State Assemblyman Norby Settles Santa Fe Lease Issue
Here’s a copy of a letter to The Fullerton Observer by our State Assemblyman, Chris Norby, who puts the lie to the notion that Tony Bushala got some oct of subsidy in his lease deal with the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency. It’s funny how those who have routinely handed out millions in corporate welfare to their pals and cronies have chosen to attack Tony for actually paying to renovate the City-owned building!
Well, such are politics. The anti-recall crew are incapable of defending the Three Dessicated Dinosaurs so they have to attack the messenger of the Recall. Anyway, here’s Norby’s letter:
Santa Fe Depot Redevelopment Deal the Best We Could Get
I hesitate to get in the middle of your lively give-and-take with Tony Bushala (Mid-Sept Observer page 9 “Redevelopment Foe Also a Recipient,” and the Early October page 2 Rebuttal ).
However, since I was one of five Fullerton City Councilmembers (including Don Bankhead, Molly McClanahan, Buck Catlin, and Richard Ackerman) voting to approve the old Santa Fe Depot lease, allow me to defend our action.
That lease was the only way to save the historic structure from demolition and make an outdated building commercially viable.
In 1987, the Santa Fe Railroad sold the depot to a private developer who then sought a demolition permit. To avert its razing, the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency acquired the depot and sought bids for those who could preserve, restore and operate it. Agency staff recommended that the Bushala Brothers, Inc. (BBI) be awarded the project.
BBI was the only firm not requesting public subsidies. It offered a $41,000 up front payment to the agency plus $340,000 to restore the building to its original condition. As BBI had just completed an award-winning restoration of the old Ice House (just across the tracks from the depot) it was well qualified. When the depot restoration actually cost $540,000, the overruns were covered by BBI.
BBI also applied for and received the depot’s recognition on the National Registration of Historic Buildings and Places.
The monthly lease payment to the agency is $1,326, which is adjusted annually for inflation. While the Observer contends this is below market rate, it was the best offer we had at the time to restore this historic building. In addition, BBI pays $12,000 annually in building maintenance and for all property taxes and insurance.
The agency retained all rental income from Amtrak for the waiting room and ticketing areas. The rest of the depot was largely baggage storage rooms and an abandoned loading dock – areas difficult to lease out.
I have been critical of redevelopment agencies’ abuse of eminent domain, handouts to developers and diversion of property taxes from public schools. However, I have voted for agency-funded public projects (roads, parks, libraries) and for the preservation of historic buildings, such as the Santa Fe Depot.
One could argue that an old depot was not worth the public investment. However, given the council’s commitment to save the structure, I believe this was the best deal we had.
Chris Norby Fullerton Current California Assemblymember and former Fullerton City Council & Redevelopment Agency Member, 1984-2002
Norby is an Assemblyman, not a Senator — and a damned poor one.
Fixed.
“oct of subsidy”…what is a oct?
Isn’t it ironic that instead of running on their own records, as you would think incumbents would normally do, our soon-to-be-recalled Councilmen campaign on the purported issue of the profits that Tony Bushala will somehow magically conjure up if candidates he supports replace them.
But there has never been even one scintilla of evidence presented to support this point of view. In fact, as Norby’s letter indicates, the one major deal between the Bushala Brothers firm and the City was seemingly advantageous to the city. $200,000 cost overun covered by the Bushala Brothers? Not exactly a public fleecing.
Come on anti-recallers. Run on all the wonderful things that Jones, McKinley and Bankhead have has done for the residents of Fullerton.
I hate to keep using this but…
Cue the crickets
JT I’ve said from the start, this whole thing is going to be tough for the FFFF team. No matter what happens and what anyone says, people will always just say this is Bushala and his klan trying to ride the backs of Kelly to get more power and accomplish what they have been trying to do for years. Get their people in office and get the people that Tony hates out of office. It’s going to be a tough fight for sure and there is no way for anyone to convince most people that this isn’t a agenda by Bushala’s klan to get his own people in office.
Wrong. Most people don’t know Tony; and the ones that do know he’s done more for Fullerton than the Three Chimps – who’ve never done anything for Fullerton without getting paid for it.
Wait until the Recall campaign starts. You can forget all about KT, because it’s all going to be projects for campaign donors, the 10% water tax, redevelopment scams, and of course pensions/pension reform.
The Three Cretaceous Cretins are going to fold up like a cheap card table.
Looking forward to watching it all play out.
RI, your constant harping on Tony Bushala and his alleged conspiracy to take over the city council paints you in the same corner as the moonbats on Fox ‘News’ Channel.
You haven’t offered any evidence to back up your claims, despite numerous requests for you to do so.
The proven facts show the Bushala Bros restoration put quite a bit of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, into the Fullerton city coffers. As opposed to the millions of dollars being paid out by dirty cops lawsuits.
If you and the lackeys who post with you were truly interested in the welfare of Fullerton you’d see that you’re destroying any hopes of a downtown revival. The stench of corruption can be smelled all the way to Rancho Cucamonga.
I don’t know what it is about conservatives and scandals (can you hear the Herman Cain campaign going down in a screaming nose dive?), but it’s the best reality show out there.
I’m familiar with some of the names in Rancho Cucamonga. Can you name names?
No thanks. I’d be more inclined to talk about Montebello if the time comes.
Harping. I just think that his motivation to recall and oust is because he hasn’t got what he desires in terms of Fullerton business and politics. He wants revenge. Always has. He sees this as the time he might get some help so he’s taking it. Nothing wrong with it. It is what it is. Anyone would do it. Just admit it. 🙂
I respect your opinion, but I think it’s wrong. I don’t know Tony Bushala personally, nor do I have any types of dealings with him. But from what I’ve read on this blog and verified to be fact, his seems to be a sincere desire to clean up the trash heap that’s accumulated in city hall politics.
Your motivations seem very murky by comparison. There seems to be an allegiance on your part to Florentine. Since you haven’t responded to repeated requests to explain that, I’m left free to speculate. And I speculate the root of the attraction runs through FPD, the 3 cysts on the city council, and over to Florentino.
I have no clue who Florentine is and haver never used that name. Maybe you are talking to someone else LOL.
A lot of the people I know that support the recall don’t even know who Tony is.
There are a lot of quiet people out there, people with families who don’t go to protests and don’t spend much time reading blogs, who were just outraged beyond belief by the Kelly Thomas killing AND by the City’s reaction, or lack of reaction.
The major issue for most of the voters is going to be the violence of the Fullerton Police Department and the three soon-to-be-recalled Councilmen’s failure to address or even admit that police violence in Fullerton is part of a longstanding pattern.
People can forgive cronyism in politics because they’re so used to it (which is a shame by the way!). What they cannot forgive is a City Council which encouraged or allowed a Police Department to get so out-of-hand that it thought that murdering an unarmed man was just business as usual. Especially when so many people have their own stories to share about the unprofessional conduct of the Fullerton police. This community thinks that our students, children, parents, brothers and sisters deserve better than that.
Add on McKinley’s comments basically excusing sexual assault by one of his officers and then calling his PD “magnificent” and that should be all she wrote. Its just a matter of getting that info out to the voters at this point.
The recall campaign should stress:
1. An out of control police department
2. created by McKinley with the others’ support
3. the list of crimes commited by officers in the dept, culminating in Kelly Thomas’s death
4. the lack of punishment or discipline or essentially any actions taken to stop this pattern of PD crimes
5. the serious threat to public safety posed BY THE POLICE because of the above.
This recall should be about the security and safety of the people of Fullerton, threatened by the arrogance of their City Council who have created a monster in the FPD. The fiscal issues should be part of the campaign as well, but I would bet for most voters the horror of the crimes committed by the FPD is the top story.
If everything you say is fact, then I agree 100%. I still think it should be all 5 and not 3. All 5 makes much more sense. No one can sell that those 2 have done anything more than the other 3. It’s all or none in my eyes.
Then again, Reality is, you may be ignoring the fact that people are far more tired of Dave Ellis than they are of Tony Bushala. Dave Ellis is thumping and thumping and thumping at the anti-Bushala campaign. Just wait until Bushala starts letting the public know who Dave Ellis is!
I particularly like the post-mortum on the Norby-Ackerman campaign where Chris Norby’s campaign manager boasts about the win over Linda Ackerman and states that Chris had to disassociate himself from the negative ads put out by Ellis to beat Ackerman. Now Dick Ackerman is using Ellis to try to tarnish Tony Bushala to save the three blind mice.
I am REALLY looking forward to the day when Bushala educates the public as to how the cabal has been manipulating the system for all of these years.
By the way, Ellis, if you escape Bushala, be sure that the guns are being trained on you here in the Inland Empire too. Ever consider moving to Chicago, or New York, or New Jersey? You might fit in better there.
I need to google Ellis. Tony or Chris think I’m Ellis or Ellis is driving my comments. I know a ton of Upland and Rancho people but never heard of Ellis.
WOW. Its like having my own research department!
# 13 Steve Brow, was it not Dave Ellis of Hart & Ellis, in the 90’s Laundering campaign money in San Bernadino and were raided here in the OC. Must check the files?
Given the shitstorm coming down the pike for the various insiders implicated in the attempted Great Swindle of the Orange County Fairgrounds, we figure it’s time to start introducing some of the players whose names you’ll be hearing a lot in the news in the coming months. And current Fair Board chairman Dave Ellis is one such character who’s been particularly fascinating to me for a long time now. Publicity-shy, he’s conducted his 25-year political career as much as possible in the shadows. (He now prefers to be called “David,” probably because it’s even harder to google.)
Ellis
Why is it, I wondered, that so many people – of every political persuasion – say things about Dave like:
“That was the sleaziest political operative in Orange County who just walked past.”
– a long-time Newport Beach Republican activist.
“I shook his hand and then looked for some hand sanitizer.”
– Geoff “Pot Stirrer” West, conservative blogger of “A Bubbling Cauldron.”
“It’s impossible to insult Dave Ellis: He lives in the sewer, he knows that he lives in the sewer, and he’s proud of living in the sewer.”
– a colleague who has worked with Dave for years.
I knew I needed more details! But even the most cursory sketch of the man’s quarter-century political career quickly bloats into an encyclopedia of OC GOP corruption and scandal. At all the great moments – from the 1994 bankruptcy, to the attempt to foist an El Toro International Airport on the public, right up to this year’s Fairgrounds Swindle – Dave Ellis was there in the center, pulling strings, raking in bank, and chuckling to himself.
I’m glad it’s impossible to insult Dave Ellis, because I want to do a complete portrait of him, warts and all (or should I avoid redundance and just say “warts?”) And why should he feel insulted anyway, given that what most of us would consider misdeeds, Dave considers great successes!
“Cutthroat” Consulting, 1985 to present.
Newport Beach is a Republican universe. Hence, not only are Dave’s clients all Republicans, the folks he attacks, the enemies he’s made, are also mostly all Republicans. OJ blogger Ron Winship, a former council candidate and victim of Dave’s, tells me that if you’re not on Dave’s team, you’d better be expecting a scurrilous and deceptive attack mailer a few days before the election, leaving you no time to respond.
Here’s one typical dirty trick Dave played on behalf of one of his Newport Beach clients: In the 2002 council race there was an anti-development slate known as the “Greenlight Committee.” (One constant seems dependable: Dave is always on the side of unlimited development, and politicians with that philosophy tend to be the ones to hire him.) That year, Dave’s pro-development client Gary Adams was in danger of being defeated by his Greenlight opponent Richard Taylor.
So Dave, without Adams’ knowledge (and improperly using his “Airport Working Group” connections) created a totally deceptive robo-call message that went out to thousands of NB voters in the last few days before the election, claiming 3rd candidate Ron Winship was the “Greenlight candidate” and encouraging all anti-development Newporters to “vote for Greenlight candidate Ron Winship.” This successfully split the anti-development vote and drained enough votes from Taylor to Winship to throw the election to Adams.
Typically, when asked if he was responsible for this lying robo-call, the mendacious Ellis laughed heartily and denied it – twice. But after Taylor hired a detective who tracked the message down to the “Airport Working Group” (which was practically synonymous with Dave) he copped to having “created” the message, but protested that he never “authorized” its being released, blaming THAT on “the vendor.” Yes, and the impeccable Dave Ellis has some prime beach-front property in Costa Mesa to sell you.
Apparently Dave was forced to go “talk to the DA” about this whole affair. (Picture a few cozy moments confiding in a Father Confessor, followed by martinis and backslaps.) The main reason this story got as much press as it did is because Mayor Adams, unaware of the trick played on his behalf and mortified to have won in such an underhanded way, went on to craft a law to prevent such abuses in the future.
*
People who’ve been inside Dave’s office tell me that, like a safari hunter with stuffed heads adorning the walls, his rooms are wallpapered with his trademark “Eleventh-Hour Hit Pieces.” The kind that usually spell success for Dave’s clients. The kind that (I imagine) drove his longtime partner Scott Hart to sever ties with him ten years ago (or am I just projecting the relief in Scott’s voice in this article?) The kind that drove the beloved Barbara Venezia out of politics in 2006, to put and end to the savage attacks on her husband. By the way, two years later Babs struck back with this pricelessly catty passage in her Register column:
Campaign season delivers more than money for campaign consultants. A winning candidate equals access and influence.
When it’s not election year, many are consultants for the building industry.
Historically, it’s almost impossible to get elected if you don’t tap into building industry funding and support.
But consultants are hired guns; they work for and against cities, depending on the issue and who hires them. They’re lobbying the same people they helped get elected.
Many question this incestuous relationship and say it’s not a recipe for success for residents of any city.
For example, on the Newport Beach City Council, everyone with the exception of Nancy Gardner has at one time been represented by consultant Dave Ellis.
But those hiring Ellis this round may find him distracted as election day nears. His wife’s arraignment on drunk driving charges is Wednesday. She was arrested July 27 after reportedly leaving the Orange County Fair pulling the “Do you know who my husband is?” routine with the officer.
It’ll be interesting to see where Ellis’ influence lies. My guess is his strategy will start by attacking the officer’s reputation. Oddly enough, his wife’s name was not in the DUI listings regularly posted in the Daily Pilot.
*
But if a shark was to be jumped in Newport, Dave jumped it last Fall with his attack on the highly respected council candidate, architect, and former Reagan education adviser Rush Hill. With the City of Bell’s scandals fresh in the public’s mind, and a couple of unions ONE union (firefighters) backing honest, well-known conservative Hill over Dave’s client Ed Reno, Dave cobbled together a masterpiece so absurd that it backfired and assured Hill’s election. Readers, behold the “Bell-By-the-Bay” mailer! (Thanks for the PDF, Rush.)
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 – 06:30 p.m.
Last Modified: March 9, 2011 – 12:35 p.m.
Information is starting to spill out as federal agents and prosecutors bear down on political and governmental activities in San Bernardino County.
And what is being said is alarming.
A common and also troubling thread within the information coming to light is none other than O.C.-based consultant David Ellis, owner of Delta Partners LLC and The David Ellis Group.
Ellis
Ellis, a long-time political operative in both the O.C. and Inland Empire, has a reputation for a “Take no prisoners.” or “It’s better to do it and ask for forgiveness later” attitude.
It’s an attitude that has kept him on the outer fringe of regulatory and legal hassles.
Ellis is also the current chairman of the Orange County Fair Board.
However all of this may soon change.
In San Bernardino County, Ellis has no problem letting it be known that he’s the political right arm of District Attorney Mike Ramos.
A position which clearly has given him broad latitude in operating in the county unchecked.
A relationship Ellis has been able to parlay into handsome “no-bid” contracts from the San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA) and Yucaipa Valley Water District.
However, what’s coming to light now is more than just politics as usual.
An individual using the power of government in plotting to neutralize political speech, in other words donors, while favoring his allies is different.
It’s the type of activity which leads to leveraging the power of law enforcement in a highly unethical and potentially illegal manner.
All with the cover, protection and blessing of a county prosecutor.
City of Upland
First, it has become known that Ellis was heavily involved in the 2008 mayoral and city council election campaigns in Upland.
A successful campaign which opposed recently-appointed Upland Mayor Ray Musser, while supporting indicted Mayor John “J.P.” Pomierski and sitting councilman Ken Willis.
A campaign where Ellis’ connection to Ramos was employed.
Sources are telling InlandPolitics.com that behind the scenes in the Pomierski-Willis campaign was the Lewis Group of Companies.
The Lewis Group of Companies is a billion dollar plus developer headquartered in Upland.
The Lewis Group is also a strong ally and donor to Ramos.
Apparently, in 2008, Ellis made verbal agreements with the late David Lewis, to keep the Lewis name “visibly” out of the election.
Ellis was successful. No one knew of the Lewis Group’s backing of Pomierski and Willis.
Lewis, an executive-vice president and one heir to the family fortune, who several sources report, was cooperating as an informant in an ongoing investigation into county corruption, committed suicide at his Las Vegas home last year.
An terrible event that was barely covered by the local media. It seems the Lewis family worked frantically to make the news of the young executives passing fade quickly.
And it did.
Very few in Upland political circles believe Lewis killed himself. The common speculation is his death was a homicide.
A shotgun wound to the chest is very painful and not always immediate. Many agree it’s a method of suicide that seems incompatible to Lewis.
The extent of the Lewis Group’s campaign support is unknown at this time. Only the players, and federal investigators, really know.
Victorville Meltdown
Next we have the City of Victorville. A city currently in financial disarray.
Victorville, in its own way, is a different version of Bell, California.
Many sources believe Ellis client, William “Buck” Johns, President of O.C.-based Inland Energy is a key figure behind Victorville’s financial meltdown.
Those sources are most likely correct in their assumptions.
Johns
Ellis has been Johns’ political operative in Victorville for a significant number of years. The San Bernardino County Grand Jury has reportedly been examining Ellis’ more recent campaign tactics and mailed literature used in Victorville elections.
Multiple investigations involving Victorville’s financial transactions have been ongoing for some time.
However those investigations have garnered a new ally.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the investigatory arm of the U.S. Department of Justice has now joined the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the San Bernardino County Grand Jury, in examining Victorville.
The SEC has been investigating to determine if the city misled bond investors by way of inadequate disclosure of risk.
The USCIS has been investigating the city’s failed EB-5 Worker Visa Program. A program Victorville paid Johns handsomely to initiate.
In what is described as an unusual and rare move, the USCIS terminated the Victorville EB-5 Program late last year.
Recently Victorville Mayor Ryan McEachron, a new-found supporter of Johns, made a public plea to end all the investigations.
A move that reportedly was done at Johns behest.
However the entrance of FBI agents onto the scene makes the motive for McEachron’s actions appear dubious at best.
Sources report one of the focuses of federal investigators is alleged questionable contracts and payments that former city manager Jon Roberts approved at the direction of former Mayor Terry Caldwell.
Payments which benefited Johns and reportedly done without council approval.
Many believe Johns turned Victorville into his own private piggy-bank to the detriment of the city’s residents.
Now it looks like all the feeding at the trough is coming to an end.
Ellis-Johns press for relationship with county
In 2009, Ellis tried to get his friend and client Johns into business with San Bernardino County.
The angle? Propose to bring a waste-to-energy plant as a way to address county landfill problems.
Private meetings to discuss the idea were held with some county supervisors. Ellis, Johns and even Victorville’s Caldwell attended the private meetings.
Caldwell
Eventually the waste-to-energy idea never gained traction and fell away.
Ever since, Johns has been politically pressuring First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt by proposing to running Caldwell to unseat him in 2012.
Representing rave promoter
Ellis also represents businessman Shahvand Aryana.
The source of another questionable matter.
Aryana became embroiled in a battle with the City of Redlands over operating teenage raves at the site of amusement park Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom.
The raves caused major problems for the city as well as the parents of many area teenagers.
Eventually the property owner had to legally take back possession of the park.
The county pension fund
Another cozy relationship for Ellis is his contract with the San Bernardino Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA).
Ellis, who has no investment background, no registration as a placement agent or lobbyist, was awarded a nice “no-bid” contract with the county pension fund to market the fund as a manager of health savings funds for other jurisdictions.
A task which has become much more difficult these days since the performance of SBCERA has fallen to the bottom ten percent of all public pension funds.
SBCERA, with Ellis’ assistance, formed Pacifc Public Partners to legally seperate the pension fund from the new venture.
More to come
What’s about to significantly complicate matters for many players here is the fact that one source says significant court-ordered electronic surveillance has been ongoing for some time now.
Surveillance of the audio recording type.
Sources also indicate some individuals may have crossed the line.
In various conversations, sources say Ellis and his clients discuss political tactics, including active and potential criminal prosecutions, which benefit the political and business interest of his various clients.
The aforementioned, and other conversations involving discussions on how best to impact political and business enemies may come to light shortly.
Expect the FBI stay in San Bernardino County to be protracted.
What “people” will “always say” this is about Bushala? Virtually none? Yeah. Most people don’t know the names of anyone on the council, much less some (no offense) random developer guy, and the anti recall scampaign is so humorously inept I don’t expect that to change one bit.
Clearly the “people” that will “always say” the recall is about Bushala are the “people” being recalled and their 6 supporters.
I find it interesting that rather than defend a record which lasts for decades in Bankhead’s case and 15 years in Jones case, the decision is to focus on a third party. At some point the supporters of the three recall subjects will have to tell us why we should support their boys rather than why we should hate Mr. Bushala.
Childish statement by Reality Is. If it is ‘Bushala klan’ then
the existing are Mafia…
True that.
This is something I (and, I think, other Fullertonians) have been unclear on:
Tony, you paid the city buckets of cash to renovate the depot, and the city retains the rental income from Amtrak, so how do you recoup your costs? Do you receive the rental income from non-Amtrak portions of the depot (i.e. office space, the cafe, etc.?)
Yep, the cafe, the upstairs office and the area across the breezeway is in our lease.
The loading dock can’t be developed as-is because nothing east of the centerline of Pomona is included in the lease.
That’s what I figured. As a Fullerton tax-payer, that sounds like a win-win to me.
The Rejects of the “Reject the Recall” committee have enlisted the endorsements of Former Fullerton mayors:
Buck Catlin
Molly McClanahan
Dick Ackerman
and of course Bankhead.
The funniest thing is that these are the same boobs were the ones that voted to enter the 35 year lease with Tony Bushala to begin with.
Why now are they saying he fleeced the city? Shouldn’t they have realized then the fix was in when they voted to enter into a long term lease with Tony? Yes.
The link below is a copy of the flyer they have sent out telling people that Tony fleeced Fullerton. Hello!
http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Recall-Invite-Full.jpg
Why doesn’t someone just ask at the next city council meeting why they agreed to this lease?
What was the reasoning in the first place?
Same reason that the 2 council people say they didn’t mean to vote along the lines of the other 3 in the past? I think politicians always have a way to get around past votes or support. They just refer to further research or changes in the way people acted after. Happens all the time. Politics is a nasty game. Fullerton will get really nasty in the future with the battle lines drawn between Bushala and his klan, and the current council. I just wonder when they will try to toss all 5 out instead of picking and choosing the people they want out.
Maybe because only three ran for office pretending to be something they are not: coherent, competent, conservative.
Please don’t try to tell us how politics works in Fullerton. I believe these Fullerton folks have recalled three baboons once before not that long ago, so they know exactly how it works.
Good luck. 🙂
I resent such a racist term being used, Reality Is. Please do not refer to anyone supporting the recall using such racist terms again.
It’s not racist and its the name for them.
Uhhhhh, Klan?
I learn a new thing everyday. I had no idea it was racist. I learned another thing too. I always thought it was the Klu Klux Klan. It’s the Ku Klux Klan. I used Klan in those terms thinking of a group focused on the ultimate goal with no care for anything that gets in the way. That’s how I was using it here. I looked up the definition and it’s not even a word. Strictly for the KKK. Thanks for the lesson.
Huh?
Klan=racist term (to me)
I have friends of various races=please don’t use that term on any cause that I feel is a good one
Personally, I have critized Whitaker and Quirk-Silva for not demanding to see the “city video” and I still hold that position. But these two at least made statements to note that things may not be all they should be. McKinley has taken every opportunity to defend the police actions as far as he could. Bankhead and particularly Jones have taken every opportunity to support the status quo, often through silence.
That’s not enough. Clean house. She could have demanded all she wanted she still wouldn’t see it or get it. Clean em all out. All or nothing.
Molly McClanahan that liberal woman actually signed up for the Reject the Recall? What is she doing in bed with that group of guys + the 3 blind ol mice on city council?
Is that Norby’s punching bag standing next to him at the swearing in, wiith his other hand on a stack of Bushal’s money?
Let me guess: Coffman or Goodbar.
I’m sorry that other hand is resting not only on Bushals bag of money but comingled with money from the states drug traffickers. The Feds are not happy with Mr. Norby’s effort to undermine Federal law. Maybe a Federal indictment is coming soon for our great leader?
Chris Norby, the Republican state assembly member from Fullerton, is giving James P. Gray, the former Orange County Superior Court Judge, a run for his money when it comes to providing the conservative voice of marijuana reform. As an LA Times story points out today, there’s a wave of legislation coming out of Sacramento that seeks to stem the tide of medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state and many of the bills are backed by Democrats like Lou Correa, who wants to ban pot clubs from operating within 600 feet of a home.
In Norby’s view, the various bills represent a “disconnect” between politicians and the public, which voted to legalize marijuana for medical use 15 years ago and continues to support a more lenient approach to enforcing pot laws. In that sense, Norby is allied with the most progressive liberal legislators on this issue in the entire state, Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) who has unsuccessfully pushed for legislation to allow prosecutors to charge small-scale marijuana cultivators with misdemeanors rather than felonies.
In Fullerton we have a municipally sponsored snuff film, ABC licenses handed out like lolipops on halloween yielding 40+ bars full of liquored up drunk kids, driving drunk, illegal taxes, empty buildings, homelessness, police brutality, false police reports……. I am so happy that we get all this for just TWO HUNDRED PLUS MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR??? What a deal huh? Such leadership. You are worried about pot smokers? We need an incubator to get your IQ back above room temperature. LE’s pulling down a six figure income to beat a person to death resulting in a seven figure payout and to top it off pay an ex honcho a seven figure retirement to cover it up. You are worried about NORBYS BONG? What’s in yours?
C – R – A – C – K
most of what you said wont change. Maybe hire a security firm to police the city and you can change part of it? Otherwise without state level changes, your pay and retirement are only changing as they do across the state and consistent with PERS changes.
Things will change . Elections and currency devaluations have a strange impact on societies . There is a reset button .
Think how many fewer LEOs we need after marijuana legalization.
It’s all about protecting their turf.
That ain’t gonna happen. I heard them ask the Occupy LA people about that last night. Are you staying until they legalize marijuana? Even they knew that won’t happen.
Staying right at home. The point is LEOs are opposed to legalizing marijuana because that equals less crime, which equals less work, overtime pay, and fewer scared citizens who want to hire more cops and pay them more.
Not legalizing it means more Mexican drug cartels.
Just sayin’
Not true. Weed is nothing. Weed sales not a big issue. Here and there but nothing like meth and crack. There’s no OT anymore anyways and I don’t think citizens care about weed either. They do care about crack and meth. The major narcotics units of police are the busiest and most active police around these days. Behind the scenes work that no one sees much of but a huge part of LE.
Never been more supportive of Norby after hearing that. Thanks for the info.
His hand is on the Authorized Version. What is your hand on?
Rut Roh…this was the anti-recall group’s smoking gun, wasn’t it? Doh!
(Some words used to help the intellectually-challenged grasp adult blogs.)
You are just figuring that one out..It was Tony’s plan from the begining.
No I’ve always known that.
Good advise!!
Won’t happen. 5 of the type they want isn’t possible. 3 is possible, but not feasible. Tough decisions for Tony’s clan.
Thanks for gettin’ rid of the k. 🙂
I could of sworn you had always known that..but it has to be repeated to get it through some thick skulls.
True that. 🙂
Is this Mister Stinkypig stalking me again? I guess it’s time to wipe my hard drive to remove your spyware.
Self-professed celebrity hacker Christopher Chaney is all set to enter a plea in the case that could send him to prison for 121 years … but Chris’ family is adamant, he doesn’t belong behind bars.
One of Chris’ family members tells TMZ, “Chris was only one of the hackers — and he wasn’t even the main guy. There were a lot of people involved. Chris just happened to stumble along and get involved as well.”
The family member adds, “They are making an example out of him … The law hasn’t caught the big guys yet.”
Chris’ mom tells us she’s “devastated” — “I’m not going to know what to do if my baby goes to jail … He’s a good kid. The media has painted him to be this monster and he’s not. There was no profit in what he did. He just got caught up with this whole thing. It was like a game.”
Chris faces 121 years in prison for allegedly hacking multiple celebrities’ email accounts.
Kid goes to jail for 121 years for hacking into cellphones. Fullerton pigs beat a homeless man to death in the street and get charged with manslaughter – if we’re lucky they’ll get at least 2 years in prison.
The silver lining is they’ll most likely be beat to death in prison.
oink! oink! (*crack!*) (*thud!*) “unngh….”
Whatcha hacked, hon?
Oink.
Oink. 🙂