campaign finances might be useful.

Then there’s the problem of Zahra’s assault and battery case against a Fullerton woman, a case that disappeared. Zahra says he was exonerated, but that’s was a lie, too.

US Immigration policy should be focused on keeping out deadbeats and bums and assaulters, not harassing people who want to work, and who do.

Last night the Fullerton City Council voted 3-2 to amend the lease at the historic train station between the City and Bushala Brother, Inc. (BBI). Jung, Dunlap, and Valencia voted yes. Charles and Zahra no. The later tried to obfuscate and stall, but to no avail.

The Fullerton Observer and its brand new “writers” – political flacks Sweet Young Elijah Manassero and Steve Sherry tried their gosh darndest to mobilize a wave Observer troops to oppose the deal. In the end only a small ripple washed up on the sand to repeat the bullshit talking points they had been fed by Zahra and the Kennedy Sisters.

Comically, some of the self-appointed experts on commercial real estate were the near-homeless council regulars.

Mayor Jung did a good job upfront of clarifying some of the misinformation being peddled, to Zahra’s obvious annoyance.

Staff did an okay good job defending their negotiations against the disingenuous questioning of Ahmad Zahra who kept trying to compare the depot with completely different agreements on completely different properties. Zahra had been challenged for his (in)ability to be impartial and then showed to everybody that he was not impartial at all.

Sheena Charles wanted to talk to the Bushalas about the fact that no restaurant had ever appeared on the loading dock; she made the mistake of engaging George Bushala, Jr. in a conversation that ended in a comical overtalk exchange that left this viewer gasping for air.

According to Bushala, City staff had been causing problems for decades and had been using delaying tactics for years; and of course there was the obvious problem of the piece of loading dock not in the original lease is physically connected to the Bushala portion of the dock – a deterrent to development.

Dr. Sheena went to great lengths to act out her pretend astonishment. She bemoaned the lack of a “Trevor’s at the Tracks” like they have in San Juan Capistrano (I was immediately reminded of the idiot lefties who periodically demand the City bring a Trader Joe’s into town). She also wanted to know why the wealthy Bushalas (she is just a poor renter, she reminded everybody) wouldn’t give back a piece of gross sales as a sort of philanthropic gesture, I guess.

Mr. Bushala casually suggested her ignorance and confusion demonstrated: “that’s why you do what you do, and I do what I do.”

In the end Zahra pulled his usual “I have questions” that are nothing other than self-righteous speechifying – even interrupting Jung as the latter made a motion to approve the item. After a substitute motion by Sheena and Zahra to keep yakking it up failed, the original motion was approved and the deal was done.

I have never met Mr. Matt Leslie but I already like him. For some reason the Sisters at the Fullerton Observer don’t ban him from commenting on their blog – even though he often deflates their silly rhetoric and unprofessional lack of standards. The latest example was his response to the tendentious essay posted by the political operative Steve Sherry.

Sherry regurgitated the same old absurd talking points about the Bushala lease at the Santa Fe Depot, including the nonsense that the new hotel next door will jack up rental value at the depot; he comically suggests a brand spanking new restaurant like they have in San Juan Capistrano to replace the “downtrodden” café.

Here’s Leslie’s common sense response:

Mr. Leslie points out to naïve Observer readers the nonsense of kicking out the existing café in order to install a fancy restaurant in a space where there is no large kitchen and virtually no seating. Implicit in Leslie’s response lurks the truth that the knucklehead Sherry has never even been inside the café space.

Naturally, this comment provokes one of the Kennedy sisters to leap into the breach with one of the Observer’s obnoxious “ED Responses.” The erection of a hotel adjacent to the depot is “planned,” ED reminds us. ED takes the erection for granted.

Do the Kennedy sisters really believe a hotel is coming, or is this just a (poor) talking point meant to persuade their uninformed readers? It doesn’t really matter, I guess.

Anyway, Leslie ain’t buying the nonsense, and rightly concludes that a hotel – even if there ever were one – isn’t going to make the café space any bigger, and suggests the “aspirational” hotel include fine dining for its customers. Of course aspirational is far too kind a term for an unsolicited project that was hijacked by bankrupt and disgraced conmen, is tied up in litigation, and is years behind meeting contractual milestones.