Author: The Fullerton Harpoon

Last night the Fullerton City Council was presented with a noise ordinance, the principal target being the bar-owning noise scofflaws in Downtown Fullerton. It was basically the same thing that was sent back to the Planning Commission due to its utter insufficiency. Fullerton. Being. Fullerton.

FFFF has documented ad nauseam the comical efforts of the City to address this issue over the past 15 years. I’m not even going to review the dance of death anymore. You can follow the entire history, here.

Here’s an example of what happens when a scofflaw “club” blasts noise from their establishment.

Now imagine three or four of these establishments doing the same thing at the same time.

But back to a brief synopsis. Basically, there have been two forces working hard in City Hall to continue this embarrassing, bungling misadventure in government activity.

First has been the gymnastic effort to protect the lawbreakers by refusing enforcement of the law because “changes are on the way” a cunning and never ending Dickensian dodge. We know that our former Mayor-for-Hire Jennifer Fitzgerald and her Planning Director Ted White were actively running interference for the scofflaw bar/club owners.

The second active force has been the continual effort to water down the code, making enforcement so difficult as to look impossible, thus relieving Code Enforcement and the cops from having to do their jobs. This is the shrug-it-off position of Community Development Director Sunaya Thomas and her predecessors, one and all.

Last night the a majority of the council chose a second option with changes, but an option that had no draft ordinance to accompany it. The only draft presented to the council and the public was to accept what was given to them as the favored staff recommendation.

But then, abracadabra, City Attorney Dick Jones produced an Option 2 draft ordinance from his back pocket almost like a magician summoning a rabbit from a top hat! Mr. Jones declared that the council could approve his newly minted draft, unread, and read up on it and modify it before the obligatory “second reading” in a couple weeks. Unpersuasive.

The council voted 5-0 to bring the damn thing back in two weeks to yak about all over again.

One unintentionally amusing observation during the discussion was made by Shana Charles, who wondered aloud if curtailing the amplified musical free-for-all might not end in the demise of outdoor dining in downtown Fullerton. I can’t really say I’m surprised that something so dumb was uttered by one of Fullerton’s professional know-it-alls.

Ah, those pesky unintended consequences. When government is involved you can be sure of them, mostly because official activities are so often based on wishful thinking, and because no one is ever held accountable for adverse results.

Let’s consider the Trail to Nowhere, a stupid idea from the start whose in-city cost exploded from $170,000 to $630,000. There were no real identified users, just hopes an prayers that somebody might show up to use it.

Guess what? They will.

That’s because the Crossfit gym on Richman Ave. is located right next to it. The gym members will get to use the DG path to jog on, instead of the paved streets in the neighborhood.

The gym gets a free, taxpayer subsidized amenity which is great for them and good for their landlord, too, come lease renewal time.

The landlord? Why none other than Fullerton Boohoo Public enemy #1, Tony Bushala. Oops.

Just yesterday our old friend Aaruni Thakur sent out notice that he was quitting the Fullerton School District board after 7 years of “service.” It’s a strange communication. He recites his own success story and talks about his wonderful wifey and kids. He extolls the board’s accomplishments during his tenure, including higher property taxes. He thanks the educrats in the district; and the teachers and lunch ladies. But he doesn’t explain his reason for quitting with only a little more than a year left in his term; at least not in the snippet submitted electronically to FFFF.

Hmm. Very strange indeed.

Friends may remember Aaruni, and not with fondness. He ran against Bruce Whitaker for the Fullerton City Council in 2020 under a fake address. He was rightly tattooed as a carpetbagger, and a phony one at that. His phony address in Fullerton’s D4 wasn’t in FSD’s District 2 which he represented and didn’t quit. What an ethical model for the kiddies.

In the spring Thakur was identified as the moving force behind the fake and perjurious candidacy of Scott Markowitz by none other than Ajay Mohan, who allegedly said he had been recruited by Aaruni T. to guide Markowitz through the paperwork and cook up a phony MAGA ballot statement

Was the latter episode in anyway related to Thakur’s departure from the FSD board? I don’t know. Todd Spitzer, our cowardly DA, never pursued the co-conspirators who got Markowitz to commit perjury. I do know that Thakur’s political career seemed over. He never won a contested election for school board.

Of course the Markowitz scam ended up doing a lot more damage to Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo, than it helped, in getting her elected. Maybe the backfire is seen in Democrat political circles as Thakur’s signature failure.

Now the board will undoubtedly appoint a right-thinking successor with the backbone of a donut to represent the district. Look for someone whose job it may be to eventually replace Fred Jung on the City Council in 2026 or 2028.

I new it was coming. Following fast upon the proverbial heels of a deliberately misleading City press release, the Kennedy Sister named Sanka regurgitated the same bullshit about the Union Pacific Park.

The headline says it all:

“Union Pacific Park Project Makes Progress Toward Long-Awaited Opening After 22 Years”

No, Siaska, the Union Pacific Park was already built and open 20 years ago. True, the site was contaminated – purchased by the City without due diligence – and was remediated.

But hey, why stop the lies coming? The park had been a gathering ground for gangs, drunks, and junkies. The City, under City Manager Chris Meyers and his successors, demolished the toilets and kept the fence surrounding the park in place. Why? Because due to social pathologies the place was an embarrassing multi-million dollar fiasco. The less said the better, and nothing said, better yet, for the masterminds of the disaster.

According to Kennedy, the site was so disrupted by the remediation it became useless, a statement that is a false. When the toxic stuff was discovered it covered less than half the park. The rest was wide open. Siska intentionally fails to explain the real reasons the park was completely closed after remediation: misuse, abuse and law breaking. The neighbors across Truslow Avenue complained.

Sometime after 2011 a fence was put up around the whole park and it had nothing to do with soils remediation. It was a reaction to the dystopian park. There has been plenty of opportunity in the past 15 years to re-open the park. Nobody wanted it re-opened. No one, that is, until Fred Jung, Nick Dunlap, and Bruce Whitaker voted to do that a couple years ago. But of course no accountability for the decades long disaster needed to be pursued. That wouldn’t be the Fullerton Way.

The solution now at Parks and Rec and its Fullerton Observers, is to pretend that because of the toxic contamination there has never really been a park, and that this “beloved neighborhood space” is finally being opened to cries of enthusiasm from all. That’s another lie.

Skakia remembers an ad hoc UP Park committee but ignores the fact that it withered away without doing anything. No plans reviewed contemplated a Kaboom Park.

Then Skansia shares this jargon-filled gem: “These surveys (Ed. done by no one knows who, no one knows when, participated in by someone, somewhere) highlighted safety and engaging programming as primary concerns, aligning with the broader goal of enhancing neighborhood security through increased recreational opportunities.” Probably the same useless patter uttered by City Hall Parks Department bureaucrats in 1999, and identical to the same wishful thinking that supported the recent Trail to Nowhere boondoggle.

Ah, yes! Positivity springs eternal in the precincts of Fullerton City Hall, and Sanskia concludes her drivel with a pathos-meringue filled appeal to hope and glory: “…the upcoming renovations aim to transform it into a vibrant community hub that fosters pride and engagement among residents. The goal is to create a safe, inviting environment that enhances the overall quality of life in the neighborhood.“

A few weeks ago, the Fullerton Observer’s eager young cub reporter, Elijah Manassero, wrote an article about some misuse of the official Fullerton city seal by a “private company” with ties to Mayor Fred Jung.

The company in question is a Korean-American showroom of some kind on Harbor Boulevard that promotes the Fullerton-Seongnam City Sister City relationship. The offending sign had been changed by the time young Elijah wrote his “story.”

That seemed like a real stretch to create news as the Observer is always doing because performing real journalism is too darn challenging for the Kennedy Sisters.

But wait for it.

On the internet chat site reddit, there is a “subreddit” called r/Fullerton. And guess what? r/Fullerton features our City seal right there on its banner, and done so, apparently, for years.

And that’s not all of course.

Guess who religiously cross posts his own anti-Jung, anti-Bushala, anti-Dunlap propaganda on reddit, not to mention the self-righteous crapola he writes for the Fullerton Observer? That’s right. Sweet young Elijah Manassero who is so alarmed by “unauthorized” use of Fullerton’s city seal.

A week or so ago, FFFF posted about the strange case of the missing PRA request, here, requesting communications between Councilperson Shana Charles and the City Manager, Mayor Fred Jung, et al. For some reason this request was omitted from the official log kept on the City website by the City Clerk.

Well, not any longer. The missing request has magically appeared in the log.

On July 30th, Charles let fly with this vulgar and toxic email:

Ms. Charles sure got her dander up. The reason for the outrage that caused the good professor to lose it? Here it is: the August 5th City Council meeting was cancelled.

So the City Manager and Mayor have cancelled the August 5th meeting and the ICE issue can be put off a couple weeks. If you’re an armchair social justice warrior like Charles is, this is outrageous! Shameful!

Shana is transformed into veritable jungle queen! She will explore any and all options! This will not be a quiet cancellation! Aux armes, Fullerton Boohoo!!

Of course no “blatant effort” was being made to silence anything. The council meeting on August 19th addressed the ICE lawsuit to Fullerton Boohoo satisfaction and life in Fullerton went on, somehow, despite the two-week delay.

The personal attack on Fred Jung was pretty objectionable since his health, whatever it may be, had nothing to do with National Night Out, a cop sponsored neighborhood building program which was being promoted by the Fullerton Police Department. And this isn’t the first time Charles has attacked Jung.

I have to wonder how this uncivil outburst might affect Charles’s promotion to Mayor in December, especially given her unlikely appointment as Mayor Pro Tem last year.

Just when you might have felt safe from the re-emergence of the bumbling, incoherent former Fullerton City Councilman, Jesus Quirk-Silva, you might be horrified to learn his political thirst for office hasn’t been quenched. It appears that Quirk-Silva wants to be on the North Orange County Community College Board of Trustees. Observe:

So about a month ago JQS filed the form 501 – the statement filed when you intend to be a candidate.

The OC Dems will no doubt get behind the guy who knows nothing about college except that he somehow graduated from one despite the obvious intellectual deficit. This will be the same agglomeration of Dems who tried mightily to create a council district for the sole purpose of keeping Mr. Quirk-Silva in a council seat.

If somebody wanted to they could make reference to Quirk-Silva’s votes on the Fullerton City Council – like his embarrassing, comical, and sadly disastrous flip-flop on the boutique hotel disaster, although that isn’t likely.

These community college trustee elections rarely cause much of a dust up because no one really cares who the nodding birds are. The most recent addition to this crew is a guy named Mark Lopez, an unethical bozo who tried to be on the Anaheim School Board at the same time and who got kicked off the latter.

Meantime, I should note there is an incumbent for the job, Jeffrey Brown who has been on the Board for well over twenty years and may be one of those people who love their little sinecure and will fight to keep it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a rumor circulating that the seat is now coveted by none other than Paulette Marshal. Yes, the same person whose lawsuit against Tim Shaw caused the Dems to lose their only seat on the OC Board of Education; who tried and failed as a candidate for that job twice, pretending to be a teacher; and who was previously busted for stealing campaign signs from private property during a phony carpetbagging scheme to get on the Fullerton City Council in 2018.

She may look like death warmed over, but her political ambition may not be dead.

It would be safe to say that nobody wants Pilferin’ Paulette around anymore, hovering in the background like the chorus in a Greek tragedy. But this miscreant has shown she’s willing to sink a big chunk of her kid’s inheritance into getting a political office – any political office. Well, nobody except Paulette, and her senile, corrupt husband, County Supervisor Doug “Bud” Chaffee.

Well, it’s really a fundraiser for Shaw’s 4th District County Supervisor campaign.

I’m not sure why Mr. Shaw is running for this seat. `Shaw ran for this job in 2018 against the senile and corrupt Doug “Bud” Chaffee and couldn’t beat him. He didn’t run in the 2022 election which saw two Democrats in the general election.

Shaw is a Republican in a district that is now solidly Democrat. Even if he were to make a run-off in the primary, he won’t win in the general election. He has no evident path to victory.

Shaw may have a name recognition problem. He gave up his job on the La Habra City Council a few years ago thanks to a lawsuit against him by Chaffee’s wife, Pilferin’ Paulette Marshall, the petty thief who wanted to force him off his other job on the OC Board of Education for holding incompatible offices. Shaw crossed her up by keeping his gig at the under-the-radar OCBOE, instead of the La Habra City Council. And therein lies a problem for him.

The OCBOE has been hijacked by a group of ultra-loony Trumpies and Shaw has been part of their team. If he were to get past a primary he would be mercilessly attacked as a fascist loon despite his generally moderate reputation.

Well, all that back story aside, Shaw is inviting folks to his reception out on Carbon Canyon Rd in October. It’s a horsey theme, I guess, so wear your Stetson and bring your credit card.

Yesterday U.S. District Judge Fernando Aelle-Rocha hit cannabis lobbyist Melahat Rafiei with a six month jail sentence and a $10,000 fine for fraud. In reality she had already pleaded guilty to trying to bribe two Irvine councilmembers to help her client – somebody in the local marijuana cartel. This seems like a light penalty for what she admitted.

Her adherents (she has some thanks to her years of disingenuous self-promotion in Democrat politics) claim that her ratting out some of Anaheim’s crooks should have meant no jail time at all.

What will this mean for the dope lobby in Fullerton? Hard to say. We know that the business has insinuated itself into Fullerton. Ahmad Zahra appointed one of its political spokesholes, Derek Smith to the Fiscal Sustainability Ad Hoc Committee. And the Dutiful Doctor from Damascus has been an active and open drum-beater for the marijuana dispensary cause for years. He actually recommended Rafiei as a lobbyist to at least one commercial property owner that I know. How many others have there been?

We also know that Zahra and the dope lobby worked real hard to elect Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo (above) last fall. Had Jaramillo won we would have MJ stores in Fullerton, possibly 100 feet from your house.

People have been speculating about Zahra’s ties to the local Marijuana Trust. How beholden is he? Ditto Sheena Charles, whose husband, Andre, got a tidy $4,000 from the marijuana worker union’s PAC, “Working Families for Jaramillo.”

The Fullerton Observer and their followers have been vocal about the political influence of Tony Bushala, but have been completely silent about the long reach of the MJ cartel into Fullerton politics. I don’t wonder why.

As the saying goes about the sooner or later discovery by the blind pig.

In this instance the issue was the lack of the actual solid waste RFP document in Tuesday’s presentation to the Fullerton City Council. Tender Elijah popped up during public comments to note this omission, and he was right to do so.

Maybe innocent Elijah came across this on his own – it’s pretty blatant. Or maybe he got it from my FFFF colleague Disillusioned Ex-hippy, who wrote this on Monday:

“Item 21 is the start of something big. Fullerton’s trash service contract is coming up in June, 2027 and staff wants to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP). The RFP solicitation document itself remains a mystery to the public because it isn’t attached to the agenda. Sorry.“

This sort of thing makes everybody look bad. The City staffer who got up to explain how come the actual document was not attached to the staff report gave the lamest of lame explanations: the ad hoc committee looked at it.

The bare fact that this actually happened bespeaks a culture in which the bureaucracy assumes the council won’t read anything more complicated than a Denny’s menu and will rely on staff to tell them what to do. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The sad fact is that most electeds are more interested in photo ops than in doing any real work. And reading documents you are voting on takes effort.

Then there’s the FU to the public, deliberate opacity through design or indifference. I think it’s the culture issue, again; a culture that is created by inertia, where sort of okay is good enough. Hopefully we will get a new City Manager who understands this. But don’t hold your breath.