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Who says “nobody” reads the FFFF blog? Well, they do in City Hall, obviously.

It turns out that “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra’s campaign committee maybe wasn’t terminated after all. It’s now back on the active list on the City Clerk’s website! Looks like the “new crew” did another oopsy.

And that’s terrific news for those of us who were looking forward to next year’s Fullerton City Council election in District 5.

See, Mr. Zahra faces all sorts of challenges of his own creation, and he has voluntarily made enemies where he ought not to have. Here’s a partial list of Zahra’s transgressions – stuff that his blind followers love to ignore, but issues that may resonate with the electorate at large.

1. In the 1990s gay immigrant Zahra committed marriage fraud by marrying an American woman (a federal felony), so he could stay in the United States and pave the way for eventual citizenship.
2. In 2020 Zahra was charged with assault and battery and vandalism against a woman, “M. Farias.” He claimed exoneration, which was a lie. He has shown no evidence.
3. In 2020 and 2021 Zahra committed plagiarism by taking articles written by somebody else and having them published in the Fullerton Observer under his own name.
4. In October of 2022 Zahra filed a false police report to the FPD claiming that his colleague, Fred Jung assaulted him (or some such thing). The report was rejected.
5. In 2020 Zahra tried to raise taxes on his “underserved” peeps during the Covid pandemic.
6. When he was first elected in 2019 he proclaimed the need for an election to fill the vacancy left by Jesus Quirk-Silva; a month later he voted to appoint the execrable Jan Flory in exchange for a well-paying appointment to the Orange County Water District, his only identified source of income.
7. In 2022, Zahra and the OC Democrat party created a phony Latino candidate, Tony Castro, to draw votes away from his Latino opponent.
8. Zahra is currently being investigated by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for numerous violations of campaign rules regarding unreported campaign payments that may have been illegal payments…to himself.
9. In 2021 Zahra tried to convert the UP Park into a private, for profit event center, an illegal move that would have landed the City in multiple lawsuits.
10. Zahra voted to pursue the disastrous lawsuit against David Curlee, Joshua Ferguson, and FFFF that cost the City the better part of a million bucks.
11. Etc., etc., etc.

If he stays in the race, Zahra would go up against Oscar Valadez, the guy who would have beat him last time around, except for Castro, and who’s returning to the fray in 2026. Then there’s his biggest antagonist, Tony Bushala, who seems to want to make it his business to rid the city of this con artist. Mr. Bushala has the means and the motive to do so.

In 2022 Zahra spent well over $100,000 to squeak out a tainted victory. Right now he has less than six grand in his committee account. While we may expect the OC Dems to enlist another candidate to draw votes from Zahra opponents (the Scott Marowitz Experience may frighten them off), it’s hard to see a path forward for the disingenuous doctor from Damascus.

In 2018 Ahmad Zahra, the immigration fraud and woman batterer and plagiarist popped up out of nowhere, an unknown, and got himself elected the D5 councilman in a split race.

Is he returning to that anonymous swamp from whence he emerged?

His candidate committee for re-election in 2026 is now listed on the City Clerk’s inactive committee page. I don’t know how or why it is there instead of on the active committee page. Could it be that the Deadbeat Damascene Doctor is giving up on Fullerton politics? Maybe the Kennedy Sisters will let us know.

Zahra’s political departure, if true, is a pleasant thought.

For almost seven years we’ve been putting up with his lies, his manipulations, his machinations and his saccharine, high handed sanctimony. He has been so unpopular with a majority of his colleagues that they have continually denied him the mayorship, something he has obviously coveted so as to burnish his political reputation. Good job, too. He filed a false police report against one of them and has denigrated them in his frequent moods of high dudgeon.

It’s possible that Zahra sees no political future, given the gay man’s phony Green Card marriage to an Arkansas woman has been discovered and would obviously play a prominent part in a 2026 campaign. He spent well over $100,000 to keep his $800 per month gig in 2022 and only won because OC Dem Central created a fake Latino candidate to siphon votes away from Oscar Valadez. And this was before the marriage fraud was discovered. Thin ice, indeed.

Zahra also knows that his malevolence directed at the Bushala family is reciprocated, and that Tony Bushala has the means and the motive to finally get rid of this creep. The fact that Mr. Valadez says he is running again must be a problem for the Middle Eastern man of medicine.

Fullerton Boohoo has clasped the prevaricating fraud to its collective bosom, believing all the tripe he dishes out to them. This won’t help him stay elected.

Soon we will find out if Zahra is leaving, going back to his “day job” (whatever that job may be) full time. Or maybe we will learn that a clerical error by the “new crew” has been made, assigning his committee to the inactive list.

Obviously FFFF will remain interested.

I new it was coming. Following fast upon the proverbial heels of a deliberately misleading City press release, the Kennedy Sister named Sanka regurgitated the same bullshit about the Union Pacific Park.

The headline says it all:

“Union Pacific Park Project Makes Progress Toward Long-Awaited Opening After 22 Years”

No, Siaska, the Union Pacific Park was already built and open 20 years ago. True, the site was contaminated – purchased by the City without due diligence – and was remediated.

But hey, why stop the lies coming? The park had been a gathering ground for gangs, drunks, and junkies. The City, under City Manager Chris Meyers and his successors, demolished the toilets and kept the fence surrounding the park in place. Why? Because due to social pathologies the place was an embarrassing multi-million dollar fiasco. The less said the better, and nothing said, better yet, for the masterminds of the disaster.

According to Kennedy, the site was so disrupted by the remediation it became useless, a statement that is a false. When the toxic stuff was discovered it covered less than half the park. The rest was wide open. Siska intentionally fails to explain the real reasons the park was completely closed after remediation: misuse, abuse and law breaking. The neighbors across Truslow Avenue complained.

Sometime after 2011 a fence was put up around the whole park and it had nothing to do with soils remediation. It was a reaction to the dystopian park. There has been plenty of opportunity in the past 15 years to re-open the park. Nobody wanted it re-opened. No one, that is, until Fred Jung, Nick Dunlap, and Bruce Whitaker voted to do that a couple years ago. But of course no accountability for the decades long disaster needed to be pursued. That wouldn’t be the Fullerton Way.

The solution now at Parks and Rec and its Fullerton Observers, is to pretend that because of the toxic contamination there has never really been a park, and that this “beloved neighborhood space” is finally being opened to cries of enthusiasm from all. That’s another lie.

Skakia remembers an ad hoc UP Park committee but ignores the fact that it withered away without doing anything. No plans reviewed contemplated a Kaboom Park.

Then Skansia shares this jargon-filled gem: “These surveys (Ed. done by no one knows who, no one knows when, participated in by someone, somewhere) highlighted safety and engaging programming as primary concerns, aligning with the broader goal of enhancing neighborhood security through increased recreational opportunities.” Probably the same useless patter uttered by City Hall Parks Department bureaucrats in 1999, and identical to the same wishful thinking that supported the recent Trail to Nowhere boondoggle.

Ah, yes! Positivity springs eternal in the precincts of Fullerton City Hall, and Sanskia concludes her drivel with a pathos-meringue filled appeal to hope and glory: “…the upcoming renovations aim to transform it into a vibrant community hub that fosters pride and engagement among residents. The goal is to create a safe, inviting environment that enhances the overall quality of life in the neighborhood.“

Yesterday U.S. District Judge Fernando Aelle-Rocha hit cannabis lobbyist Melahat Rafiei with a six month jail sentence and a $10,000 fine for fraud. In reality she had already pleaded guilty to trying to bribe two Irvine councilmembers to help her client – somebody in the local marijuana cartel. This seems like a light penalty for what she admitted.

Her adherents (she has some thanks to her years of disingenuous self-promotion in Democrat politics) claim that her ratting out some of Anaheim’s crooks should have meant no jail time at all.

What will this mean for the dope lobby in Fullerton? Hard to say. We know that the business has insinuated itself into Fullerton. Ahmad Zahra appointed one of its political spokesholes, Derek Smith to the Fiscal Sustainability Ad Hoc Committee. And the Dutiful Doctor from Damascus has been an active and open drum-beater for the marijuana dispensary cause for years. He actually recommended Rafiei as a lobbyist to at least one commercial property owner that I know. How many others have there been?

We also know that Zahra and the dope lobby worked real hard to elect Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo (above) last fall. Had Jaramillo won we would have MJ stores in Fullerton, possibly 100 feet from your house.

People have been speculating about Zahra’s ties to the local Marijuana Trust. How beholden is he? Ditto Sheena Charles, whose husband, Andre, got a tidy $4,000 from the marijuana worker union’s PAC, “Working Families for Jaramillo.”

The Fullerton Observer and their followers have been vocal about the political influence of Tony Bushala, but have been completely silent about the long reach of the MJ cartel into Fullerton politics. I don’t wonder why.

As the saying goes about the sooner or later discovery by the blind pig.

In this instance the issue was the lack of the actual solid waste RFP document in Tuesday’s presentation to the Fullerton City Council. Tender Elijah popped up during public comments to note this omission, and he was right to do so.

Maybe innocent Elijah came across this on his own – it’s pretty blatant. Or maybe he got it from my FFFF colleague Disillusioned Ex-hippy, who wrote this on Monday:

“Item 21 is the start of something big. Fullerton’s trash service contract is coming up in June, 2027 and staff wants to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP). The RFP solicitation document itself remains a mystery to the public because it isn’t attached to the agenda. Sorry.“

This sort of thing makes everybody look bad. The City staffer who got up to explain how come the actual document was not attached to the staff report gave the lamest of lame explanations: the ad hoc committee looked at it.

The bare fact that this actually happened bespeaks a culture in which the bureaucracy assumes the council won’t read anything more complicated than a Denny’s menu and will rely on staff to tell them what to do. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The sad fact is that most electeds are more interested in photo ops than in doing any real work. And reading documents you are voting on takes effort.

Then there’s the FU to the public, deliberate opacity through design or indifference. I think it’s the culture issue, again; a culture that is created by inertia, where sort of okay is good enough. Hopefully we will get a new City Manager who understands this. But don’t hold your breath.

These things never seem to go well in Fullerton.

Apparently the Union Pacific Trail disaster-in-the-making has lost another month – groundbreaking on July 2nd, as reported by Sanka Kennedy of the Fullerton Observer Kennedy Sisters. She fails to remind her followers that the project completion, including plant establishment is the end of October per the agreement with the bankrollers of the project, the incurious and somnolent State Natural Resources Agency. This bureaucracy is much better at handing out free money than they are securing its efficacious expenditure.

Congratulations all around.

In another Union Pacific story, Siaska tells about a workshop of some sort to gin up ideas for renovating Union Pacific park, the dismal space purchased by the City in 2000 without benefit of environmental testing. The first park was a drug addled, gang infested disaster and closed even after soils remediation and a cost of $3,000,000. Since nothing has changed there is no reason to suspect a new park will succeed any better than the old. But pickleball courts are in high demand in the barrio!

Skasia misinforms readers that the remediation issue took place in 2014, probably so as to cushion the shock of the real truth: the park was built, closed because of contamination, remediated in the 2000s and not opened again because nobody wanted it reopened – especially the people who wasted all that money in the first place.

Sankia reminds us that a committee was formed to review this park four years ago, but not that it dissolved into nothingness as these committees always do. Start over, says the City, the land is your canvas,and toy hardhats for everybody, and whatever happens, don’t look in the rear-view mirror. Here’s my favorite line:

“The initiative, which seeks to reinvigorate the family-oriented neighborhood, has been in the works since discussions about the park’s redesign began in 2019.”

A family oriented neighborhood? As opposed to what? The truth is that discussion of reopening the park came from Fred Jung who was disgusted by the whole disaster of the “Poison Park.”

Digging back to 2023 Kennedy found the ever quotable “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra to lend HIS vast knowledge of his district:

District 5 representative, Council Member Dr. Ahmad Zahra expressed his support at the City Council Meeting in October 2023, highlighting the project’s importance: “Many residents in that area have seen an entire generation of children grow up without access to a park.”

What a load of utter bullshit. The residents of “that area” have free and unfettered access to Independence Park, Richman Park and Lemon Park. If you believed Zahra you’d have to conclude the kids in the ‘hood were living in plywood crates in a Tijuana slum.

Naturally, Skaisa omits reference to Zahra’s 2021 vote to turn the park space into a private event center, a bone-headed and illegal move. But, again, Fullertonions, we don’t dwell on the past here. Forward to the Future.

At the June 3rd Fullerton City Council meeting, George Bushala directly asked Shana Charles something I raised a few weeks back when I discovered that her husband, Andre Charles was paid $4000 by the marijuana workers union that was invested big time in the ill-fated council campaign of Vivian Jaramillo.

Obviously, the issue raises questions about Ms. Charles relationship with the legalized dope lobby.

Her response to Mr. Bushala was pathetic. You’ll have to ask my husband about that, she said cavalierly through her idiot grin.

Hey, wait a minute “Doctor” Charles. California is a community property state, meaning that you benefited from that four grand just as much as your loquacious hubby. Your husband is not a public figure making policy decisions for the people of Fullerton. You are. And why should anybody have to chase down Mr. Charles on his daily rounds?

By the way, will you be showing that $4K on your Form 460, presuming you ever get around to filling it out? Will you declare yourself ineligible to discuss cannabis related issues, as your followers demanded (unnecessarily, it turns out) that Councilwoman Valencia do with regard to campaign donors? If not, why not?

As an aside, my favorite bit of the exchange came when “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra identified the union in question as a grocery store workers organization, as well as a cannabis workers crew. And this outfit isn’t a lobbyist, he proclaimed.

Hmm. Of course we remember that Zahra appointed the OFCW political lobbyist, Derek Smith to the ad hoc Fiscal Sustainability Committee so we know he’s lying about the lobbyist thing; but we also knew he was lying because his lips were moving and noise was coming out.

Why would grocery store workers union give a rat’s ass about a city council election in Fullerton that has almost zero control over their interests? And other than recruiting a few dozen potential union members from dope store workers why would the national union HQ flood $60,000 to Jaramillo’s election? Smart money places the donation of that kind of loot right back to the cannabis lobby itself, bankrolling the effort to elect pro-dope Jaramillo.

Zahra also made a point that it was bad to vilify unions, something nobody had done.

Andre Charles is some sort of political consultant for Democrat politicians and causes. That’s what he tells us on his rather uninformative website. What he does between elections is not mentioned. He is also the President of the North Orange County Democrats, and his name has surfaced in connection with the phony and perjurious Scott Markowitz candidacy in Fullerton last fall.

My current interest with Mr. Charles has to do with his activities in the same election. Why? Because he was paid $4000 by a political action committee sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 – a union for grocery store employees. You may remember the name of this group: Working Families for Kitty Jaramillo.

“Working Families” worked hard for Jaramillo, funneling $60,000 through the national HQ in Washington to fund their support for Jaramillo. Charles got some of that gravy:

Well, there’s nothing wrong, so far. At least on the surface. He’s a Dem working for Dems and that’s his job, part time or otherwise. It probably seems a little strange that a grocery store worker’s union would be involved in a local, small-time election.

But of course that’s not the whole story. See, Working Families not only represents the guy trimming lettuce in the produce section of your supermarket; they also represent workers trimming another green growing thing, namely cannabis.

The real money motive in marijuana dispensaries comes from the legalized dope cartel itself, not the promise of the union dues of a few dozen workers; even the least cynical person must wonder a little exactly who ponied up that $60,000, laundered through the national HQ.

Anyway, I digress. The real issue here is not the disheveled Charles’s job, day or moonlight. It’s the fact that his better half is none other than Shana Charles, the bloviating and sanctimonious councilmember for District 3.

Let me synopsize: Mr. Charles is the financial beneficiary of four grand in marijuana lobby money to do something to prop up the campaign of Vivian Jaramillo, a vocal cannabis dispensary advocate. And his fellow beneficiary, Mrs. Charles, is in a position to agendize reopening the issue of legalized MJ in Fullerton and using it as a remedy for Fullerton’s budgetary woes. And she would also be able to influence the zoning regulations that make winners and losers in this business, to wit: the dispensary store owners and their immediate residential neighbors.

A few months ago the Kennedy Sisters – who scratch and peck out the Fullerton Observer – made sure to review the fall campaign financial activity of their enemies, Jung, Valencia, and Dunlap. They omitted investigation of the same for their failed darling, Jaramillo.

And they never once addressed the activities of Working Families during or after the election. The silence was deafening. Even if they had they would have glossed over the relationship of marijuana money and the spouse of a councilmember they hold dear.

When the defunct disaster known as Walk on Wilshire was in its oxygen tent, the Observer, Ahmad Zahra, and a few of their running dogs tried real hard to make a legal issue of campaign donors affecting council decisions. Hopefully the same solicitude for public probity will be applied, when appropriate, to Mrs. Charles, who was the direct beneficiary of a big monied interest that poured tens of thousands into a Fullerton political campaign.