Defender of the Faith
While checking out election disclosure Form 497s yesterday, I noticed that some rich dude named John Phelps had made two significant contributions – maxing out at $5500 apiece for Jan Flory and Vivian Jaramillo.
Obviously that made me wonder who John Phelps is. So I reached out to occasional commenter “Fullerton Old Timer” for a helping hand. Here’s what FOT wrote:
John Phelps is one of the last of the old guard defenders of anything emanating from City Hall bureaucrats. While his clan has been around for a long time he really made his fortune courtesy of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency that helped develop the massive shopping center on the southwest corner of Harbor and Orangethorpe. He is the epitome of the government-aided developer.
He’s been supporting liberal causes for a long time but has been mostly interested on defending the status quo, Democrat or Republican. It’s no wonder he’s digging deep for Flory and Jaramillo, since they represent Fullerton statism, instead of accountability. His name appears on Jaramillo’s list of endorsers where he is erroneously listed as a former mayor. That will never be fixed.
It’s interesting to note that Phelps also gave the max to the pro sales tax, Measure S a few years ago; in 2022 he gave the maximum amount to the prevaricating Ahmad Zahra’s re-election. He will be likely be supporting the sales tax 2.0 as well.
Well there you have it. The Fullerton Circle of Life.
I seem to recall when the head of the Redevelopment Agency gave Phelps a good guy gift of cash because he did such a good job as a dee-veloper.
Phelps is almost 90 years old. He’s probably gumming pudding and trying to remember his name right now but someone has POA and access to his checkbook!
No, he’s a dyed in the wool Fullerton Boohoo Charter member. There aren’t very many left outside the Observer and the Fullerton UU church.
Mayor John Phelps? Somebody got that way wrong. He’s never run for office. You’re right F.O.T – Jaramillo isn’t going to fix that.
Odd that The Observer makes no mention of Flory receiving any money, or nothing over a grand in their piece.
That’s because all the Observer is focused on is Jung’s campaign war chest.
Twelve years ago John Phelps gave Jan Flory $ 10,000.00 for her 2012 council campaign.
Is it the single largest contribution by an individual to a council candidate in the city’s history?
https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=462756&repo=r-3261686e
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