The Fullerton Harpoon – Page 2 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

March 20, 2026March 20, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

$10,000,000 Misdirected; Budget Crisis Suddenly Gets Worse

At Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting our honorable elected representatives found out that our fiscal reserve funds were overpopulated with bucks that belonged someplace else. I haven’t been able to view the video – the City Clerk’s link doesn’t work – so I’m relying on a Voice of OC article.

It seems monies that should have gone to Fullerton’s Redevelopment Successor Agency and other sequestered funds were being counted in the general fund reserve pool – $10,000,000 worth. How and why this occurred wasn’t spelled out in the article except as some sort of accounting error:

“These funds remain part of the city’s overall fund balance, but are now set aside in a way that better reflects their intended purpose,” said Steven Avalos, the city’s finance director, at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Mr. Steven Avalos, Fullerton’s New City Treasurer

Wow, that’s an application of bureaucratic soft soap, massaging what amounts to an egregious accounting error, or worse.

What it means is that all previous budget discussions led by Mr. Avalos and his predecessor have been nonsense for the past 5 years. And decisions in just the past year obliviously come into sharper focus for their foolishness – like going in-house with ambulance drivers and hiring a bunch of new, permanent “firefighters” based on a one-time FEMA grant. Parenthetically, I note that Mr. Avalos was appointed City Treasurer earlier in the Tuesday meeting. That’s a bit funny, really.

The Voice reports heated and loud interlocutions between Ahmad Zahra, the perpetual grandstander, liar, and victim, in exchanges with Mayor Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap. The exchanges as reported generated a lot more heat than light, but so it is when Zahra begins his sanctimonious routine. Ironically Zahra says a new sales tax increase won’t help.

We are informed by the article that City Manager Eddie Manfro is going to meet with the ad hoc Budget Sustainability Committee on March 30th which seems like just a stall of 12 days.

Won’t look you in the eye while you’re trashing him…

One interesting statement was uttered by Jung in a Voice interview:

“I think we were set up to fail.”

We don’t know what this means because apparently the reporter didn’t follow up. Does the Mayor believe this misallocation of funds was deliberate to create a budget crisis at some point? Who knows?

Things are grim in City Hall, and a cactus garden in front isn’t going to cheer anybody up.

March 12, 2026March 13, 2026Behind Closed Doors

More Trouble Down On The County Farm Vis-a-Vis the Do-Si-Do

by The Fullerton Harpoon22 Comments

Do with American flag, busy digging an escape tunnel…

The Voice of OC is reporting more suspicious activity on the part of crooked former County Supervisor Andrew Do. Do is already in the lockup after admitting to scamming OC out of millions in criminal scams with pals to steal COVID relief funds. His daughter, a co-conspirator got a slap on the wrist while his wife, Judge Cherie Pham still revels in the title of “Your Honor.”

“Now, auditors from the Weaver-Tidwell firm say they’ve reviewed over $486 million of contracts and found a series of questionable expenditures where Do ordered county staff to approve a vendor without the proper paperwork or covered up where grant money was actually going.”

You are ready to depart, young grasshopper…

Do is gone, but his self-proclaimed protégé and great friend, our County Supervisor Doug “Bud” Chaffee, isn’t. He has been stonewalling the Do affair from his dais and even now is quoted as saying:

“I don’t want to keep spending money if we can’t recover it in some way. The report is disturbing but it’s not what I’d call evidentiary quality.”

Right. Why pay to find out what happened and where the money went, and who benefitted? Nothing to see here, folks. So sayeth Chaffee, the staunch defender of public resources. Quality evidence is so darn expensive.

Paulette Chaffee discussing complicated education issues with a bunch of helium-filled balloons in front of her garage…

The rancid rodent Chafee has ten months left in his sketchy Supervisorial career. Perhaps he doesn’t want it tarnished by more scandal. Or maybe he’s got his own skeletons locked up some place he doesn’t want auditors poking around. Don’t forget the Little Lady – Pilferin’ Paulette is once again running for public office with her fake “4th District Ambassador” label, a non-job her hubby created to get her photo ops.

But if Chaffee hopes for peace and quiet he hopes in vain. Yet another galactic fuck up in which Andrew Do’s name is attached is addressed in a new Voice of OC post. Apparently the County claims a vendor in the public mental health game, Mind OC, owes them $65,000,000 for payments made without supporting evidence of accomplishment. And guess what? Mind OC has ties with…Andrew Do. Get this:

“Lawyers noted that Do helped increase Mind OC’s role in managing medical operations at the site, despite them being unlicensed, and pointed to a $275,000 contract the nonprofit created with the wife of Do’s then chief of staff Chris Wangsporn.”

Wangsaporn is not in jail, and neither is his wife. I don’t know whether Mr. or Mrs. Wangsaporn are or have ever been subjects of FBI investigations, but the Mr. W currently peddles his services as a government lobbyist. As usual, our DA Todd Spitzer has been singularly uninterested in the activities of Do and his Chief of Staff.

And now back to Chaffee. How much did he know about his best bud’s side gigs on the Board of Supervisors? What did he know and when did he know it? Chaffee has a million dollar+ office budget to help him “supervise” and there seems to have been nobody looking into a damn thing; if they did, Chaffee said nothing about the ocean of cash that was disappearing through the OC Health Care Agency funnel, abetted by the politcal puppets that ran it. And what did Pilferin’ Paulette know about the chicanery down on the County farm?

Traut endorsers. Look at names #1 and #2!

Have any of the current 4th District candidates addressed this ongoing scandal at the County? I am unaware of any statement promising a clean sweep and a reckoning for those who aided Do in his malfeasance. I would think this is something Fred Jung, Connor Traut, and Tim Shaw would be all over. But opposing corruption is scary because you never know who might prevail. And some of the miscreants may have endorsed you!

March 7, 2026March 7, 2026About Us

Zahra Tells All – Part I

by The Fullerton Harpoon15 Comments

No, of course not. The truth is not in him. If it were he would have explained how he, the first gay Muslim in America married a local woman in Arkansas to jump the Green Card line.

Not asking real questions is a great way to avoid getting real answers…

The Damascus Dodger is featured in a three part interview with Stiskia Kennedy in the Fullerton Observer. It’s an opportunity for the Kennedy Sisters to give the scam artist another of their tongue baths and to avoid anything that resembles the truth about Zahra and his career, a career that resembles a jailbreak more than anything else.

“In a recent discussion, I spoke with Fullerton City Council Member Ahmad Zahra about his role and responsibilities. We engaged in a Q&A session that delved into the challenges and rewards of serving the community at the municipal level. “

First Satkia wants to know how to stand up to influential donors. Suddenly Tony Bushala’s unseen presence fills the room. Zahra’s response? He lies of course. Naturally, Zahra is a profile in courage, standing up to the “special interests” over whom he prevailed in his two elections. This demanded his “wisdom and thick skin.” This history is false, of course. Nobody knew who he was in 2018 and he slipped in past a couple others; naturally he ignores the facts of his 2022 run when his victory was not won on any issues, but by spending $120,000. And then there was his recruitment of Tony Castro, the dummy Latino candidate who the OC Dems set up to take votes away from Oscar Valadez. Oops.

Stikia follows up with campaign finance. Zahra complains about political action committees and the poor plight of the “community-focused” candidate (presumably just like him). No questions are asked or answered about Zahra’s big campaign donors, just as the Kennedy Sisters never bothered to ask who gave money to Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo in 2024, and what they hoped to get out of it. The cannabis workers’ PAC gave $60,000 to help Cannabis Kitty, but that’s not the sort of mean, nasty PAC Zahra has in mind.

Zahra says his opponents spent more than he did and he still won in 2022. That’s a lie, too, but he knows the Sisters won’t check him on it. Dredging up another Fullerton Boohoo gripe about Mr. Bushala, Zahra bemoans the fact that donations can be returned so that councilmembers can vote on the donor’s project. This is reference to Councilwoman Jamie Valencia’s return of money to Bushala before the vote on the stupid Walk on Wilshire in which Bushala had no legal interest. That return wasn’t even necessary per state law so why is this a problem?

Staksia’s last question is about ranked choice voting about which her interlocutor knows nothing and doesn’t care. He wants to curb “unethical practices” by PACs, saying nothing about the fraudulent candidates Tony Castro and Scott Markowitz whom his party set up so their pals like Zahra and Jaramillo could get elected in Fullerton. And that betrays Zahra’s true feelings about the community he pretends to love so much.

March 6, 2026March 6, 2026About Us

The Nuisance

by The Fullerton Harpoon12 Comments

At last Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting three gentlemen got up to speak about problems they’re having with the Union Pacific Railroad, specifically, the lack of policing along the unused line just south of Imperial Highway.

It seems that members of the homeless “community” have taken up residence along the unused right-of-way with the attendant trespass, trash, peeping-tommery, and even fornication. The residents are sick of it and the railroad has been uncooperative, they say. The situation even made the news.

The speakers at the meeting were quick to thank Nick Dunlap and Fred Jung and the Fullerton PD for their help and numerous calls for police help. Can the City persuade the railroad to do something?

The giant railroad corporation issued a canned and useless response; possibly responding only because a lawsuit maybe be coming.

Since the line (according to reports) hasn’t been used for between twelve and seventeen years, you have to wonder what the UP has in mind. This track is the remnant of the UP line that came northward from Anaheim past the Hunt Wesson plant, know as the “Basta Crossing” and north through La Habra. The line south of the Basta Crossing was abandoned and sold off long a go. Obviously lots of people see the remaining portion as having potential for a rec trail.

Is the ROW legally abandoned through disuse? Not yet. That’s up to an arcane Federal agency called the Surface Transportation Board. Have prescriptive easements been established where bikers have created an informal parallel trail? I don’t know, and I’m not sure the railroad would even care despite liability issues.

February 27, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

A Manfro All Seasons. Eddie Manfro to Be Anointed New City Manager

by The Fullerton Harpoon24 Comments

At next Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting Eddie Manfo. Acting City Manager will be hired by the City Council to fill the job formally.

He will get $305,000 per year as base pay, plus a cornucopia of benefits that amount to, well, a helluva lot of money. Does he get to keep his current pension?

He’s quasi-at-will until this November, after which he gets nine months’ severance if fired.

Apparently there are at least three votes for Manfro’s appointment, but the sledding will not be without some controversy. Manfor was one of four Fullerton hires post COVID that attracted the negative attention of CalPERS, the State’s public employee retirement system. Once you officially retire there are limits to what you can do for employment inside the system. I don’t know what is required to unretire yourself so maybe Manfro has done that.

However, the CalPERS controversy, such as it is, is bound to arouse the indignation of certain elements in Fullerton Boohoo/Crazy who will use any opportunity, no matter how slim, to impugn the Jung/Dunlap/Valencia troika; the Kennedy Sisters, for instance, continue to bemoan the loss of “excellent” City Manager Ken Domer the incompetent stooge of Jennifer Fitzgerald, and wail about all subsequent replacements.

February 14, 2026February 14, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

Is Fullerton Getting a New City Manager?

by The Fullerton Harpoon8 Comments

Item 1 on the Closed Session agenda looks a lot like this:

Since right now we have an “Acting” City Manager, Eddie Manfro, I think we can surmise that this is either an item to select a replacement or to appoint a permanent City Manager, who might be Manfro himself.

Manfro has held a bunch of jobs in Fullerton since his retirement as City Manager in Westminster, a situation that has caused a complaint from CalPERS, the State public employees retirement system, that is currently the subject of possible litigation.

Since I am not privy to the closed door doings of the City Council, it is possible that interviews with other candidates have taken place since the last City Manager, Eric Levitt ditched Fullerton for San Bernardino last summer. If the CM job was posted, it isn’t anymore.

On the face of it, the Fullerton City Manager job can’t be an enviable one what with the looming financial crisis and the roads being the worst in Orange County. Still, the job remuneration will be exceedingly high, and the accountability, as we have seen over the past four City Managers, exceedingly low.

If a decision is made next Tuesday we will be informed at the start of the public meeting.

February 10, 2026February 10, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Shana Charles In Bed With the Dope Cartel?

by The Fullerton Harpoon6 Comments

FFFF has taken advantage of numerous opportunities to relate the doings of the cannabis lobby in Fullerton.

The train of thought was weak but it sure was short…

We have all seen how Ahmad Zahra has endorsed the the idea of a cannabis dispensary on almost any commercial corner in Fullerton; how the sad mental train wreck of Jesus Quirk-Silva was eager to spread the pain to all of Fullerton’s representative districts. That’s old news, from 2020.

News of more recent vintage is that in 2024 the dope lobby, fronted by the grocery store workers union pitched in to elect Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo with an astounding $60,000, dumped into a pro Jaramillo political action committee.

How come? Because this union also represents the cannabis dispensary works in Orange County. I note that the origin and intent of this contribution was never discussed in the pages of the Fullerton Observer.

Of that $60,000, $4000 was shuffled to Andre Charles, who styles himself a political consultant. What he does between elections remains a mystery, as does the service he provided Team Jaramillo for that $4000. But Andre’s sketchy employment history is of little concern, except that the source of his conjugal bliss is none other than Mrs. Shana Charles, a Fullerton City Council member and a vociferous advocate for public health.

Ms. Shana, as FFFF has noted, is running for re-election in Fullerton’s District 3 this fall. She has kicked off a re-election campaign and has begun the task of fundraising. Her second biggest contribution was $1500, and came from came from the very same dope workers union that fronted the Cannabis Kitty PAC. A coincidence? I doubt it.

Mrs. Flory’s education was complete. The designated driver was on the way.

The marijuana dispensary lobby needs three votes to revive the ill-formed dope ordinance of 2020 approved just before the election of that year by Ahmad Zahra, Jesus Quirk-Silva, and the possibly sober Jan Flory (pictured above). That ordinance was revoked a few months later and the lobby determined that it was worth a huge monetary investment in Fullerton politics.

February 6, 2026February 7, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Weird Attack on Nick Dunlap Surfaces

by The Fullerton Harpoon14 Comments

The FFFF inbox had an interesting communication in it this morning – a copy of an anonymous posting on a Facebook page called “Fullerton Buzz” warning that a Fullerton City Councilmember might be their landlord.

The portentous lead-in:

“It has been found that Montclaire Apartments is owned by Mayor Pro Tem Nicolas (sic) Dunlap.”

Shocking!!!!

Little tidbits of information about companies City Councilman Nick Dunlap is affiliated with are included in the communication to lend verisimilitude.

But verisimilitude to what? Someone thinks that owning real estate is a crime? Someone thinks having an income is bad? Seriously?

My supposition is that someone wants somebody to think Dunlap is some sort of evil plutocrat, associating rental income with ill intent. This anti-rentier Marxist philosophy underlies so much of the thinking of Fullerton Boohoo that the author could be any number of people, but obviously someone at least active enough to know to use Dunlap’s title “Mayor Pro Tem,” probably someone still pissed off that Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles were passed over for the mayorship in December, thanks to Dunlap’s votes.

More than than that, this seems to be an invitation for denizens of the aforementioned Montclaire Apartments to engage their landlord in his capacity of a Fullerton Councilman, a troublemaking tactic so common to the Kennedy Observer Sisters and their ilk.

Additionally, it should be noted that the aforementioned Spadra Property Company is a property manager, as indicated here, and not a property owner. So that’s sinks the whole point of the attack.

Could it be our friend, the flowering young sapling Elijah Manassero who is behind this lame effort? Quite possibly. But then Ahmad Zahra has a whole stable of eager young sycophants trying to ascend in the cold, cruel political world.

January 27, 2026January 27, 2026Boohooism

Pilferin’ Paulette: Busted Thief Running for North Orange County Community College Board

by The Fullerton Harpoon26 Comments

Paulette discussing critical education issues with a bunch of helium-filled balloons.

And that would be Paulette Chaffee, disgraced wife of our senile and corrupt County Supervisor Doug “Bud” Chaffee. It had been rumored last summer that this perennial candidate was again looking for an elected job, and that this seat might be it.

Mrs. Chaffee is desperate to be elected something. Her strategy has been to cling like a barnacle to the hope of something education related, that being the easiest sort of thing to be elected to. She has run and failed twice to be on the opaque Orange County Board of Education spending who knows how much of her kids’ inheritance in the process.

Before those BoE runs, Mrs. Chaffee bought a condo in the newly formed 5th District, and faux carpetbagged into it to try to get on the Fullerton City Council, even though she really lived in a posh house up on a hill. That election saw her get into trouble with the long arm of the law.

Paulette Stolen Sign — Crime doesn’t always pay in Fullerton…

Chaffee was caught on video – twice – stealing campaign signs. She pleaded guilty and paid a fine and quit that race. But she wasn’t done self-promoting for future political advantage.

And that’s where I put the sign in the back of the car…

Her community service, it was said, provided education related photo content for her future OC Board of Education attempts.

This unelected’s strategy has been to photobomb just about every political event imaginable, always haunting the background like the chorus in a Greek tragedy. You name it, there she is. Her husband anointed her OC 4th District Ambassador, whatever the Hell that was supposed to be.

Even the most cynical political creatures might be understood for withholding their endorsement of Pilferin’ Paulette. However some seem not to be even bothered by her checkered past. Here are some of the endorsements from her website:

The future is getting shorter all the time…

But Mrs. Chaffee has a problem and it isn’t callow youth. She is at least 76 years old and time is running out. Moreover, the seat she is running for has two rivals.

One is the dim bulb Jesus Quirk-Silva, former Fullerton councilmember, who has his own set of endorsements, several the same as Chaffee’s. Even his wife endorses him. Could he be bought off to go away? Not likely.

And then there’s the 24 year incumbent, Jeffrey Brown, who isn’t going anywhere and will enjoy the title NOCCCD Board Member as his job title on the ballot.

The only thing we can be sure of in this election is that the potential for merriment, FFFF style.

January 19, 2026January 19, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Observing or Stirring Up Controversy?

by The Fullerton Harpoon45 Comments

A Friend just sent over this snippet from a Fullerton Observer “article” about tomorrow’s Fullerton City Council meeting.

“Despite the limited agenda, the meeting is expected to draw public comments regarding the recent selection of the Mayor, the treatment of public commentary, issues surrounding ICE, and the City’s response to violations related to CalPERS.”

Why write about news when you can try to make your own! (Photo by Julie Leopo/Voice of OC)

Once again Skitka Kennedy and her sister Sharon seem intent on generating news rather than just reporting it. Of course this totally unethical stab at troublemaking is nothing new for these people. They love certain intangible abstractions, and if some proposal seems to scratch that itch, then so be it, no matter how fucking stupid it is.

Just tell me what to say and I’ll say it…

First, let’s examine the first sentence. The meeting is “expected to draw public comments…” Says who? Says somebody hoping that somebody will read this and maybe go; either that or remind the usual disagreeable claque that their presence is needed to disrupt the business of the city.

And then there’s the script

First, selection of Mayor, an issue decided a month ago and that has no relevance to anything anymore. The treatment of public commentary is really funny.

Treatment of public commentary? For some reason these fools seem to believe that they actually deserve respect as they berate members of the City Council. Look me in the eye, the Canadian green card holder demands! Sure these nincompoops have a right to speak; but there’s no requirement on the part of the City Council to give them a nickel’s worth of attention, or to adjourn meetings in honor of them.

And the ICE issue: giving $200,000 to undocumented persons for legal and living expenses, money taken from everybody to salve the moral sensibilities of a few. The decision not to fund this irresponsible idea was taken in November and isn’t going to change. Still, hope springs eternal in the cross-wired world of Fullerton Boohoo.

Finally the CalPERS “response” issue, yeah, an issue nobody has even talked about except for one opinion screed written by the the sweet young Elijah Manassero, soi-disant “investigative reporter” for the Kennedy Sisters.

FFFF, however, did publish a post about a possible Closed Session leak by “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra to the tender Elijah, and how the potentially illegal matter had been referred to the District Attorney. Will anybody from the balcony step up to the podium chatter about this, besides the delicate fleur Manassero? I doubt it.

I don’t spark up doobs any more, but back in the. Hey that explains a lot about my career trajectory.

The Fullerton Observer and its proprietors will never change. When you are on a messianic mission of goodness and light, you are unable to draw a distinction between objectivity and fantasy so long as the fantasy rings your bell. It’s an all too common trait in the less educated, and is a complete disqualifier for someone calling himself a journalist.