Nicholas Dunlap – Friends For Fullerton's Future

June 22, 2026June 22, 2026A Manfro All Seasons

The Dog Ate My Homework

Fullerton is supposed to have its budgets wrapped up by the end of June. That’s when fiscal years end and new ones begin. It’s in the Municipal Code.

But not this year. So a resolution was needed to keep the gears of government grinding in Fullerton at current levels so that “essential services” be maintained. At the June 16th meeting the City Council passed the appropriate resolution authorizing the continuation of the process into July. Here’s the casual explanation of what’s going on::

“Staff continues to evaluate revenue projections, expenditure estimates including cost containment and deficit reduction strategies, capital improvement requirements, reserve levels, organizational needs and other fiscal considerations as part of the FY 2026-27 budget development process.”

Permit me to translate the double talk: “a complete absence of leadership has stalled the process and nobody in City Hall has the remotest idea how to deal with the massive, impending budget shortfall except by taxation.”

We have seen over the past year the revitalization of the footling Budget Sustainability Committee that accomplished exactly nothing. Zero. Zip. Well, not quite nothing, because its members reflected the positions of those that appointed them. Dunlap’s appointee voted against all tax proposals offered up. Jung and Valencia’s appointees supported a half-cent special infrastructure tax, but not a general sales tax. Zahra and Charles’ appointees rejected a special sales tax and pushed for the one cent general sales tax.

One committee member suggested privatizing the Water Utility; another suggested borrowing from the deep pockets of the new (or old) waste hauler. Another idea was creating a business district to pay for the Downtown Fullerton deficit. Innovative concepts for a City on the edge of insolvency that got no traction. T he committee how disastrous budget cuts would be to the public, especially to the hallowed halls of “public safety” that sucks up the lion’s share of the budget. Service levels, donchaknow.

I don’t recall anybody discussing mandatory salary reductions. Maybe I missed it.

Which leaves the City with no viable tax path forward even getting one on the November ballot. Other revenue generating ideas went nowhere, including selling off real estate, particularly that where Water Fund activities are going on. Other ideas, such as selling the boutique hotel site aren’t practical because Council and staff and City Attorney have led to humiliation and fraud on the property and has seen it tied up in dispute.

Even as Fullerton’s “leaders” fiddled away their time, new information about huge accounting errors revealed the situation was even more dire than previously imagined.

It would be dereliction not to remind Friends that our illustrious City Council actually agreed to hire a bunch of ambulance drivers on credit and a dozen new “firefighters” at the behest of the their union even as the budget crisis loomed on the near horizon.

June 14, 2026June 14, 2026About Us

Boutique Hotel Remains in Limbo; But Johnny and Larry Have Been Busy

by Mr. Peabody24 Comments

Warning: Conceptual only, not to be taken seriously!

The City of Fullerton’s foray into boutique hostelry remains a big mystery to the public, partly because the public doesn’t know much, if anything about it; but mostly because the City staff doesn’t know what to do with their boondoggle and the people who voted for it – business experts Shana Charles and “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra certainly aren’t talking. Come to think of it, neither are the two councilmembers who voted against it – Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap.

Zahra’s Fullerton Transparency claque and the Fullerton Sisters are silent as the proverbial tomb.

The facts of this disaster hardly require another distasteful regurgitation, so I won’t do it, except to remind Friends that the City deeded over part of the Transportation Center parking facility to TA/Westpark for a pittance, given that they also change the entitlements making it worth 10 times what they sold it for. TA Partners is Johnny Lu and Larry Liu a couple of Chinese con men who had already pleaded guilty to fraud in LA County and who were in the process of going belly up on a huge loan in Irvine.

You may remember that the original grant deed that was recorded by Johnny and Larry was different than the one they recorded later, and the property description in the second recorded deed fraudulently includes the east end of the Depot loading dock now under leasehold by the Bushala Brothers, Inc., whose clock is ticking on their agreement. What a fiasco.

And it may be getting worse. That seems hard to imagine since the property was handed over three and a half years ago and nothing has happened. The hotel and attached mega apartment is supposed to be complete by October 21, 2026. My recollection is that the hotel and the attached mega apartment was supposed to be done only a few months from now. How many legally required milestones have been missed remains a part of the Big Sleep.

Meanwhile Johnny and Larry are said to have taken out a loan against their Fullerton real estate. I guess someone was willing to bet on the come, or just as likely, wasn’t – ahem – fully informed. Which deed was used to describe the lender’s collateral? Must have been the most recent one that includes the loading dock.

If some new loan fraud took place we can add that to the legal entanglements between TA Partners and the family of the original brainstormer, Craig Hostert, now unfortunately deceased. The agreement with the City should have excluded TA from creating debt on the property with permission from the City. But Fullerton, being Fullerton.

This comical boondoggle is now well over 7 years old and still there are no signs of official communication about the state of this mess, let alone resolution. Is staff trying to find a replacement to keep the embarrassment alive and save face for the disaster? Who knows?

May 17, 2026May 17, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Limited Pizzagate

by The Desert Rat35 Comments

Over at the Fullerton Observer, the boohoos have gotten their panties in a knot over the cancellation of Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting.

A post by the mysterious “Jack Hutt” is full of angst and anger that the meeting is not to be. Questions are being raised by unnamed sources, he says; unnamed observers are suggesting things, he says. It’s the usual Staknia Kennedy trope. Something is afoot Jack fears, and so a self-created opportunity to attack Councilmembers Jung, Valencia and Dunlap has presented itself to these self-styled journalists.

The People’s Mayor contemplating his political future…or perhaps what he might scrounge for supper working the 91 and Harbor Blvd.

Anyhow, fear not. Some unnamed group is having its own council meeting at 5:30pm on the City Hall lawn. Remember? The one they wanted to get rid of a few months ago. Bring your friends and your lawn chairs, says a flier designed and propagated by persons unknown.

And guess what? Someone, again unstated, is claiming “we” will appoint “The People’s Mayor,” a chance no doubt for the immigrant fraud and serial liar, “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra to finally get to call himself a Mayor of Fullerton even if it’s only Mayor For a Day.

May 12, 2026About Us

Young Elijah Wets Bed. Again.

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy21 Comments

Ahmad Zahra acolyte and tender sprig Elijah Mannisero is at it again. In a very strange post on the Kennedy Sister Observer blog he takes offense at my recent post on FFFF detailing many of Zahra’s shortcomings – ethical, financial, and legal.

Specifically, the fragile green shoot takes umbrage at the claim that Zahra filed a false police report back in 2021 against his colleague Fred Jung.

Most of the impressionable fella’s post wastes time explaining what everybody agrees happened: Zahra popped off to Jung with a snide comment, and the latter reacted verbally. It’s funny that Manissero makes it sound like Jung pursued Zahra into the back room, because that is where they all go after meetings – as evidenced by Dunlap, Whitaker, and Quirk-Silva’s presence there, also. He inserts some little snips to look like he has uncovered something. Whatever.

In young Elijah’s recounting Zahra was afraid that Jung would escalate his behavior so he went to the cops – the next day. He shares the fact that the cops did investigate something and closed “the case” for lack of anything that looked like a crime. Oddly, Elijah takes exception to my “timeline” although my post offered none.

It all amounts to FFFF badness and evil, of course. No “false report” was made and we are spreading disinformation.

But hold on a sec, Elijah. You have the whole police report, including the accusation, right? I won’t bother asking who gave it to you because I already know. However, here’s one small problem: you didn’t share any documentation on what the exactly Zahra claimed Jung did to require police involvement. Hmm. I wonder why not.

Young Maniserro tries to claim I mischaracterized something when I wrote that other councilmembers denied Zahra’s account. Not true. Elijah should have tried reading. Here’s what the post said:

The cops interviewed other councilmembers who denied Zahra’s tall tale. End of story. Except that the story has never been reported by Zahra’s Observer friends and of course never discussed by Zahra.”

So the point is not just what people saw and overheard. The issue is whether they saw and heard everything Zahra put in his report to the cops – the whole thing. Obviously, they didn’t. Readers of his post still don’t know what Zahra claimed happened that warranted police intervention, and sweet Elijah didn’t bother sharing the whole report from which he only cites the verbal exchanges, but not the actual accusation Zahra made to the police. Where’s the rest of the report? Let’s see the whole thing

Maybe Zahra honestly thinks “are you a little girl?” is a sufficient affront to call in the police to investigate a crime – in which case there is no false report – just a stupid waste of everybody’s time. Can he possibly have believed that? Or is it much more likely that he saw another opportunity to play victim by dragging the cops into a silly verbal exchange by pretending a crime happened to him, an opportunity that backfired.

The most telling part of the post was Elijah’s attempt to drag Tony Bushala into it, somehow. Bushala wasn’t there at the confrontation, but he must be blamed for something or it wouldn’t be the Fullerton Observer. So the story twists itself to Bushala’s oversized influence, yadda, yadda, and transparency and the like.

What a mess.

Maybe his mom needs to run young Elijah’s sheets out on the line for the neighbors to see.

April 16, 2026April 16, 2026About Us

Taking Out The Trash Thursday

by The Fullerton Harpoon23 Comments

On Tuesday the Fullerton City Council voted 3-2 to expand the finalists for the trash hauling contract from three to six. Staff had recommended solely negotiating with EDCO of Signal Hill and points south, even though the difference in scoring between the top three was de minimis, as they say. As a back-up recommendation staff requested the City work with the top three as finalists.

Councilmembers Jung, Valencia, and Dunlap voted to include three more for continued negotiations, including Valley Vista, and our current hauler, the giant Republic Services. For Mayor Jung the critical qualification was cost. Naturally, the obstructionists “Dr.” Zahra and the absent Shana Charles voted no.

Included in the “supplemental agenda” materials were an email to the Council and a written statement from Mr. Jeffrey Otter, Treasurer for the Craig Park East Homeowners Association, and a professional engineer, to boot. Mr. Otter gives his take that the process pursued by the City has inherent risk, legally, cost-wise, and in terms of negotiating weakness.

Otter goes into more detail in a written statement presented to the Council wherein he repeats his email conclusions and requests an independent “Cost of Service Analysis” to identify rate correction factors across various types of properties; in other words comparing oranges and oranges. His own analysis identifies the most overall cost-effective firms: Valley Vista, NASA and EDCO. He thoughtfully provides his own backup materials and data. Of course his diligent efforts will get him nowhere.

Otter also identifies an interesting fact. EDCO’s Marketing Director is a person named Duron. Apparently Fullerton’s Solid Waste and Recycling Specialist is a woman named Michelle Anna Duron. Is this just a curious coincidence or a possible familial conflict of interest? When asked who was on the evaluation committee the Stephen Bise, the City Engineer identified himself, Richard Armendariz, Assistant Director of Public Works Maintenance; Jerome Joaquin, Public Works Administrative Manager; Olivia Martinez, Environmental Services Coordinator; and Kim Chaudry, Senior Management Analyst. No Duron, although Michelle Anne Duron’s contribution to the overall process no doubt have provided influence.

I can’t find a Duron on ECDO’s dismal website, but Octavio Duran is identified in the EDCO proposal thus: Mr. Octavio Duran, Director of Market Development, has 15 years of EDCO industry experience and will oversee direct engagement with the City of Fullerton. His primary office is in Signal Hill. Mr. Duran will spend approximately 30% of his time on the transition and 25% on an ongoing basis.

So go figure.

Anyhow the dance is far from over. Valley View has incurred the wrath of Fullerton Boohoo because they contributed to the Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform PAC who torpedoed the odious Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo in the 2024 election, an act that should bestow honor rather than opprobrium.

Marvelously, Zahra and Charles seem to think that Valley Vista’s political involvement should disqualify Jamie Valencia from participating in the process because the PAC caused her election, even though they didn’t give Valencia a nickel – a species of childing logic not worthy of an adult. I note in passing that Charles got $4000 from the cannabis workers union PAC in 2024 and wonder if that disqualifies her to vote on pot issues.

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.

March 5, 2026March 5, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Surpise!

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy12 Comments

On Tuesday night the Fullerton City Council did something very rare for a government agency. Nothing.

The issue at hand was a response to a State mandate to get rid of non-functional turf by denying it potable irrigation water. Therefore it was believed that some sort of xeriscape would be needed to replace the lawn in front of City Hall. I have has posted a couple times about this nonsense.

Oh Dear. Surveys were conducted, the charade of public input was exercised, copious staff time was spent culling and collating in preparation for the inevitable routine: hiring consultants and “designers,” organizing charettes, redrafts; months of fruitful effort developing bid quantities, taking bids, awarding and managing contracts, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

And then the remarkable occurred: leave the damn thing alone. In fact, while you’re leaving the grass alone, re-open the fountain that has been shut down as a virtue-signaling gesture years ago. Staff didn’t see that coming. Neither did I.

Some folks rightly pointed out that the lawn was functional – as a gathering place for meetings, protests and even municipal-sponsored events! First Amendment and civic pride. That sealed the deal.

But the road of lawn laissez-faire was not without a couple of speed bumps. “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra wanted a grand public arts gesture somewhere on the lawn; maybe All the Arts for Kids could help! Seeing the opportunity for a grand social gesture slipping away Shana Charles asked that “options” be presented to the Council, completely contradictory to the motion that had been made to leave the damn thing alone. She used to make this strategy of last minute obfuscation work, but it won’t work this time, despite her insistence on MORE TREES, maybe even an enormous fig that would serve as shade for generations to come.

Completely absent was the Fullerton Heritage Group who should have been there to protect the integrity of the original building elevation’s relationship to its surrounding. Nick Dunlap got it. The formal exterior of the building was part and parcel with the site design – created 65 years ago. It’s a landmark. The Heritage Group wasn’t interested, apparently.

I wonder if anybody has notices several empty tree wells in the sidewalk along Commonwealth in front of City Hall. There used to be shady ficus trees there (see picture, above), but not any more. If anybody had given this any thought they didn’t say so.

Anyhow, well-done Jung and Dunlap and Valencia for doing the smart and the right thing.

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 11, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Tender Young Elijah Strays off Reservation

by Disillusioned Ex-Hippy27 Comments

The sweet young “investigative reporter” Elijah Manassero has posted an “opinion” piece at the Observer blog. No investigative research was necessary for the Kennedy Sisters’ cub reporter. It’s all sanctimonious cant about how Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap have demonstrated “how not to run a city,” by delaying a necessary tax increase, and of course by getting rid of the ever incompetent Jennifer Fitzgerald lackey, Ken Domer.

Fullerton is in dire economic straits because of the Jung/Dunlap mismanagement, says the youthful bud Elijah, whose grand experience running anything other than his eager mouth is exactly zero.

But hold on a second!

If I knew what I was talking about this wouldn’t be Fullerton!

It was just a few weeks ago that Shana Charles and “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra and Co. were touting Fullerton’s massive reserve funds, funs so well and amply stocked – $30,000,000 – that Fullerton taxpayers could easily cough up a tiny $200,000 to hand over to undocumented immigrants for lawyers, food and rent.

So which is it? Is it possible that Charles and Zahra deliberately lied to their acolytes? Or is the situation really as dire as the green sprout Elijah now asserts?

It seems both can’t be true.

Fullerton Boohoo is generally so stupid and so lacking in self-awareness that they end up arguing against what they have previously said. This sort of inconsistency is not abnormal for people clinging to ideology over practicality.

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.