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December 5, 2009December 30, 2009Behind Closed Doors

A Blast From The Past?

We got a hold of an invite to a Harry Sidhu for 4th District Supervisor campaign event. It’s hosted by Curt Pringle and it will cost its well-heeled attendees $500 bucks a pop. Here’s the text:

Dear Supporter: I have had the great pleasure to work with Harry Sidhu on the Anaheim City Council over the past five years. As you may know, Harry is planning a run for the 4^thDistrict Supervisorial seat. I am supporting Harry for that election. Even though these are difficult times, I would very much appreciate if you could support Harry at his upcoming fundraiser at the Anaheim White House, on December 16 at 11:30 AM. Your participation would mean a lot. The event charge is $500 per person. Please consider attending and let me know at your earliest convenience.

Regards,

Curt

Mayor Curt Pringle

and

Luncheon Host Committee

George Adams – Adrian Foley – Dr.Howard & Linda Knohl Pat Mahoney – Jerry Zomorodian – Sandy Day – Ajit Mithwalia John Thomas –Ajesh Patel – Bill Taormina – Larry Lake Todd Ament –Virg Narbutas – Bill O’Connell – Hamilton Brewart Derral McGinnis – Ken Ryan – CB Nanda

Cordially invite you to a special fundraising event honoring COUNCILMAN HARRY SIDHU

Republican Candidate ~ Orange County Supervisor, 4^th District

We have already addressed Pringle’s arachnid qualities, so we’ll let that go for now. Of keen interest to Fullertonians will be the name of one of Harry’s benefactors: “Ajit Mithwalia.” Could that really be Ajit Mithaiwala? The Ajit Mithaiwala?

Last spring we detailed the long, sad, and disastrous story of the Fullerton “City Lights” SRO project (two installments of which are here, and here); a project in which LA developer Ajit Mithaiwala figured prominently, both as the Plan B developer dredged up by Redevelopment director to save the fiasco; as the man who threatened to sue the City for make believe breach of contract; and who then took several years to finish his project.

What Mithaiwala has been doing for the past 10 years is anybody’s guess, but the fact that he might be popping up now is pretty interesting. The fact that he originally received a million bucks from the County for his project and might now be dabbling in County politics is interesting, to say the least.

Of course we could be wrong. Maybe this is just some guy named “Mithwalia.”

November 22, 2009January 6, 201072nd Election

The Ackerwoman for Assembly Hall of Shame

by admin22 Comments

On another thread Fullerton School Board member and seemingly clueless Ackerwoman supporter, Minard Duncan, popped up like a milk weed to question our apparent dislike of his fellow Ackerwoman cheerleader Mimi Walters.

This jump started an earlier idea to publish the names of all the lackeys, stooges and repuglicans who signed onto Ackerman Inc.’s Big Lie Tour of 2009.

This is a list of the elected officials that decided their best interests lay in the endorsement of Linda Ackerman for the 72nd Assembly District. Enjoy the asinine quotations at the bottom of the page and be sure to pick out your favorites on the list for special attention. We have helpfully highlighted in red the names of politicians in whose elections Fullerton voters will get to participate.

Members of Congress

Congressman Ed Royce
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
Former Congressman Bill Dannemeyer

Statewide Elected Officials

BOE Member Bill Leonard
Former State Secretary of Education and Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan

State Senators

Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth
Former Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte
Former Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman
Former Senator Marian Bergeson
Senator Mark Wyland
Senator Mimi Walters
Senator Bob Huff
Senator Bob Dutton
Senator George Runner
Senator Sam Aanestad
Senator John Benoit
Senator Abel Maldonado
Senator Dave Cox

State Assemblymembers

Former Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines
Assemblyman Jim Silva
Assemblyman Joel Anderson
Assemblyman Ted Gaines
Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher
Assemblywoman Diane Harkey
Former Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher
Former Assemblywoman Sharon Runner
Former Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro
Former Assemblyman Openmike Duval
Former Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer

Orange County

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens
Orange County Supervisor Pat Bates
Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell
Orange County Supervisor Janet Ngyuen
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas
Former Orange County Supervisor Cynthia Coad

Anaheim

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle

Fullerton

Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead
Fullerton Councilmember Dick Jones
Former Mayor of Fullerton Buck Catlin
Former Mayor Leland Wilson
Former Mayor Peter Godfry
Former Mayor of Fullerton Jerry Christie
Former Mayor of Fullerton Linda LeQuire
Former Fullerton Police Chief Pat McKinley

Placentia

Former Placentia Mayor Scott Brady
Placentia Councilmember Jeremy Yamaguchi

Orange

City of Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche
City of Orange Councilmember Mark Murphy
City of Orange Councilmember Jon Dumitru

Yorba Linda

Yorba Linda Mayor Mark Schwing
Yorba Linda Councilmember Jim Winder

Villa Park

Villa Park Mayor Pro Tem Bill Mac Aloney

Brea

Brea Mayor John Beauman
Brea Councilmember Roy Moore

La Habra

La Habra Councilmember James Gomez
La Habra Councilmember Steve Simonian
Former La Habra Mayor Juan Garcia
Former La Habra City Councilmember John Holmberg

Elected Leaders

Tustin Mayor Doug Davert
Tustin Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Amante
Laguna Hills Mayor Joel Lautenschleger
City of Covina Mayor Walt Allen
Newport Beach City Councilmember Steven Rosansky
Capistrano Unified School District Trustee, Anna Bryson
Fullerton School District Trustees Maynard Duncan, Ellan Ballard, Hilda Sugarman, Lynn Thornly.

“Having called North Orange County her home for over 30 years, Linda is by far the most experienced and effective candidate for Assembly. She is a respected leader who will restore dignity to the office while fighting for Orange County values.”- Former Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher

“Linda has been a steadfast conservative leader in Orange County for many years. She will be ready to lead on the important budget issues facing the region and the state on day one.”- Assemblywoman Diane Harkey

“I am proud to stand by Linda in her campaign to promote conservative leadership and higher standards to the California State Assembly.”

– State Senator Mimi Walters.

“Linda Ackerman is an experienced leader who has proven her dedication to the community time and time again, I am proud to support her campaign for State Assembly because I know she will be ready to lead on the issues our state faces on day one after being elected.”- Senator Bob Huff

“Linda Ackerman has always done what is right for the sake of the community, not political gain. She is a proven leader who will help solve California’s budget crisis and bring Orange County values to the State Assembly.”- City of Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche

“Linda Ackerman is an experienced businesswoman and community leader who I trust to help balance the budget and rein in out of control spending in Sacramento. North Orange County needs Linda in the Assembly fighting for real budget reform.” – Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle

“We need an experienced leader who will fight for North Orange County. That’s why I’m supporting Linda Ackerman for State Assembly,” Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead

“When it comes to the safety of our children, Linda Ackerman will never back down.”- Former Fullerton Police Chief Pat McKinley

“I wholeheartedly endorse Linda in her campaign for Assembly. As a businesswoman and community philanthropist she has been an active leader in North Orange County and is by far the best person to represent us in the Assembly” -Yorba Linda Mayor Mark Schwing

Paid For by Ackerman for Assembly 2009, FPPC ID #1321372

October 7, 2009January 9, 201072nd Election

Geez, We Left Out the Biggest One!

by The Fullerton Harpoon3 Comments

The other day this blog ran a post on the meaning of Repuglicanism, and shared some honest-to-goodness examples. But we left out one of the biggest: Anaheim’s own Mayor, Curt Pringle. Pringle has been using his political contacts and trading on his position for years as a Sacramento lobbyist and string puller.

In case there was any doubt of Pringle’s status as a ‘Pug, the Ackerman campaign today crowed about getting Pringle’s endorsement for her carpetbagging run for the open 72nd Assembly seat. Well that figures. As a ‘Pug, Pringle is basically in it for what he can get out of it, and the constituents be damned. So what if the candidate lives in Irvine? Pringle can afford to be fast and loose with his endorsement, for what it’s worth. The 72nd includes only a small part of Anaheim. And he’s termed out of office next year.

Why do all the lobbyists flock to Mrs. Ackerman?

September 22, 2009January 4, 2010Orange County Government

Milking The Cash Cow; John Lewis et. al. and The Politics of Profit

by admin7 Comments

Why is it so many supposedly conservative, small-government OC Republicans seem to make it their business to make as much money as they can off of the very entities that they are constantly railing against? For many of these miscreants the County government is nothing but a plantation to be worked, and worked over, as often as possible.

Take the case of former State Senator John Lewis, supposed arch-conservative Republican, who as a campaign consultant gets his boys elected and then as a lobbyist raises money for them – right before he puts the squeeze on them for a vote or two. His “firm” brags about being able to navigate the complex maze of government. Hmm. Seems like it’s to his advantage to keep government as big, complicated, and non-user friendly as possible. The list of other Republicans -like Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle, County GOP party Chairman Scott Baugh and his predecessor Tom Fuentes, who lobby this or that – is pretty long. We’ve even heard from one reliable source that the latter’s endorsement can be had – for 2500 bucks.

But back to Lewis. His most recent Lewis scam seems to be the utterly bizarre candidacy of one Laura Cunningham for the County Clerk job – as reported by Lewis himself on the Orange Juice blog here. We say bizarre because this idea is so weird that it barely deserves consideration. Except that what the hell, somebody’s got to win this election! Ms. Cunningham is the spouse of Matt Cunningham, a Lewis protege and collaborator; according to her on-line resume she also used to work for Lewis himself as a lobbyist at the County Hall of Admin – so the promotion of this “candidacy” makes sense. But this woman seemingly has no experience or record managing anything. Like her husband, she seems to have spent an adulthood spinning yarns for this or that Republican politician, or trying to help some clients “navigate” some public issue or other (i.e lobbying and PR); running a public agency? Nuh, uh.

Can't these people get real jobs?

Lewis may be afraid that his boy Tom Daly is getting cold feet about running to replace Chris Norby as Supervisor and wants him to nail his colors to the mast by endorsing a potential successor. Ultimately Lewis has nothing to lose by promoting an unqualified unknown. Who knows? Maybe the whole thing is just a ploy. On the other hand maybe Lewis figures this could be the start of a brilliant new political career – and ultimately a lobbying target in the future!

P.S. The funny thing about all of this is that everybody seems to be forgetting about Chris Norby who until a few days ago was also running for the Clerk job. If he gets beat by Ackerman in the 72nd Assy primary in November will he re-train his sights on preserving our vital records at the County Clerk’s office? And what would Lewis do at that point?

December 20, 2010Dead heads

The Tongue Bath

by admin5 Comments

We knew it was coming, of course. The last obsequious tribute of the ultimate repuglican lackey to the ultimate repuglican puppeteer. Still, it’s pretty gross even when you knew it was coming.

No mention of incompatible offices, or of directing hundreds of millions to pet projects, or of do-nothing contracts with opaque organizations like the Children and Families Commission and the Cemetery District; no mention of a financial interest Form 700 that’s over 60 pages long; and no mention of “freedom-friendly” up-zoning that cleared out huge swaths of light industrial employers and employees to make way for high-density condos built by buddies.

Well, what did you expect?

October 13, 2010October 14, 2010Behind Closed Doors

BIG SIDHU SUPPORTER IN DEEP FECAL MATTER WITH FEDS?

by admin16 Comments

Last December we posted about a character named Ajit Mithaiwala who had built a heavily subsidized low income housing fustercluck project in Fullerton in the 1990s that epitomized the futility and incompetence of Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.

Remember? His name popped up on a host committee list for a fund raiser thrown by high speed rail impresario and con man Curt Pringle, in honor of his boy, Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu. Since the name appeared to be mispelled we had fun with the notion that it might be somebody else.

Harry'sFriend — Oh, no, no, no! That is another guy, I tell you. There are hundreds of them. Thousands of them.

In the post we wondered aloud what had become of Mithaiwala, and what he had been up to the past ten years.

It turns out we weren’t alone. Federal government auditors, prosecutors, and the FBI have been wondering too, according to an L.A. Times article forwarded to us by an alert Friend.

All sorts of misbehavin’ have been attributed to this guy and his development company that found a niche building subsidized, low-income housing projects, including fraud, failure to report income, and building shoddy, unsafe buildings. His politcal contributions have been scrutinized, too.

Here are a few choice morsels in the article from the Federal investigator:

“virtually no financial records,” no general ledger, no balance sheet and no bank reconciliations. Working with forensic accountants, he said he had discovered “potential fraud and criminal activity.”

On Tuesday, he told the court he was still trying to gain control of company assets and had identified 400 bank accounts, as well as $600,000 in gold bullion and three cars, including a Bentley.

It transpires that besides Fullerton, Mithaiwala has left a trail of tears behind him in cities across Southern California, including our neighbor to the south, Anaheim, where the Mayor Pro Tem is none other than Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu.

Yikes. You don’t mess with the Treasury Department, boys. Even Al Capone could tell you that.