Fringe Alert: Biggest Boondoggle 2010

In a year full of idiotic boondoggles, the nominating committee had a real challenge coming up with the best, or worst, depending on your point of view. The committee considered size, because it matters, but also pure, unfiltered nonsense, too.

I do not have a shoe fetish!

1. The Hall of Shame. County Clerk-Recorder paid a campaign supporter named Brett Barbre $48,000 to “study” an OC Sports Hall of Fame. Forget the fact that this has nothing to do with Daly’s job, or that Barbre was nothing other than a cash conduit. Just remember that the guy didn’t do anything. As Daly succinctly put it: Barbre was paid for ideas not long reports, and of course Daly got neither. Too bad it was our money. Oh, yeah -the media snoozed.

Maybe that copper is worth something...

2. The Money Pit. Chalk up another one for Tom Daly. He talked the County Supervisors into sinking $2.1 million into a tear-down derelict building in Santa Ana to house his archives and his defunct Sports Hall of Fame (see above). The Board was lied to and crucial information about the true cost of making the building habitable was withheld. To this day collective amnesia reigns, especially with John Moorlach who ordered an investigation and later went along with the cover-up. Yep, the media snoozed.

We had to destroy the village in order to save it...

3. The Megalopolis. Yet another plan for downtown Fullerton, Der Transporation Center Meisterplan anticipates the final destruction of any remaining authenticity in Fullerton and its replacement with every master planner’s wet-dream. Albert Speer would be proud. Fortunately it will never come to fruition. But millions will be wasted and lots of damage done trying. Be sure to thank Bankhead, Jones and Keller next time you see them.

Mistakes were made...

4. Pringle’s Folly. High Speed Rail – LA to Anaheim. Not needed and not wanted except by Anaheim’s ex-Mayor-for-Hire and recent tongue bath recipient Kurt Pringle;  Pringle was recently busted by the Attorney General for holding incompatible offices, and Jerry B. now knows what  Orange County has known all along: Pringle is in it for Pringle. Big Time. FFFF has shared the record of foreign junkets, cover-ups, faked ridership numbers, etc., etc. I don’t even have the energy to do the links. I get tired just thinking about it.

The damage done by this monster to the fabric of the cities it would pass through and to the public purse is incalculable. But hey, Kurt’s gotta pay his bills, too, right?

Well there you have it, Friends. Four embarrassing boondoggles of varying shapes and sizes. Who will the selection committee go with? Stay tuned…

More Fringies: Wackiest Political Stooge O’ The Year

Oh, Ye Cruel Amethyst Plasticine Gods above! In a year full of wacky political campaigns this category just screams out “potential!”

Now, the Nominating Committee wasn’t interested in the typical collection of paid-to-blog courtesans that whore themselves as part of their quotidian life’s work: creeps like Dan Chomolungma and Matthew J. Cunningham. Oh, no no no!

This category embraces the brief shooting stars who, in their trajectories across the local political firmament, burn with an incandescent glow before vanishing into the irrelevance of lifelong mundane hackery. And by burn with an incandescent glow, I mean make utter jackasses out of themselves shamelessly bending over for cretinous political bosses. Here we find political ambition, lack of character, stupidity, and brainless tenacity sticking with people or ideals that weren’t worth sticking up for.

Motivation is not the sole factor in the category; comic spectacle is what we’re after, too.

And your nominees are:

Hey, nice shirt!

1. Thomas Anthony Gordon. This econo-size chowderhead popped up on a local blog attacking Shawn Nelson for being a defense lawyer and therefore soft on crime. Which was funny because Gordo had had his own brushes with the law!

Will work for food.

Since this goon lives in Santa Ana it wasn’t hard to surmise that he was working for somebody who had an interest in the 4th District campaign. At first we thought he was working for John Lewis and the Tom Daly Team. Well, maybe he was. But then he appeared as a petition circulator for Hairball Sidhu and we then knew whose payroll he was on.

Gordon even played victim card wackily claiming to have been intimidated by us for outing his tooling for Sidhu.

After we busted him for making anonymous comments on our blog he mercifully vanished from our radar screen.

A little man in a little crowd.

2. Little Billy Turner. ‘Lil Billy popped up last February at a Fullerton Tea Party event passing out fliers for Hairbag Sidhu. Unfortunately he ran into Chris Thompson to whom he admitted that Sidhu was going to lose and noted that he had tried to get in touch with Shawn Nelson. Not knowing that his attempted double-cross in search of a winning candidate would end up as blog fodder he passed along his name and address to Thompson.

We had some more fun with Billy over at Sidhu’s empty campaign headquarters, too.

Later, we were told that Little Billy had been ensconced in Sidhu Fake Address #2 so that it would appear lived in. And we were informed that Little Billy had also turned into a sign thief. That sure seems in character.

It didn’t seem to have occurred to Little Billy that getting an honest job in one of Sidhu’s Pollo Locos would be more honorable than working for such a creep’s bogus scampaigns; but then given his own propensity for double-dealing, maybe part-time jobs in politics is the only kind of work he will ever have, or ever want. There will always be ‘pugs looking for cheap labor so Billy may find employment once every couple of years.

Oh, well. If working for Sidhu doesn’t scare you straight, nothing can.

Find 4SD Observer. Then look for Waldo.

3. 4SD Observer. This sad Grendel-like creature emerged in 2010 to defend the indefensible – the serial miscreance of Pam Keller. 4SD withstood a systematic dismembering from the regs, continually coming back for more. There was no hypocritical, stupid, lying,  featherheaded thing that her Pam could say or do that could cause this devoted acolyte to cease soldiering on.

Hilariously, the series of quotations from The Manchurian Candidate by some of our Friends went zipping right over his/her head, every time. An irrational love for budget-busting public safety union members, hatred for Supervisor Shawn Nelson and a weird fixation on cooking harmless bunny rabbits sealed the deal.

In short, 4SD Observer was the quintessential intellectual face of the Keller years: sanctimonious, humorless, and confused; but mostly just brainwashed.

Fringie Alert: Most Embarrassing Political Endorsement of 2010

In the world of politics endorsements are held to be a big deal. A long list is supposed to be impressive, no matter the character (or lack of same) of the people on the list. And in Orange County there are plenty of elected officials whose names you would be a lot better off without. This obvious fact seems to have escaped many politicos whose background research on some of their endorsers is often lacking.

Conversely, whom one chooses to endorse is also a true reflection of one’s moral or intellectual fiber and backing a crook, an idiot, or an ass clown can cause some embarrassment.

Anyhoo, here’s your list, with a little commentary added:

You weren't using that $48,000, were you?

1. Brett Barbre. This embarrassing tool stole $48,000 of your money pretending to “study” an OC Sports Hall of Fame. He was aided and abetted by County Clerk Tom Daly whom he endorsed and to whom he contributed. But that’s not why he’s here.

No script? Boy am I pissed off!

2. Janet Nguyen. The semi-literate and wholly embarrassing County Supervisor whose communication skills are perfectly representative of her grasp of issues.

Yay-haw!

3. F. Richard Jones. Fullerton’s own crazy funny Doc Cracker Barrel, whose down home, lunatic ravings are only superseded by total ignorance of anything more complicated than a southern fried chicken wing.

You are becoming very sleepy...

4. Kurt Pringle. The pay-to-play, former Anaheim mayor for whom no string is to long or slack to pull. And man did he try to pull a slack string. Recently got busted by the AGs office for holding incompatible office, which he did for three years to promote his own client’s interests in Anaheim.

Time to call in a favor...

5. John Lewis. Former State Senator and chief OC repuglican who started out the 4th Supervisorial District race pimping out a Democrat. As a lobbyist you can bet that whomever he endorses will be expected to pay up, later.

6. CRA. The California Republican Assembly. A more worthless collection of losers and oddballs you will not find. Also, you can sign up as a member one month and vote to endorse your own family member the next! What a deal.

That's me. On the left.

7. Chriss Street. The County’s outgoing Treasurer who was recently busted by a judge for ripping off a company placed in his trust. His behavior was so egregious that the Board of Supervisors stripped him of his investment authority. He also got caught dodging County procurement rules so as to remodel his offices without any oversight. He also tried to get folks to believe he has an MBA from Stanford. He doesn’t.

Hey, jerkoff, whatever happened to Grandma's house?

8. John S. Williams. Public Administrator/Guardian currently being investigated by the Board of Supervisors for malfeasance. He’s supposed to be taking care of people’s estates. Looks like he’s been taking care of his own estate.

Mmm. Pizza.

9. Jeff Miller. State Assemblyman who was the recipient of Mike Duvall’s “open mike” chat and whose own dealings in an attempt to create a Corona public utility while on that city council had many Inland Emperors scratching their heads.

Wrap your hands around this...

10. Gary Miller. Yet another repuglican slimer in the US Congress. Redevelopment pimp and whore for Big Ed Roski, the biggest Redevelopment free loader in the State of California.

Gone. Almost forgotten.

11. Cynthia Coad. Former 4th District Supervisor and quite possibly the stupidest person in Orange County.

Richard Faher, tax fighter.

12. Richard Faher. Alleged “Placentia Taxpayer Advocate.” Now this guy’s just downright creepy, referring to himself in the third person. But his pathetic and weird clown-campaign brought one iridescent, shining jewel – the pronunciation of the 2nd District Supervisor’s name: John Moor-latch.

There's a whole big world outside my garage. The city manager told me so.

13. Rosie Espinosa. La Habra’s dim-witted councilmember whose grasp of policy ended with the use of her automatic garage door opener. Mean people likened her to a sack of rivets. Mean people were right.

Please stop using that picture.

14. Pam Keller. Fullerton’s outgoing council sweetheart, whose batting eye lashes and fake “I’m just a dumb girl” routine,…oh, wait. She is just a dumb girl.

Another innerleckshul for Jesus.

15. Alexandria Coronado. This dim-witted queer-basher who claims to be a doctor finally got her reckoning last June after faking endorsements and was thrown off the OC Board of Education.

Well, there’s fifteen names to choose from, but really, the potential list is virtually endless; there seems to be a dumb Dem and a crooked ‘pug on virtually every street corner peddling his or her dubious wares.

Who is the worst of the worst? Stay tuned…

The Fringies: Worst Political Candidate of The Year

Cherry-flavored, glow-in-the-dark, radioactive Jebus! Who could have supposed that 2009 could have been topped when it came to really awful and horrific political candidates? But it was. By 2010. And it wasn’t even close.

2009 brought us the spectacle of Chris Norby running for County Clerk to preserve our birth certificates from the silverfish; and the hideous Linda Ackerwoman, an Irvine claim-jumper whose appalling repuglican candidacy for State Assembly resembled a jail break though a swamp more than a political campaign.

Well, Hell! They were just getting us warmed up.

In the category Worst Political Campaign 2010 we roll out the following rogues gallery of nominees:

Soon you will feel the mighty wrath of Sidhu!

1. “Hairball” Harry Sidhu. A bozo who is so damn stupid his first 4th District Supervisorial campaign move of 2010 was to pretend to live in a roach-infested apartment next to a pool hall in west Anaheim so he could qualify to run. Of course the “mainstream media,” the repuglican ass-kissers, and our do-nothin’ DA ignored this flagrant perjury. But we didn’t. From there on out it was all downhill for Hairbag, including a second fake address, inchoherent statements, more carpetbagging, embarrassing press releases, all around assclownery, and two humiliating defeats. Arf!

You will soon be an object of ridicule...

2. Lorri “Lorraine” Galloway. Another Anaheim Hills denizen who created at least three fake abodes (2 illegal) to run for the same seat as Sidhu. Her manifest idiocies, including the unintentionally hilarious “Lorri in 4th gear” video series (and the now world-wide youtube sensation “Poor Bella”)  identified this brain-dead clothes horse as the utter lightweight she is. Her checkered past revealed all sorts of scams that would have made Elmer Gantry weep bitter tears of envy. Oh, Anaheim! I lift my leg on thee!

Ha, I still have two strikes left!

3. Roland Chi, a creep who by all appearances was run out of Garden Grove and took up shop in Fullerton. His disgusting grocery business was busted for serial health code violations in which numerous people were food-poisined, and he dodged prosecution by giving some of his precious bodily fluid to the DA. Meantime, in Fullerton he organized a political sign theft ring headed up by his own father, violated IRS rules by politically pimping a non-profit, and got a Korean church to illegally promote his campaign. Almost nobody was fooled by this sleazy slime-suck except the Fullerton Police and Fire Unions that recognized a kindred spirit, and that whole-heartedly endorsed his sleazoid scampaign.

Wow. What a year!

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.

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.”

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.

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

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?

Tomorrow's Special in the dumpster?

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.

Busted. Again.

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.

Roland Chi: Thief

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?

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?

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.

Man walking over to No McKinley sign.

Man taking No McKinley sign and stashing in van.

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.

Another Fabulous “First Five” F-up

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.

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

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.

Let Me Put This In Recognizable Terms

suckers
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.