Friends For Fullerton's Future
FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Yesterday we had some fun with a self-righteous, pearl-clutching visitor calling him/herself “Bertha Washington” who seemed peeved that her/his Heroes on the Fullerton city payroll were being impugned. It doesn’t seemed to have entered this empty cranium that perhaps, just maybe, these miscreants deserved a wee ladling o’ the disapprobation.
Today we entertain guesses from the Friends as to the identity of Dear Bertha.
Have at it!
Now that the Governor’s decision to put the kibosh on Redevelopment in California has been upheld by the State Supreme Court, our lawsuit to stop the illegal expansion of Fullerton’s Redevelopment project area is becoming something of a moot point.
Too bad, because we really wanted the City to try to defend its ridiculous findings of blight in front of a judge.
Well, we’re not going to forget that the bogus attempt was made, and made hard by Fullerton’s Redevelopment junkies – Bankhead, Jones and McKinley. These guys are absolutely hooked on government creating dimwitted master plans, buying into stupid boondoggles and handing out taxpayer subsidies and freebies to their pals and campaign contributors.
In the coming months we will be sure to remind Fullerton citizens of the City’s history of expensive Redevelopment failures and the part played in these disasters by our “esteemed” City Council.
Remember the assertion by dithering dinosaur Don Bankhead that without Redevelopment, Fullerton would be a ghost town?
Or, to put it another way:
Is Fullerton doomed to become a ghost town? Bankhead thinks so or he wouldn’t have said it, right?
Or could Fullerton become an incubator of interesting and profitable businesses run by people whose ideas are not grounded in government subsidies and write-downs, gifts, and grants? Old big-government liberals like Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley have more faith in central government economic intervention and subsidy than they do in any free market ideals. And that’s how we ended up with a saloon in every other building in downtown Fullerton.
What do you think?
Yesterday the California State Supreme Court pulled the plug on the scam known as Redevelopment. The agencies that were created under the Health and Welfare Code to eliminate urban blight had taken on lives of their own, of course, and became sinkholes of waste, abusers of eminent domain, handers out of corporate welfare, and implementers of aesthetic fascism.
Good riddance. Despite stout defense by big government addicts like Don Bankhead, Pat McKinley and Dick Jones, the sad truth is that for every paltry “success” of Redevelopment, there have been a hundred failures – failures for which there was no accountability, and no responsibility. The Redevelopment klown kar had no rearview mirrors.
The Court unanimously found that the Legislature does indeed have the power to disband that which it created – common sense to you and me, but a horror-in-the-making to all the lawyers, bond salesmen, grifters, con men, housecoats, no-talent architects, and design Nazis who make their livings off of the property tax increment theft.
What will happen to all the recently approved projects in Fullerton is uncertain, although there is little doubt that McKinley, Bankhead and Jones will try to keep building over-dense low-income housing for the benefit of their handlers, especially anti-recall team leader, Dick Ackerman.
Nevertheless, the result of the decision is crystal clear: victory for the people of California; defeat for the Unknown Government and its Invisible Empire.
What’s that you say, Harpoon?
Here’s a story from CNN about how Egyptian military authorities subjected arrested women protesters to strip searches and “virginity tests.”
Here’s the money quotation from one of the charming gentlemen generals who run that unfortunate land:
“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,” the general told CNN at the time. “These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs).”
Now does that sound familiar? Oh, yeah, right. The She Bear at the Soroptimists. Maybe we should invite Amnesty International to Fullerton to check up on Chief McKinley and his She Bear.
So reports the Register, here. Seems a serious accident took place. Wednesday, at 1:45 in the morning.
Apparently some pedestrians (i.e. jaywalkers) were crossing mid-block on Harbor between Santa Fe and Commonwealth. They were smacked by a northbound vehicle into the southbound lane, where injury was added to injury. The victims were reported to be in critical condition at UCI, favored treatment locale for DTF trauma victims.
In what must have been an attempt at deadpan humor, the register’s Denisse Salazar’s writes:
The investigation is continuing, and it’s not yet known if alcohol played a role in the accident.
Of course we will be told that the open air booze-a-thon created by the Fullerton City Council played no part in the accident.
The City of Fullerton bookkeepers have provided us with a summary of the money illegally added to our water bills over the last 15 years, and boy does it add up. You see, 10% has been added on to our water rates, then immediately siphoned off to pay for non-water related expenses.
Where does the money go, you ask? Well, among other things it goes to pay for Pat McKinley’s bloated pension, stays at four-star hotels for Don Bankhead and Dick Jones, etc., etc., etc. Feel violated by the scam? You should.
Here’s the shameful tally. Read. Weep.
| Year | Illegal Franchise Tax |
| 1997 | $704,480.50 |
| 1998 | $1,281,107.00 |
| 1999 | $1,364,716.00 |
| 2000 | $1,456,399.00 |
| 2001 | $1,435,202.00 |
| 2002 | $1,558,578.00 |
| 2003 | $1,576,091.00 |
| 2004 | $1,775,133.00 |
| 2005 | $1,771,294.00 |
| 2006 | $2,065,417.00 |
| 2007 | $2,287,693.00 |
| 2008 | $2,278,041.00 |
| 2009 | $2,388,515.00 |
| 2010 | $2,479,930.00 |
| 2011 | $2,532,595.00 |
| Total | $26,955,191.50 |
Last night my compadre the Harpoon penned an angry response to words attributed to outgoing “Acting” Chief Kevin Hamilton that Fullerton was “a town under attack.”
It was a good try, but Harpoon missed the point. Fullerton is under attack!
Fullerton is under attack by a rogue police force that couldn’t control its own uniformed hoodlums, even if it wanted to. And apparently it doesn’t.
Fullerton is under attack by a sclerotic trio of antiquated imbeciles who will never take responsibility for their own failure of leadership.
Fullerton is under attack by a bureaucracy that has fraudulently duped the water rate payers for at least 15 years by tacking on a 10% tax on their water bills without a single effort to inform them about it. Every step of the way in this squalid scam the City Council nodded agreement, and said nothing.
Fullerton is under attack from the Redevelopment Army of jobbers, fixers, bag, men, whores, and other assorted camp followers who want to divert funds from necessary public use into the pockets of favored “developers,” consultants, and lobbyists. And our Three Sclerotic Tree Sloths? Bamboozled? Of course not. These supposedly staunch conservatives are hooked on the smack of Central Government Economic Planning like a street hype is to his junk.Jones even referred to Redevelopment money as candy to be handed out to deserving kids.
Think the threat is false? Even now the Three Dry Wells are pursuing a legal battle to illegally broaden Fullerton’s Redevelopment zone into areas where there is no blight, a basic legal requirement.
Fullerton is under attack by an ignorant, somnolent, rude, self-righteous Turgid Trio that has left the city’s infrastructure a mess, the citizens in fear of their safety, and budget reserves depleted.
Yes Fullerton is under attack. Harpoon got one thing right. We are Fullerton. And we’re fighting back
In our previous article about Fullerton’s MWD rep-almost-for-life Jim Blake we received an interesting comment from havegunwilltravel, one of our frequent semi-coherent trolls describing Jim Blake as some sort of wealthy philanthropist who has been slaving away for free on the MWD Board of Directors. Here is his/her comment:
Jim Blake, as the City’s MWD representitive gets no pay, and no pension, and no benefits. And doesn’t even ask for mileage reimbursements. He could by and sell Tony Bushala, 100 times over, and still have a pile of gold. So get your facts straight.
But check out this OC Watchdog article by Teri Sforza about the massive amount of expenses racked up by MWD directors. Oh, oh. There’s Mr. Moneybags Blake piling up over $10,000 in “travel” in less than two year’s worth of toiling in the MWD salt mines. I’d love to see those receipts!
Living high on the public hog is par for the course to certain self-entitled folks who seem to think their “service” justifies all kinds of self-indulgence – reflected in behavior like parking in handicapped spaces when you’re not supposed to.
Remind you of anyone?
According to our Friend Scott Moxley over at the OC Weekly, the mother of Kelly Thomas, Cathy Thomas has sued our illustrious District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas. It seems she wants to gain access to materials collected by the DA about the murder of her son by officers of the Fullerton Police Department.
Naturally, the DA said no, forcing Ms. Thomas to sue.
It sure would be nice for someone outside of law enforcement to takle a look at just how the DA came up with the dubious theory that only two cops were implicated in criminal activity; that Officer Joe Wolfe had no idea what was going on just 15 feet from where he was standing; or why he exculpated Hampton and Blatney who not only made made no effort to stop Cicinelli’s tasering and beatdown on Kelly, but seemed to have piled on; his take on the role of Sergeant Craig who seems to have coordinated mop-up operations while the dying man was waiting for hospital transportation; his reasoning behind not charging superiors in a blatant criminal conspiracy to cover up the misdeeds of the McKinley Six.
Well, good luck, Cathy.