DICK JONES VECTOR WATCH – REPORTING OUT (the day after)

After a month of speculation, Councilman Dick Jones did reappear as Fullerton’s representative at the Orange County Vector Control District meeting held yesterday (to the uninformed—vectors are mosquitoes, fire ants, killer bees, rats, flies and other living things that really bug people).

At the May meeting, other city rep’s were abuzz at Jones’ Texas-twanged tirade that interrupted a staff presentation on property assessments. Bored, angered and irritated at all the background info he was getting, he suddenly cried out—“ENOUGH, ENOUGH, FOR GOD’S SAKE!”

Jones nearly went off again, reported on-the-scene witnesses. After the Staff presented its recommendation on the assessments, Laguna Niguel Mayor Robert Ming presented an alternate motion, and passed out a written copy to the Board. This flustered Jones, who is used to the well-scripted staff motions of the Fullerton City Council. To Mayor Ming, he sarcastically yelled out “OH—YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO READ IT NOW?”.

There was tension in the room, as Board Members feared another meltdown. Ming calmed the threatening waters when he replied “Well, yes, it’s only one paragraph long”. The motion set higher standards of accountability than did the staff recommendation.

Whether Jones read the motion or not, we’ll never know. He didn’t vote for it, as did only 8 of the 31 Board Members (including Ming, Moorlach and Buena Parks Jim Dow). In a second vote, the staff recommendation was approved. People in Orange County politics must believe that Fullerton is a joke of a city with this kind of representation.