Oscar Valadez ran against “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra for Fullerton’s 5th District council job in 2022. He came within a few hundred votes of winning, thanks to the suspicious candidacy of “Tony Castro” whose job was to siphon Latino votes from Valadez. Zahra also spent over $100,000 to keep his little $1000 a month job. What a rotten investment.
Well, Valadez is running again for the same seat in 2026 and his chances look pretty good to me. He’s not letting the proverbial grass grow under his feet, and is holding a kickoff party Thursday evening at The Charleston place on Commonwealth Avenue. Here’s the notice:
It seems pretty early to be doing this sort of thing, but we may be sure that his likely opponent Zahra is already busy shaking down contributions like he did last time, especially from his friends in the legalized dope lobby.
2026 won’t be a repeat of 2022, no matter how many fake candidates Zahra and the Dem Party Central vomit up. In 2022 voters hadn’t yet found out that Zahra, the immigrant gay man had orchestrated a fraudulent and illegal marriage of convenience in the 90s to an American to stay in the USA and pursue some sort of movie-making career. We can be sure they will be informed all about it, along with Zahra’s other myriad misdeeds.
Valadez will also be running with the title “Fullerton Planning Commission,” an impressive sounding job.
Early yesterday morning Fullerton police had some sort of run in with what is characterized as an unhinged guy in Lemon Park. After some sort of scuffle the guy croaked. Hmm.
Here’s the notification by the Fullerton Police Department, replete with the usual self-serving lingo.
Now why am I reminded of the Kelly Thomas incident?
Erratic behavior, additional officers (to assist in investigation?!), uncooperative male, more officers needed to restrain, oops cop “violently bit” on the arm by suspect causing injuries (note the use of the plural), paramedics arrive, guy pronounced dead at “local hospital.”
Something about this whole episode seems surreal. A guy holding a “smoldering” cardboard box? More superhuman strength, of course suggesting the ol’ PCP, meth, whatever. We are informed that the suspect began to “show signs of a medical emergency” which makes me wonder about what sorts of “restraint” were used.
Of course at the end of this literary masterpiece we are reminded that the ever-vigilant District Attorney Todd Spitzer will conduct an “independent investigation” that will be nothing more than a condemnation of crazy homeless dudes and a clean bill of health for the FPD.
Friends will recall that back on March 1st Fullerton Engineer noted how the “90%” drawings of the Trail to Nowhere had been rubberstamped by the Parks Commission in early January. Right now Fullerton is at least 10 months past the State’s grant deadline for completed design, but who cares, right?
My job is to hand out money. Nobody cares what happens to it…
It’s not like Wade Crowfoot – the head of the State Natural Resources Agency that awarded the grant – is paying any attention at all. If he is he obviously has no intention of holding the City to its contractual milestones, spelled out below.
Parenthetically, we also learned from Edgar Rosales that soils testing had been done last August and required minimal remediation. Yay! The only trouble is that the City in its application for the grant lied, claiming the project was “shovel ready” and that testing had been performed. But let’s not let any of this disturb the confident nap of Mr. Crowfoot.
The completed plans were supposed to go to plan check and then final plans to the City Council for approval. That hasn’t happened yet. And the agenda forecast shows nothing about it for May 6th. May 13th is a budget session. The job still has to be bid and awarded. The completion deadline is October, and that includes plant establishment (see schedule, above).
So what gives?
The Dismal Trail does show up on a map in the capital projects “design” phase on the City’s website:
The long and winding road, that leads to nobody’s door…
Here’s the description that goes with the map:
Of course the “planned start date” (not the contractual one) shows a start of seven weeks ago. Oops.
But, hey, wait a minute. The City has just promulgated a draft of its proposed Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) for the next 5 years, and guess what? No trail to be seen.
Next year the City is planning on spending $250,000 of Park Dwelling fees on three projects: $50K on Misc. Maintenance on Park Facilities – a misuse of Park Dwelling Fees, by the way; $100,000 on the Bastanchury Greenbelt; and another $100K on the Valley View Hillcrest Park kiddie playground. There is nothing shown in the out years at all.
There is no mention of the Trail to Nowhere at all. Zip. Nada. How come? I don’t know.
I also notice that the UP Park Reconstruction is shown on the website CIP map.
Highly unlikely…
Starting at the end of August? Oh, c’mon, who’s kidding whom? There’s no mention of this project in the CIP forecast, either.
It looks to me like the Park Dwelling Fees will be tapped out next year. This could be because the gargantuan “Hub” project was granted a delay paying their upfront fees because, well, because who the Hell knows? Ask a City Councilperson when you get a chance.
With Fullerton it’s hard to know what going on because of constant conflicting information between and even from individual departments, out-of-date web pages, and the like.
There’s something cooking here and it doesn’t smell very appetizing.
On Tuesday April 15th, George A. Bushala took to the council chamber podium to again confront Councilman “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra about previous claims made by the Dubious Damascene Doctor.
That man is defaming me!!
In this case, Bushala reminded everyone that Zahra had previously claimed he had been “exonerated” in the assault and battery case against “Monica F.” he was charged with by the District Attorney in 2020. He made this claim from the council dais itself.
Naturally, Zahra has never provided the public with a shred of evidence of this so called exoneration, something that should be simple to do, since if it were true he would certainly have some notification of such by the DA.
Now we know two things about these sorts of legal proceedings. First, law enforcement may drop a case, but it never exculpates anybody, primarily because it can’t do such a thing. Second we also know that first time offenders can plead guilty and have their records whitewashed.
Mr. Bushala is perfectly right in challenging Zahra to prove his exoneration if such a thing ever really happened (or at the very least show proof that the case was dropped). Failing that Fullerton residents are justified in concluding that Zahra was not exonerated, or even cleared of charges, but instead pleaded guilty to get his record sealed.
I get the feeling that for Mr. Bushala the enmity that Zahra has shown his family is not going to fly anymore without considerable pushback. There is still a lot Zahra needs to answer for, and since the Fullerton Observer Kennedy Sisters are perfectly willing to take him at his duplicitous word, questions will continue to be raised about his fitness for office.
On March 21, 2025, John Kiger, a 75-year-old retired pool man, husband, grandfather, surfer, former local resident, and father of former Fullerton City CouncilmanTravis Kiger, was surfing at the famous Southern California surf spot, Trestles. After getting out of the water, he spotted a wanted criminal. The suspect, 35-year-old Moses Paulisin, was armed and on the run for the attempted murder of a Orange County Deputy Sheriff.
A manhunt for Paulisin was well-underway by all Southern California law enforcement agencies. Kiger bravely approached the suspect to confirm his identity and he subsequently notified authorities and awaited their arrival.
Kiger was later awarded a certificate of courage by the City of San Clemente for his exceptional assistance to the sheriff’s department in apprehending the attempted murder suspect and securing his arrest.
A couple days later, as FFFF shared, Skasika Kennedy recreated public comments (erroneously, of course) and added her typical “editor’s note” at the end of Bushala’s statement, bragging about standing up to his falsehoods.
It turns out that Bushala is not going to take this defamation lying down, and has retained counsel by the name of Briggs Alexander. This firm sent the following letter to Skakia Kennedy yesterday calling out her failure to show wherein Bushala had lied, and demanding that she reproduce (without editorial comment) a letter from young Bushala in lieu of facing legal action for libel.
Wow. Suggesting that the Kennedy Sisters behave like responsible journalists and quit defaming citizens. What a novel concept.
The look of vacant self-satisfaction…
It’s pretty sad when it takes this sort of effort to get people who call you a liar to prove where the lies are. In this instance there are no lies since the documents detailing Zahra’s dubious slime trail across the United States have been published right here on FFFF. Of course the Kennedy’s have no interest in the truth and are completely enveloped by their ideological miasma in which truth is whatever helps you feel good about your cherished ideals; okay for private rumination, possibly costly in a public forum.
A guy named Jesse La Tour has a website that includes lots of news pictorial history of Fullerton. You may remember Mr. La Tour from his days as editor of the Fullerton Observer when he actually brought a sense of fairness to the rag but left, or was pushed out when Skasia Kennedy took over the family red ink business. Before that La Tour was a bookstore/gallery operator downtown and was a council candidate in 2010.
It’s interesting to see the origins of small, agricultural Fullerton include racist, anti-Chinese, anti-Japanese, and and anti-Mexican hysteria.
Observer Hyperventilation, a permanent condition, apparently…
Mr. La Tours photo collection goes all the way into the 90s with examples of Fullerton Observer “progressivism” under Ralph Kennedy, pater familias of the dismal clan.
Anyway, there’s a lot of distilled information here, although the site strikes me as a bit more of a chronicle than an historical analysis. Still, Mr. La Tour must have arrived at some definite conclusions about why our town is the way it is, and seemingly always has been.
Last fall a silly committee was created by the City Council to pretend to explore ways to raise Fullerton’s public revenue. It’s gone by the hopeful name “Fiscal Sustainability Committee.”
No one really believed this “ad hoc” committee was meant to do anything but to propose some sort of sales tax increase, and that’s exactly what they did this week at what looked to be their final meeting. Of course there were only 4 members present and they split on whether to propose a general sales tax increase or special sales taxes aimed at “public safety” and infrastructure.
But this predictable and inconclusive conclusion is not what my post is about.
This post is about a guy named Derek Smith, one of the appointees to this committee, lifted out of obscurity by none other than Councilman “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra.
Guess what a very quick search reveals? Smith was not a random appointment based on apparent fiscal experience. Derek Smith is the political operative for the UFCW 324, the grocery store worker’s local union. Does that ring a bell? It should. Derek was clearly the mastermind of the national HQ’s $60,000 contribution to an “independent” political action committee dedicated to electing Vivian Kitty Jaramillo last fall. The origin of that money suggests a much darker source: the local SoCal MJ dispensary cartel.
That’s a lot of green from the produce section. How come? Because the OCFW 324 represents workers in the local marijuana dispensary business, part of a wider cartel that has been trying, with the help of Ahmad Zahra, to crack into Fullerton for several years. Jaramillo was going to be their Golden Ticket for a revived marijuana ordinance.
So Smith’s real fiscal experience consists of blowing $60K of somebody else’s cabbage on the S.S. Jaramillo.
Backscratching is fun – with other people’s money…
Back to Fullerton, Cannabis Jaramillo’s loss to Jamie Valencia was disastrous to Zahra in so many ways, not the least of which could his apparent utility to the MJ cartel.
Anyhow, at the end of the meeting Smith voted to recommend a general sales tax increase for Fullerton to deal with our fiscal crisis, although in the front of his mind must surely have been the idea revenue from the sale of cannabis products – good for the budget, good for his union.
And last year we were number 29, among Orange County’s 34 cities based on per capita unrestricted net positions (UNP).
FFFF’s Bureau of Data & Statistics (FFFFBDS) was presented the following chart produced by the California Policy Center, a conservative think tank who tracks such things.
Keep going to toward the bottom…
Ouch. Fullerton is way down there at the bottom – each citizen being in the red for $1050 – based on 2023 numbers from the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. We are better off than Orange, Costa Mesa, Anaheim and Santa Ana.
Pretty soon Fullerton is going to have to pay the piper and we will be presented, once again, with a Measure S-type sales tax increase in the 13% range. The question is whether such a tax can pass at an election. A General Tax only needs 50%+1 but may be a tough sell; a special tax – for infrastructure, say – requires 67% a harder nut, but one where people can see what they’re getting.
Accountability? It was never on the agenda.
An infrastructures tax does noting to alleviate Fullerton’s chronic financial mismanagement under Fitzgerald, Flory, Zahra, Quirk-Silva and Charles. It’s very clear that the liberals on the Council want the tax that eluded them in 2020.
Ideas, anyone? Anyone else?
But what about Jung and Dunlap? They are no longer able to distance themselves from Fullerton’s fiscal cliff having now been around for over four years. What have they done to ameliorate the chronic shortfall? The answer is nothing. For years the sleepy Bruce Whitaker voted no on annual budgets and he never bothered to put much thought into solving the problem.
Then there’s newcomer Jamie Valencia who’s not responsible for any part of the problem – yet. Will she go for a tax on the ballot? Her public safety union supporters will push her. Does she even understand the magnitude of Fullerton’s mismanagement? I wonder.
In defeat, malice…
Of course we may be grateful that Valencia’s opponent didn’t win. Then a sales tax would have been inevitable.
You know when last week’s volunteer proposal to put public employees in ambulances popped up, I had to smile, just a little. The whole thing was so shaky, so duplicitous, so-ill conceived that you had to admire how the Heroes were able to so easily put up a hollow con job that a little kid, unlike our City Council, would question.
Of course the interests of the Fire Department and its employees jumped ahead of the interests of the citizenry.
And then it struck me. There are all sorts of ways our elected officials put others’ welfare ahead of the public, and nowhere is this better seen than in the way massive development projects that overwhelm Fullerton’s landscape. There is never any dissent. The councilpeople fall all over themselves to approve giant cliff dwellings for no discernable reason other than someone wants to do something to make a shitpile of money, and City staff gets to charge hours against fees and permits.
In short: no one is looking out for the interests of the people as the infrastructure gets taxed, neighborhoods get overwhelmed, and parking deficiencies are assumed by everybody – except the developer – who comes up with the best tale about why his project doesn’t need cars.
Which brings me, finally to the god-awful monstrosity going up on Chapman Avenue. I think it’s called “The Hub” a pathetic marketing tag that the developer hopes will generate buzz among the crowd that can afford a $3000 per month one bedroom apartment.
Just look at this hideous cliff-dwelling, which must now be the tallest residential building in Fullerton. Seven stories, eight stories? Forget about how this project was completely deficient in parking and how it’s going to impact traffic for everybody who uses the Chapman corridor. Think about the thousands of toilet flushes into the City’s sewers every day; think about the stress on Fullerton’s antique water transmission system needed to bathe these new residents and wash their clothes. Just think about the poor bastards who live across the street and will get to ponder this ponderous pile of overbearing, overbuilt, over-dense, under thought-out mess – for the rest of their lives.
Monster
Remember, Friends, this project, just like so many before it was a voluntary erection on the part of the City, rubber stamped by the people we elected. Nobody forced anyone to vote yes on this, but they all did, and they would all do so again. And they looked the other way as the burden of environmental impacts were shifted to the public. This project required General Plan Amendments and zone changes. These government entitlements are worth a fortune to a developer and that benefit reflects the shift of negative externalities to everybody else. What did the people of Fullerton get for the entitlements giveaways?
So take a drive along Chapman one of these days and see if you think our City Council is working for you…or somebody else.
