Friends For Fullerton's Future
FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
You just can’t beat candor at the public podium.
Here is Anaheim community leader Amin David at Kurt Pringle’s public going away party letting Der Pringle know that not all of the Anaheim Volk are happy Volk. Specifically he slams Pringle for his latest Platinum Triangle do-over and deficient EIR.
Did you enjoy the shot at Sidhu as Pringle’s puppet-monkey and Hernandez as a dim-wit? I did.
The LA Times is after poor Curt Pringle again. It seems he represents all sorts of people up and down the state who have major interest, one way or another, in the California High Speed Rail boondoggle.
Check out the Boy Scout response: Gosh, gee whiz, I didn’t know. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!
For a while now we have shared stories about the manifest sleazes of Anaheim’s Mayor-for-Hire, Pringle, the worst repuglican in the County, who has his dipstick stuck into just about every conceivable honey pot, and a man whose only political principles come with a price tag affixed.
We finally got sick of watching Herr Pay to Play shove his bogus pork and kickback laden High Speed Rail project into California. When our boss discovered a legislative opinion that both HSR Boardmembers Pringle and Richard Katz held “incompatible offices” he reported this fact to the Attorney General.
Only last week tales of unreported foreign trips by Pringle emerged once again. Although we had already shared that story, here, it seems that nobody in the HSR enterprise was keeping track of who was going where. The idea of shipping jobs overseas didn’t seem to bother Der Pringler. Well,what the Hell, France and Germany have unemployment problems, too, right? Even worse, it slipped out that the HSR’s army of consultants and camp followers were getting gifts, too. Lots of them, apparently.
Well, as they say, the fish rots from the head.
And now that the election is upon us and Pringle’s rancid days as an elected official and an OCTA board member are coming to an end, it’s time to do whatever we can to kick this creep off the HSR board and then to kill the greatest boondoggle in the history of California.
A cynical person said the other day that when he was born, OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’ mom pushed him out along with a can of white paint and a four inch bristle brush.
It’s common knowledge around town that T-Rack, as he is fondly known, rarely, if ever, pursues political miscreants, but in the case of the OC Fair Board and its odd behavior in the summer of 2009 he had no choice. See, the State AG refused to handle the issue due to a conflict of interest and dumped the investigation back to OC, where Rackauckas was waiting with paint and brush to work on his next masterpiece.
After almost a year the DA coughed up a 50 page recitation of the facts. Or to be more precise he regurgitated what was told to him by the individuals involved and subsequently passed it along as Gospel. Of course there were no depositions, no testimony under oath, or any other annoying and time consuming probative truth-getting-at devices.
According to OC’s own Picasso, the Create-Your-Own Board crew exercised poor judgment, but, since they obviously had nothing to gain from the sale except for a few miserable tix, no harm done, get it? After all, the fact that the real estate could be worth nobody-knows-how-many millions to people behind the scenes was not an issue to the DA because the new Board was to have served without compensation. And after all the DA isn’t a mind-reader, right?
So nobody did anything wrong – even though the Fair Board members clandestinely created their own non-profit to buy the Fair with the help of former State Senator Dick Ackerman, paid for The Flack with public money (later reimbursed after the fact) and also hired Ackerman, not to lobby the Legislature, oh, no for that would be illegal, but rather as a mere “consultant” to go up to Sacramento to feel out the Governor on his seriousness to sell the OC Fair property. Just talking to the Guv’s crew ain’t lobbying per the Government Code, and the Dickster is home and dry, right?
Here is the DA’s report, on page 15, quoting The Dickster:
Mr. Ackerman stated that he and the OCFEC “had absolutely no input into the language [of the bill] whatsoever.”
Um, yeah, right, T-Rack. But then there’s the problem of some acutely embarrassing words right out of Ackerman’s own mouth. Here he is in an October 23, 2009 article in the Daily Pilot in which Mr. Consultant tries to explain away his activities:
“In order for the fair to be sold, it would require budget language to authorize the state to sell it,” he said. “I did some preliminary work to get the language in the budget.”
Well that’s just swell, Dick. That language sure wasn’t going to write itself and then jump into the bill on its own, now was it? Working to get language into legislation is exactly what lobbyists do. In fact, that behavior may well serve as the very definition of lobbying. And it certainly doesn’t square with what the DA says Ackerman later claimed was his job.
And finally, note that in the report Ackerman says he had “no input.” Strike as non-responsive, Dickie-boy.
The issue isn’t whether you are a failed lobbyist, but rather that you were doing it in the first place!
I also wonder if the DA’s investigators even bothered to ask OC legislators like Assemblyman Jim Silva, just who it was was lobbying him heavily, as he indicated to OJ Blogger Vern Nelson, last year. Did he talk to Mike Duvall, who also opposed the sale? Naw, why bother.
Aw, Hell, who really cares anymore? It’s not like anybody expected Rackauckas to actually look into a case where the principals didn’t sport gang tats.
Personally, I think you have admire the certain peculiar of skill set required to be able to define something by describing all the negative space around it, and coming to the conclusion that there was really never anything there in the first place.
Yesterday our favorite repuglican hypocrite, Matthew J. Cunningham, put up a post whining about the hypocrisy of Loretta Sanchez who apparently had a fundraiser at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion and who subsequently applauded Craigslist for “censoring” adult services.
Here’s the quote from Loretta that offends the sensibilities of the tender Cunningham the most:
By shutting down the adult services section, Craigslist is showing that it truly values people over its own profits.
Hmm.The fact that Playboy preys upon nobody seems to have escaped the authoritarian pea brain Cunningham, but Hell, we’ll let that pass.
What’s really funny is that not so very long ago FFFF exposed the self-described small gummint conservative Cunningham as the recipient of huge windfall largess from Rob Reiner’s tax and redistribute Prop 10 that put bread on Mr. Conservative’s table for over four years. Almost all of the bread, as it turns out.
Here’s a hypothetical quotation to ponder:
By advocating to shut down the socialist Children and Families Commission, Matthew J. Cunningham is showing that he truly values conservative principles over his own profits.
As long as Mr. Cunningham keeps trying to pretend that he’s anything other than the biggest hypocrite in Orange County, we’ll be right there to remind folks the truth.
…well you know the rest.
Here is Mr. Hypocrite J. Cunningham extolling the virtues of Kris Murray, a candidate for Anaheim city council, and heavily promoted by Anaheim’s Mayor-for-Hire, Curt Pringle; some woman he elevated from obscurity to occupy a six-figure sinecure at OCTA:
I, for one, am wholeheartedly supporting Kris. There are several stand-out individuals running for city council seats in Orange County this year, and Kris is one of them. She is smart, conservative, principled and experienced in both the business sector and government. She will make an outstanding member of the Anaheim City Council.
Ah! Smart, conservative, principled, experienced. Smart? Who knows? Her experience is with the big government Business Council and a giant government bureaucracy – OCTA – which is squandering hundreds of millions on Pringle’s slimy insider ARTIC and High Speed Rail deals. Principled? Well, Hell, we know what principle Cunningham and Pringle hold dear. There’s always a dollar sign in front of it.
Now, enjoy this snippet from the comment thread in which Cunningham extols the virtues of Big Chief repuglican Curt Pringle:
Curt has been an outstanding Mayor of Anaheim, and poll after poll confirms that. He has very high positive name ID in Anaheim, and if he were on the ballot again, he would be overwhelmingly re-elected.
Kris is and ought to be proud to have Curt’s endorsement.
Uh, yeah, right, whatever you say Jerb. Poll after poll? What polls would those be?
See, for a guy who posed as a social conservative, yet who behind the scenes pulled down mega-bucks shilling for the dopey, big guvment Rob Reiner Children and Families Commission, making a fortune off of government influence peddling, like Pringle has done, is some sort of badge of honor. And of course Pringle may very well hold the key to Cunningham’s economic future now that his 1st Five plug has been pulled.
Nothing wrong there, of course. If Pringle hadn’t latched on to all this gravy some evil, unprincipled Democrat would have scooped up all those simoleons.
One of our observant friends passed along this iridescent pearl from Rob Reiner’s under scrutinized Tax and Redistribute OC Children and Families Commission:
July 15, 2010
The Children and Families Commission of Orange County was awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). This achievement is the highest form of recognition among government finance and is given annually to promote high quality finance reporting in the public sector. More than 3,500 governments participate in this program each year.
This self-congratulatory item was no doubt scribbled by Chief Commission Wordsmith and $200 an hour toothbrush hander outer, Matthew J. Cunningham, and is typical of government accountants passing out accolades to each other.
Too bad nobody has done a real external performance audit, including investigating how exorbitant PR and lobbying contracts are being handed out to Commission member Bill Campbell’s political running buddies like Curt Pringle and Cunningham himself.
Well, not to worry. Something tells me that come 2010 Fringie Award time we’ll be recognizing the Commission with our own special brand of recognition.
A quick perusal of the OC Children and Families Commission meeting for July 7, 2010 might be a bit misleading. Item six talks about a Strategic Communications Work Program and lists the “consultants” – really lobbyists and promoters whom we’ve seen before – Pringle and Associates, and O’ Haren, and the comically named White House Writers Group, that are lining up to line their pockets at the expense of hungry kids.
However, it’s not until you actually look at the agenda item staff report that you see our old friend Matthew Cunningham from Suite C described. Hiding something? The budget item is for “on call” services for a total of $30,000. I’m not sure what on call services amount to, but clearly Cunningham is still to be employed doing whatever it is he does for the Rob Reiner Tax and Redistribute Commission at the princely rate of $200 an hour.
The somewhat ambiguous phrase “a no-cost extension will be executed, and as necessary, modifications within the contract and budget authority” is appended. Apparently “Final” FY 2010-2011 budget actions take place in October.
Okay Friends, fight the gag reflex as you peruse this column written in something called The Washington Examiner under the by line of Hugh Hewitt, sanctimonious repuglican blabbermouth. I say “under the by line” because we recently disclosed how this allegedly literate yakmouth had stuff written for him by Children and Families Commission Scribe/Flack and $200 an hour Toothbrush Distributor, Matthew J. Cunningham, and it would now be risky to assume Hewitt writes anything for himself.
“Enough!” Hewitt loudly admonishes his ignorant readers at the end of his drivel. Ignorant? How so?
If they are reading anything attributed to this hypocrite they are almost certainly unaware that he serves on the biggest Tax and Redistributionist Commission in the history of California – the OC Children and Families Commission; and no doubt unaware that his words may very well be written by someone else – Cunningham, perhaps – his protege, and the fellow whose $200,000-a-year PR contract with the Commission Hewitt annually votes to approve.
Yuck.
FFFF has documented how the Orange County version of Meathead Rob Reiner’s First Five Commission known as “The OC Children and Families Commission” has squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years on PR and lobbying contracts to political operatives. We have shared how the Riverside County chapter of the Tax and Redistribute Society was busted for numerous conflicts of interest and was finally corralled by the RC Board of Supervisors. Here’s a link generously provided by Friend “Max” to a news report in May about the Contra Costa County Grand Jury about more misbehavin’ by their First Five Commission.
The key recommendation is the employment, by competitive bid, of an independent external auditor (i.e. not hired by the staff and Chairman with a wink and a nod) to clean up the cronyism and self-interest.
I really have to wonder what would happen if all 58 county grand juries did their jobs vis-a-vis the First Five Commissions. Would a single county emerge unscathed from political corruption and “jobs for the boys” kickdowns of the sort we’ve seen right here in OC? Or Riverside? Or Contra Costa?
Doubtful. The corruption is probably endemic.
Check this out. Here are a few days in the life of supposed conservative pontificator, Matthew J. Cunningham as he dishes out his stellar wordsmithing on behalf of the uber-liberal Prop 10 funded “OC Children and Families Commission.”
I’ll let you tally up the big bucks this hypocrite pulled down doing battle with the forces of…well, forces like the “Flash Report” of which he was a blogger, its editor Jon Fleischman, and of course those insensitive beasts at the OC Register.
And be sure to enjoy that monthly $800 catchall bill for, well, who knows what it’s for? Just stuff. But Hell, when you’re milking the cash cow be sure never to leave anything on the table, right?
