FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Author: The Fullerton Harpoon
The Fullerton Harpoon is a retired commerical fisherman having served many years on the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru where he unfortunately lost the right side of his brain and his sense of propriety in a Greenpeace attack.
At 5:00 PM today the filing period to run in the Fullerton Recall Election came to a close. These are your candidates:
F “Dick” Jones:
Travis Kiger
Glenn Georgieff
Roberta Reid
Dorothy Birsic
Matthew Hakim
Don Bankhead:
Greg Sebourn
Paula Williams
Jane Rands
Rick Alvarez
Pat McKinley:
Barry Levinson
Doug Chaffee
Matthew Rowe
Sean Paden
As a public service, FFFF will be providing detailed, insightful, and colorful descriptions of these candidates to help you Friends reach an informed decision on June 5th.
Here is an interesting bit from Assemblyman Chris Norby’s latest newsletter documenting his effort to promote legislation to guarantee elected officials – like Fullerton’s Bruce Whitaker – access to public documents and records.
Well, Lo and Behold: it’s not necessary according to Legislative Counsel who determined that such a right already exists. Looks like somebody forgot to tell our esteemed City Attorney Dick Jones, who has publicly defended denying Whitaker access to city-owned records.
And it looks like we have another Recall issue.
So who the Hell is really in charge in Fullerton? The cops? The bureaucrats? The unelected City Attorney? The Three Triassic Fossils who have no authority to deny a duly elected official access to official records? Who?
In the words of the Bard, Bob Dylan in “Oxford Town”: somebody better investigate soon.
“Bruce’s Law” Restates Obvious
Can elected officials be denied information obtained at public expense on public property? Can unelected attorneys and administrators keep such information hidden from those who appointed them?
That’s what’s happening to Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker. His request to view the city’s video of the fatal beating of Kelly Thomas has been denied by the City Manager and City Attorney. That video was made by a city-owned camera at the city-owned Fullerton Transportation Center. Three of Bruce’s colleagues have chosen not to watch the tape, but have never voted to deny it to him.
Bruce doesn’t seek to release the tape to the public, or even have his own copy. He just wants to see it, to be in better position to understand what happened on that fateful July night. So I drafted a bill clarifying an elected official’s right to the same information as those they hire. “Bruce’s Law” would assure those we elect have access to information they need.
My bill was rejected by Legislative Counsel, however, as unnecessary. I was told that elected officials already have this right. I was told that unelected government employees cannot deny public officials information they need to represent their constituents. I was told that video camera footage taken by a public agency can be viewed by an official elected to govern that agency.
A new bill cannot be introduced which simply duplicates existing laws. But Bruce is still being denied the tape.
Just in case you thought the Fullerton Recall was just some sort of power play by a mythical “downtown developer” against fine, honorable men who refuse to be bought and sold like cheap swamp land, consider this inconvenient fact: last fall an organization called PORAC poured thousands of dollars into the anti-recall campaign to save the useless, dessicated hides of Jones, Bankhead and McKinley.
So what is PORAC? It stands for Police Officers Research Association California and it appears to be heavily into lobbying for ever greater benefits for cops – regardless of the fiscal impact on the people whom the cops have sworn to serve and protect. It is also a massive fund cops pay into to pay the for the legal defense of bad cops caught doing bad things.
Both of these PORAC goals intersect in Fullerton.
PORAC is paying to defend the suspended-without-pay cops Manny Ramos and Jay Cicinelli, who have been charged with murder and manslaughter, respectively, in the beating death of the homeless man; Kelly Thomas was bludgeoned to death by FPD cops last July.
Dead batteries need defending, too.
But get this: PORAC also contributed to defend the Tuckered Out Triumvirate of Jones, Bankhead, and McKinley. The Fullerton cop union chunked $19,000 into the anti-recall water hazard, too. So what does that tell you, other than organized police labor sees its main chance in the continuation of Fullerton FPD’s Culture of Corruption, a culture where any sort of malfeasance will be swept under the rug, even the death of a harmless man; a culture where there is no accountability, no responsibility, and no apparent discipline.
The same people who are defending the killers of Kelly Thomas are also defending Jones, McKinley and Bankhead. And the Three Dead Batteries are proud of their support.
The choices in the Recall election couldn’t be clearer.
Jeez, I think I’ve seen this movie before. Lot of the same actors, too.
A homeless guy named Mark Charboneuax was suspected of burglary and got into “fight” with cop – who bumped his head and got a free ride to the hospital. Charboneaux got a free ride to St. Jude’s, too, supposedly with minor injuries, but we’ll see about that, later. He’s wearing a neck brace and that may mean more work for Garo Mardirossian.
I note a few interesting things. Apart from Andrew Goodrich’s statements that we can now immediately discard as self-serving trash, another cop, this time a ranking officer is quick to point out the cop’s injury is minor and he’ll be fine.
The point of this post is that even random interaction between the FPD and the public are now scrutinized and the statements issued by Goodrich & Co. are rightly subjected to skepticism and cynicism.
Here’s a fun Doc HeeHaw campaign flier from 2004 sent to us from a guy named Baxter. It’s interesting because it shows how little you had to do to get re-elected in Fullerton: send out a couple mailers with a few hollow platitudes and specious claims about how you kept Fullerton safe.
And this document provides lots of exciting bonus material.
Working hard, or hardly working?
Gag. Let’s start with the part about keeping Fullerton safe. We now know that was a crock o’ the BS. But really? Fullerton was safer because it had more six-figure paramedics? Really? And our streets were safer because of money poured into an overpriced police annex and and some stupid, unspecified Homeland Security “Program.” Pathetic. Nothing mentioned about Pat McKinley hiring one-eyed cops rejected by the LAPD. Hmm.
Speaking of McPension, the fact that this toady permitted his picture to be used in a campaign mailer for his boss is really pretty bad and should have caused him to be disciplined by his…oops.
Over on the right it gets even better. Responsible planning, Dick? You mean the proliferation of massive, high density apartment blocks built by your campaign contributors that are choking downtown Fullerton? You mean the Jefferson Commons behemoth? The idiotic Transportation Center Master Plan? And what major transportation projects were you talking about, Dick. The streets of Fullerton were falling into disrepair then, and haven’t gotten any better in the last eight years of your neglect. Also thank you Dick for improving “our” quality of life by revitalizing local parks, although I doubt if you wanted anybody to know about the Poisoned Park that has been virtually useless since the day it opened in 2003.
Oh, and fiscal responsibility? Oops, goofed again. No mention of balancing the budget by imposing a hidden and illegal 10% tax on our water. I would call that raising taxes, each and every year! Now that’s not very good, is it?
And now for Jonesy’s “public safety” gold seal of approval. Jones omits to tell folks what that endorsement cost the citizens of Fullerton: the notorious retroactive pension benefit formula of 3%@50 for cops and firemen that,with the stroke of Dick Jones’ pen, caused an immediate and massive unfunded pension liability that will be dangling over Fullerton taxpayers’ heads for decades, if it ever goes away at all.
Hey, you over there on the left. You can talk now!
By now we are all familiar with the impenetrable shroud in which law enforcement has wrapped itself, with the knowledge and support of supine politicians across the state who have taken its campaign money and endorsements.
In Fullerton this official Code of Silence is used by the Three Dithering Dinosaurs – Don Bankhead, Dick Jones, and Pat McKinley – to excuse their deplorable failure of leadership in the aftermath of the Kelly Thomas killing. They couldn’t say anything, it was all about personnel stuff.
But what do we have here? Listen carefully to anti-recaller Larry Bennett on an October 19, 2011 Inside OC program:
Hey, wait just a minute! That bit about the “iPad woman” doesn’t sound quite right.Here’s a snippet from Lou Ponsi’s article in the Register on the matter, just yesterday, citing FPD spokesdoughnut Andrew Goodrich:
Mejia was placed on paid administrative leave after returning from Florida and has not been a member of the department since Oct. 28, said Sgt. Andrew Goodrich. The city can’t say the reason Mejia is no longer employed with the department, Goodrich said
October 28th, 2011. So why did civilian Larry Bennett say Mejia had already been fired (past tense) nine days before, and how did he come to have any information about that at all?
Stepped on somebody's weenie.
Was Bennett just lying? Could be. The truth hasn’t tumbled out of his mouth for at least six months. But let’s consider something else, implausible, but not impossible – that he was actually telling the truth of what he knew.
If that’s the case then it’s obvious that the cop personnel Code of Silence was violated by somebody in the FPD itself, as some one who knew what was going on with Mejia (any guesses?), told Bankhead, Jones, or McKinley what was happening, and one of them leaked it to Bennett; and then Bennett shared it with a TV audience! Either that, or somebody in the FDP went directly to Bennett with the news so he could beat the drum for a decisive, pro-active department: No Culture of Corruption here!
Well, selective leaks are nothing new for Andrew Goodrich. Police love to share information about suspects unless those suspects happen to be cops. In this instance it sure looks like the cop curtain of secrecy was opened just a bit in the service of trying to make the department and the Three Tired Tubers look decisive.
So next time you hear about the need for secrecy in all police personnel matters, remember this story of hypocrisy. Some things aren’t as secret as others.
Thus announced Pat McKinley on CNN with a cavalier, off-hand tone in his voice. Of course he was referring to the six cops involved in the beating death of Kelly Thomas. No, McKinley. Not “probably.” You did hire them all and you knew it. Plus Rincon, Mater, Power, Mejia, Tong, and all the others. Check this out:
Uh, oh. More bad news for the Director of Admissions at the Fullerton Police Academy, that institute of higher education where Pat McKinley, who held the Albert Rincon Professorship in Women’s Studies, did some of his best work.
We just received this e-mail from a nice lady who recognizes the contribution of FFFF and Kelly’s Army in regards to the way the Fullerton police interacts with mentally ill folks.
Subject: keep up the pressure
I would like to thank you and Ron Thomas for all your efforts. I am the mother of a mentally ill son who just recently (Dec 4, 2011) had contact with Fullerton PD due to his illness and the way it was manage was amazing and human. They actually contacted his father for assistance with him and to get a better understanding of his history. I truly believe this is a result of the actions Ron Thomas and you are making. Thank you doesn’t even begin to cover it. Although I personally am not a citizen of Fullerton, I want you to know that I think what you are doing matters and hopefully spreads to get the kind of changes that are need when Police are dealing with mentally ill people. I know I am becomming more active in those changes in the small ways that I can. Keep up the pressure and the good work. This is one mother who thinks you are heroes.
Here’s everyone’s favorite Fullerton council yokel F. “Dick” Jones robbing folks who are forced to listen of three minutes of their lives – precious time they’ll never get back. True there are none of the usual vertiginous rants about make-believe central Asian countries, Hitler, syphilis, or Galveston’s Red Light District; but I challenge you to follow a single thread woven into this rhetorical demolition derby.
I especially liked the irony of the Angry Big Gummint swerve there in the middle of the speech from this biggest of all Big Gummint boobs. Being afraid of change? Was that supposed to be some kind of joke?
And he doesn’t know the difference between a storm drain and a sewer? Really?
We now know Dr. Heehaw won’t pay twelve bucks for a car wash; and of course we already know this jackass is utterly clueless about why over17,500 of his fellow Fullerton voters signed up to recall him.
A homeless guy named Mark Charboneuax was suspected of burglary and got into “fight” with cop – who bumped his head and got a free ride to the hospital. Charboneaux got a free ride to St. Jude’s, too, supposedly with minor injuries, but we’ll see about that, later. He’s wearing a neck brace and that may mean more work for Garo Mardirossian.
I note a few interesting things. Apart from Andrew Goodrich’s statements that we can now immediately discard as self-serving trash, another cop, this time a ranking officer is quick to point out the cop’s injury is minor and he’ll be fine.
