FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Author: The Fullerton Shadow
The Fullerton Shadow is a former Miss Central Nevada and holds a doctorate in animal husbandry from Phoenix University. She has lived in and about Fullerton with her husband Joe for 9 years.
A broomstick across the eye socket does wonders to curb errant leg-lifting
Despite our repeated efforts to assure our loyal Friends that former Fullerton City Councilwoman Jan Flory’s dog is still dead-as-a-doornail, and still out of its misery, persistent rumors to the contrary, and alleged sightings keep occurring. The most recent of the latter happened last week as our own dedicated Friend Ed Peabody claims to have witnessed the hapless mutt peeing in the bushes along Brea Boulevard, directly beneath the new Elks Lodge compound.
While this reaction to the monstrosities on Elk Hill (that we have previously documented here, here, and here) seems appropriate, we cannot, however, lend credence to these wild stories, even from a normally reliable source like Peabody. Although we were willing to cut him some slack when he claimed to have seen Elvis passed out in the West Harbor Alley, now he has just gone too far.
Until we are provided with concrete evidence, we will continue to maintain that Jan Flory’s dog is still dead.
Property: 626 & 700 S. Euclid Street
Agency Negotiator: Rob Zur Schmiede
Negotiating Parties: Paul Kott, Pierre J. Nicolas Trust
Under Negotiations: Price and terms
Affordable housing, like politics apparently makes for strange bedfellows. Take the case of Euclid Commons, a proposed affordable housing site that the City wants to buy. The agent for the owner is none other than Paul Kott, an Anaheim realtor and apparently a giant NIMBY, to boot.
About three years ago the City of Anaheim proposed a housing development for disabled folks near Kott’s offices on Lincoln Avenue, a pretty worthy goal you would think. But guess who marshaled neighborhood opposition that caused the city council back down? That’s right, Paul Kott.
Money does funny things to people...
Lest anyone think we make this stuff up, we thoughtfully provide a link to the LA Times article from 2006, here.
And speaking of money, here’s the money quote:
“Residents of the neighborhood, called Westmont, said a letter from real estate agent Paul Kott alerted them to the city’s plans for the vacant lot at Wilshire Avenue and Pearl Street. Kott, whose office is a few hundred yards from the site, wrote in his letter that “parolees, child molesters and mentally ill” could soon live nearby.”
Hey, Fullerton CC, nice guys you want to do business with!
We are finally getting around to writing about an item our dear, squishy-soft Barbara Giasone scribbled out last week about the Grace Ministries sanctuary – a god-awful looking, overbearing monstrosity click here to enjoy Barbara’s pabulum . In her journalistic valentine, Babs passed along the grandiosity of the church (larger than Crystal Cathedral, oh joy!) but omitted mention that the Administration Building and “the gardens” were designed by world-famous architect William Pereira and are part of a larger original complex that includes the Hunt Library and the hideous “bark park” (more on that in another post!).
It’s not that we expect Giasone to know or even care about such things, but we really want to heighten Fullertonians’ awareness of this amazing architectural resource in their midst. The City has done very little to protect this resource as they handed out entitlements to the massive church that, we assume, pays no property tax. The filled-in reflecting pond is pretty symbolic of the disregard to this complex; the City’s bark park adds insult to injury.
The other day on our post detailing Pam Keller’s love-in blog, one of our readers made reference to “a stack of yellowing Observers,” and another clever Friend inquired whether he was referring to the paper or its writers.
Today we had a visit from another Friend on our latest post about the Fullerton Observer and its hackish ways, using the great handle “They All Live in A Yellow Submarine.” This set us a thinkin’ about what a great metaphor the submarine can be, especially one that can’t blow its ballast tanks to surface and see what’s happening in the outside world. Its denizens are hermetically sealed in. Think Das Boot.
Who needs fresh air and sunshine? Not us!
Given The Fullerton Observer’s rather nasty penchant for submerging itself in a sea of City Hall Kool Aid we think the image is apt. Plus we’re getting a little bored with:
We’ve kicked around some names of potential candidates for the 2010 city council election, but here’s a new one: Chris Norby.
Norby is termed out as a county supervisor next year and so he would be available. He wants to run for County Clerk for some reason, but we have the sneaking suspicion that that post won’t be vacated by the incumbent, Tom Daly, after all.
There are all kinds of reasons for desiring a Norby return to the city council. He’s good on Redevelopment, is hip to staff’s encroachment on popular sovereignty, and maybe best, it would absolutely drive the yellowing Observer crowd bananas; not mention what it would do to the Jones, Bankhead, Ackerman RINO herd.
Ever since the City of Fullerton climbed aboard the “Save the Fox” bandwagon, something was just plain wrong. Somehow the redevelopment bureaucrats inculcated into the public mindset the story that the only way the Fox could be “saved” was by appending it to another massive downtown housing project. To facilitate the latter the city had to relocate a fast food franchise; to accomplish that they had to buy up property on Pomona Ave. at exorbitant prices.
And so the initial make work myth has created a cascade of expensive, almost comical decisions by the city council.
Why was the linkage between the Fox and a new project a quote “myth”? Let’s apply some common sense to the issue. It was assumed (correctly) that the theater was going to require massive subsidy to restore and to operate; but somehow the city believed this loss could be rolled into a larger, profitable project by some private developer, or to be more precise, the city staff believed they could sell this bag of magic beans to the public. Three city council members (Don Bankhead, Pam Keller and Sharon Quirk) are still waiting for the beanstalk to grow.
magic beans only grow in Fullerton
There is no logical connection between restoring the Fox and the development of any new project! The fact is that whoever developed this “project” will receive massive subsidies from the Redevelopment Agency which will cover the cost of the Fox, developers do not do anything for free.
And so why doesn’t the city at least be honest: come out and acknowledge the cost of restoring and operating the Fox-and if it is deemed a worthy municipal value grant the money directly to saving the Fox.Or better yet why not let the people vote on weather or not to create a permanent Fox restoration and operations budget? Honesty and transparency. Two other civic values.
A while back (6/3) FSD Trustee Hilda Sugarman inadvertently sent us an e-mail meant for someone else in which she directed this person(s) to read our post on the FSD laptop flop, asking whether it was “worth it” to “correct our errors.” We replied via e-mail and invited her to share these supposed errors with us. See? We’re nothing if not open to correction.
On 6/4 our intrepid Travis followed up with another e-mail, this time to the entire board, asking for additional specifics about the laptop program to help clarify points of confusion he encountered when talking to parents. Well over a week has gone by and so far nothing but a deafening silence from the biggest cheerleader of this coercive governmental shakedown scheme. We realize that the well-lubricated FSD bureaucratic machine is hard at work extruding “knowledge creators” for the 21st Century.
Make sure to cut them all off the same length...
But not even a quick post correcting our so-called “errors”? That doesn’t sound so hard, does it? Maybe they can assign the task to an 6-year old for extra credit.
Okay kids. Someone come up with something creative. Dr. Hovis can't write for beans.
C’mon Hilda, we’re waiting! And how about the rest of the FSD crew?
We have to say this for FSD Trustee Hilda Sugarman. She puts her Premier Cru on the line for what she believes in. And what she believes is that her elementary school kids need laptops to be properly educated.
Mrs. Sugarman is one of the masterminds of the FSD laptop program that has given us (and the ACLU) such heartburn. Perhaps not coincidentally, she is also the President of the Fullerton Excellence in Education Foundation (or at least was as late as 2008); the pupose of the foundation, per its website is to support the technology/laptop education in the FSD, etc.
We have heard on the grapevine that the Foundation has pledged $120,000 to the district program over the next two years, which is fortunate since the program seems to be in the hole for at least that much in unanticipated costs in this year’s budget. Seems some folks don’t want to pick up the tab for pricey laptops.
But on to the the bibulations!
well, it's for a good cause, I guess...but remember kids, just say no!
This evening, the Foundation holds an “exclusive” wine auction over at the Arboretum. Lots of locals are involved and it looks like many of Sugarman’s in-laws are event sponsors; and, again we give kudos to Hilda for doing a little intrafamily arm twisting.
We’re sure a good time will be had by all, and that everybody goes home feeling downright philanthropic. But let’s hope that at least some of the attendees come to reflect upon FSD Superintendant Mitch Hovey’s blithering baloney on the FEEF website:
“To be effective in the 21st century, the Fullerton School District believes that students must be able to develop innovative products and processes using technology, construct knowledge and demonstrate creative thinking.”
what did that funny man just say?
We really have no idea what this statement means, but in any case it seems to imply a pretty tall order for an eight-year old. We here at FFFF are somewhat old fashioned, and think that its the job of our elementary schools to teach kids how to read, write, and do some ‘rithmatic; and maybe along the way learn to think a little bit for themselves. Mitch, please consider scaling back your goals for success to something comprehendable, reasonable and measurable.
US Congressman Ed Royce has endorsed Fullerton City Councilman Shawn Nelson in his bid to replace outgoing Chris Norby as the OC 4th District Supervisor. Here’s the letter, purloined from Nelson’s campaign website:
Wow. Now that's impressive stationery...
This is good news for Shawn, but hardly surprising. The bigger question is whether other Republican politicos will start coalescing behind Nelson without expecting to be paid for the honor.
And speaking of politicos when is Chris Norby, the would-be County Clerk, going to get up off his duff and endorse a conservative Republican?
C'mon big fella. Up 'n at 'em
Finally, when we reflect upon some of the intellectual and philosophical ciphers Ed Royce has stuck Fullerton with in the past 15 years on both the City Council and the various school boards, we have to ponder the value of his endorsement. Still, as far as the rank and file are concerned it is better to have it than not.
FSD Trustee Hilda Sugarman, one of the masterminds of the district’s $1500 laptop flop actually reads our blog, as evidenced by the following e-mail string. The funny thing is she thought she was sending an e-mail to somebody else (the Superintendant?) when she was actually sending it right back to us!
Our own Travis Kiger, author of the laptop post, politely notified Mrs. Sugaman of this fact, courteously invited her to correct any errors in his post, and promised to publish them. Hilda is right: Travis is a lovely person!
Sugarman has yet to respond but we’ll give her some time to get a response written for her by district staff. If and when she does get back to us, Travis will be sure to post these “corrections” – whatever they may be.
You see, unlike public agencies we always welcome correction and are not afraid to admit it if we get something wrong!
Here are the e-mails:
From: Fullertons Future <info@friendsforfullertonsfuture.org> To: Hilda Sugarman <hilda_sugarman@fsd.k12.ca.us> Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 Subject: Re: [Friends For Fullerton’s Future] School District Still Forcing Parents to Buy $1,500 Apple Laptops
Hilda, I believe you meant to forward this email to someone else, but instead you replied back to us.
I am the author of this story. If there are errors in the story please send them to me and I will add a postscript – or feel free to reply in the comments.
Travis Kiger
From: Hilda Sugarman <hilda_sugarman@fsd.k12.ca.us> To: Fullertons Future <info@friendsforfullertonsfuture.org> Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 Subject: Re: [Friends For Fullerton’s Future] School District Still Forcing Parents to Buy $1,500 Apple Laptops
REad the article. Do you know who this lovely person is? Do you think it is worth correcting the errors?
Hilda
On Jun 3, 2009, Fullertons Future wrote:
Hello,You may be interested in this article:
School District Still Forcing Parents to Buy $1,500 Apple Laptops
Posted On June 3, 2009
As another school year comes to an end, the Fullerton School District is telling parents that it’s time to pay $1,500 for a brand new laptop for each of their children. Included in the presentation is a reminder that if they don’t get a laptop, the school district will ship…
