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March 18, 2010March 18, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Love For Sale.Tender Young Love For Sale

A few weeks ago I did a pretty tongue-in-cheek post about some guy named Thomas Anthony Gordon, a goon from Santa Ana who popped up out of nowhere with a gratuitous anti-Shawn Nelson post on the Mauve County blog. He criticized Nelson for being soft on criminals because he is a defense lawyer. I pointed out the bad luck since there was a guy in OC with the exact same name and body type as Gordon who had been busted a couple of times for driving on a suspended license – and opined about how that guy was probably in need of a defense lawyer himself.

At the time I believed Gordon was just prostituting himself for Lewis/Cunningham and hence, Tom Daly. I may have been wrong. That was before I understood the deep, moist crevices into which Harry Sidhu’s pocket change had fallen. Of course the common denominator, John Lewis, is still in the picture, although Daly quit the supervisors race to play catch with his kid.

Well check this out. Harry Sidhu, the perpetual office seeker has decided to run for the GOP Central Committee for the 69th Assembly district (which must surely be a record – carpetbagging two districts at the same time, what a hustler). Now for the fun part. Take a look at who was out circulating petitions on the very last day so Hide and Seek Sidhu could “qualify” for the ballot. None other than our old friend Thomas Anthony Gordon. Click on the pdf and take a look.

Gordo! And now we really have to wonder. Is Gordon actually on Sidhu’s payroll? If not, why not? Everybody else is!

Of course, if he is let’s hope he informed his bosses over at the Mauve County where they say they will fire you if you don’t disclose that fact that you are blogging for dollars!

March 16, 2010March 17, 2010Fullerton City Council

On the Agenda – March 16th, 2010

by Christian5 Comments

Back by popular demand…

March Madness of the Mindless is here.

Tuesday night’s Closed Session means Rob Zur Schmiede, everyone’s favorite redevelopment director, will be speaking with council regarding 324 W. Valencia Drive to negotiate the strong-arm takeover and redevelopment of the property.

Also, council will be discussing “Parameters of authority for negotiating salaries, benefits, and working conditions.”

In the open session we have the usual dog and pony shows of certificates and feel-good resolutions. At the top of that list is a man I remember from my Junior year of high school at Fullerton High, Wayne Daniels. He is one heck of a nice guy and a snazzy dresser for sure. But why exactly is the council giving him a certificate for being “The Tulip Man”?

There are no appointments on the agenda which is a little sad since the City could use some good people to help steer the staff and council away from stupid decisions.

There are a total of 19 items on to be discussed and/or voted on so sit back as I try to scrape off the layers of doublespeak to uncover the depth of waste we are about to endure.

The minutes and financial reports are items #1 and #2, respectively. We jump right in at #3 which is a massive reconstruction of Harbor Boulevard from Chapman to Berkley. This stretch of road is plagued with potholes, cracked concrete, broken curbs, general disrepair, and lumpy asphalt created by trucks and buses. As soon as the project is complete, I would imagine a utility company will come in and tear it up. At least that’s Murphy’s Law. This little paving effort is to run about $1,121,000. That’s a lot of asphalt… Staff reported that the low bidder isn’t the winner because they didn’t get their forms filled out completely or correctly and that they didn’t have sufficiently disadvantaged business owners that met the City’s requirements. The contract will be going to PALPA, Inc. DBA Excel Paving Company.

Item #4 is a brand new sewer for Riverside Drive and Raymond Avenue area. This section of fecal conduit will run us a mere $1,064,038.50. Several streets in this area received fresh asphalt just in the last year or so. You would think someone could plan it out a little bit so that we replace the broken and aging pipes and THEN replace the asphalt. But that’s Fullerton for you: placing the cart in front of the horse…

It looks like the airport is signing a new lease agreement with Cardinal Air Services and a long term lease for Frank Sator under Item #5. If you want to see some pretty slick shell games with public funds, check out the supporting documentation for this item. We, the city, take a loss but in comes OC Fire Authority to lease a portion of the area we are taking a loss on and then they make up the difference. The problem is that we are paying for OC Fire to lease the space through our taxes. Does this mean we are subsidizing ourselves?

Item #6 is all about John Shipman who as a member of the Community Development Citizen’s Committee showed up to some meetings and not others. After missing three in a row, he was booted for being absent too many times pursuant to municipal code 2.11.050. He is now appealing and wants to participate. Shipman, it appears, is a Keller appointment and some sort of teacher whose teaching assignment conflicted with the committee meetings.

Item #7 contains two resolutions for grant funding of Independence Park and the Fullerton Community Center. Each grant is worth $5,000,000 but you will need to chip in an addition $4,000,000 for the Independence Park project to make it happen. That’s like paving Harbor Boulevard from Commonwealth to Brea Boulevard! But I suppose the kids need a place to loiter… At the risk of expressing my own ignorance, once we pay for the project, how will we pay for maintenance? Maybe I should show up at the Park & Rec meetings so I’ll understand the funding.

According to item #8 and #9, a few people need special disabled person’s parking spots.

Item #10 seeks to make it illegal to park in the alley that runs north/south and is south of Valencia and west of harbor Boulevard. If you live in that area, be sure to show and express your feelings on the pros and cons.

It looks like the PD wants to buy some guns and ammo with the approval of item #11. They will be using asset seizure funds so, in theory, it won’t cost you a dime. What’s not included is the training to use these guns and the training for the armor to repair and service them. Training is expensive and necessary. There is no reason we cannot include the other costs incidental to the purchase. The details are: 14 guns for $18,812.92; ammo for $25,719.38; 36 gun safes $5,617.64. I assume the PD has other guns which will use the safes and ammo.

The FD wants some donations to be “accepted” by the council under item #12. The total amount is a whopping $650.00. Maybe the council should make a motion to allow the City Manager to “accept” on behalf of the city any donation under $1,000.00 so long as the manager reports them in the City’s financial reports.

Item #13 is titled “GOOGLE FIBER FOR COMMUNITIES PROGRAM”. It sounds intriguing but what is it? The summary states that Google is looking for communities in which to test ultra-high speed broadband networks to ultimately compete against the cable and telephone companies. Good idea! I know I have to pay extra for AT&T to NOT slow down my connection. It’s the same wires as everyone else except that if you pay the minimum, your connection is slower. Pay more and it get’s a little faster. FFFF has a few IT/ITS people who can explain better…

Thales Raytheon wants to donate six laptops to the Park & Rec for use at the Gilbert Community Center. Item #14 doesn’t state the total value. I would guess the laptops, if new, would be worth $1,000 each or more. I find it humorous that Parks & Rec have to justify why the laptops would be beneficial but the PD doesn’t have to say what the guns are for. In both cases it is obvious so why the extra ink?

Now you get to punch that gas pedal and really feel the wind in your hair! Item #15 seeks to change the speed limits on Sunny Ridge and Pioneer Avenue. The PD asked Traffic Engineering to conduct a traffic study. The results: RAISE, that is correct, the speed limit! Here is the breakdown:

Pioneer Ave (Sunny Ridge to Gilbert) Increase from 25mph to 30mph
Pioneer Ave (Gilbert to Parks) Establish a speed limit of 40mph
Sunny Ridge Dr (Malvern to Pioneer) Increase from 25mph to 35mph
Sunny Ridge Dr (Pioneer to Roscrans) Increase from 25mph to 30mph

All other speed limits remain unchanged.

Item #16 eliminates a bike path that isn’t complete due to OCTA Metrolink expansion which would not give bike riders enough room.

Posting public notices comes in as item #17. It looks like running the notices in the papers is a bit pricy. This item will give staff four places to post public notices. They are:

City Hall
Maintenance Services Yard
Museum
Main Library

Item #18 is the continuance of the aforementioned shell game. It involves leases on the airport property.

Lastly, item #19 is titled “LOCAL TAXPAYER, PUBLIC SAFETY AND TRANSPORTATION PROTECTION ACT OF 2010”. Californians to Protect Local Taxpayers and Vital Services Coalition is requesting that Fullerton adopt a resolution in support of this Act. It sounds nice but the reality is that our state assembly has to stop allowing our local coffers to be raided by Sacramento. This is a feel-good resolution with no teeth. It should be noted that MAJOR funding for this “coalition” comes from the League of California Cities. In other words, you and I have already paid them, their lobbyists, and whoever else has their hands in our cookie jar. The bottom of the website has this:

“Paid for by Californians to Protect Local Taxpayers and Vital Services, a coalition of taxpayers, public safety, local government, transportation, business and labor, with major funding from the League of California Cities (non-public funds and CitiPAC) and the California Alliance for Jobs — Rebuild California Committee”

Coming up:

March 23, 2010 – Special Meeting

2010/11 Budget Decision Packages

April 6, 2010 – Council Meeting

BID – Agreement with Urban Place
Fox Block Extension of ENA
Recovery Zone Designation
More strong-arm wrangling of property rights a.k.a. property negotiations

March 6, 2010March 6, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Another Day, Another Embarrassment For Sidhu

by Joe Sipowicz10 Comments

Harry'sFriend — My good friend Chriss came this close to beating the rap...

Reading Harry Sidhu’s list of endorsers really makes you pause. I checked out the list of “honorary host committee members” to his upcoming fundraiser.

Barbre2 — Harry and I are in complete agreement. Government is all about service. Self-service!

Oh, look! There’s Brett Barbre, the OC Municipal Water District creep who gouged County taxpayers for $48,000 to study an athletic hall of fame, and who kicked back a $1000 campaign contribution to Tom Daly – they guy who gave him the do-nothing job at our expense.

Easy Street — I think Harry has a bright future...even brighter than mine.

Look again and you see the name Chriss Street, the County Treasurer who yesterday was found guilty by a judge of breaching his fiduciary obligation by systematically plundering a business trust that was his responsibility. He was ordered to pay over $7,000,000 by the judge in the case. John Moorlach has called for his immediate resignation.

And Street had previously gotten into hot water by having hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of remodeling work done at his office without soliciting bids. How did he do that? He split up the work into dozens of small purchase orders. He also got County employees to dummy up fake bid solicitations after the fact. Chris Prevatt did a pretty good job describing the DAs subsequent whitewash, here.

What slimy rocks does Sidhu turn over to find these miscreants?

March 5, 2010March 5, 201072nd Election

More On The Duvall Saga: The OC/Sacto GOP Angle

by admin8 Comments

After my meeting with Mike Duvall the other day, I decided to see If I could learn anything more about the events of last summer that led to Mike’s ultimate resignation as the 72nd District State Assemblymen.

One of our good Friends happens to know a well-placed legislative aide who works in Sacramento and who, I was told, could help fill in some of the gaps. So I called this person.

According to this individual, it is not at all unusual for legislative staffers to request audio records of committee meetings; in fact it is a fairly standard practice. Thus, the fact that Jeff Miller’s aide requested a record of the meeting doesn’t signify any sort of prior conspiracy by Miller – or anyone else for that matter. My source logically pointed out that Miller, to a lesser extent, ended up getting painted by the same brush as Duvall.

Instead what this person says happened is that the embarrassing audio record did end up in the wrong hands – at least as far as Duvall is concerned. My source indicates that Duvall’s personal enemy Jon Fleischman did indeed come to possess a copy of the tape; and sometime between July 2009 and late August 2009 orchestrated the leak of the information to KCAL’s Dave Lopez and the OC Weekly’s Scott Moxley.

Although Fleischman’s motives were said to be personal, others such as OC Republican power broker Mike Schroeder were also aware of the impending ambush, according to my source, although Schroeder’s motives for participating in Fleishman’s scheme in some way or other were not made abundantly clear.

Schroeder and Fleischman. Who knew about the impending ambush ahead of time? — Schroeder and Fleischman. Who else beside Fleischman knew about the impending storm?

As with my interview with Duvall, I can not immediately confirm the veracity of my source’s information, and the journalists in question will surely not reveal their source(s). Still, our insider is indeed well-placed to know what happened and I confer a certain level of credence to the story.

What is still unknown is what other high-level Republicans knew of the tape, it’s impending release, and the obvious political fallout from that release. If indeed Fleischman was the mastermind of the Duvall ambush, it is very hard to believe he would dare to do so without the consent of at least some of the OC Republican ruling party bosses – folks such as Schroeder, Dick Ackerman, and even Party Chairman, Scott Baugh. Why these party worthies would prefer, or even allow a public scandal instead of a quiet resignation by Duvall is something we may contemplate at our leisure.

However, as I noted yesterday, discussion of the Linda Ackerman candidacy on the integrity platform seemed to appear on cue, if way out of left field, before the ink had even dried on Duvall’s letter of resignation.

March 2, 2010March 2, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Monkey Business at the Clerk/Recorder’s Office? Why Did Tom Daly Pay His Campaign Supporter $50K?

by Grover Cleveland45 Comments

UPDATE: Allan Bartlett has helped close the circle on the Daly-Barbre financial connection. Here is the link that shows a $1000 campaign contribution from Barbre back to Daly. Even if there is no overt kickback here it sure stinks like Hell.

– GC

Has there been fiscal misfeasance by Tom Daly at the County Clerk/Recorder’s office? As we previously indicated, here, OC Clerk Recorder paid self-styled public relations “consultant” and Municipal Water Board member Brett Barbre tens of thousands of dollars in 2008 and 2009 to assist in the creation of some sort of OC sports “hall of fame.” A public records search has turned up invoices from Barbre to Tom Daly’s department for almost $50,000, with almost nothing to show for it. Interestingly, as early as March, 2009 Barbre, who is a Republican, made himself conspicuous as an endorser of Daly in his now defunct campaign for 4th District County Supervisor.

What the records show is that in February 2008 the County Clerk’s office engaged the services of Barbre in a contract for $15,000 and later in a $3000 per month extension, to delve into the subject of creating a sports hall of fame museum.

What the consultant selection process was, why Mr. Barbre was chosen, what his qualifications were, and why the taxpayers were put on the hook for this dubious concept project may never be known. But what is known is that from May 2008 through June 2009 the County paid Barbre $48,000 with virtually no evidence of any accomplishment at all.

Our request for “all activity status reports” and “lists of work completed” turned up three short memorandums and an incomplete spreadsheet listing Orange County High Schools and their mascots.

We have been provided with no evidence to suggest that any of the activities outlined in Barbre’s contract were ever achieved. Added to the evident lack of accomplishment seems to be a reluctance to publicize the hall of fame brainstorm at all. Very telling is a sentence from a January 15, 2009 memorandum from Barbre to Tom Daly, in which Barbre says about the whole idea: I would suggest keeping it fairly low key until the budget mess at the state and the county are behind us.

Right. No sense in letting the public know that the Clerk/Recorder Tom Daly is squandering public money on such a hare-brained scheme during a recession, including giving Barbre $3,000 a month to ponder the sports hall of fame concept, while county employees are about to be laid off.

We have been informed by the County Public Information office that we are not in possession of all the work product documents, and that something else is forthcoming. This strikes us as particularly odd since Barbre’s questionable “services” were concluded nine months ago and our records request was made several weeks ago. We can’t help but consider the possibility that something is being fabricated up after the fact to make it appear as if the $48,000 slipped to Barbre by Daly produced more than a few short memos and an incomplete list of Orange County’s High Schools and their mascots. Well, we’ll soon find out.

The final disturbing piece to this puzzle is the fact that Brett Barbre’s name appears on Tom Daly’s March, 2009 fundraiser host committee list – the event in which he launched his abortive campaign for County supervisor; and that later, in the summer of 2009, Barbre assumed the office of ambassador to the OC GOP Central Committee for newly-minted Republican Renee Ramirez, Daly’s employee and hand-picked successor for the County Clerk’s job.

DalyFundraiser — First column, six down.

Ironically, we note that Daly pulled the plug on his supervisorial campaign last Friday – the very same day we presented ourselves at the County to pick up the Barbre documents.

That’s the story so far. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture of either competence or probity within Tom Daly’s bureaucratic regime. The self-styled fiscal conservative seems to have been anything but conservative with public funds, and, as will become painfully evident in subsequent posts, this episode is not a lone example.

Hall of fame? Really? Maybe what we need in OC is a hall of shame – for politicians who abuse the public trust. We’ve got a recommendation for the first inductee.

February 23, 2010February 24, 2010Shawn Nelson

Tonight: Fundraiser for Shawn Nelson at the Matador Cantina

by Travis Kiger5 Comments

Please join Congressman Ed Royce, Assemblyman Chris Norby, and the host committee for hors d’oeuvres at the Matador Cantina in Historic downtown Fullerton.

Matador Cantina
111 N. Harbor Blvd
Fullerton, CA

Reception 5:30-8:00 PM
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Business Attire

TO RSVP PLEASE CONTACT:
J. Allen Pitkin (949) 232-8882

More information at www.nelsonforsupervisor.com/events

February 10, 2010February 10, 2010Dead heads

The Hypocrisy Deepens at Mauve County

by admin34 Comments

Over in the purpling swamp of what used to be the “Red County” blog, Matthew J. Cunningham just topped himself, hypocrisy-wise.

Cunningham has been throwing out backhanded support for Tom Daly, a Democrat, in the campaign for 4th District Supervisor for a year now. Lately he has employed a pro-Daly blogger to actually promote Daly outright. That struck some people as odd for an allegedly “right of center” blog. Of course we know that Cunningham is just a gofer for John Lewis, the political impresario and lobbyist who is the mastermind of the Daly effort. That explains a lot. Including the lame post the other day by some fat-headed goon called Thomas Anthony Gordon attacking the race’s only real conservative – Shawn Nelson. And of course Daly’s campaign manager also chimed in, again using different aliases, to try to reinforce the theme.

Cunningham has been spinning the whole Daly thing by proclaiming that his is not a Republican blog, just a right of center one. When (and if) you get past the obvious discordance of a right of center blog supporting a union-backed Democrat and attacking a real conservative, you’re likely to find some real hypocritical treasures – as an alert Friend did today.

Opining in a comment in post thread about the Mission Viejo recall of RINO Lance MacLean, Cunningham has the nerve to criticize the recallers for causing the replacement of a Republican with a Democrat!

Say what?

Isn’t that exactly what John Lewis & Co. are promoting in the 4th Supervisor campaign? Replacing Republican Chris Norby with a County employee union backed Democrat – Tom Daly. For fun, check out last year’s Daly’s fundraiser host committee.

Lest you think a Democrat can be a real conservative just take a look who’s backing Daly – County union bosses Nick Berardino (OCEA), Wayne Quint (AOSD), and Joe Kerr, head of the County OC Firefighters. Of course they could be backing Daly because of his fiscal conservatism, huh?

Oh well. It’s not as if this were something we didn’t already know. Still, the hypocrisy is quite remarkable.

February 9, 2010February 9, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Monkey Business At Daly’s Clerk/Recorder Office?

by admin15 Comments

A source inside the County government has directed our attention to a contractual relationship between the County Clerk’s department and a “consultant” that bears closer scrutiny. Our source has indicated that monies were paid out for questionable or dubious “services.”

This contract involves Barbre & Associates; Brett Barbre is a former County employee, a Water District official, and now a self-styled political public relations guy. It appears that Mr. Barbre received at least $36,000 through last summer to do something (see vendor report, above). What did he do? Our source tells us it was supposed to have something to do with organizing an Orange County Hall of Fame memorabilia display. We’re not buying into that just yet since such an inconceivably profligate waste of money, especially in a recession, is hard to ascribe to anybody – even a big spender like Daly.

Nevertheless, Barbre’s name immediately piqued our curiosity since he claims to be in PR, a function that Daly supposedly hired former reporter Jean Pasco to perform. Furthermore, Barbre, a nominal Republican, was an early and public supporter of Democrat Clerk/Recorder Tom Daly in his quest to be our County Supervisor. Check out the “host committee” to Daly’s 2009 fundraiser. Yes, Brett, we see you right there, #6 in the first column. Later in 2009 Barbre also took on the job of introducing Daly’s hand-picked successor and Clerk Department employee, Renee Ramirez, to the OC GOP Central Committee. Coincidences?

Since Daly and Ramirez run the Clerk/Recorder’s office, we immediately started to wonder just what Barbre did, to pick up that 36K. We have such suspicious minds, you see.

And so we have made a public records request with the County to find out the scope of services that were supposed to be rendered by Barbre and just what was accomplished for all that money.

And when we do find out we will certainly share the information with you.

January 31, 2010February 1, 2010OC's Fourth District

Daly Stumbles Over County Campaign Finance Rules

by Grover Cleveland9 Comments

daly-and-lewis — Just keep quiet, stupid. It'll blow over.

The Tom Daly for 4th District Supervisor campaign is not getting off to a great start. You’d think the County’s number one bureaucrat would be able to follow the County’s campaign finance law. Well, you’d have another think coming.

Daly ran afoul of those regulations when he accepted a $200 contribution in December from the Sharon Quirk For Fullerton (#1263645) campaign committee. The law, Sec. 1-6-9 of the County’s Municipal Code clearly states that one campaign can’t contribute to another. Here is the code:

Sec. 1-6-9. – Prohibition on transfers.

(a) No funds may be transferred into any County candidate or elective County officer’s campaign committee from any other campaign committee controlled by a candidate. No contributions shall be accepted by any County candidate or elective County officer or their controlled committees, from any other committee controlled by another federal, state, or local candidate or officeholder.

(b) No County candidate or elective County officer and no committee controlled by a County candidate or elective County officer shall make any contribution to any other County candidate or elective County officer or to any committee supporting or opposing a County candidate for office. This section shall not prohibit a County candidate or elective County officer from making a contribution from his or her own personal funds to his or her own candidacy or to the candidacy of any other candidate for elective County office.

(Ord. No. 3862, § 9, 6-23-92; Ord. No. 02-012, § 4, 12-17-02)

Now this doesn’t look very good, does it? The County’s Chief Paper Pusher seems to have gotten his ream in wringer.

Good Grief! What’s next for the Daly Cavalcade of Campaign Comedy?

January 23, 2010January 23, 201072nd Election

The Scott Baugh Manifesto

by The Desert Rat7 Comments

Last week the OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh addressed his cohorts at the periodic Republican Central Committee meeting.

His speech was much anticipated and much commented about the next day in such venues where anybody gives a damn about what Baugh has to say. I waited a few days to display my disdain for such antics.

It seems Mr. Baugh tried to channel some of the angry energy of the “Tea Party” movement to zap some life into his team.

Baugh unloaded on RINOs; on candidates who get the GOP endorsement and then take public union money; on the “slick consultants” who call the shots. It must have sounded pretty good to the true believers in the audience; but the Repuglican cadre that has turned Orange County into its own little plantation – people like John Lewis and Ackerman, Inc. must have rolled their eyes a bit. Electeds in the audience who gladly took money from police and fire unions were no doubt (quietly) offended and/or frightened, depending on their dispositions, and this includes just about every Republican city councilman and Supervisor in the County.

I’ve got four problems with Mr. Baugh’s manifesto.

First he coughed up a speech very much like it last year in the wake of the epic McCain disaster and a year of Democrat rule. Apparently not much came of that one; so why expect anything else from the ‘Pugs?

Second, he seems to have failed to address the virus of office seeking that infects the party and that has been manifested in the Ackerwoman and now Harry Sidhu strains. In fact, Baugh was a supporter of Linda Ackerwoman and her fraudulent campaign of deceit in the 72nd – which pretty much tells you all you need to know about him.

Third, the idea that a candidate can’t take the money of a public employee union and still represent the public interest is curious. By the same logic these folks would be unable to resist the blandishments of corporate lobbyists who donate to their campaigns. Hmm.

Finally, Baugh ignores the wider problem of Repuglicanism – the malady of being a Republican for fun and especially profit. Calling for ideological purity seems to ring hollow when it’s pretty evident that the game is being played for one’s own pecuniary interest. Will we ever hear Baugh denounce Curt Pringle’s 50 billion dollar high speed idiocy? Probably not. Baugh uses his own political connections to lobby here and there, including a highly lucrative contract awarded by fellow ‘Pugs on the Board of Supervisors to lobby in Sacramento.

So in the end, to quote the Bard, here’s what I see in Baugh’s address: a tale told by an idiot; full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.