Friends For Fullerton's Future

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.

I just got a robocall from the good folks at Republic Services, the behemoth trash pick-up conglomerate. Apparently the work stoppage is over and they will be working hard to catch up to their regular schedule.

This stoppage has effected many cities in Orange County that contract with Republic including our fair city. The cause? A contract dispute. In Boston. That’s 2974 miles away.

According to the Voice of OC the local agreement permits this sort of thing. Here’s what is reported:

“Under the union’s contract with Republic Services, workers are allowed to honor picket lines when workers at other facilities go on strike in an effort to add pressure on the company.”

This seems like a recipe for trouble, and we’re the ones getting it, even though the “picket line” is 3000 miles away.

Walking out on a basic public service, and a monopoly, seems like a breach of faith with the public. But we’re dealing with the Teamsters here.

The Teamsters obviously believe this cross-nation strategy will intimidate Republic to play ball in Boston, and of course anywhere else Republic’s tentacles reach. Are we then to expect more work stoppages if, say, Republic gets into a labor dispute in Minneapolis, Denver or Seattle? I don’t know.

But the trash contract is up in less than two years and it may be time to consider a more local option next year.

The following missive was discovered in the FFFF In Box this morning. It may seem gratuitous to point out the hypocrisy of the Fuller Observer and the two Kennedy sisters who run it, but it good to seem others cotton on to the complete lack of journalistic ethics involved there.

In the realm of local journalism, consistency and fairness are paramount. Unfortunately, the Fullerton Observer, a poseur “newspaper” in Fullerton, has shown a glaring inconsistency in its coverage of recent development projects in the city – projects that ironically happen to be adjacent. This selective criticism proves the paper’s lack of objectivity and its fundamental inability to hold local government accountable.

A few years ago, the City of Fullerton entered into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with an individual who, remarkably, had no prior experience in the type of development planned – a “boutique” hotel. This agreement granted him exclusive rights to develop a 2-acre parcel of city-owned land adjacent to the train station. Despite the lack of experience and the complete lack of market demand for the proposed hotel, the Fullerton Observer remained silent. There was no critical analysis, no questioning of the city’s decision to entrust such a significant project to an inexperienced developer. The paper seemed content to report the facts without delving into the potential risks and implications for the city and its residents.

When the project was passed on to two individuals with a record of fraud and loan default, the Fullerton Observer ignored the glaring problem – even as the City prepared to up-zone the land and hand over title to the land before a development agreement was even reached. The project is now in limbo as all of the required milestones have been missed – but the land belongs to the conmen. Silence from the Observer

Fast forward to the present, and we see a stark contrast in the Fullerton Observer’s supposed civic concern. Currently, the Observer has stirred up opposition to a lease amendment at the citiy’s adjacent property, a historic train station listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city is considering whether to include in the lease the area of only 1000 sq. ft. of its extended portion of it’s “loading dock” that’s been fenced off for nearly thirty five years with no access other than through the current tenant’s leasehold. The tenant of the station has made substantial improvements to the train station building, and has twenty two years remaining on its current lease if he exercises extension rights. However, the Observer has been highly critical of this proposed lease amendment, questioning the results of the City’s staff’s negotiations with the tenant.

The discrepancy in the Observer’s coverages is vivid. Why was there no scrutiny when an inexperienced developer made an unsolicited proposal and was given an exclusive agreement for a high-profile project? Why no scrutiny or criticism of how the deal and the land were handed over to a couple of con artists? Why is there such intense criticism now when a tenant with a proven track record is involved; a tenant who is incentivized to build out the loading dock into a tax-paying space; a tenant who is willing to double his monthly rent to the City? This double standard demonstrates that the Observer’s editorial stance is influenced by factors other than journalistic integrity.

It is crucial for local newspapers to maintain a consistent and critical stance when reporting on city developments. They have a responsibility to question decisions that may not be in the best interest of the community and to hold city officials accountable for their actions. The Fullerton Observer’s selective criticism undermines its credibility and raises concerns about its commitment to fair and unbiased reporting.

As residents of Fullerton, we deserve a real newspaper that provides balanced, critical, and thorough coverage of all development projects. It is time for the Fullerton Observer to reassess its editorial practices and ensure that its reporting is consistent, fair, and in the best interest of the community.

– A Friend of Fullerton’s Future

As a highlight, I’ve added a comment made by David Curlee on the Observer blog that eviscerates the idiotic post by poor Steve who is now left holding his own on a canal bridge. Fortunately, common sense still exists in Fullerton.

The Observer’s new action figure’s name is Steven Sherry who is on the Fullerton Transportation Commission and is also a Democrat political consultant of some sort; meaning he is on some politician’s payroll, or desperately want to be. He doesn’t seem to have ever held a job outside of political wheedling and and political campaign hackery.

Gee, I wonder who put this person on a city commission. Any guesses?

He is the author of a recent post in the Fullerton Observer attacking the proposed lease amendment at the City-owned Santa Fe Depot with Bushala Brothers, Inc. The lease would activate the long dormant east end of the loading dock and would get rent for a derelict structure that would be adaptively reused.

Steven Sherry is not happy about it. And spells out numerous reasons why. They are nothing but unfounded opinions, typical Observer innuendo, and of course, outright falsehoods. The title of his screed is “Opinion: Fullerton’s Train Station Could Be a Jewel—If We Stop Settling.” Settling. That’s funny, Steve.

Let’s review Steve’s complaints one by one.

WASTED POTENTIAL. Steve claims Tony Bushala has reneged on all sorts of (undocumented) promises from 1989 (3 years before the lease started) and comically lists things that aren’t and never were in the Bushala leasehold. He cites no sources for verification for his allegations, as usual. We do learn of a place called “Trevors” is in the SJC depot. Hooray.

AN UNNECESSARY MIDDLEMAN. Steve asserts that the City should build out the loading dock and rent it out itself, eliminating a “middleman.” But poor dumb Steve seems to be unaware that the City controlled portion of the dock is the eastern, skinny butt-end – a mere 1000 square feet. Without the Bushala leasehold portion that far end of the loading dock is completely useless. Plus, the City doesn’t have the money to build a birdhouse and has no facility for property management; but let’s not let facts get in the way of a political essay.

LEGAL JEOPARDY. A recurring Observer theme. Because Albert Bushala is suing the rest of the Bushala family the City could end up in…LEGAL JEOPARDY. Forget for a moment that the City is ALWAYS embroiled in legal jeopardy because of its own actions with no complaint from the Fullerton Observer, the issue is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the rent is paid on time. If it isn’t, the tenant gets evicted. Pretty simple unless you don’t know what you’re talking about.

DOUBLE DIPPING. Bushala Brothers were recently paid by the City for exterior plaster and interior renovation. Over $100,000 for what should be obligated maintenance under the lease! What Steve doesn’t share with his readers is that The Bushalas responded to a solicitation by the City itself to do this work, work the City obviously considered outside the scope of routine maintenance in the existing lease. Another contractor bid significantly higher to do this work. Gee, Steve wants an audit!

LACK OF REVENUE. Steve complains about the current low-rent. What Steve doesn’t know, maybe because it happened before he was born, the Bushalas put in hundreds of thousands of dollars into the initial historic preservation and rehabilitation – money the City didn’t have to fork over at all. Over the past 30 years this investment is worth many times more.

Steve wants the tenants to share the wealth! Kick back a percentage of revenue says Steve. But Steve doesn’t seem to grasp that the loading dock has produced $0 revenue for the City over the past 35 years and without this deal, never will; but with renovation that loading dock would generate sales and possessory interest tax revenue to the City and County of Orange. Steve cites the Summit House restaurant – a completely different type of agreement.

QUESTIONABLE TERMS. All terms are questionable once they’ve been questioned. And Steve is trying, gosh darn it. Then he steps on his own weenie by citing rising land values thanks to “The Tracks at Fullerton” a project that really is mired in the inability of its conmen Johnny Lu and Larry Liu to perform to the agreement, two grifters who were never “audited” by anybody in City Hall and whose multiple frauds, crimes and, massive loan defaults have never been mentioned once in the Fullerton Observer. Fortunately the odds of this monstrosity ever getting built are very long.

Poor Steven never bothers to explain what elements of his essay would make the Santa Fe Depot a “jewel” if it isn’t one already. He says the cafe is “downtrodden,” whatever that means to him. It might be news to the proprietor of the establishment.

And so Steve Sherry pops up to join the tender young sprout Elijah Manassero, in a desperate attempt to twist language and logic in an effort to defame the Bushalas, and doing it at the behest of somebody else.

Yesterday Sharon Kennedy published a post by tender young Elijah Manassero – Part 2 of what is supposed to be a damning legal revelation against the Bushala family. It’s really the wild product of an angry man-child against all of his relatives, but no matter. The point of the post is to try to make Tony and George Bushala look bad to Fullerton Boohoo, and at the same time call into question the upcoming lease agreement between Bushala Brothers, Inc. and the City of Fullerton at the Depot.

Sharon Kennedy telegraphed this intent by making the following comment on her own blog:

This is clearly supposed to be a talking point for the usual gaggle who loudly harass the City Council majority at every meeting over some silly grievance or other.

It’s funny how nobody evert hears from Fullerton Boohoo about the legal entanglements surrounding Mario Marovic’s stolen sidewalk or about the legal entanglements and bankruptcies that enveloped Johnny Lu and Larry Liu before the entitled land for the so-called boutique hotel/rabbit warren apartments was essentially gifted to the grifters. That would require intellectual and moral consistency, two qualities sorely missing from Fullerton Observers.

Well, the item is on the agenda for next Tuesday, so we can expect a vocal shrieking from the banshees Sharon Kennedy and her younger sister, Skakia intend to call out.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out (again) the secondary, perhaps primary purpose of the Kennedy Klan’s plan: to create fodder for next year’s campaign for County Supervisor, in which fresh young Elijah’s (alleged) boss, Connor Traut is running against Fullerton Boohoo Public Enemy #1 – Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung.

A couple of month ago a delicate young shoot named Elijah Manassero popped up on the Fullerton scene like a new flower nourished by a spring shower.

Who was he, and where did he come from? Who knew? He repeated all the talking points of the Fullerton Observer crew, for which he began writing “articles” under the guise of news. He posted comments on line. His themes were always the same: attacking the council majority and decrying the influence of Tony Bushala; particularly obsessed has he been with the Bushalas effort to lease the long-abandoned portion of the loading dock at the Santa Fe Depot.

Just yesterday I posted about Manassero’s ridiculous complaint to the FPPC regarding a perfectly legal campaign donation by George Bushala Jr. to Councilman Nick Dunlap. There may be others that haven’t surfaced yet. A couple days ago sweet Elijah published a story in the Observer about a lawsuit levied by a disgruntled son against everyone else in the entire Bushala family. It wasn’t newsworthy, but its purpose was to embarrass Tony Bushala by giving credence to the allegations in the lawsuit.

I got the feeling there was more to young Elijah than random concerned citizenry. I think I was right.

Sources are saying that fresh young Elijah is working for Connor Traut, the Buena Park carpetbagging councilman who is running for County Supervisor. How does attacking the Bushala family advance Traut’s goal? Easy. His only opponent so far is Fullerton’s mayor, Fred Jung.

Many people are starting to ask questions. Questions like: is the Fullerton Observer being used by Traut to create fodder for a political campaign against Jung? Are the Kennedy Sisters complicit in this or just brainless dupes? They certainly ran cover for Team Jaramillo by actively ignoring the Scott Markowitz perjury scam conspiracy, so we know they have no moral compunction against this sort of thing; and they have no professional or personal code of ethics to restrain them.

According to the Fullerton Boohoo narrative, Jung is a puppet of Tony Bushala’s, and every effort to tie them together in various nefarious schemes would be used in next year’s campaign. Will it work?

Previous efforts to attack Tony Bushala as part of a broader campaign have failed miserably, most notably in 2012. In that year’s recall the anti-recall efforts were focused on making Bushala look bad. They lost that election by 30 points.

Connor Traut may think this is a winning strategy but he is wasting his money if he is paying tender young Elijah anything. Angering the deep-pocketed Bushala clan is not a way to get yourself elected.