Vivian Kitty Jaramillo Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

October 3, 2024October 3, 2024City Council Election 2024

Register Endorses Jung, Dunlap, and Valencia

Today the OC Register Editorial Board endorsed Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap for re-election and newcomer Jamie Valencia in the 4th District against Vivian Jaramillo and Linda Whitaker.

Reproduced from the Orange County Register:

The city of Fullerton has three City Council seats up for grabs and the choices – at least in two of them – are fairly clear cut. Issues there center on the same kind of major issues that confront many older north Orange County cities: housing development, homelessness, crime and budgets.

District 1 pits incumbent Fred Jung against IT consultant Matt Truxaw. District 2 in pits current Mayor Nicholas Dunlap against Jan Flory, who previously served on the council. District 4 in the city’s less-affluent southwest corner has a crowded field for an open seat vacated by Councilman Bruce Whitaker.

His wife, former campaign manager Linda Whitaker, is running against retired community preservation officer Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, registered nurse Jamie Valencia and data analyst, Scott Markowitz.

We endorse Jung for the District 1 race. We endorsed him in the previous race because of his nuts-and-bolts approach. He’s been solid on key budget, development and public-service issues. Truxaw and Jung both offered reasonable answers to our survey questions, but we see no reason to change course.

We endorse Dunlap for District 2. We like his libertarian-leaning approach and have been impressed by his time on the council. Flory did not respond to our survey, but she has a long record in Democratic politics. This is an easy call.

“I will continue to fight for taxpayers and a fiscally conservative approach to governance, so I will oppose new taxes and any tax increases,” Dunlap told us. “During her 14 years on the council, my opponent voted for the 3% at 50 pension plan, to raise the city’s sales tax rate and also voted to maintain an illegal water tax. Poor decision making and failed leadership (like this) is part of the reason we have the issues we do today.”

In District 4, we quickly eliminated two candidates from consideration. Markowitz has no apparent campaign presence. His campaign statement calls on “America First patriots” to get involved, but he appears to be backed by some Democrats. We have no use for alleged ghost candidates. Jaramillo is the Democratic Party’s choice. As a self-described “advocate for city employees,” we suspect she won’t be the best person to negotiate local union contracts.

Whitaker would be a reliable and sensible conservative voice on budget issues, but in our survey she wrote that Fullerton is “almost built out” and opposed new affordable-housing projects.

Valencia also seems good on budget issues and called for expedited housing construction.

“I want to make building and plan check processes more efficient and streamline to save small business owners money and time,” Valencia told us. “Fullerton will be known as a business friendly city and encourage entrepreneurs to invest.”

Housing remains perhaps the top issue in our cities, so for that reason we endorse Valencia for District 4.

_______________________________________

There you have it, including a shout-out link to FFFF, detailing the phony candidate Scott Markowitz and the lying Democrat operatives who created him. What effect this endorsement will have remains speculative, but in North Fullerton it’s worth something; and in District 4 it may carry some weight with the minority Republican and independent voters.

My favorite part of the story is Dunlap’s pithy takedown of the dreadful Jan Flory, who just can’t seem to go away once and for all.

September 26, 2024September 26, 2024Ahmad Zahra

District Attorney Investigating Markowitz Scam

by Grover Cleveland17 Comments

The other day FFFF shared a letter from Fullerton activist Tony Bushala to District Attorney Todd Spitzer requesting that his office refer the sham candidacy of Scott Markowitz to the apolitical Orange County Grand Jury for investigation.

Bushala followed up with Spitzer a few days later. According to Bushala he received a curt response from Sptizer that the latter can’t comment as the matter is now under active investigation. Well, that’s good news.

Whether this means a preliminary route to the Grand Jury remains to be seen, but hopefully Markowitz will be receiving a call from the DAs office wanting to know a few things. Ditto the Diane Vena and the other liberal Dems who signed Markowitz’s nominating papers, and of course Ajay Mohan, the Dem operative lowlife who pulled the same shit in Fullerton at the behest of Ahmad Zahra in 2022.

Hopefully, Vivian Jaramillo, the candidate who stands to gain the most from this fraud will get a call too, to see what she knows about this scam.

September 25, 2024September 25, 2024Behind Closed Doors

No Show Marko

by Grover Cleveland14 Comments

The League of Women Voter’s held their usual candidate “forum” on Monday. Ever helpful, FFFF will harvest the video of the event for the Friends, sharing any fun or useful snippets.

What should have come as a surprise to no one, phantom 4th District candidate Scott Markowitz was a no show.

Markowitz doesn’t dare show his face in public for two reasons. The first, of course, is because his candidacy is a sham, created by Democrat operatives to siphon votes away from real candidate Linda Whitaker in order to elect Vivian Jaramillo, the Dems first and only choice. The second reason is that Markowitz’s job is done: creating a phony MAGA candidate whose name and statement are on the ballot.

I’d sell out my mother for 10 votes, and I have…

The Markowitz scam, orchestrated by Dem operative Ajay Mohan and others, involved recruiting Markowitz, changing his registration to Republican, and getting a bunch of Democrats to sign his nominating papers. One of them, Diane Vena had already endorsed Jaramillo. But then Markowitz submitted a ballot statement right out of Trump Central. Did his nominators know that was coming? Looks like fraud to me.

And, that’s not very good, is it?

The scam has been reported to the Orange County District Attorney, Todd Spitzer for investigation. An update soon on that.

September 22, 2024September 22, 2024Ahmad Zahra

District 4 Electoral Fraud Complaint Requests Grand Jury Investigation

by Grover Cleveland66 Comments

A complaint about the fraudulent candidacy of Scott Markowitz in Fullerton’s 4th District has been filed with the District Attorney, Todd Spitzer. The complaint requests the matter be referred to the Orange County Grand Jury for investigation

The complainant is Fullerton businessman and activist Tony Bushala.

In his letter to Spitzer, Bushala calls attention to a national movement by Democrats to recruit uber MAGA-type candidates whose sole purpose is to draw votes away from Republicans by running as third party candidates, thus helping Democrats. They’re calling their fake “movement” PATRIOTS RUN PROJECT.

As we know in Fullerton, Scott Markowitz was deployed by local Democrats to draw votes away from Republican Linda Whitaker in the 4th District city council election. The beneficiary? None other than Vivian Jaramillo, the endorsed candidate of the OC Democrat Party.

Friends will remember how Markowitz enlisted numerous active Democrats to sign his nomination papers, changed his registration to Republican at the last moment, submitted a phony Trumpian ballot statement, and so far has run no campaign at all. Not even the pretense of one. One of his signatories is none other than Diane Vena who had already endorsed Jaramillo. Getting stinkier?

Finally, Friends will also recall that Markowitz was accompanied to the City Clerk’s office by none other than Ajay Mohan, former Executive Director of the OC Democrat Party, and now a Democrat campaign consultant. Mohan pulled the same stunt in Fullerton in 2022 to protect Ahmad Zahra.

Prelude over, here’s Mr. Bushala’s letter.

Dear O.C. District Attorney, Mr. Todd Spitzer,

It has come to my attention that a conspiracy to commit a fake candidacy in Fullerton’s 4^th District to the detriment of the voters in that District.

Scott Markowitz is a sham candidate whose name on the ballot is simply meant to divert votes from a legitimate candidate, Linda Whitaker, for the benefit of the O.C. Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo. There is a wave across the country whereas the Democratic Party is doing this all over the country, see here, here, here, and here.

The Markowitz candidacy was orchestrated, in part at least, by Ajay Mohan, former Executive Director of the O.C. Democrat Party. He accompanied Markowitz to the Fullerton City Clerk’s office to make sure the latter followed the necessary guidelines.

Markowitz changed his registration from Democrat to Republican, unnecessarily and voluntarily identified himself as such on his FPPC form.

Furthermore, several active North Orange County club Democrats signed his nomination papers. Inexplicably, one Markowitz nominator, Diane Vena, is actually listed on Vivian Jaramillo’s website as an endorser.

This latter fact is even more damning given the fact that Markowitz’ ballot statement reads like a Donald Trump campaign speech.

It is important to know if Ms. Jaramillo was a participant in this sordid episode. Diane Vena’s participation seems to suggest an affirmative answer.

I believe there is clearly enough suspicious activity to point to an effort to subvert an honest election in Fullerton’s 4^th District.

I also note that this is not the first documented instance of Ajay Mohan creating a fake candidate in Fullerton to protect a favored candidate. The same thing occurred in Fullerton’s 5^th District in 2022.

Since this is obviously a partisan political matter, I formally and respectfully request that you immediately refer this matter to the Orange County Grand jury for their consideration.

All of the pertinent information with supporting documentation has been published on the Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog here.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely, Tony Bushala

Home

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/conservative-group-asks-fec-probe-effort-promote-spoiler-113774588

https://nypost.com/2024/09/16/us-news/democrats-recruited-third-party-candidates-to-siphon-votes-from-republicans-which-could-decide-close-virginia-congressional-contest

Group tied to Democratic firms spent thousands to support Republicans and spoil races

https://nypost.com/2024/09/16/us-news/democrats-recruited-third-party-candidates-to-siphon-votes-from-republicans-which-could-decide-close-virginia-congressional-contest

The idea of sending this matter to the Grand Jury is a good one, as it buffers Spitzer from criticism of partisanship, even thought the malfeasance is obvious.

September 20, 2024September 20, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Fire Fighters Back Jamie Valencia

by Mr. Peabody20 Comments

Good news for 4th District Fullerton City Council candidate Jamie Valencia. The fire fighter’s union chipped in big time a couple days ago.

$5500 is a lot of campaign cabbage and must bring Valencia’s 2024 fall haul near thirty grand with another 6 weeks to go before the November election. It’s pretty obviously an endorsement and that’s another blow to Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, champion of Fullerton’s liberal establishment, whose campaign is heavily reliant on union backing. And that’s good news for Republican candidate Linda Whitaker, too.

Watching the Jaramillo scow drift with the tide…

Ahmad Zahra, desperate to create a majority that will let him be Somebody must be gnashing his teeth.

Having the support of both “police and fire” is a big deal, especially if you’re a rookie candidate going up against two individuals who’ve been around forever. The support may just be cash, or maybe it will mean mailbox and street corner help. The self-styled public safety unions don’t just support candidates, they use elections as a mechanism to remind the public they are out there.

September 12, 2024September 12, 2024"Dick" Ackerman

Defender of the Faith, Part 2

by The Fullerton Harpoon7 Comments

The other day our Friend, Fullerton Old Timer introduced us to man named John Phelps, a big donor to Vivian Jaramillo, Jan Flory, and in 2022 to Ahmad Zahra. He also was a big contributor to the failed City Hall sales tax proposal in 2020.

Fullerton Old Timer checked in with me:

You shouldn’t think Mr. Phelps is only a recent player in propping up Fullerton’s unaccountable Democrat councilcreatures, Be sure to check out his financial political activity to keep three useless Republicans in office in 2012; namely Bankhead, Jones, and McKinley. The Form 460s will tell you a lot about his dedication to protecting the people in City Hall.

Well, okay. I guess I can do that. FOT is referring to the Fullerton Recall in 2012 in the aftermath of the Kelly Thomas Murder by the FPD, an event that went global after FFFF published a photo of the “after FPD Intervention” picture.

The recall began in the summer of 2011 and finally occurred in June, 2012. The anti-recall campaign created by the loathsome Dick Ackerman, now a Fullerton lobbyist, was called “Protect Fullerton – Recall No”. Let’s see what Phelps was up to.

Hardly out of the gate, Protect Fullerton got a 1000 bucks from Phelps. And he was far from done.

In October, 2011 he kicked in a measly hundred dollars. Then he really got going.

In April 2012 he gave another $1000 to help protect the Three Tree Fungi and their Praetorian Guard.

Finally, he gave the anti-recall committee a whopping $5,000 in mid May, 2012. Overall, that’s $7100 to fight the recall that succeeded in June, despite Phelpses largesse.

But, wait. Phelps didn’t only cast his bread upon anti-recall waters – at least not directly.

He also contributed to the individual campaign accounts of the recalled. While the recall campaign was in full swing he gave Don Bankhead’s 2012 campaign committee, not Protect Fullerton, another $1000.

A few days earlier he gave $1000 to Pat McKinley’s campaign committee. Of course both Bankhead and McKinley kicked in those exact amounts to Protect Fullerton. I don’t know what he may given Dr. Dick Jones, because those records don’t seem to be available in the City Clerk’s webpages.

When the recall was won, Mr. Phelps directed his well-funded attention to the upcoming November 2012 election. Guess what?

In September, in a move full of pathos, he gave poor Bankhead another $1000 as the latter was trying, and failing, to get re-elected again. Another candidate, Jan Flory, who going for another lap around the race track hit the Phelpsian jackpot.

You read that right. 10 Big Ones to Jan Flory, who once proclaimed that “in her lights” the department heads were “the heart of the City.”

Flory, was almost through. In the summer of 2013 she started hitting up contributors again. Why? To pay off the $8,000 she loaned to herself in 2012. And Phelps was there to help relieve Ms. Flory of her burden.

Now, if you’re not counting, the total anti-recall and pro statist candidate contributions by Phelps in 2011-2013 is a staggering $18,350. Whether he was really investing in his warped concept of good government, or rather because he still had, or hoped to have business before the council, we shall never know.

What we do know is that the election of Jan Flory, after the promising months after the recall, has been a disaster for Fullerton. What happened in the subsequent years of mismanagement are with us still: no reform of an incompetent and corrupt police department and more cop killings; increased employee pension liability, more neglect of infrastructure, continuation of the Water in Lieu Fee theft, cover-up of City Manager drunken wild ride, more nonsense like Trails to Nowhere, Fish Farm Wedding Venues, Walks on Wilshire, more cop killings. And of course a massive deficit cliff threatening our solvency.

Mr. Phelps is a friend of the establishment, the bureaucracy, and whatever liberal causes he adores. He’s probably a member of the right clubs and contributes handsomely to charity.

But he’s no friend to the taxpayers of Fullerton.

September 10, 2024September 10, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Defender of the Faith

by The Fullerton Harpoon18 Comments

While checking out election disclosure Form 497s yesterday, I noticed that some rich dude named John Phelps had made two significant contributions – maxing out at $5500 apiece for Jan Flory and Vivian Jaramillo.

Obviously that made me wonder who John Phelps is. So I reached out to occasional commenter “Fullerton Old Timer” for a helping hand. Here’s what FOT wrote:

John Phelps is one of the last of the old guard defenders of anything emanating from City Hall bureaucrats. While his clan has been around for a long time he really made his fortune courtesy of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency that helped develop the massive shopping center on the southwest corner of Harbor and Orangethorpe. He is the epitome of the government-aided developer.

He’s been supporting liberal causes for a long time but has been mostly interested on defending the status quo, Democrat or Republican. It’s no wonder he’s digging deep for Flory and Jaramillo, since they represent Fullerton statism, instead of accountability. His name appears on Jaramillo’s list of endorsers where he is erroneously listed as a former mayor. That will never be fixed.

It’s interesting to note that Phelps also gave the max to the pro sales tax, Measure S a few years ago; in 2022 he gave the maximum amount to the prevaricating Ahmad Zahra’s re-election. He will be likely be supporting the sales tax 2.0 as well.

Well there you have it. The Fullerton Circle of Life.

September 5, 2024September 5, 2024Behind Closed Doors

Fake MAGA Candidate Scott Markowitz is a Democrat

by Grover Cleveland61 Comments

UPDATE 09/05/24 : It turns out that Scott Markowitz is now registered as a Republican, having re-registered after FFFF was notified as his status as a Democrat. This doesn’t make anything better for Markowitz, who is up to his eyeballs in this deceit perpetrated on 4th District voters, and sanctioned, apparently by the Democrat establishment. Next time you hear some Dem bleating their typical moral superiority, please direct them to our Scott Markowitz posts.

Of course he is.

We could have guessed that by the solid Democrat infrastructure behind his fraudulent campaign. His handler is the former Executive Director of the OC Democrat Party – Ajay Mohan – who has pulled the same stunt in Fullerton before. Markowitz’s nominators are liberal Democrat members. One, Diane Vena, has already endorsed another candidate in the 4th District race, who stands to benefit from the Markowitz fraud.

And the Markowitz ballot statement is in direct contravention of what you would expect from a Democrat. As a reminder, here is Scotty’s campaign manifesto:

It’s pretty funny how he mentions failed leadership, to stain the name Whitaker, since Linda is outgoing councilman Bruce Whitaker’s wife; then he launches into pure Republican exhortation to “reign(sic) back spending.” Then it devolves into a pure MAGA rant about America First, patriots, individual liberty and strong law enforcement, the antithesis of the sort of statement you would expect from a Democrat.

Yeah, this is another Mohan Shuffle to draw votes away from one candidate, Republican Linda Whitaker for the benefit of Vivian Jaramillo – the one and only person interviewed for the Democrat Party endorsement, and endorsement that occurred even before nominating papers were taken out. It’s corruption pure and simple. It’s election fraud.

August 26, 2024August 28, 2024Boohooism

Ad Hoc Tuah Part Three-ah.

by The Fullerton Harpoon19 Comments

A little late reporting this, but it appears that last week the Fullerton City Council appointed three members to the newly created Let’s Have A Sales Tax Committee, the brain child of Shana Charles and Fred Jung and Ahmad Zahra.

The item started out with a fizzle but got better as the hearing progressed. It appears that only three people applied. Charles and fellow committee-creator Ahmad Zahra couldn’t even find anybody to appoint. Charles who was in a big hurry to get this going only spoke to one person, who wisely declined. Zahra likewise failed find anybody and suggested the whole thing be re-advertised. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to these two worthies that 1) nobody applied because nobody cares; or, 2) people realize what a footling exercise this is.

But wait a minute. Maybe Charles’ genie is better off out of the bottle

Nick Dunlap said he was ready to go and appointed Jack Dean, a long-time anti-tax crusader who’s been around the Fullerton scene for a long time and knows the city. Apparently, he was active in the Great Recall of 1994. This makes sense since Dunlap correctly identified the whole process as a slow roll toward an inevitable tax proposal conclusion. Bruce Whitaker nominated a guy named Bill Brown who I don’t know anything about, but who I presume is another fiscal conservative.

Then came the real fun. Fred Jung, who was in zoom mode, nominated Tony Bushala, the founder of this blog in 2008, and who is well known for his huge roll in killing the last sales tax proposal, Measure S, in 2020, as well as the school bond attempts in the same year. It’s now pretty obvious that Jung’s role in this affair is to pull the plug out of the socket.

When the vote came, Zahra petulantly voted no to the three members appointment. He didn’t bother to say why. Charles simply said she’d be appointing her member later. The approval was 4-1 and we have three members to Ad Hoc Whatever It’s Called Committee.

So now the Committee exists and has a quorum. I wonder if they can’t start holding meetings as soon as they like. They can also start talking about ways to save money that the staff won’t touch, like a levy on all downtown bars/clubs open after ten P.M. to recoup something from the horrible 1.5 million annual red ink sink hole known as downtown Fullerton. Or they could discuss the elimination of the so-called downtown police Echo Unit that has caused as much trouble as it has prevented.

They might also discuss salary freezes, something all businesses do when times get tough.

Both Charles and Zahra know that if their chosen candidate, Vivian Jaramillo, is elected they can replace Whitaker’s appointment in December and get the tax train back on its predetermined rails. But if that doesn’t happen, this committee could surprise the employees in City Hall by coming up with some really inventive ideas.

August 22, 2024August 22, 2024Behind Closed Doors

Is Jaramillo Paying Herself?

by Grover Cleveland25 Comments

Many politicians get in the game for self-aggrandizement – the opportunity to be known and if not respected, at least have people pretend to respect your opinion and laugh at your jokes.

Higher office offers the opportunity to make better money and benefits than most elected office holders could possibly attain working in real jobs. But local office doesn’t offer much in the way of remuneration; and campaigns for office offer nothing. Or so I thought.

Most candidates running for office lend their campaigns money with the expectation that if they win, they can leverage their new job and pay off their debt – to themselves. So did Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, who lent herself $3000, and no doubt expects a victory would provide a windfall from the Long Beach marijuana cartel to pay herself back.

But I I can’t remember a candidate actually paying him or herself out of funds raised for a campaign. Look at this this entry on Jaramillo’s form 460 for her current campaign for the Fullerton City Council:

I’m not sure what “Agent Payment” means in this instance, but you’ll notice there’s no entry in the “CODE” column to tell us what this is for. So Kitty made a $750 payment…to herself? Campaigning for fun and profit? A little short on the rent that month? Who knows? But if Kitty is paying herself back for some expense or other, she’s dodging the requirements of the California Fair Political Practices Commission and is inviting official scrutiny.

Hopefully, one of Jaramillo’s contributors like F. Paul Dudley or Jan Flory will ask Kitty why she’s reimbursing herself out of campaign funds.