The Observer – Page 2 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

April 25, 2026April 26, 2026Ahmad Zahra

The Pickleball Diplomat

Maldo poses in front of the empty “community garden.”

A couple months ago FFFF revealed the District 5 candidacy of one Jozef Maldonado. I didn’t know anything about the guy except that he had stood up at a council meeting to attack Mayor Fred Jung. That was telling and now the evidence is in.

Maldonado has a campaign website wherein he touts his vast, two-year experience on the Parks commission and shares how he championed the Trail to Nowhere and the useless UP Park projects – an aggregate waste of three million dollars of public money. He includes this unintentionally hilarious brag about his alleged contribution to the UP Park:

“And when conflict arose over a proposed pickleball court conversion, he brought both sides to the table and turned tension into trust.”

Wow! What an accomplishment. Tension to trust. Well, the pickleball courts are there so somebody lost.

Anyway, what’s really revealing is Jozef’s slate of endorsers, a veritable Who’s Who of Fullerton Boohoo and Fullerton Angry.

Ahmad Zahra (unemployed immigrant fraud)

Shana Charles (and her unemployed husband, Andre)

Ruthi Handcheck

Aaruni Thakur (friend of Scott Andre Charles and Scott Markowitz, some say)

Angry Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo

Angry Eye Doctor Anjali Tapadila

Steven Sherry (who starts every sentence with “Member of the Transportation Commission.”)

Soon we will probably see Jan Flory, Karen Lloreda and Diane Vena added to the list and hosannas from the Kennedy Sisters and the Fullerton Observer endorsement committee.

I once speculated that this guy could be another Democrat Party plant – like Tony Castro meant to drain votes from Oscar Valadez; and Scott Markowitz, there to take gringo votes from Linda Whitaker; in both cases to benefit the favored Dem Central candidate. This is obviously not the case. But Maldonado’s position in the community seems very thin; and Valadez has both a long-time business and a family with deep roots in D5.

We do learn that Jozef will be marrying his fiancé Ryan at the Hunt Library in November, after the rigors of the campaign, I guess. The point of sharing that information escapes me, other than to reveal he is gay without branding himself by it, like his endorser Ahmad Zahra.

April 20, 2026April 20, 2026Ahmad Zahra

An Audit Report

by The Fullerton Harpoon16 Comments

At tomorrow’s Fullerton City Council meeting, agenda item #1 features a report by the firm of Grant Thornton Risk Advisory Services. They will present what the City is calling a “special fiscal audit.”

What does that mean, and what are the results? Unknown because there is no staff report – not even a little introductory prose. This is in keeping with former City communications regarding the recently revealed erroneous assignments of millions into General Fund reserves – money that was supposed to go elsewhere. The last post FFFF did on this subject in March pointed out the condescending gobbledygook press release that emanated from City Hall. I believe this “audit” was commissioned to address the big errors and allay fears that some sort of malfeasance took place.

I hope that Messrs. Shawn Stewart and Charles Mayes (CPA) of Grant Thornton will present something real simple. Like maybe a diagram, or a flow chart to explain how these bogus transactions took place. Where did the money come from, where did it go, and when was it fixed? One hopes there will be no verbal or logical gymnastics to dodge assignment of responsibility. Does one hope in vain? And of course please let us know:

What are the true balances in General Fund and Capital Improvement Reserves.

Item #12 on the agenda is a report on staff vacancies and retention recruitment efforts required, as usual, by a nosey and intrusive State legislature. I’m not sure what the purpose of the law is, but the information contained in the report is worth considering. According to staff there are currently 65 vacancies, two thirds of which are non sworn, general public employees. 65 vacancies is about 10% of the total labor force.

In past years the vacancy rate has done as high as 25% in Fiscal Year 21/22.

Here’s the issue. How many of these vacant positions are included in the current 25/26 budget deliberations? All of them? Some cities use a “vacancy factor” in their budgeting – an estimate of how many vacancies will be unfilled in the fiscal year. Does Fullerton do this? They should if they don’t.

I also note that the labor force in Fullerton is up 7% since 22/23 even as dire predictions of the structural deficit were publicized. Why did this happen? The architect of past city budgets, City Manager Eric Levitt quit and took a higher paying job in San Bernardino last year so no answer will be forthcoming from him.

As an example of a recruitment the staff report includes this graphic from last fall:

An Associate Planner goes for $84K to $108K per annum – not counting benefits and pension costs, of course. If those are generally calculated at a modest 25% we can assume this Associate Planner will cost the taxpayers around $120,000 a year, which I think is fairly reasonable.

If we assume the average total cost of those 65 vacant positions is, say, a conservative $100,000, then we are looking at an annual cost of $6,500,000. That closes a lot of budget deficit, right there.

Pro sales tax advocates will claim there is a vital quality-of-life issue at stake, as if the number of public employees in City Halls guarantees such a concept; these vacant jobs are key to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in Fullerton. The same alliance of cops, “firefighters” and local City Hall camp followers who pushed Measure S in 2020 will claim it to be so. These are the same folks who get guaranteed defined benefit pensions, step pay increases, etc. They make no sacrifices and are rarely asked to do so. That task falls upon the citizenry.

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.

April 15, 2026May 4, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Yes, He Is A Film Maker!

by The Fullerton Harpoon14 Comments

Some have questioned Dr. Ahmad Zahra’s claim that he quit his life as a man of medicine for a life as a filmmaker. But this claim is no longer in doubt.

A Friend has forwarded this image of the extraordinary Ahmad Zahra that clearly shows the good doctor from Damascus as a big time Hollywood cinematic auteur.

So there you have it. Who are we to argue with our own eyes?

April 14, 2026May 4, 2026Ahmad Zahra

The Doctor is In

by Mr. Peabody23 Comments

Some skeptical folks in Fullerton have long wondered aloud if 5th District Councilman Ahmad Zahra is really a doctor. His acolytes and camp followers in the Fullerton Observer call him “doctor” and he doesn’t correct them. Still there’s no evidence that he ever practiced medicine, so the skeptics had some reason to wonder, given Zahra’s ever shifting “origin narrative” and omission of salient features of his past – like the gay man’s stop over in Little Rock, Arkansas to marry…a woman.

But now the truth will out. The FFFF Research Department has done a deep dive into photographic evidence and discovered unequivocal proof of Zahra’s doctorhood.

Unless it was Halloween.

April 3, 2026April 7, 2026Ahmad Zahra

Fullerton’s Big Log

by The Fullerton Harpoon112 Comments

No, it’s not the Fullerton Observer itself, but it is a story related by Stikia Kennedy on that unfortunate publication’s blog. The post seems to have vanished, as is sometimes the case when it suits the publisher/CEO. In this instance it caught the attention of Mr. F.L. Olmstead before it was dispatched; and he sent it to me.

It seems that a local resident named Jensen Hallstrom has been jumping a short wrought iron fence to make homemade repairs to the big slab of redwood dedicated to veterans. It’s in Hillcrest Park not far from the Isaac Walton lodge.

Mr. Hallstrom has been seen at local City Council meetings sharing his personal efforts to repair damaged and missing names. That was was a big mistake, for apparently he has been issued a cease and desist letter from the City, to and from his trespass and his activity.

Not asking real questions is a great way to avoid getting real answers…

Ever the intrepid partisan, Shakira Kennedy seizes upon this David and Goliath tale to spin a yarn about it is somehow the result of the ethics of the Council majority, honesty, transparency and yakkity yak yak yak. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Kennedy that Fullerton parks staff just hates it when private citizens do unsupervised stuff in City parks, and no political interference is necessary. That fight’s been going on for 35 years, without a peep by two generations of Observers.

Anyhow, Mr. Hallstrom should also know better. He got into a squabble with the City a few years back over the impromptu and unauthorized “native garden” he planted along the Hiltscher Trail. This latest effort seems to suggest a fundamental immaturity on his part.

Shiitake Kennedy’s older sister Sharon even put in an appearance in the comments to decry the event and wonder aloud if Jones and Mayer didn’t have anything better to do than to get the City involved in more legal activity in which they get to bill more hours.

Now that’s ironic. Did either of the Kennedy’s raise an objection about the legal costs associated with the idiotic lawsuit against this blog that was approved by a liberal Council majority? Did any Observers call out the enormous waste of legal fees involved in the foolish and Air Combat lawsuit caused by an incompetent Airport Director who couldn’t understand his own lease? Of course not.

Accountability doesn’t apply to the left-leaning Democrats favored by the Kennedy Sisters whose gaze becomes myopic when dealing with the likes of Ahmad Zahra, Jan Flory, Jesus Quirk Silva and their ilk.

Why this post was pulled is anybody’s guess. Maybe it will mysteriously pop up in the Register.

March 10, 2026March 10, 2026Boohooism

What’s a Chamber of Commerce For?

by The Desert Rat9 Comments

A Friend has forwarded a press release from the North Orange County Chamber of Commerce. This used to be the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce that merged with other groups in neighboring towns, I’ve been told.

The Chamber is throwing itself a birthday party brunch in celebration of 133 years of existence. The fare, donuts, is in keeping with the odd year number to celebrate.

Notice that presentations will be made by Republic Services, the massive corporate trash hauler whose contract with Fullerton is up this year; and SCAG, the completely opaque regional agency responsible for the nonsensical 13,000 new housing units shoved up our backside by the Sacramento Affordable Housing Cartel (SAHC). That seems sooooo fitting.

For the past 30 years Fullerton Chamber of Commerce has gone from tax-fighter to weak little sister of Fullerton City Hall. Under the dim bulb Theresa Harvey, the Chamber became an auxiliary of the City, which is appropriate because after she left the Chamber she became the Chair of the CSUF Auxiliary – another totally opaque agency that plays monopoly with money with virtually no oversight.

The Chamber became a lap dog, not a watch dog for the waste and dumbassery in City Hall. Ms. Harvey was a completely clueless puppet. Under her, the Chamber actually threw their lot in with the public employee unions in 2020 in support of the Measure S sales tax.

Parenthetically, the CSUF Auxiliary has become a final stop for local small-time influence shoppers like Harvey and her predecessor James Alexander, and that brought us the disastrous Elk’s Club/Universaity Heights faculty housing debacle.

Apparently there’s a new guy in charge at the Chamber, but I can’t say I’m hopeful. The Chamber should be promoting small businesses at City Hall, and promoting economy and efficiency in local government, not “tax your way out of it” boohooism. Will it?

Anyway, I thought back to the days in 1993 and 1994 when the Chamber stood up for businesses large and small, fighting City Hall on the unnecessary utility tax imposed by McClanahan, Bankhead, and A.B. Catlin. Those were fun times.

March 7, 2026March 7, 2026About Us

Zahra Tells All – Part I

by The Fullerton Harpoon15 Comments

No, of course not. The truth is not in him. If it were he would have explained how he, the first gay Muslim in America married a local woman in Arkansas to jump the Green Card line.

The Damascus Dodger is featured in a three part interview with Stiskia Kennedy in the Fullerton Observer. It’s an opportunity for the Kennedy Sisters to give the scam artist another of their tongue baths and to avoid anything that resembles the truth about Zahra and his career, a career that resembles a jailbreak more than anything else.

“In a recent discussion, I spoke with Fullerton City Council Member Ahmad Zahra about his role and responsibilities. We engaged in a Q&A session that delved into the challenges and rewards of serving the community at the municipal level. “

First Satkia wants to know how to stand up to influential donors. Suddenly Tony Bushala’s unseen presence fills the room. Zahra’s response? He lies of course. Naturally, Zahra is a profile in courage, standing up to the “special interests” over whom he prevailed in his two elections. This demanded his “wisdom and thick skin.” This history is false, of course. Nobody knew who he was in 2018 and he slipped in past a couple others; naturally he ignores the facts of his 2022 run when his victory was not won on any issues, but by spending $120,000. And then there was his recruitment of Tony Castro, the dummy Latino candidate who the OC Dems set up to take votes away from Oscar Valadez. Oops.

Stikia follows up with campaign finance. Zahra complains about political action committees and the poor plight of the “community-focused” candidate (presumably just like him). No questions are asked or answered about Zahra’s big campaign donors, just as the Kennedy Sisters never bothered to ask who gave money to Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo in 2024, and what they hoped to get out of it. The cannabis workers’ PAC gave $60,000 to help Cannabis Kitty, but that’s not the sort of mean, nasty PAC Zahra has in mind.

Zahra says his opponents spent more than he did and he still won in 2022. That’s a lie, too, but he knows the Sisters won’t check him on it. Dredging up another Fullerton Boohoo gripe about Mr. Bushala, Zahra bemoans the fact that donations can be returned so that councilmembers can vote on the donor’s project. This is reference to Councilwoman Jamie Valencia’s return of money to Bushala before the vote on the stupid Walk on Wilshire in which Bushala had no legal interest. That return wasn’t even necessary per state law so why is this a problem?

Staksia’s last question is about ranked choice voting about which her interlocutor knows nothing and doesn’t care. He wants to curb “unethical practices” by PACs, saying nothing about the fraudulent candidates Tony Castro and Scott Markowitz whom his party set up so their pals like Zahra and Jaramillo could get elected in Fullerton. And that betrays Zahra’s true feelings about the community he pretends to love so much.

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.