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Category: Pam Keller
Pam Keller is a councilmember in the City of Fullerton. Pam is also Executive Director of the Fullerton Collaborative and a former Fullerton schoolteacher.
POST UPDATE: WHY AREN’T TERM LIMITS ON THE JUNE BALLOT?
More than a year (and a half) ago a majority of the Fullerton City Council agreed to put the idea of a three term limit to a plebiscite. Councilmembers Sharon Quirk, Pam Keller and Shawn Nelson were for it; Dick Jones and Don Bankhead were against it.
Dick and I aren't going anywhere...
At the time we ran this post, which we updated in last October. Well, Friends, with the impending June primary election the time has come to remind Quirk, Keller, and Nelson of their promise. It’s not that we don’t trust them, but folks just get so gosh darn busy and their calendars fill up.
But seriously: now that a year has passed and the cold reality of actually having to do something approaches, will there be political remorse?
Tonight we have the first of a two-meeting public hearing at City Hall to discuss West Coyote Hills. Actually, after reading tonight’s agenda, it looks like council just might clear the way for the bulldozers. If you have something to say to the council members, tonight’s your chance, just show up early.
If Councilman Shawn Nelson wins the 4th Supervisorial District race, we will have three council seats to fill in November. Tonight’s meeting could be the nail in the political coffin for some of council members no matter how they vote. West Coyote Hills isn’t new to City Hall and it has been a hot-button issue for environmentalists and residents in La Habra and Fullerton for decades. There are those who see an opportunity to generate desperately needed tax revenue while others see their open spaces shrinking and pollution growing. Whichever side of the fence you are on, I think we can all agree that this has been one political football that has been fumbled for far too long. There are pros and cons to this development just like any other.
The meeting is scheduled for 5PM in the council chambers (303 W. Commonwealth Ave.). As I mentioned, it will be a full house, standing room only, so show up early to get your chance to either support or oppose the development.
The HSR “consultants” are having an “open house” Thursday 5:00p.m. – 8:00p.m, April 29th at the Senior Center. It should be interesting to see the usual collection of redevelopment cheerleader-types that will come out in support of the HSR.
Of course the City itself remains silent as the the big construction, engineering and influence peddling interests bore down on Fullerton.
I really hope the good citizens of our town will wake up and realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is a train – and it’s going to run us over unless we take action before it’s too late.
I applaud the Orange City Council for taking the initiative here, to discuss State Assemblywoman Diane Harkey’s AB2121. Basically, Harkey’s idea is to pull the plug on the bond financing for the High Speed Rail (HSR) massive boondoggle. Our sources tell us Councilman Jon Dumitru has taken the lead on reviewing this issue.
Hell, the HSR isn’t even proposed to go through Orange, and their council is more concerned about the boondoggle than Fullerton’s is.The route, as proposed could cut a several mile long swath of destruction through Fullerton. And our council doesn’t seem able to even talk about it. Maybe because staff didn’t agendize it first.
Oops.
When are the people of Fullerton going to start electing people that stick up for Fullerton? A concerted opposition by our council could help kill this fiasco now.
UPDATE: A version of this item is back on the agenda for tonight’s council meeting. Council denied the $69,997 expenditure last year. Now the Redevelopment Agency has broken the project into smaller increments, hoping that it can slither its’ way through in 2010.
A POST UPDATE FROM A FRIEND:
This item failed on a split vote last night. Keller and Quirk against, Jones and Nelson in favor, with Bankhead absent.
I read the state laws regarding business improvement districts. The process is that business people sign a petition to the city council. It is not the job of redevelopment to gin up a petition to give the appearance of support for this new taxing agency.
Cameron Irons did a survey February 2008 and got about 10 responses regarding a BID, mostly negative.
Sharon Quirk as councilmember said in 2007 that people should pay for the privilege of doing business downtown.
Maybe you want the money for city improvement, but it is not RDA’s place to create a demand for a taxing agency business people rejected in a private survey–the appropriate kind for a BID–last year.
Please do not waste money on this ill-advised venture. Vote no on Item 17 on May 19.
Yours truly,
A downtown business person,
Judith A. Kaluzny, Mediator and Lawyer 149 West Whiting Avenue
Fullerton, California 92832
Taxes takin’ my whole damn check, junkies makin’ me a nervous wreck, the price of food is goin’ up, an’ as if all that shit wasn’t enough, this Tuesday evening the city’s considerin’ a water rate increase.
Furthermore, the city is going to use the rate increase to pay for the League of Cities baloney. The two spendthrift promoters of this idea are Don Bankhead and Pam Keller who in 2008 attended the League of Cities conference in Long Beach here and here, a mere 25 miles from their front doors and racked up $400 per night waterfront hotel bills.
The League of Cities is a do nothing operation run by bureaucrats for the purpose of promoting their own policies. Fullerton’s annual membership budget is $75,000 – not an inconsiderable sum, exactly why the City of Orange quit the League.
NO new taxes, NO bogus water rate increase. We all know Bankhead and Keller are going to vote for this tax increase and I suspect Dick “RINO” Jones will, too.
The Fullerton City Council held a special meeting the other night to address the City’s projected budget deficits. It ain’t pretty.
Man, that's a big ugly hole...
But even uglier was watching the discussion unfold on what to whack and what to keep when the discussion turned to the City’s membership in the California League of Cities – a do nothing operation run by bureaucrats for the purpose of promoting their own policies. The annual membership cost is something like $75,000 – not an inconsiderable sum.
To their credit both Shawn Nelson and Sharon Quirk-Silva recognized the elective character of this annual expense and are willing to dispense with it – a gesture both symbolic and practical. And then into the breach to save the day leaped council members Don Bankhead and Pam Keller, relating how important membership in this organization really is. Looks like Dick Jones is the swing vote on this.
Mmm. Shrinp cocktail and Jack Daniels.
Hmm. Bankhead and Keller. League of Cities. Now why does that ring a bell?
Oh yeah, now I remember. And here. These two spendthrifts attended the October 2008 League of Cities conference in Long Beach, a mere 25 miles from their front doors and racked up $400 per night waterfront hotel bills. Keller’s total was an embarrassing $1200+. Not even her die-hard posse could defend that profligacy.
Party hats extra?
The League of Cities is wonderful metaphor for government that can’t be bothered to control its spending and is accountable to no one. The real purpose of this operation is to give bureaucrats and ambitious local politicians a chance to hobnob, network, self-promote, and eat, drink and be merry on our dime. In some circles it is being claimed that Keller is using the League to wangle a seat on the OCTA, where her mission will be to promote Curt Pringle’s HSR agenda.
As long as free spenders like Bankhead and Keller promote this expensive joke we know we are not being properly represented.
And thanks to Nelson and Quirk-Silva for being accountable to the people of Fullerton.
Okay, Friends, this draft fell out the back of the blog sock-drawer and I just rescued it. It’s a couple weeks old, but still germane, of course.
At last Tuesday’s meeting we expected some fun on the agenda item of who gets to be mayor, but boy did we underestimate the Council’s ability to entertain.
Tanned, rested and ready.
Of course Pam Keller was still sore about getting passed over by the “good old boys” in December and still wanted to kick the issue around. Apparently Pam and her Posse of Political Whatevers had been doing some lobbying behind the scenes, because at the end of issue the council collectively settled upon a “policy” approach that will rotate the mayor gig via seniority. And Dick Jones is next in line followed, finally by Keller, presumably in 2012. Unless Jones declines the honor or hits the road.
The proceedings included the usual incoherent ramblings and musings by some of our council favorites and of course a Fullerton City Council meeting wouldn’t be any fun without Don Bankhead re-inventing history and suddenly claiming he was for this “rotation” system all along (even though he was part of the deal to keep himself mayor two short months ago, and despite the fact that there has never, ever been any system of the kind).
Did I do that? I don't remember. Where's Miss Fullerton?
In the end the promises don’t mean all that much. It still takes 3 votes to elect somebody mayor and by next fall there may be three brand-new council persons – some of whom may very well be disinclined to follow the “policy” set by their predecessors. On the other hand the mission of keeping Keller from running for re-election with the title “Mayor” has been accomplished by Ed Royce & Company. So maybe after 2010 nobody will care for another three years who the mayor is.
For the past six weeks I have been visiting the Fullerton Collaborative website periodically to determine when, if ever, the Collabricorns were actually going to put any activities on their calendar. It was a complete blank. For the whole year. And that was interesting because the blurb above the calendar ever so earnestly solicited public participation in the many upcoming Collaborative events.
Mick said to paint it black...
I couldn’t figure it out. The Collaborative has a well-remunerated Executive Director, Pam Keller, and surely that type of administrative chore would fall under her job responsibilities. Having no calendar of events didn’t look too good. Was Keller just too darn busy? Too lazy? Does the Collaborative really not care much about public participation? Or was there just really not much going on?
Now we may never know. On my visit to the website – www.fullertoncollaborative.org – yesterday, I was immediately shuffled off the the Collaborative’s “Facebook” page. Now that looks pretty bush league for a non-profit to suddenly take its website offline.
Will it be back? I sure hope so because I want to keep the dark calendar meter running – 35 days and counting.
