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Who says “nobody” reads the FFFF blog? Well, they do in City Hall, obviously.

It turns out that “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra’s campaign committee maybe wasn’t terminated after all. It’s now back on the active list on the City Clerk’s website! Looks like the “new crew” did another oopsy.

And that’s terrific news for those of us who were looking forward to next year’s Fullerton City Council election in District 5.

See, Mr. Zahra faces all sorts of challenges of his own creation, and he has voluntarily made enemies where he ought not to have. Here’s a partial list of Zahra’s transgressions – stuff that his blind followers love to ignore, but issues that may resonate with the electorate at large.

1. In the 1990s gay immigrant Zahra committed marriage fraud by marrying an American woman (a federal felony), so he could stay in the United States and pave the way for eventual citizenship.
2. In 2020 Zahra was charged with assault and battery and vandalism against a woman, “M. Farias.” He claimed exoneration, which was a lie. He has shown no evidence.
3. In 2020 and 2021 Zahra committed plagiarism by taking articles written by somebody else and having them published in the Fullerton Observer under his own name.
4. In October of 2022 Zahra filed a false police report to the FPD claiming that his colleague, Fred Jung assaulted him (or some such thing). The report was rejected.
5. In 2020 Zahra tried to raise taxes on his “underserved” peeps during the Covid pandemic.
6. When he was first elected in 2019 he proclaimed the need for an election to fill the vacancy left by Jesus Quirk-Silva; a month later he voted to appoint the execrable Jan Flory in exchange for a well-paying appointment to the Orange County Water District, his only identified source of income.
7. In 2022, Zahra and the OC Democrat party created a phony Latino candidate, Tony Castro, to draw votes away from his Latino opponent.
8. Zahra is currently being investigated by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for numerous violations of campaign rules regarding unreported campaign payments that may have been illegal payments…to himself.
9. In 2021 Zahra tried to convert the UP Park into a private, for profit event center, an illegal move that would have landed the City in multiple lawsuits.
10. Zahra voted to pursue the disastrous lawsuit against David Curlee, Joshua Ferguson, and FFFF that cost the City the better part of a million bucks.
11. Etc., etc., etc.

If he stays in the race, Zahra would go up against Oscar Valadez, the guy who would have beat him last time around, except for Castro, and who’s returning to the fray in 2026. Then there’s his biggest antagonist, Tony Bushala, who seems to want to make it his business to rid the city of this con artist. Mr. Bushala has the means and the motive to do so.

In 2022 Zahra spent well over $100,000 to squeak out a tainted victory. Right now he has less than six grand in his committee account. While we may expect the OC Dems to enlist another candidate to draw votes from Zahra opponents (the Scott Marowitz Experience may frighten them off), it’s hard to see a path forward for the disingenuous doctor from Damascus.

There is something entertaining when a professional know-it-all runs into somebody who isn’t going to accept her bullshit.

And so we have the hilarious spectacle of Shana Charles – cloistered, third-rate academic – confronting and over-talking George Bushala, Jr. because she doesn’t like his answers about how come he hasn’t built a restaurant on the Bushala Brothers, Inc., portion of the Santa Fe Depot loading dock. Enjoy the video:

Somehow Shana, who has never ventured a nickle into anything, thinks BBI should have built a fancy restaurant (like Trevor’s at the Tracks!) despite the stonewalling of staff, and the animosity of Jennifer Fitzgerald, Jan Flory, and Ahmad Zahra. Then there’s the little problem of economic recessions in the early 2000s and 2008-2012, the real estate crash in 2007, and the COVID disaster in 2020-2002.

It has also escaped poor Shana’s feeble intellectual grasp that the City’s portion of the loading dock – east of the centerline of Pomona Avenue, is structurally connected to the Bushala leasehold, an awkward situation that is obviously an impediment to development. It’s going to take a million bucks to build out – something no one would do under the present situation.

Shana actually believes there is a “structure” suitable for a restaurant – instead of an unenclosed, unsound, ramshackle frame on a concrete bulkhead with no utilities.

When you know what you’re talking about, the whole cooked-up lease “controversy” is ridiculous.

Shana has the ignorant audacity to mention people who ran COVID businesses out of their kitchen, a comment so fucking stupid that it doesn’t even need repudiation.

The final sentence from Bushala is classic: “that’s why you don’t do what I do.”

What Dr. Charles does is talk self-important ideological blather to vacant-faced students looking for an easy elective, and whose multiple choice tests are graded by a computer.

No, don’t call FPD. Not because they won’t catch anybody, but because the violation is plagiarism. And the perp? None other than one of the Fullerton Observer sisters, Sakinsia.

And the topic? Of course it relates to about the Orange County Water District.

A few years back the Observer let Ahmad Zahra pretend to write informative articles on water topics under his own name. You can still see them, uncorrected, here and here. Jan Flory was fooled about Zahra’s supposed expertise in water issues, but FFFF wasn’t.

We knew the articles were written by an OCWD bureaucrat and stolen by the Doctor From Damascus.

Here is an “article” clipped from the Observer and purportedly written by Saskina – since she put her own name above it.

The Orange County Water District (OCWD; the District) and the City of Tustin celebrated the dedication of a new PFAS treatment plant, marking a major milestone in ensuring safe and reliable water for Tustin residents and businesses.  

The dedication ceremony brought together local, state and federal representatives to recognize the proactive actions of both OCWD and the City of Tustin in addressing PFAS, a group of manufactured chemicals increasingly found in water sources across the country, including the Orange County Groundwater Basin. The new treatment system, implemented at the existing Main Street Water Treatment Plant, uses ion exchange technology to treat up to 6,400 gallons of groundwater per minute. The centralized plant is fed by four offsite wells connected through approximately 2.5 miles of conveyance pipeline. 

“This state-of-the-art PFAS treatment plant is a critical investment in our city’s water future,” said Tustin Mayor Austin Lumbard. “By removing PFAS from local groundwater, we help ensure that water delivered to residents and businesses is exceptional and continues to meet all state and federal drinking water standards.” 

Since 2019, OCWD has taken the lead in addressing PFAS, in partnership with its 19 cities and retail water districts, to remove them from the groundwater basin, which supplies up to 85% of the water to 2.5 million people in north and central Orange County. The District is funding design and construction costs, along with a portion of operational and maintenance costs for treatment facilities like this one.

“OCWD is proud to support the City of Tustin and our other partners in the construction of treatment facilities that safeguard public health,” said OCWD President Denis R. Bilodeau, P.E. “Tackling PFAS contamination head-on reflects our long-standing commitment to water quality, innovation and regional collaboration.”

The City of Tustin PFAS treatment facility was partially funded by a $10 million grant from the State Water Resources Control Board through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and a $5 million Community Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

For more information on OCWD’s PFAS treatment program, visit the PFAS education center.

Now you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that this is one of those canned press releases that makes up vacuous quotations and puts them in the mouths of officers of government agencies. But typical Observer readers are not known for their sharpness on the uptake.

Our Friend and sharp-eyed commenter Lab Rat has pointed out that it’s outright theft. And here’s the relevant press release from OCWD:

Is this just the usual sloppy incompetence, or is it deliberate? Does it matter? It’s just one more instance of the sanctimonious “who cares so long as we believe what we believe, and what we believe is sacrosanct.”

Let’s see if it gets corrected with an appropriate notice.

It only took three days. Not bad for the Observer Sisters. Glad to see some Observer or other reads FFFF!