Lost in plain sight…FFFF has been busy detailing the ridiculous waste of public money that is poured into a PR outlet pretending journalism called Behind the Badge. This on-line enterprise provides happy, pro-cop stories that are meant to put the police in a good light by sharing feel good stories of philanthropy, charity, empathy, blah, blah blah. The editor, Bill Rams, says his business is necessary because the innocent and naive cops are just so doggone rotten at tooting their own horns. So we pay to have our own force shoved back at us as veritable paragons of virtue. Is there a single person in Fullerton taken in by this claptrap?
Anyway, a few weeks ago I posted a letter that had been sent to our mayor, Bruce Whitaker, about the Back the Badge contract, an irresponsible, staff-driven, no-bid, fixed-fee arrangement that has no intelligible scope of work, no way to measure effectiveness, and the management of which had been badly bungled by former City Manager Wild Ride Joe Felz.
Could greatness be thrust upon him?Well, two City Council meetings have passed and nothing has been agendized by our mayor to discuss this $4000 per month mess, a waste made particularly acute by last week’s doom-and-gloom budget forecast. Does Mr. Whitaker condone this insulting $50,000 a yearboondoggle while Fullerton’s ship keeps taking on oceans of red ink? How does he condone not even talking about it? I don’t know, but maybe somebody will go to the next meeting and ask him.
23 Replies to “Where’s Whitaker?”
I don’t get it, this is just too easy to agendize! Why isn’t Whitaker doing anything? Hell, if the city is that willing to write off $4,000 per month, where do I sign up? I sure could use an extra $50K per year!
You ask “Why?” Its called FPOA, the cop’s union that will take out any council member or mayor that does not give them everything that they ask for. They are hero and they deserve every last penny.
Mr Anon…Bruce Whitaker is a friend. The caption Where’s Waldo is a good one because many times you can see him around town and he takes time to talk to people along the way. Its obvious that he is concerned about waste but at the same time dosen’t want to take it to far like contining the water rationing because of the so called “drought’.
On more than on occasion Mr. Whittaker has questioned the cancellation of city council meetings around the time of Fitzgeralds term as ” Mayor” … (A mayor should never lazy or hostile to other council members.) I think your talking about the wrong person
To Mr.Whitaker’s credit he did agendize the needless and wasteful arrest of Kelly Thomas protesters A.J. Redkey, (see story here http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2017/away-ajs-story/) and I’m sure Feltz, Hughes, all thugs at FPD and at least three other council people were very unhappy about that evenings meeting being derailed by this matter. To get AJ arrest on the agenda we first had to show that quite a few people in the community were focused on the matter, we had dozens of A.J.”s supporter at meeting following his arrest, and we demonstrated that it was worthy of discussion. If it were to be agendized it would need to at least have the interest of the community, and so far only this blog seems to care. All of us who live locally, and to whom the Behind the Badge wank is offensive, need to show up at the next council meeting and bring it up during public comments. I believe that if even a handful of folks requested this in a public forum, Bruce would have the issue agendized. He is no stranger to being the target of the Police Union, but if he makes himself a target, something good should at least have a chance of coming from it.
There seems to be a recent shift in this publication http://behindthebadgeoc.com/ from police stories to be more community orientated by notifying public on this cite through twitter feed and newsworthy stories the public is interested in. Strategic move, probably, to justify further financing.
Yep. I saw the same thing.”We’ll be talking about things” i.e. if anything will be done (doubtful) it will be approved by the top bureaucrat and nobody will ever know how the taxpayers got scammed by the Felz and the cop union,
Haste makes waste. New plans need discussion.Discussion requires meetings. new city manager can’t just pick up where the old one left off. It’s better not to speculate till all the pieces are in place. Patience it a virtue. Isn’t it a little early to be making judgements about the new city manager?
There is no “new” City Manager. He is the old City Manager – of Costa Mesa getting a $16,000 a month pension. His job now is to cash a $16,000 paycheck every month from us ’til June. In case you’re not counting that means this zombie is making $32,000 – per freakin’ month.
As far as “discussion” goes, I would discuss the City’s red ink bath and the total waste of the Behind the Bullshit contract, but it’s already been done.
I don’t get it, this is just too easy to agendize! Why isn’t Whitaker doing anything? Hell, if the city is that willing to write off $4,000 per month, where do I sign up? I sure could use an extra $50K per year!
You ask “Why?” Its called FPOA, the cop’s union that will take out any council member or mayor that does not give them everything that they ask for. They are hero and they deserve every last penny.
They’ve been trying to get rid of Whitaker for years. No dice.
Then keep this blog alive because it spurs fullerton’s good people to vote against the FPD cronies that litter our city hall
Because Bruce Whitaker is a fraud
Mr Anon…Bruce Whitaker is a friend. The caption Where’s Waldo is a good one because many times you can see him around town and he takes time to talk to people along the way. Its obvious that he is concerned about waste but at the same time dosen’t want to take it to far like contining the water rationing because of the so called “drought’.
And the earth is flat. Right Imbriano?
Watch out, he is running again in 2018
I’m still trying to figure out that barfing sign from last time. This is a confused individual.
I cant really go there with him but he is right about the moon landings-http://www.aulis.com/moon_pt1.htm
No he’s not. The comet will be here any day now, I can give you guys the pills you’ll need.
The Melancholia Comet?
Bruce has a lot of good qualities. I guess laziness is one of them.
On more than on occasion Mr. Whittaker has questioned the cancellation of city council meetings around the time of Fitzgeralds term as ” Mayor” … (A mayor should never lazy or hostile to other council members.) I think your talking about the wrong person
How much effort would it take to have agendized this item? Almost none. Picking up a fork would take more.
To Mr.Whitaker’s credit he did agendize the needless and wasteful arrest of Kelly Thomas protesters A.J. Redkey, (see story here http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2017/away-ajs-story/) and I’m sure Feltz, Hughes, all thugs at FPD and at least three other council people were very unhappy about that evenings meeting being derailed by this matter. To get AJ arrest on the agenda we first had to show that quite a few people in the community were focused on the matter, we had dozens of A.J.”s supporter at meeting following his arrest, and we demonstrated that it was worthy of discussion. If it were to be agendized it would need to at least have the interest of the community, and so far only this blog seems to care. All of us who live locally, and to whom the Behind the Badge wank is offensive, need to show up at the next council meeting and bring it up during public comments. I believe that if even a handful of folks requested this in a public forum, Bruce would have the issue agendized. He is no stranger to being the target of the Police Union, but if he makes himself a target, something good should at least have a chance of coming from it.
“I believe that if even a handful of folks requested this in a public forum, Bruce would have the issue agendized.”
They did. He didn’t. Not yet anyway.
There seems to be a recent shift in this publication http://behindthebadgeoc.com/ from police stories to be more community orientated by notifying public on this cite through twitter feed and newsworthy stories the public is interested in. Strategic move, probably, to justify further financing.
I watched the show last night. Whitaker is just hiding behind the temp City manager. What a sad failure of leadership.
Yep. I saw the same thing.”We’ll be talking about things” i.e. if anything will be done (doubtful) it will be approved by the top bureaucrat and nobody will ever know how the taxpayers got scammed by the Felz and the cop union,
Adam, is that you? Aww…the carpetbagger from Los Angeles PD.
Haste makes waste. New plans need discussion.Discussion requires meetings. new city manager can’t just pick up where the old one left off. It’s better not to speculate till all the pieces are in place. Patience it a virtue. Isn’t it a little early to be making judgements about the new city manager?
There is no “new” City Manager. He is the old City Manager – of Costa Mesa getting a $16,000 a month pension. His job now is to cash a $16,000 paycheck every month from us ’til June. In case you’re not counting that means this zombie is making $32,000 – per freakin’ month.
As far as “discussion” goes, I would discuss the City’s red ink bath and the total waste of the Behind the Bullshit contract, but it’s already been done.