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November 21, 2010November 22, 2010Dead heads

Orange County Fair Morass Gets Morassier; And Ackerman Questions Linger

Last week a judge stepped in to slow down the sale of the OC Fairgounds to a private developer as reported by the Voice of OC(EA). Seems hizzoner wants some time to look into all the allegations of hanky-panky that have been swirling around for the past year.

Tony Rackauckas — I have no evidence that that guy over there lied to me, and I don't intend to look for any.

More allegations of monkey business at the fair that creates a pattern of obfuscation, disingenuousness, and misfeasance that goes back well over a year.

But wait, hasn’t Tony Rackaukas already blessed the doings with his benediction? Yep, but despite our do-nothing DA’s whitewash of the entire 2009 Summer of Fair Love, lots of people have lingering questions about the role of some of OCs leading repuglicans in this whole mess.

Those doubts are fueled by a guy named David Padilla, a Fair trustee who apparently didn’t go along with his colleagues who were busted trying to create their own entity to acquire the property. As reported in the Daily Pilot, here, and the Voice, here, Padilla, who was recently removed from the Board by outgoing Governor Schwarzenegger, still has lots of unanswered questions himself. And even a few assertions.

One of the most intriguing parts of the story was this:

Among the things the board does not know are details of the activities of the law firm of Nossaman LLP through former State Sen. Dick Ackerman as well as the activities of the county’s lobbyist, Platinum Advisors, which has close ties to county GOP Chairman Scott Baugh.

Padilla was the only board member to respond to public inquiries and records requests for information on the role of both individuals. Padilla said earlier this year that he was told Ackerman was only paid $19,000 for his work.

“I have recently determined, after months of inquiry, they were paid over $150,000 for services I have not been able to get answers for,” Padilla said. “It was my intention to continue to press for the details on both these issues.”

AckermanHead — A repuglican warrior does battle on the steps of the Capitol...

We know that the DA has found nothing untoward in Ackerman’s behavior, despite Ackerman’s own morphing tale, but $150,000 grand would pay for a helluva lot of schmoozing with the Guv, and it’s about time the public found out exactly what Dickie Boy was up to in Sacramento during those long hot summer days of 2009, including billings, invoices, and diaries.

October 25, 2010October 27, 2010Dead heads

Like Father, Like Son? Sign Thief May Already Be on Probation… for Food Poisoning!

by Mr. Peabody36 Comments

There’s an old adage that goes: the apple never falls far from the tree.

Remember when we traced the “No McKinley” sign thief’s white van back to Roland Chi’s supermarket in Garden Grove?

Well, multiple sources have identified the photo below of the Fullerton sign thief as a close family friend of Roland Chi; very close, in fact. These people have identified the miscreant as Roland Chi’s own father, Jong Sik Chi, who is also the co-owner of Roland’s filthy Garden Grove market.

Well, that would explain an awful lot. Like the use of the family vehicle to commit another crime. Could it really be true?

If so, Chi senior may have wandered out onto thin legal ice.

See, according to the court documents linked below, the Elder Mr. Chi can hardly afford to be breaking the law. Senior Chi is still on probation for the 2009 AR Supermarket food poisoning incident, and the first condition of his plea agreement specifically commands him to Violate no law(s), or else.

Read the plea agreement

Presumably that would include petty theft and vandalism. In fact, according to an amateur translation of this court document, violating the terms of his probation could put him back on the hook for 2.5 years in prison!

Roland Chi’s entire campaign operation seems to built upon chronic and congenital dishonesty, disregard for the law, and criminal activity. There seems to be no connection between the Roland Chi Family and anybody’s standard of ethics.

You just couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

October 18, 2010October 27, 2010Dead heads

Roland Chi: Thief

by admin68 Comments

When you’ve already been busted for poisoning folks, ignoring what you did, and then, finally having to give the DA a sample of your DNA to plea away your problems, what do you do for an encore?

roland-chi-079-200x300 — The cops support me. Of course I'm law abiding...

Roland Chi seems to have decided to resort to petty theft.

A helpful Friend just sent in the photos below, which were accompanied with testimony that he saw an individual stealing “No McKinley” signs at the intersection of Rosecrans and Bastanchury on Saturday. Well, guess who that van belongs to. It belongs to AR Market, the same business owned by Roland Chi that was the site of the repeated health code violations we reported here!

Why would Roland Chi’s crew steal “No McKinley” signs? Good question. Could it be because Chi and McKinley are both endorsed by the “public safety” unions and it’s just a case of one union stooge looking out for another?

McKinley2 — Roland's got my back. In fact we're writing a screenplay for a buddy cop movie.

We’ll be doing some sleuthing to see if can identify the idiot in these pictures in our ample image library.

And by the way, we’ve noticed a lot of “Bad Chi” signs missing. We’ll be looking into that thievery, too.

Sign-Theft-39 — Man walking over to No McKinley sign.

Sign-Theft-40 — Man taking No McKinley sign and stashing in van.

Sign-Theft-42 — Gotta cover those tags, genius!

It’s starting to look like Roland Chi can’t do a single thing honestly. I’ve filed a police report and have sent these images to the Fullerton Police Department. Let the wheels of justice turn (or spin, as the case may be)!

Take a bow, Roland.

June 24, 2010Dead heads

Another Fabulous “First Five” F-up

by Grover Cleveland11 Comments

fartboy — The Face of First Five: Go ahead, keep blogging. Just more work for me.

FFFF has documented how the Orange County version of Meathead Rob Reiner’s First Five Commission known as “The OC Children and Families Commission” has squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years on PR and lobbying contracts to political operatives. We have shared how the Riverside County chapter of the Tax and Redistribute Society was busted for numerous conflicts of interest and was finally corralled by the RC Board of Supervisors. Here’s a link generously provided by Friend “Max” to a news report in May about the Contra Costa County Grand Jury about more misbehavin’ by their First Five Commission.

The key recommendation is the employment, by competitive bid, of an independent external auditor (i.e. not hired by the staff and Chairman with a wink and a nod) to clean up the cronyism and self-interest.

I really have to wonder what would happen if all 58 county grand juries did their jobs vis-a-vis the First Five Commissions. Would a single county emerge unscathed from political corruption and “jobs for the boys” kickdowns of the sort we’ve seen right here in OC? Or Riverside? Or Contra Costa?

Doubtful. The corruption is probably endemic.

June 3, 2010June 3, 2010Dead heads

Here’s An Irony: OCEA Heavy Petting Pedo-Perv Kept On Payroll

by admin36 Comments

The OCEA seems to be fixated on sexual pervs and pedophiles these days. At least they are as it relates to Shawn Nelson’s law practice – that seems to be guilty of having the potential to defend one some day.

A Friend forwarded a rather disgusting story about a creep sicko named Kevin Duane Van Otterloo – an OCEA member and Health Care Agency co-worker of OCEA PAC Treasurer Chris Prevatt, pictured above. The tale was told by the OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano back in 2004.

It seems that Van Otterloo was busted for lewd acts perpetrated upon a disabled kid at the County’s Juvie Hall. He plead down the worst felonies but lost his nursing license. Did the County dump this perv? According to Arellano they gave him a $70,000 make-work job in the Animal Care Services Division.

But was there any outrage at OCEA HQ that an admitted pedophile was kept on by the County but was actually promoted? Maybe we will hear back from Nick “Bullhorn” Berardino about any role he and the union may have had in helping Van Otterloo stay on the public payroll. Or maybe Chris Prevatt will chime in on why Van Otterloo got the kid glove treatment instead of being canned.

June 2, 2010Fullerton City Council

Let Me Put This In Recognizable Terms

by Mr. Peabody16 Comments

John Lewis told me to move — You're right Julie, these people are suckers

I first became dimly aware of Fullerton politics back in 1993 when I saw a performance of then councilwoman Julie Sa. Sa was incapable of communicating in English, understood nothing, and was completely at the mercy of the City Manager, Jim Armstrong. The worst part of her reign of error was the evident truth that she was just using the office to promote herself.

In 2000 she was busted for not living in Fullerton and she gave up on running for third time. Fullerton had set the bar so low that any idiot with money could get over it. But at least Sa was gone.

So why am I bringing up Sa now? Because those folks who remember Sa have a useful frame of reference to assess the potential of one Harry Sidhu, who wants to be our Supervisor.

Like Sa, Sidhu doesn’t live in the jurisdiction he wants to represent. Sidhu cannot communicate his thoughts to his would-be constituents in English. Although I presume he can read English better than he can speak it, his grasp of simple grammar doesn’t portend a great understanding of the language. His well-documented manglings of simple statements has been nothing less than embarrassing – not for him, he doesn’t seem to possess the faculty of shame – but for those of us who have been subjected to it. His public admission that he didn’t know the impact of defined benefits was pitiful; his statement that he wasn’t taking union money was the closest thing to a million dollar lie that you will ever witness.

Sidhu’s self-interested supporters just love to accuse his critics of racism; nuh uh. Like Sa, Sidhu is an immigrant who made some money in the fast food business – more power to ’em (although Sa went bankrupt). But this economic success in no way qualifies Sidhu to run for elective office, and it certainly doesn’t make him immune from honest assessment of his abilities – or lack of same.

In 1992 the unknown Julie Sa ran for Fullerton council by sending out a bunch of slick, well designed mailings that masked the fact that she was utterly unqualified for any public office; and her subsequent performance proved this assessment true. In 2010 Harry Sidhu is running a vicious and hollow campaign lubricated with a million dollars of union money to in an office that he is patently unfit to hold.

Let’s not make that mistake again.

May 15, 2010May 15, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Gordo Gets Greedy

by admin18 Comments

Andy Warhol once famously said that everybody gets 15 minutes of fame. Apparently Thomas Gordon got his when he popped up on the Red County blog a couple of months ago with a semi-literate attack on Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson. Gordon is a low-grade goon from Santa Ana who is evidently acting as some sort of flunky in the Hide and Seek Sidhu jailbreak. Whether he is being paid in cash or El Pollo Loco chicken has never been made abundantly clear.

Naturally, we had some fun with Gordo here, here, here and of course, here.

Later we ran into Gordon at the NUFF blogger’s forum when he tried to intimidate one of our bloggers and ended up with a face full of Chris Thompson.

Apparently these brushes with notoriety have not provided sufficient celebrity for Gordon. The other day he started making obnoxious and gratuitously obscene comments here under the name “Major Nelson.” Busted. Well, hell we tolerate all sorts of stuff here, even the rantings of a useless nutjob and Sidhu stooge.

Apparently a sense of desperation is setting in on the three-wheeled Hairball Handcart, and with a fourth place finish looming on June 8th the small fry are getting agitated.

Sidhumobile — What kind of mileage will it get?

But seriously Thomas, if you want attention you’re going to have to start using your own name again, even if it results in another shower of ridicule. And another tip: if Sidhu is going to pay you to rip on Nelson you’d better be smart enough not to get busted. Of course intelligence is not an attribute widely ascribed to the Sidhu team members.

May 14, 2010May 14, 2010Dead heads

NICK – WHY NOT SEND A MAILER TELLING VOTERS ABOUT FREE-SPENDING, INCOMPETENT CAREER POLITICIAN CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY?

by admin25 Comments

Last week Nick Berardino and his goons at OCEA sent out mailers alleging that 4^th District Supervisor candidate Shawn Nelson voted in his own business interest to and that he did something for the campaign contributor who owned the Fox Theatre in Fullerton. All nonsense, of course.

These were really lame pieces and probably got Nelson a lot more votes than they cost him. But this effort was quite revealing in that it demonstrates the utter hypocrisy and self-interest of “Bullhorn” Bernardino and his crew.

bernardino — What? I can't hear you, Bullhorn.

While this guy is making up stories about Nelson, he has turned a blind eye to a real government miscreant, County Clerk, Tom Daly whom we have busted giving jobs and no-bid contracts to friends and relatives of contributors, as well as pitching over two million bucks into the worthless property at 433 West Civic Center Drive. Oh yeah, and then there was that $48,000 contract given to another campaign contributor to “study” a sports hall of fame.

The OCEA has watered Tom Daly campaigns with more than $4000 over the years, no doubt hoping the investment would some day flower into something that looked like a county supervisor. Instead it helped create an incompetent little emperor that has no accountability, no oversight, and whose fiefdom is rife with cronyism and kickbackery and wasted millions.

Daly Really2 — I guess he's talking about me.

I would love to believe that Berardino meant to put Tom Daly’s name on those mailers because I would love to believe that Berardino was venting his righteous anger at the wrong candidate. Yeah, right! The County’s public employee unions are going after Nelson because they are terrified of a real Board majority that will institute permanent and meaningful pension reform and conduct responsible contract negotiations.

But who knows? Someday maybe the OCEA will stand up to real corruption – even on the part of a Democrat. If they ever do they know where to come to get all the info they need. But I’m not holding my breath.

May 11, 2010May 11, 2010Dead heads

Nelson is a Defense Lawyer; Sidhu and Galloway Need One

by Joe Sipowicz30 Comments

Well, today today the first “Shawn Nelson is an Evil Defense Lawyer” hit mailboxes, just like we knew it would. This has been the anonymous refrain from the John Lewis & Co. hacks and flacks since day one. We even busted Tom Daly’s supposed “campaign manager” doing it on our blog. The mail piece came from Sidhu, the phony resident of the 4th District.

The funny thing about it is, so what? The obvious conclusion is that people don’t like lawyers, and defense lawyers defend creeps. Sure they do. They also defend innocent people who are being railroaded by ambitious and unscrupulous cops and DAs, and who are accused of all sorts of heinous things. I doubt if there’s a reasonable person who hasn’t contemplated what the police power of the government could do to them if they were falsely accused of something.

Come to think of it, defense attorneys even work for people who commit perjury by signing their name to official documents that they know aren’t true. Let’s see, can anybody think of someone who has recently hired a $400 an hour defense lawyer? Oh, that’s right! Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu just hired Paul Meyer of Costa Mesa to help him try to beat the perjury rap we tagged him with.

And then there’s the Precious Princess, Lorri Galloway whose entire adult life reads like a low-grade takeoff on The Grifters. Wonder how many lawyers the Galloways have employed over the years? It would probably fill up a law school graduating class!

May 6, 2010May 6, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Time to End the Children and Families Commission’s Autonomy

by Grover Cleveland24 Comments

The public relations and tax revenue fixated OC Children and Families Commission needs oversight. How do I know? Because of the amount of money these people pay to PR types and lobbyists – who just happen to be pals of Commission members. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, in fact.

Last year the Riverside County Board of Supervisors addressed the same issue when their “First 5” Commission members were busted for distributing grants to their own organizations. Here’s a 2009 article from The Riverside Press-Telegram that talks about the problem. The solution proposed by the Riverside BOS was to subsume their “First Five” Commission into the County government structure.

Whether or not this sort of thing has been going on in OC is not known without a complete shakeout. But what is known is that the Commission has been paying for things like toothbrush distribution and facebook editing at a rate of $200 per hour – to a Matthew Cunningham, a pal of the current Commission Chairman, and a running board occupant of the John Lewis political machine.

Then there’s the small matter of the hundreds of thousands contracted for lobbying services to Phil Isenberg as well as our own local big-government gold digger – Anaheim Mayor for Hire, Curt Pringle.

PringlePower — When you awake you will feel completely refreshed...

It’s high time to place this Commission in a chain of command that puts ultimate responsibility in the hands of elected representatives – people who will have to account for grants and contracts awarded to political operatives, and to decide what sort of political lobbying, if any, is appropriate. And that would be the County Board of Supervisors.