Over at the Liberal OC blog, best known for it’s silence when it comes to issues involving corruption and incompetence in Democrat-run organizations, a guy named Dan C-somethingorother is all het up because some guy from Placentia who is not connected with our blog is making mean phone calls to Lorri Galloway.
According to Dan C-somethingorother it is all our fault because we had the temerity to attack his Precious Little Princess for what she is – a carpetbagger. He even goes so far as to suggest we will defend some anonymous phone caller as being a “reporter.”
Funny how Dan C-somethingorother fails to mention that one of his soulmate Matthew J. Cunningham’s bloggers (Cynthia Ward) has been a lot more scathing of Precious than we have; or that one of his own bloggers – Steve Perez – was equally harsh. Oh no! Let’s pin it on FFFF!
Is it just a coincidence that this post occurred at the same time we’ve been going after Democrat Tom Daly’s incompetent misrule of the County Clerk’s department? Want odds?
Anyhow, while we’re talking about Precious, let’s recap: Galloway is an airheaded, opportunistic carpetbagger from Anaheim Hills, whose videos are unintentional jokes, whose candidacy can only be described as an embarrassment, and who is a basically just a union lackey all dressed up for slumming.
Electing her anything at the County level would be a disaster.
And If Galloway is being harassed she should call the cops.
My good friend Chriss came this close to beating the rap...
Reading Harry Sidhu’s list of endorsers really makes you pause. I checked out the list of “honorary host committee members” to his upcoming fundraiser.
Harry and I are in complete agreement. Government is all about service. Self-service!
Oh, look! There’s Brett Barbre, the OC Municipal Water District creep who gouged County taxpayers for $48,000 to study an athletic hall of fame, and who kicked back a $1000 campaign contribution to Tom Daly – they guy who gave him the do-nothing job at our expense.
I think Harry has a bright future...even brighter than mine.
Look again and you see the name Chriss Street, the County Treasurer who yesterday was found guilty by a judge of breaching his fiduciary obligation by systematically plundering a business trust that was his responsibility. He was ordered to pay over $7,000,000 by the judge in the case. John Moorlach has called for his immediate resignation.
And Street had previously gotten into hot water by having hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of remodeling work done at his office without soliciting bids. How did he do that? He split up the work into dozens of small purchase orders. He also got County employees to dummy up fake bid solicitations after the fact. Chris Prevatt did a pretty good job describing the DAs subsequent whitewash, here.
What slimy rocks does Sidhu turn over to find these miscreants?
“Tough-minded advocate for streamlined efficient government.”
That’s how 4th District Supervisor candidate Harry Sidhu describes himself in that dopey Fullerton News Tribune ad he bought last week. We also read that Sidhu claims to have “fought to eliminate excessive and wasteful government spending.”
No examples, of course, to support the statements; evidently we are expected to accept Harry’s word for it.
But let’s make a quick visit to Sidhu’s campaign webiste. Under the “Transportation” issue heading we discover stuff all dressed up to look like an accomplishment that in reality gives the lie to Harry’s claim to be anything but an irresponsible public spendthrift.
Turns out Sidhu is a big cheerleader for the California High Speed Rail scam, a boondoggle on which hundreds of millions have already been squandered in “studies,” and with a gargantuan $50 billion price tag that ridership will never pay for. And of course he beats the drum for the jaw-droppingly expensive ARTIC plan in Anaheim, presumably hoping that if you build the southern terminus of the HSR a choo choo will have to show up sooner or later. A trip to the ARTIC website “benefits” page makes things crystal clear: $180,000,000 (yes, Friends you read that right) for a make-work government jobs program – mostly paid for with Measure M funds that everybody in the County has to pay through sales tax. Hardly the behavior of a fiscal conservative, is it?
Our Friends in Anaheim tell us that Sidhu is all gung-ho for this titanic fiasco to grease his relationship with outgoing Mayor Curt Pringle, who is neck deep in the HSR rip-off and who is looking for a soft place to land.
Pringle on his knees again...
Pringle, not coincidentally, is supporting Sidhu’s carpetbagging run for Supervisor (he supported Ackerwoman, too) and has been raising money for him. Symbiosis. And we get stuck holding the empty sack. Typical.
Sidhu is “tough-minded” about one thing: perpetually running for political office. On matters involving our tax dollars he’s about as tough as a mildewed marshmallow.
Some man/woman calling him/herself 4th SD Observer started giving me and this blog a rasher o’ crap on a Pam Keller post yesterday; you know, we’re conspiratorialist wackos, yadda, yadda, yadda. This technique is common in blog circles: you try to color your political opponents as paranoid, nutsy, weird, tin foil-hatted, cross-dressing Nazis – whatever. And of course their objective is not only to marginalize you, but to divert attention from your point.
In response I was inspired to do a Pam Keller recap.
And just so my “true colors” are not seen to be in anyway unclear, here they are: Pam Keller is a hypocritical, shallow, self-serving, irresponsible public servant (and employee) whose manifest conflicts of interest make her unable to serve her constituents honestly, and who seems to be incapable of demanding accountability on the part of herself or her underlings.
There! I feel ever so much better! A veritable catharsis.
Now let’s take a peek at some of the Keller record; and I’ll keep it short(er) by just looking at stuff that has been written about her on what “admin” likes to call “our humble blog.”
Here are some items for your consideration:
1. When she ran for office in 2006 Keller promised that Fullerton residents would dictate the direction of development in town. And yet within two years Keller had voted to approve the gargantuan, staff/developer driven Amerige Court and Jefferson Commons monstrosities that involved huge get-rich-quick entitlements for their sponsors and that would stick the rest of us with the environmental impacts. Only the recession intervened.
2. When she ran for office for in 2006 Keller promised not to take money from developers. Instead she solicited developer’s contributions to her Collaborative, revenue that supported her employment. And the developers were proposing the Jefferson Commons and Amerige Court projects. Hypocrisy? Much?
3. In August of 2007, not even in office a year, Keller joined the now infamous Steve Sheldon (Jefferson Commons) $1000 per person drinkies-boat-ride-dinner fundraiser for Sharon Quirk. Also on board were the Pelican/Laing hucksters greasing the axles of their Amerige Court investment. Did Pam pay her way, or was it a gift from an importuning developer? Too easy. No prize for answering correctly.
4. Even though St. Jude’s Medical Center is a member and contributor to the Fullerton Collaborative of which Keller is the Executive director, Keller, as a city councilmember voted in December 2007 to approve their development entitlements for its massive project west of Harbor Boulevard. Conflict? Much?
5. In August and September of 2008 Keller supported keeping the public in the dark about the fact that she and her council colleagues were negotiating a retroactive pension spike for City employees. She publicly castigated Shawn Nelson for disclosing the fact that the topic was being deliberately concealed from the public.
6. In October 2008 Keller spent over $1200 in public funds for bills run up at a fancy hotel while attending a League of Cities conference in Long Beach – about 25 miles from her house.
7. In June 2009 Keller enlisted members of the OCCCO to publicly promote the fraudulent Redevelopment expansion. They sure owed her a favor since her Collaborative had funneled over $25,000 their way in 2007 for “community organizing.”
8. In June/July 2009 Keller voted for the bogus Redevelopment expansion with its evident failure to indicate any blight. The findings were a lie. Of course the expansion area had been redrawn to exclude a property Keller owns so she could vote on it. How’s that for fancy footwork?
9. Also in June 2009 Keller supported the relocation of a McDonald’s franchise about 150 feet to the corner across the street from Fullerton High – to tune of 6 million bucks. The childhood obesity issue was embarrassing since one of the Collaborative’s mission is to fight it, not facilitate it. Keller only backtracked when it became clear that the jig was up. Later that summer she proclaimed herself a “fiscal conservative.”
10. In July Keller proposed a City of Fullerton blog – without any bloggers, of course. In other words a City propaganda vehicle that would disseminate filtered information and necessarily involve city employees in censoring the unpleasantries often associated with participatory democracy on the internet.
11. In August and September 2009 our investigation into the Fullerton Collaborative and its doings discovered that the vast majority of Fullerton Collaborative expenses went to pay for Keller herself; that her hapless fellow boardmembers were woefully ignorant of her both her fund raising sources and her activities; and furthermore, that since she was considered an FSD teacher and public employee, she got to maintain her benefits thereof, but was cut loose from any District supervision to pursue her dream of philanthropy and self-promotion.
We connected the dots for you.
12. In October 2009 as a city council person she voted to postpone debt payments to the City from…her employer, the Fullerton School District. Sharing smiles with her boss who was sitting in the front row.
13. In December she voted to approve the fiasco-in-the-making Richman housing project scam – another staff/developer driven monstrosity (see #1, above) that even fails to address Fullerton’s most pressing housing needs (if you happen to be persuaded by such SCAG priorities).
14. In January 2010 it became apparent that for $50,000+ you can’t even hire an Executive Director that will take the time to update her organization’s on-line calendar events. Move along folks, nothing to see here!
15. In February 2010 we learned that even though Keller is a treated as teacher (for her own benefit) not only is she freed from the drudgery of the classroom, but she has apparently failed to account for her time away from FSD on political junkets, etc., as all teachers are required to do. Of course this means the accrual of unused sick/personal day time. It turns out that some real teachers resent it. How odd. Naturally FSD is clueless. Naughty!
Oh, well. That’s enough for now. No doubt more dubious Keller behavior will surface in the coming months, and as it does we will surely share it with you; and just as surely Keller’s Posse of Political Whatevers will make looking the other way into a full time job.
The Register’s Jennifer Muir reported on 4th District Supe fundraising yesterday and pretty quickly got onto the topic of a salient campaign expense in Lorri Galloway’s forms: $850 to Taormina Properties – the guy who was supposedly providing the 3rd Distict resident Galloway with a plausible 4th District address.
You will soon be asked many embarrassing questions...
This item has already caused speculation as to whether Galloway was trying to fob off rent for her fake address in the Colony District as a campaign expense. Not so says Galloway. The $850 was for campaign space rental that just happened to be in the same building as her “residence”! She declined to tell Ms. Muir how much she paid in rent for her alleged living space.
Well that’s sort of embarrassing – more amateur campaign follies, and all due to her political ambition and office-lust that has caused her to dummy up a fake residence in our district.
Another interesting fact from the campaign finance reporting documents is that her landlord, Bill Taormina, has given Galloway the $1700 limit though his company “Clean City.” And so we immediately start to wonder whether Galloway is paying full market rental on her Taormina-provided campaign space, and, of course how much she is paying for her Taormina-provided newly new address in Anaheim’s “Five Points” area, farther west out along the #42 OCTA bus route.
In today’s Register our old amigo Martin Wisckol cobbled together a piece about, well, hard to say exactly what it was about, but among other things it contained some gems from OC Democratic Party boss Frank Barbaro.
Of course it's all bullshit!
It seems Frank is having buyer’s remorse after the singularly humiliating asswhipping Fred MacMurray had laid down on him by Chris Norby in the 72nd Special Election. Now, it seems Barbaro is wishing Sharon Quirk had stayed in the race.
“If we’d have had Sharon Quirk, I think we would have had a different result,” said Barbaro, a model of perseverance and optimism already looking ahead to the reelection Norby will seek later in the year. “We might have some surprises for him in November.”
Might have some surprises? Hell, the Sun might collapse in on itself, too.
To surprise Norby in November means the Dems have to have a credible candidate on board almost any day now. But who? Galloway now claims to live in the district, but is tied up elsewhere; Quirk-Silva? Maybe, but the last bug out seemed a bit, well, unusual. Hey, how ’bout Pam Keller? Nope; running for re-election. Rosie Espinosa? See Galloway comment, above.
So the Dems got nothin’. Just whistlin’ in the dark. All Norby has to do is make sure the mike is off.
UPDATE: THIS ISSUE IS GETTING EVEN MORE FUN. ONE OF OUR FRIENDS HAS INFORMED US THAT ON BOTH THE RED AND BLUE BLOGS A FELLOW NAMED BILL TAORMINA POPPED UP TO DEFEND GALLOWAY. APPARENTLY HE OWNS THE PROPERTY IN QUESTION AND CLAIMS THAT IT IS “MIXED USE” THUS ALLOWING SOMEBODY TO LIVE THERE. HE GALLANTLY OFFERS TO TAKE ALL THE BLAME IF THERE IS A SCREW UP. THE CITY HAS IT LISTED AS OFFICE PROFESSIONAL ZONE.
WILL BILL AND LORRI RECEIVE VISIT FROM CODE ENFORCEMENT? WILL LORRI HAVE TO UNDERGO AN EMBARRASSING RELOCATION ELSEWHERE IN THE COLONY? WILL LORRI JUST PACK UP AND MOVE IN WITH LONELY HARRY AT THE BEAUTIFUL CALABRIA APARTMENTS? STAY TUNED FOR…
AS THE COLONY TURNS…
In what can only be described under the heading “hilarity ensued,” the Red and Blue blog clowns have picked up on our post about carpetbaggin’ Lorri Galloway’s new abode in Anaheim’s historic “Colony District.”
In our post we noticed the address – 1155 E. Lincoln – was in a odd enclave of relocated old houses. One of our Friends observed that the egregious Paul Kott had a commercial real estate sign on the property. At the eerie Red County blog the Colony’s self-appointed grande dame, Cynthia Ward, observed that the zoning was “light commercial/retail” (whatever that is) and thus Galloway’s “residency” constituted a code violation. Looks like she sicc’d code enforcement on Galloway.
You will soon receive a visit from Code Enforcement...
We’re not experts on Anaheim zoning so whether a “caretaker” type individual is allowed to live on these premises is not known, to us.
Meanwhile, at the Blue County blog, Dan C-somethingorother – an ardent Galloway swain – typed up an “exclusive” response to the question, purportedly from Galloway herself. It came complete with a picture of Loretta Sanchez – a not too subtle trick by Danny Boy. But this post only made things worse, since according to it Galloway claims to have checked into the legitimacy of her new home with 1) the County Registrar of votes Neal Kelley; and 2) with the Anaheim Public Utililties Department.
Now why on earth would anybody check into this with the ROV and think that would mean anything? That’s just strange. And second, why would Galloway believe the Utilities Department would have any authority in the matter? Did it not occur to this simpleton to simply call up her own Planning Department and inquire? How long has this featherhead been on the Anaheim City Council – five years?
Right on cue, Ward dropped into the Blue miasma, now sharing city info that the Galloway parcel is zoned “low-intensity office,” still a seemingly incompatitble use for a residence.
I had the family over for Christmas, so it must be legal!
At the end of the thread Dan C-somethingorother tried to deflect the issue, change the subject, and naturally tried to make it look like the big, bad Republicans were picking on his poor little sweetheart. Newsflash, Dan C.: we’ll beat her at the polls even if she doesn’t belong on the ballot, just like we dealt with Linda Ackerwoman!
Anyway, to us the legality of Lorri’s new home is really just an issue fun for its entertainment value. The real issue for us, of course, is that she, like her council colleague Harry Sidhu, is a carpetbagger from the 3rd Supervisorial District.
Yep. The day after former State Senator Joe Dunn addressed the County Board of Supervisors about establishing a mechanism for keeping track of the professional lobbyists who haunt the 5th floor of the Hall of Admin, Matthew Cunningham popped up serially on the “Red County” blog to explain to his readers why the system ain’t broke and why his lobbyist friends have a constitutional right to “petition their government for redress.”
Aha! We called it here. Of course the idea that lobbyists are petitioning their government for anything except a chance to make big bucks for their clients is patently absurd.
We don’t agree with some of the purported details of Dunn’s original idea, but overall the concept of knowing which well-connected middlemen are knocking on your representative’s door in order to swing some deal or other, is basically a good one. Dunn’s timing and presentation to the Board were counterproductive and will be viewed as partisan, in some way. But so what?
Cunningham suggests that the whole thing is just a plan to dissuade privatization, but of course he really can’t say how, except that the OCEA union boss Nick Berardino is involved.But why should a lobbyist who is doing nothing improper or illegal fear a little bit of light illuminating his interaction with public officials?
Actually, an effort to squelch the idea will make people even more suspicious than ever about what is going on behind closed doors.
Cunningham is just doing his job, of course: trying to run interference for his Repuglican lobbyist pals like John Lewis who apparently would really rather not have the public aware of his influence with electeds. But the strategy is poor. In a second post he suggests that Dunn is simply trying to force the supervisors to adopt their own plan to avoid his referendum. Good idea.
Rather than let Dunn produce a likely popular plebiscite, the Supervisors ought to develop a sensible sytem for keeping track of lobbyists themselves, and include the union bosses like Berardino and Wayne Quint who are really nothing but lobbyists themselves – paid with ample union dues.
This issue is about recognizing the influence peddlers in OC – people who use their political and financial contacts to make inroads into public policy and pubic expenditure. Nothing wrong with that.
Art Pedroza over at the the Orange Juice blog did a post today about the phantom candidate, Sue Perez, pulling a campaignus interruptus in a putative bid for the 34th State Senate seat currently held by Lou Correa. This was important to us for two reasons: part of the 34th District includes Fullerton. And Sue Perez lives in the 33rd District. We have already posted on this woman’s carpetbagging candidacy, here.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To return to the 33rd State Senate District.
Of course Art’s main thrust was to immediately poke holes in his newest target, Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who for some reason decided to let herself be named co-chair of this unknown wingnut’s effort. The other co-chair, frighteningly enough, was our own brainless scarecrow, 33rd District State Senator Mimi Walters, who, not coincidentally also championed the hollow, illegal candidacy of the Ackerwoman. Figures. Ah, more Repuglican values we can count on.
At any rate both of these co-chairs have been spared the humiliation of seeing their candidate get the living shit kicked out of her by Correa. So that worked out okay for them.
The story that is being circulated is that Perez has some baggage. Pedroza hazily speculates that this involves her carpetbagging and her husband’s appointment to the Anaheim Planning Commission by Lorri Galloway. This seems like small change to us, especially since Perez has apparently been employed by the bizzaros at the Trinity Broadcast Network.
Jaysus says "be elected!"
So poor Jerb Cunningham, who has spilled lotsa ink badmouthing Lou Correa, is still in search of a God-fearing candidate. Good luck little fella. Maybe your hero Dick “I don’t look so good in stripes” Ackerman can scrounge up another Lynn “the Bulldozer” Daucher for us.
…that former State Senator, State Assemblyman, and Fullerton City Councilman Dick Ackerman is a lying sack of canine excrement, we have it.
Hard to do this with any sort of dignity...
Okay, it’s been a tough fall for good old Dick what with the lil’ lady getting her posterior kicked in the AD 72nd election, and then with Ackerman’s own dubious behavior on behalf of the OC Fair Foundation miscreants coming to light. Some folks might be inclined to think we’re just piling on at this point (we are, of course). But this latest revelation is just so, um, revealing into the stack of prevarication masquerading as a former State Senator that, well, we just had to share it.
(First, thanks to the FFFF political research team, although it would have been useful to get this a couple of months ago – so no Christmas bonuses for you!)
Let’s let our old friend Matthew J. Cunningham do the wordsmithing. Here’s an excerpt from a Cunningham blog post away back in ’06 when Norby was running for re-election as a County supervisor. Cunningham is describing a Norby campaign mailer. Too bad the links don’t work anymore but, you’ll get the gist all right:
But the most noteworthy aspect of this mailer: a big sloppy endorsement from Sen. Dick Ackerman! Norby and Ackerman have been mortal foes for years. They must have smoked a seriously potent peace pipe.
I never said that, did I?
So let’s get this straight. Ackerman warmly endorses Norby in 2006, after the Pam Mokler phony lawsuit jury verdict! But by 2009 he remembers that poor Pam Mokler is just a poor victim; and he conveniently remembers that the man he endorsed in 2006 is actually a serial sexual harasser from way back in the 80’s – as passed along and dutifully repeated by the Register toady Frank Mickadeit. What a guy!
Odd that Norby and his ace team of political consultants had forgotten what would have been an acutely embarrassing situation for their arch enemy Ackerman. Of course we couldn’t expect Cunningham to recall it either; or if he did to publish it.
Anyway, Friends, there you have the sum and substance of a completely worthless individual, Dick Ackerman, whose gastropodic slime-sheen reflects back on all the scum-suckers who endorsed his wife’s completely fraudulent campaign.
High degree of reflectivity...
But rest assured, Friends. We’re not done with Dick and his lackeys. Not by a long shot.
