Watch Your Wallet Archives - Page 80 of 83 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 5, 2010July 8, 2010Big Brother

The DUI Checkpoint Scam: 16 Cops + 6 Hours of Overtime = 4 Drunks

How many cops does it take to bust a drunk driver? A whole lot of ’em if they’re running a checkpoint.

Last month we asked Chief Michael Sellers a few questions on recent DUI checkpoints in Fullerton. The stats that we got back lead to the conclusion that DUI checkpoints are just a handy bonus program for Fullerton cops, with little effect on public safety.

Back in March the Fullerton PD ran a 6 hour DUI checkpoint which employed sixteen police officers, each of them earning overtime pay — that’s 150% of their normal wage. At the end of the night, the police had nabbed only four motorists for driving under the influence. The city also impounded a dozen cars from unlicensed drivers, but that’s a whole different shakedown.

While hundreds of law-abiding drivers were being forced to stop and produce identification, patrons at downtown bars were spreading the word… intoxicated drivers should drive around the checkpoint on the way home.

So what is Chief Sellers’ excuse for such a blatant handout to his boys in blue?

The checkpoints are funded by state grants, says Sellers, as if that justifies any ‘ol squanderance that public employees can dream up. Around here, we call that “passing the buck”. It’s still our money, Chief, and we don’t want to fund overtime for your officers if they can’t be effective.

No local program should operate just because the state says it can. This is California, after all — a state renowned for it’s fiscal irresponsibility and zealous over-governance. Sixteen public safety employees on overtime without any significant accomplishments might slide under the radar in Sacramento, but we have higher expectations of our local agencies.

There will be another DUI checkpoint on tonight along Commonwealth in downtown Fullerton.

April 29, 2010April 29, 2010Behind Closed Doors

MORE MONKEY BUSINESS AT THE CLERK-RECORDER’S OFFICE; TOM DALY AND HIS THREE AMIGOS.

by admin21 Comments

It appears that Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly has mastered two skills in his eight years as head of the Clerk-Recorder Department. First, he has become a top-notch spender and waster of our dough. Second, he has mastered the art of creating jobs at tax-payer’s expense while receiving campaign contributions from the relatives of people he has employed.

Last week Daly hired Bruce Matthias, here. We learned from his campaign financial statements that Matthias’s wife Sonja Matthias had contributed to Daly’s now defunct campaign for Supervisor 2010.

Well, we looked deeper into his statements and found even more good old jobs for the boys (and girls) featherbedding. Look at this list.

In 2006, The Oftelie Company, run by former transportation bureaucrat Stan Oftelie, contributed to Tom Daly’s campaign. Could it be a coincidence that Stan’s son was hired shortly after this contribution and while the County was losing jobs. Stan’s son works in the Archives and was brought in as an “extra-help” employee which means that no competitive hiring process was conducted to bring him on board. I wonder what qualifies Stan’s son to work in the Archives.

The Walt Disney Company has been quite generous in its giving to Tom Daly’s campaigns. Since 2002, Disney and people connected to Disney have contributed more than $4000 to Tom. That’s just as much as the OCEA. Chris Lowe is the Government Affairs Manager for Disney in Anaheim. Well, Lo and Behold, Daly hired Chris Lowe’s wife to work in the Archives as an extra-help employee which, again, means that no competitive hiring process was conducted. And again the hiring was done when the County could least afford it.

In 2003 and 2005, James A. Liberio Realty made contributions to Tom Daly. Not surprisingly, Mr. Liberio’s daughter was also hired as an extra-help employee. So no competitive process was conducted to hire her. I’m unsure of her duties or qualifications.

Even during these tough times at the County, Daly has been budgeting at least $200,000 per year for extra-help hires. Despite revenues and workloads being at their lowest levels ever, Daly feels it is more important to keep his friends employed than to protect the interests of the public. Extra-help employees are basically at-will-employees and can be let go at anytime. I think that time has come now!

And I’d like to know why these these campaign contributors don’t hire their own relatives. Perhaps these people are not employable. Who knows?

Somebody needs to flush out this swamp of cronyism. Isn’t that why we have County Supervisors?

April 28, 2010Hidden Government Agencies

High-Speed Rail Circus Comes to Fullerton

by Travis6 Comments

The High-Speed Rail Authority is bringing the show to our own Fullerton Senior Center on Thursday evening.

Considered by many to be the greatest boondoggle in the history of California, high speed rail will waste billions of dollars, threaten homes and businesses throughout the state while claiming to solve an inter-state transit problem that doesn’t exist.

Be sure to get informed before you attend.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) will host a public open house in the City of Fullerton to provide the community with a project update, information about the proposed alternative alignments, design options, and station locations being considered, as well as details pertaining to the environmental process. Residents will be able to see which areas might be needed for right-of way acquisition.

Fullerton is being considered for a station, in competition with Norwalk for the only other station between Anaheim and Los Angeles.

CHSRA is planning high-speed train service for travel between major metropolitan areas of California. The high-speed train is proposed to connect Anaheim to San Francisco in less than three hours. The Los Angeles to Anaheim high-speed train section proposes to travel adjacent to the existing Los Angeles to San Diego Rail Corridor from LA Union Station to the future Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC), although OCTA and Metro are now proposing a shared-track agreement.

Thursday, April 29, 2010, 5 to 8 p.m., presentation at 6 p.m.
Fullerton Senior Center, 340 W. Commonwealth Ave.
For more information, call (877) 724-5422

April 22, 2010April 22, 2010Chris Norby

Moorlach Orders Investigation Into Daly’s $10 Million Nightmare

by admin19 Comments

Was it fraud, negligence, incompetence or just an honest to goodness mistake when Tom Daly approached the Board of Supervisors and asked for $2.1 million to purchase a dilapidated building 433 W. Civic Center Drive?

Did Daly forget to tell the Supes that the building was a tear down and not in turnkey condition? Or did he actually believe that the building was ready to move into? If he did then he needs to fire his real estate agent! There are many hard questions that remain to be asked and answered.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Supervisor John Moorlach asked County CEO Tom Mauk to bring back a report detailing what happened to the missing information on the useless multi-million dollar building. Was it lost or intentionally withheld? Did Tom Daly just forget to tell the Board the complete facts about the money-sucking building, knowing that they would have said “HELL NO!” when they found out that it would cost another $7.6 million to make it suitable for the archives and the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame?

Let’s not forget the Sports Hall of Fame was being “brainstormed” by Daly’s BFF Brett Barbre to the tune of another $48,000.

So back to the word “fraud.” What does it mean and how is it really pronounced?

fraud–noun

/frôd/

1. deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.

CivicCenterDrive — 433 W. Civic Center Dr. 2 years later, still vacant

April 15, 2010April 15, 2010Dick Jones

It’s Never Too Late To Be Smart, Or Is It?

by admin1 Comment

It wasn’t but five minutes after I published City of Orange Votes To Kill HSR: Wake Up City Of Fullerton, NOW post, and look what I found in the mail:

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.

April 14, 2010April 28, 2010Harry Sidhu

City of Orange Votes to Kills HSR; Wake Up Fullerton City Council, NOW!

by admin11 Comments

On Tuesday night, the Orange City Council, led by Councilman Denis Bilodeau (left) and Jon Dumitru, took a bold first step supporting Dianne Harkey’s AB2121 bill here that would put a screeching halt on the high speed rail (HSR). The HSR is perhaps the biggest boondoggle in the making in the history of the United States.

On a 2 – 1 – 1 vote the Orange Council supported AB2121 with Mayor Carolyn Cavecche abstaining. Apparently, Cavecche the former Chair of OCTA said she needed more information, sure she does.

The HSR as currently planned would cut a swath through southern California wiping out untold numbers of homes and businesses, and will leave us and our descendants a massive debt. With our state on the verge of bankruptcy we cannot afford the damage or the cost, especially when the promoters of this scheme like Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle don’t even have a business plan.

Well, Pringle has his own private business plan, as usual – income from consulting contracts, no doubt. Just in case you don’t know what Curt Pringle does with his time, then you should read this, this and this post.

When will Fullerton citizens and business owners get our chance to provide input into this HSR boondoggle, when it’s too late? Probably never. Remember this is Fullerton where good manners dictate that you sit down and shut up.

April 12, 2010April 12, 2010Fullerton School Board

PTA Wants to Raise Your Taxes

by Chris Thompson12 Comments

Parents, the PTA that you all belong to is behind trying to raise your property taxes by reducing the threshold for passage of parcel taxes.

The California State PTA has endorsed the “Local Control of Local Classrooms Funding Act” which reduces the voter approval requirement to raise taxes from 2/3rds down to 55%. This will make it much easier for local school districts to place new property taxes on local homeowners to benefit the teachers’ unions.

wolf-in-sheeps-clothing — Your local PTA: Always thinking of the children

QUIT THE PTA. It is a bad lobbying organization disguised as an innocent thrower of classroom ice cream parties. It hurts children, families, the state and the country.

Moms and dads can help in the classroom, support schools and be great parents without supporting this organization which is stabbing you in the back as a pawn of teachers unions.

April 9, 2010April 9, 2010CSUF

Cal State Fullerton’s Pension Tsunami Shell Game and Our Kid’s Future

by Greg Sebourn4 Comments

After showing you how management lives in the lap of luxury last week, I received an email from a Friend who brought to my attention a Cal State University system business practice that forces out qualified, lower paid part-time lecturers and untenured faculty, and brings back higher paid, semi retired faculty. The faculty and management at our own Cal State Fullerton know this practice as FERPing. Just the sound of the acronym sounds like something they should apologize for and we haven’t even said what exactly FERPing is.

The Faculty Early Retirement Program, as the name implies, allows faculty to retire early and then come right back to work. On the surface it creates a lower fiscal burden on local university funding which looks like a cost savings for guys like Milton A. Gordon, who gets $302,042 per year while living rent-free at the El Dorado Ranch. The reality is that it costs taxpayers and students more than if the schools utilized the lower paid, part-time faculty who are otherwise forced out under FERP.

Retirement never looked so lucrative. While everyone else must take furloughs or are getting laid off outright, the FERPers receive FREE parking, ALL of their retirement benefits, and 50% of their last salary. That’s part of the reason why your kid’s tuition continues to rise and classes are getting canceled. This Cal State double-dipping program is brought to you by the public employee unions as a result of the spineless leader who is content to live in his rent-free mansion with an inflated salary and the entitlement attitude of senior public employees. Some FERPers have been milking us for more than 5 years!

Here is an example of the compensation structure that FERPers use to determine just how good retirement might be:

Age: 63 1/2 years (CalPERS retirement age percentage factor: 2.5%)
Length of Service: 27 years
Highest Salary: $87,500(during any 12 month period of CalPERS covered employment)(minus $133.33 monthly deduction for Social Security = $1,599.96)
Calculation: 27 years x .025 (age factor percentage) = 67.5% of highest salary
Estimated CalPERS retirement salary: $85,900 x .675 (age factor percentage) = $57,982
Plus estimated FERP salary: (half of faculty base $70,800) $35,400
Total estimated retirement salary plus FERP salary: $93,382

It’s time to wean the leaches off our sweet cream before all we are left with is sour cream for our kids. Email Milton Gordon at mgordon@fullerton.edu or you can call him in his CSUF public employee office at (657) 278-3456. Tell Milton Gordon it’s time to act fiscally responsible with our tax dollars.

Below are some links I stumbled over which helped put FERPing in perspective for me:

http://www.fullerton.edu/Emeriti/preretirement.htm
http://collegelife.freedomblogging.com/2009/08/13/cal-state-fullerton-abruptly-begins-canceling-classes/7103/
http://www.calstate.edu/csuleader/2004/040511.htm
http://www.csufresno.edu/aps/forms_policies/retirement_ferp.shtml
http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/personnel/retirement/ferp/

April 8, 2010April 8, 2010Fullerton BooHoo

Fullerton’s $100,000 Pension Club Welcomes 15 New Members

by Travis30 Comments

It’s been almost a year since we published the original list of retired Fullerton public employees earning over $100,000 per year in pensions.

Since then we have learned that our state’s unfunded pension liability has grown to over $500 billion dollars. Our Friends over at California Pension Reform have updated their list of CalPERS pensions, bringing on fifteen new “hundred grand” members from Fullerton this year. That’s an increase of 40% in a single year.

So let’s see who is getting the most from largess from taxpayers. New members are in bold:

Name	Annual Pension	Position
JAMES “JIM” REED	$166,781.88	Fire
GEOFFREY SPALDING	$149,852.88	Police
GREGORY MAYES	$148,889.40	Police
MICHAEL MAYNARD	$140,317.20	Police
DANIEL CHIDESTER	$139,416.72	Fire
FRANK PAUL DUDLEY	$133,821.00	Development Services Director
ALLEN BURKS	$133,782.36	Police
DOUGLAS CAVE	$130,761.36	Police
GLENN STEINBRINK	$127,533.00	Administrative Director
ANTONIO HERNANDEZ	$127,402.20	Police
H SUSAN HUNT	$126,970.80	Director of Park and Recreation
STEVEN MATSON	$126,430.68	Police
RONNY ROWELL	$125,168.40	Police
TERRY STRINGHAM	$123,482.28	Fire
GEORGE NEWMAN	$121,410.60
RICHARD RILEY	$121,113.36
MARK FLANNERY	$120,934.68	Director of Personnel
DAVID STANKO	$120,279.84	Police
ROBERT HODSON	$119,956.08	Director of Engineering
ROBERT “BOB” RICHARDSON	$119,720.88	Police
PATRICK MCKINLEY	$118,446.48	Chief of Police
DANIEL BECERRA	$116,917.20	Police
NEAL BALDWIN	$116,740.68	Police
PHILIP GOEHRING	$115,076.04	Police
BRAD HOCKERSMITH	$115,053.84	Fire
JEFFREY ROOP	$113,618.88	Police
KURT BERTUZZI	$109,255.08	Fire
LINDA KING	$108,168.84	Police
DONALD “DON” PEARCE	$107,972.76	Police
CAROLYN JOHNSON	$107,179.80	Library Director
TIMOTHY JANOVICK	$106,330.44
PAUL TURNEY	$105,747.12
RONALD “RON” GILLETT	$105,499.56	Police
ARTHUR WIECHMANN	$104,153.76	Police
JONATHON “JON” MCAULAY	$102,034.80	Fire
RICHARD HUTCHINSON	$101,822.16
JOHN PIERSON	$101,524.92
HUGH BERRY	$100,488.84	Assistant City Manager
WILLIAM KENDRICK	$100,194.48	Police

Remember… public employee pensions are negotiated between the unions and our city council. It’s time to figure out who has been representing the taxpayers and who has been sticking up for the unions.

April 5, 2010Dick Jones

Bad Time to Raise Taxes; Especially to Save the League of Cities Baloney

by admin7 Comments

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.

We’ll find out tomorrow night.