Rusty’s Bank Account
A while back some anonymous Friend dropped off what appears to be leaked financial statements from Rusty Kennedy’s non-profit, the Orange County Human Relations Council. The files didn’t receive much attention from FFFF at the time, but this week one of our readers recently pointed out Rusty has been down at the county begging for a new $250,000 infusion to fund additional employees for his private non-profit.
OK, let’s take a look at his financial statements. If you believe that this leaked budget is authentic (I do), an additional $250,000 per year from the county taxpayers would conveniently cover the Council’s projected loss for 2016.
Now that’s not very good, is it? Running a non-profit at a 20% annual loss is cause for concern. But of course this is a private 501(c)(3), so that’s normally a problem for Rusty’s private board members to worry about.
Or is it? What if Rusty is groveling for cash at the county just pay for existing expenses, rather than hiring the three new people as promised? The group already receives substantial funding from the county and local cities. Why should the county give more money to a group that can’t balance its budget? Furthermore, it’s hard to tell if there’s any real value in Rusty’s services, or if his organization offers any sort of efficiency. Program expenses aren’t identified in this budget at all. Why not?
Here’s one clue hidden within the documents: Salaries, Benefits, and Payroll Taxes account for 98.1% of their budgeted revenue. With salaries eating up the entire budget, one might wonder if this whole operation isn’t just some make-work project for Rusty and his friends.
There’s one more concern. Rusty has collected a lot of donations over the years by pretending that his non-profit is actually an empowered county agency. Many of his donors are misinformed, which is why the county recently insisted he stop using the county logo and misappropriating the name of the similarly-named Orange County Human Relations Commission. Furthermore, there is at least one board member who hold seats in both organizations – a glaring conflict of interest that the county has yet to resolve.
Altogether, these documents paint a pretty dim picture for Rusty’s personally lucrative public/private amalgamation. Will county supervisors continue to dump money into Kennedy’s opaque and unaccountable mess of an organization? And how much are individual OC cities paying into Rusty’s perpetual self-employment apparatus? Do Orange County residents receive any real value from this public/private partnership, or is it time to scrape this useless barnacle off the county barge?
Rustyleaks! Nice job. This guy is nothing but a blowhard fundraising junkie. How much is he making on his government pension?
If I have the right Russell Kennedy, according to Transparent California he made over $131K last year on his pension.
Russell Kennedy
Pension: $131,080.62
http://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/2016/ocers-orange-county-employees-retirement-system/russell-kennedy/
Yes, and on top of that he gets paid as the Executive Director of the Council, a nice little double-dip arranged to make it look like the work of the Commission was being privatized and the taxpayers were going to be saving something. Now we pay his pension AND his salary.
Of course the real swindle is that neither Council or Commission actually do anything except make their participants feel good about themselves. Some get paid to feel good about themselves.
Rusty can also be called upon to burn up a smoke screen for the police when they murder his clientele. See Kelly Thomas.
Or Manuel Diaz.
Rusty = Police snitch.
The essence of the human relations is to run interference between the police and the people who complain of civil rights abuses committed upon them by OC law enforcement. This explains why OC law enforcement endorses him year after year. The OC human relations facade is grandstanding skewed stats showing tip,of the iceberg hate crimes, awarding human relations awards to their ilk( if I was a true blue good person performing good deeds for society, I would not want my name in Rusty’s mouth.) and showing up for photo ops.
Kennedy must have a disgruntled insider spilling the beans. That’s one sign of a poorly-run charity.
Burying police brutality of the disabled and minorities for pay isn’t much of a charity.
I wonder what Ralphie would think about his kid’s cozy relationship with the cops.
I don’t think Ralphie, the not WW2 veteran, would be ashamed of his son’s duplicitous behavior. After all, the Apple didn’t fall from the tree
$5435 for “conference registration?” What the hell kind of conference charges five grand for registration. What is CAHRO?
What’s the big deal? Fullerton’s budget isn’t balanced either.
Hah. If Fullerton had a 17% planned annual shortfall then its creditors would start calling.
They will in about three years.
Rusty is a saint, toiling tirelessly in the vineyard of the Lord.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
ARE YOU AN INFORMED PERSON……..??? RUSTY IS NOT EVEN IN THE RUNNING FOR NICE PERSON, LET ALONE SAINTHOOD ! I KNOW YOU WERE JOKING.
Can anyone explain why a charity with $1.5 million in the bank would go asking the county for more money?
Maybe that money is reserved for the Executive Director’s deferred compensation package.
With the exception of a short documentary done by our local PBS station on “the life and murder of Kelly Thomas” art exhibit i organized, were Rusty was part of a group discussion, I do not believe he has addressed the darkest moment in Fullerton’s history. And even then he tried to make it about Kelly being homeless not what the police did to this homeless person. I’ve never heard him address the role of the police in this. They are the ones who killed Kelly. He did not die of hunger or exposure, this was not about the him being homeless, this was, as Christ Thompson said on film, ” about having 500 pounds of cop on him” ( actually he had 1,200 pounds of cops on him). Around minute 5, you will hear jan Flory make a harsh statement about the police. This was before she we elected the last time on the council. Once on the council she was wearing her blue “I Love FPD” shirt. Don’t believe me, check it out https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/art-with-an-agenda-an-exhibit-inspired-by-kelly-thomas.
Who invited Flory? By August 2011 she was a full-on FPD stooge.
…Flory appears @4:48 in your clip Bax.
…Rusty Kennedy’s right next to you @4:22.
The sole reason they were there was to provide intel to the McKinley camp.
If you research the Firm 460’s on the city of Fullerton’s web site, you’ll be able to verify that 95% of Jan Flory’s political donations are from the very same campaign donors that ex-Fullrrton PD Chief of Police turned Fullerton city councilman, Pat McKinley.
Bax, if you didn’t see what Rusty and the OCHR and OCHRC did in working with the City of Fullerton after the Kelly Thomas incident then you weren’t paying attention. You can talk to your Mayor and he can fill you in. Bruce was there and knows.
Hey Dumbass,
In case YOU weren’t paying attention BEFORE the Kelly Thomas murder by the FPD, you might want to consult with Rustys old friend, ex-FPD Chief of Police, Pat McKinley.
He can fill you in as to how a 137 pound mentally ill man can be beaten to death by 6 fat pigs, and how your dumb ass friend Rusty Kennedy proceeded to tell the good people of Fullerton that THEY were the reason and they were to blame for the GOD beating a 137 pound shirtless man to death.
Sell your nonsense somewhere else.
…http://www.ocregister.com/2017/06/06/supervisors-vote-down-funding-for-orange-county-human-relations-council-new-vote-to-come-next-week/
KENNEDY WILL BE AT COUNTY HALL OF ADMINISTRATION, WITH HIS GANG TO TRY AND GET BOARD OF SUPERVISORS TO REVERSE DECISION NOT TO GIVE HIM $255,000 CONTRACT. THIS WILL BE ON 6/6/17. EVERYONE SHOULD CALL SUPERVISORS TO VOTE NO ON ITEM 58 . KENNEDY SAYS HE HAS COLLECTED 30 MILLION DOLLARS FOR HIS OCHR…..WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO AND HOW MUCH OF IT CAME FROM TAX PAYERS ? I THINK IT IS TIME FOR AN INVESTIGATION.
Every citizen is a taxpayer so every dollar donated is money from a taxpayer so your insinuation is nonsense. As to where the money went OCHR (a non-government 501c3 non-profit organization) which should not be confused with Orange County Human Relations Commission, a county empowered commission. Orange County Human Relations, a tax exempt non-profit uses the contributed money to pay a staff that teaches over 40,000 teenagers each year about the evils of bullying, of discrimination, of hate in Orange County’s schools. It trains numerous citizens as volunteer mediators who work with the courts to resolve issues between parties in such a way as to keep them from having to go to trial thereby saving the County justice system millions of dollars worth of litigation costs and judgments. It works with citizens and law enforcement agencies in resolving disputes between them a minuscule cost to the County taxpayers versus having to go to court. Several posts talk about the incident in Fullerton several years ago and belittle the actions of the non-profit and the Commission in calming the heated citizen reactions to the shooting, in helping the City of Fullerton implement significant policy and procedures changes in the Fullerton Police Department that have had a positive impact of citizen-police relations in the years following. Each year the Commission reports to every city in the County on the number and nature of hate crimes and incidents that occur in each city so that the cities can evaluate and adjust their policing policies to act upon these events in ways that reduce their occurrence and minimize their negative impact on the citizen taxpayers of these communities. The cost to the County is less than $250,000 per year. That barely pays for the activities of the Commission whose Commissions are appointed by the County Supervisors and who are not paid anything for their service. The non-profit corporation raises it funds from private donors who are taxpayers who recognize the value of its operations. And Rusty does not make $255,000. Whoever gave you that figure made it up. Get your facts straight. I served as a Commissioner for 5 years, never got a penny for doing it, spent hours understanding and dealing with the issues that effected OC citizens, and watched the budget as if the money was my own…and actually it was my own, and yours and I can assure you it was money well spent. You all need to go back to those County Supervisors of so many years ago who created the Commission to see the wisdom of their decision. Ask yourself, what will the cost be to the County when there is no one working to lessen bigotry, no one working with communities to help them resolve racial and social unrest, no one caring about the abused or homeless or victimized in Orange County.