Our crazy, ever more left-leaning affiliates at the Orange Juice Blog reported on a story here, about 2nd District Supervisor John Moorlach and his quest to give himself another term in office (there is currently an eight consecutive year limit). His proposal was to amend the County Charter to impose a lifetime limit of three full terms, thereby increasing his tenure by 50%; and he asked his colleagues on the Board to place it on the June ballot.
The proposal was defeated 3-2 with only our own Supervisor, Shawn Nelson supporting the idea letting the voters take a swing at it.
Of course the Moorlach Plan was seen for the self-serving nonsense it was. When so-called conservatives start to confuse their own interest with the public good, it’s waaaaay past time to go. Unfortunately, Moorlach is one of those big idea guys whose big solutions to solve intractable problems just need a little more time to percolate. And then more time. And when the expensive idea ultimately fails we are left to ponder the linguistic and logical gymnastics that convert defeat to victory, or a darn good try, at least an attempt to do something.
What the Supervisors should put on the ballot is a two-term lifetime limit and have done with it. That way we can cycle through losers like Jim Silva, Todd Spitzer, Cynthia Coad, Tom Wilson, and all the other miscreants who agreed to massive retroactive pension spikes, and not have to worry about any of them ever exercising their incompetent misrule in the County Hall of Administration again.
A few weeks ago Larry Bennett posted some wild-ass claim on his website that the Recall had broken some rule about reporting expenses . He was threatening to call the Fair Political Practices Commission by February 22. In the words of Doc HeeHaw, it looks like Larry’s a-steppin’ on his own weenie, again.
Our Recall Treasurer, Helen Myers, called the FPPC, and here’s what she learned:
Dear Tony,
As per your request I reviewed the assertions made by Larry Bennett on the anti-recall website and discussed them at length with the FPPC. As per my initial beliefs I confirmed that we are in compliance in all matters raised by Mr. Bennett’s post.
Obviously we are aware that we did not launder funds or misreport income and expenses, but the claim that we’re in violation of an election code by not reporting payments made by Tim Whitacre to his people is incorrect according to the FPPC. All expenditures, large and small, were correctly reported on form 460 and form 461. It is pretty clear to me that Mr. Bennett was reaching rather desperately, which was made even more obvious by the fact that he would have simply filed a complaint had he truly had legal basis. In case you care to read for yourself, According to the FPPC Campaign Manual 3, page 7-19; you will read:
The names of individuals paid to collect signatures (petition circulators) are not required to be disclosed on the campaign statement. However, a business entity, including a sole proprietorship, that contracts with a committee to obtain signatures must be identified. For example, if Hector Gonzales is an independent contractor that contracts with a ballot measure committee to obtain signatures in Sacramento County and he does not personally ask voters to sign petitions, but contracts the work to college students, the names of the college students are not required to be disclosed. Hector Gonzales must be identified as a vendor to the committee.
I correctly issued to Mr. Tim Whitacre a 1099-misc. form in the amount of $64,177. And he, in turn, issued 1099-misc. forms to those persons who collected signatures through his company. I also verified with the FPPC via telephone that these expenses were, indeed, properly reported. Frankly, Bennett’s comments are simply foolish.
As a side note, it amazes me that somebody like Larry Bennett is working so hard to keep such persons in office. Does he somehow have his snout in the pig trough?
Enjoy the spectacle of the Incredible Disappearing Donkey, as F. “Dick” Jones gits up off’n’ his backside to bug out on a council meeting and git on home to his vittles, incoherently mumblin’ some nonsense. The Mayor even bids him goodnight.
But what’s this? Mumbles reappears just minutes later, perhaps deciding that being a rude jackass isn’t the best way to beat a recall.
Well, the Fullerton Culture of Corruption is in the news again, and, naturally, not in a good way. The star of the show is Fullerton’s own Jim Blake. Here is a CBS undercover report on Metropolitan Water District board members wining and dining themselves on our dime – even as they keep jacking up the commodity cost of water to us, a cost to which our wise City Fathers then tack on an illegal 10% tax!
Jim Blake has been the choice of Fullerton’s establishment to represent our City on the MWD since the Third Day, when God gathered the waters.
Of course this is no news to us here at FFFF. We reported on Blake and Linda Ackerwoman running up huge “travel” tabs a long time ago, here and here. Blake has been reappointed by Bankhead and Jones over and over again. Why?
Well, Blake is supposedly calling it quits at MWD, but not before causing Fullerton more embarrassment.
Today Fullerton will be favored with the first installment of reports produced by Michael Gennaco. The one tonight is supposed to deal with the FPD PR apparatus and the way it disseminated information in the wake of the Kelly Thomas killing by members of the FPD. We’ve editorialized plenty on what was said (self-serving claptrap), and not said (the truth) by FPD spokesopening Andrew Goodrich. I do wonder what Gennaco would have to say about the City using a police union boss as its official spokesman – if he addresses it at all, which I think is doubtful.
I have a feeling that the reports issued by Gennaco will be little more than expensive PR for the City.
This might be a good time to remind everybody that the offical sounding “County of Los Angeles Office of Independent Review” is actually a private law firmfor hire by anybody with the dough to pay. It’s a small law firm with half a dozen lawyers and a logo that just happens to look like a city seal.
City Seal
Gennaco is really no different than Jones and Mayer or Rutan and Tucker, hired to limit the damage caused by the serial misdeeds of the FPD and limit liability.
Does that sound harsh? Remember, as an attorney, Gennaco’s main concern is to protect his client and gin up more business in the future. Does that sound like a formula for reform?
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.
Gummint makes problems; gummint makes problems worse. QED.
Yesterday Grover Cleveland posted on how the Fullerton City Council’s creation of a boozy mess downtown that led to the emergence of an FPD goon squad to quell the crime wave that the council, including Recall targets Jones, Bankhead and McKinley, had created.
The only problem was that the FPD goon squad didn’t solve anything; it actually added to the crime wave!
Here’s a reminder video: a late night confrontation between a thug and some thugs in uniform. An innocent bystander was beat up and arrested. His offense? Capturing the event on video. Later he was put on trial for assaulting a cop, to which Fullerton cops Kenton Hampton and Frank Nguyen swore on oath in a court of law. It never happened, but that didn’t stop the FPD and the DA from trying to put an innocent man in prison. Now we have two more Brady cops, if they weren’t Brady cops already, and a nasty, expensive law suit waiting in the wings
Barry Levinson had his microphone cut off on Tuesday before he could finish his exposé on Pat McKinley’s boldfaced lie about crime under his watch. That’s OK, because we can just reprint it here for everyone to see.
By Barry Levinson
I recently saw Councilman McKinley appear on a PBS TV show that originally aired last October, called Inside Orange County hosted by David Nazar.
The Host asks Councilman McKinley: Should you be recalled and is it fair?
McKinley responds: No, I shouldn’t and it is not fair
Host: Why?
McKinley responds: Well I really don’t understand the, the allegations. The allegations I hired some people.
McKinley continues: I am very proud of the agency (i.e. the Fullerton Police Dept.) and what we accomplished over the 16 years I was there .
McKinley: We reduced crime every year I was there.
I had heard the comment about reducing crime by Candidate McKinley many times during his campaign for city council.
Here are the facts: The FBI statistics for the City of Fullerton from 2005 through 2009, the last 5 years that McKinley was Chief of Police are as follows:
Pat McKinley, I find it reprehensible that you would intentionally and repeatedly mislead the people of Fullerton and the country about the actual level of crime committed in our great city under your stewardship. Repeatedly you have reminded us that being a police officer has been your life’s work. Yet you cannot even tell the truth about your own record as chief of police.
You have disgraced this city with your misinformation campaigns. You have disgraced this city with your stating that Officer Rincon was not guilty of sexual assault, and allowed him under your command to continue assaulting more and more women after the 1st ladies reported it to your department. You disgraced this city by hiring Jay Cicinelli, who did not meet the minimum standards to be a police officer in Fullerton or for that matter anywhere in these United States of America. Officer Cicinelli ended up beating an innocent man to death while he was lying motionless on the ground with a Taser gun that is supposed to save lives not take them.
FOR ALL THESE REASONS AND MANY MORE, PAT MCKINLEY MUST BE RECALLED. And the only thing that is not fair about this recall is that you had the honor and privilege to be our police chief for 16 years and our councilman for another 2 years. The damage you have caused this city, emotionally, ethically, legally and monetarily will take us literally decades to recover from. That is the real injustice here!
It has been said that the only two certainties are death and taxes.
That sure seems to be the case when you consider Fullerton’s illegal 10% tax on water that you are forced to pay with each bill. The cowards haven’t even got the guts to add it as a line item on the bill. Wouldn’t want nosy citizens asking embarrassing questions, now would we?
Nine months ago the City was challenged on the legality of the notorious “in-lieu fee” that adds over $2,500,000 to the City General Fund coffers every year. What did they do? They decided to study. And study. And study some more.
The Three Dead Batteries.
Well, the study isn’t done yet. But guess what? You still pay that tax. An honest government would have gotten a definitive legal opinion from a competent attorney (ahem) and immediately reported to the public. Not in Fullerton, where the idea seems to be to keep soaking the public until some judge, or a recall election makes them fix the problem. In the meantime they’ve collected two million bucks to pay for things like councilmen Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley’s six-figure pensions.
But everything’s just fine. Go back to sleep again.
I want to know why Dick Ackerman hates Fullerton so much. You may wonder at the question, but to me the fact that he does is inescapable.
The Dickster used to live in Fullerton many years ago, and sat on the city council. His claim to fame was excluding Democrat Molly McClanahan from the mayorship year after year.
Subsequently Ackerman has never seemed to want to let go of Fullerton, possibly because he saw the opportunity to ascend the political ladder on our backs. After getting elected to the State Assembly and then the State Senate, Fullerton was ever on his mind. When the Legislature redrew district boundaries in 2001, Ackerman’s 33rd Senate District shifted way south, which was convenient for Ackerman who had already moved to Irvine. And Fullerton made the trip south, too.
Dick's appendage..
Notice how Fullerton was gerrymandered into a district that extends into south county – virtually to the Pacific Ocean, connected by the thinnest of geographical tendons a few hundred feet wide. It would appear that Dick just couldn’t bear to be separated from his pals in the Fullerton Rotary and the long series of political clowns like F. “Dick” Jones that he helped to foist on us.
Forget the fact that my only job experience was to siphon personal income from Dick's political funds.
In 2009 an embarrassing opening occurred for the 72nd Assembly District. Not one to let an opportunity for political greasing to pass him by, Ackerman set up his wife Linda to run in a special election to represent Fullerton. Forget for a moment that Linda A was less qualified than a ling cod.
Yes, I am more qualified...
There was a bigger problem: the Ackermans lived in a secret, gated community – in Irvine! No problem for the ethically challenged Dick, who found a compliant stooge in Fullerton willing to pretend the Ackerman lived in his spare room! A rancid collection of repuglicans including Ed Royce, Don Bankhead, Dick Jones, and Pat McKinley, lined up to endorse this cheap fraud.
Nothing says F-U like a beer in the face!
During this campaign Ackerman even tried legal intimidation against Fullerton citizen bloggers on FFFF. Off course we told him to shove it up is lower alimentary canal.
After the saddest, sleaziest campaign imaginable, the Ackerwoman got her posterior kicked by Chris Norby, and the Ackermans almost immediately re-registered to vote, citing as their address the Irvine mini-mansion they never left.
After this attempted swindle, any man with an iota of shame would have left Fullerton forever, but possessing an iota of shame precludes The Dickster. In 2010 Dick was back meddling in Fullerton politics on the Pat McPension bandwagon. Was it a quid pro quo? Who cares? It was definitely a way to create a solid council majority which could be lobbied hard for his new client – St. Antons Partners – that eyed the huge pile of cash the Three Tree Sloths had lined up for Ackerman.
In August 2011, the lobbyist Ackerman called in his markers and got his client jumped from number eight on the list to the top spot for a hyper-dense, massively subsidized public housing project of the type Ackerman railed against when he was seeking election in Fullerton. What a difference 20 years makes.
Comically, at almost the same time Ackerman was also tagged as a defender for inept and corrupt stasis everywhere as he taught a seminar on how to handle people like the good folks in Fullerton who had finally had enough of their government selling out to special interests like him.
And finally, Ackerman continues to wage war against the people of Fullerton, against competent government, against accountability and responsibility; he protects his investment by organizing to fight the Recall of his Three Dim Dinosaurs.
But Ackerman’s ship has sailed. His anti-recall campaign has been an expensive and unmitigated disaster. And when the Recall succeeds, Ackerman will finally be finished in Fullerton. His endorsement will be less than useless and his lobbying for government subsidies will fall on deaf ears. He can spend the rest of his days around the bar, telling anybody who will listen about how important he used to be.
