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One of the curiosities that emerged from the Bushala depot lease hearing at Tuesday’s Fullerton City Council meeting was a letter from the Bushalas’ lawyer demanding Councilman Ahmad Zahra to recuse himself. Why? Because he is biased against them, as indicated by numerous derogatory comments about their supposed negative influence on the Council majority. Here’s the letter, sent to Zahra on Tuesday afternoon.

At the outset of the meeting Zahra innocently claimed his impartiality and lack of animosity to the Bushalas, a claim that his past behavior has shown to be false, and that his behavior that very night was to belie. Anyone watching the charter city hearing, and watching Zahra’s ten minute meltdown, knows this.

Zahra began to question staff about all sorts of details in the existing and proposed lease amendment; about staff’s procedures in negotiating, etc. a strategy never before displayed by Zahra when it came to dozens and dozens of previous lease agreements he approved on the nod.

Zahra’s behavior didn’t escape the notice of two public commenters who took him to task for his blatant bias, observing that he never before showed much, if any interest in the details of lease agreements set before him, most of which were passed on the consent calendar.

Later, Zahra felt the need to defend himself. The subsequent speech explained his constant attention to details and outlined his incredible diligence looking out for the welfare of the “people.” Mayor Jung felt constrained to point out the disastrous “boutique hotel” vote of Zahra and Charles, in which conmen were essentially the beneficiaries of a massive gift of public funds – obviously no due diligence had been performed by either Charles or Zahra before they voted for the boondoggle.

My own favorite Zahra dereliction was the proposed “fish farm” in which a closed public park was to be illegally converted into a private event center with a fish tank in the middle. Remember? The unsolicited proposer had no money to pay rent or even possessory interest tax, and no collateral to get a loan; there was no parking; instead of thinking about the impact on the neighbors, Zahra even dragged up some of his toadies to gargle about trees and green space, not noise and lack of parking. All the details would be figured out later, said Zahra. The Big Idea, not the details were what was important.

Last night the Fullerton City Council voted 3-2 to amend the lease at the historic train station between the City and Bushala Brother, Inc. (BBI). Jung, Dunlap, and Valencia voted yes. Charles and Zahra no. The later tried to obfuscate and stall, but to no avail.

The Fullerton Observer and its brand new “writers” – political flacks Sweet Young Elijah Manassero and Steve Sherry tried their gosh darndest to mobilize a wave Observer troops to oppose the deal. In the end only a small ripple washed up on the sand to repeat the bullshit talking points they had been fed by Zahra and the Kennedy Sisters.

Comically, some of the self-appointed experts on commercial real estate were the near-homeless council regulars.

Mayor Jung did a good job upfront of clarifying some of the misinformation being peddled, to Zahra’s obvious annoyance.

Staff did an okay good job defending their negotiations against the disingenuous questioning of Ahmad Zahra who kept trying to compare the depot with completely different agreements on completely different properties. Zahra had been challenged for his (in)ability to be impartial and then showed to everybody that he was not impartial at all.

Sheena Charles wanted to talk to the Bushalas about the fact that no restaurant had ever appeared on the loading dock; she made the mistake of engaging George Bushala, Jr. in a conversation that ended in a comical overtalk exchange that left this viewer gasping for air.

According to Bushala, City staff had been causing problems for decades and had been using delaying tactics for years; and of course there was the obvious problem of the piece of loading dock not in the original lease is physically connected to the Bushala portion of the dock – a deterrent to development.

Dr. Sheena went to great lengths to act out her pretend astonishment. She bemoaned the lack of a “Trevor’s at the Tracks” like they have in San Juan Capistrano (I was immediately reminded of the idiot lefties who periodically demand the City bring a Trader Joe’s into town). She also wanted to know why the wealthy Bushalas (she is just a poor renter, she reminded everybody) wouldn’t give back a piece of gross sales as a sort of philanthropic gesture, I guess.

Mr. Bushala casually suggested her ignorance and confusion demonstrated: “that’s why you do what you do, and I do what I do.”

In the end Zahra pulled his usual “I have questions” that are nothing other than self-righteous speechifying – even interrupting Jung as the latter made a motion to approve the item. After a substitute motion by Sheena and Zahra to keep yakking it up failed, the original motion was approved and the deal was done.

Yesterday Sharon Kennedy published a post by tender young Elijah Manassero – Part 2 of what is supposed to be a damning legal revelation against the Bushala family. It’s really the wild product of an angry man-child against all of his relatives, but no matter. The point of the post is to try to make Tony and George Bushala look bad to Fullerton Boohoo, and at the same time call into question the upcoming lease agreement between Bushala Brothers, Inc. and the City of Fullerton at the Depot.

Sharon Kennedy telegraphed this intent by making the following comment on her own blog:

This is clearly supposed to be a talking point for the usual gaggle who loudly harass the City Council majority at every meeting over some silly grievance or other.

It’s funny how nobody evert hears from Fullerton Boohoo about the legal entanglements surrounding Mario Marovic’s stolen sidewalk or about the legal entanglements and bankruptcies that enveloped Johnny Lu and Larry Liu before the entitled land for the so-called boutique hotel/rabbit warren apartments was essentially gifted to the grifters. That would require intellectual and moral consistency, two qualities sorely missing from Fullerton Observers.

Well, the item is on the agenda for next Tuesday, so we can expect a vocal shrieking from the banshees Sharon Kennedy and her younger sister, Skakia intend to call out.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out (again) the secondary, perhaps primary purpose of the Kennedy Klan’s plan: to create fodder for next year’s campaign for County Supervisor, in which fresh young Elijah’s (alleged) boss, Connor Traut is running against Fullerton Boohoo Public Enemy #1 – Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung.

There’s something sad about an old woman who is slow-witted, vulgar, and mad.

Of course I’m talking about Vivian “Cannabis Kitty” Jaramillo, the woman who lost the election in Fullerton’s 4th District last year to Jamie Valencia, who happens to be smart, classy and good natured.

Jaramillo posted her take on the idiot Trail to Nowhere© that had a “groundbreaking” party last week.

Naturally, the bad sport has to take a shot at the “majority” that wanted to “obliterate” the ridiculous waste of money and it’s too bad they didn’t, like they should have. After all, the price tag to the City for this boondoggle exploded by 250% since the original grant application. Naturally, the ever-cultured Jaramillo made reference to them having a “hair up their butt,” giving us yet one more reason to be grateful that this uncouth harridan and her dope lobby supporters lost.

Well, according to Jaramillo, Egleth Nunnci led a charge, creating an unforgettable mental image.

But the most entertaining part of the the Jaramillo post was this picture of Ahmad Zahra, speechifying about the wonders of his pet project, a project that will die an orphan when it is shut down after a murder or two.

Zahra is a Noser, alright, as indicated by the graffiti behind him. Of the several definitions, the one that is preceded by the word “brown” seems really appropriate. And so for that, at least, we thank you Cannabis Kitty. Of course the irony of the rampant defacement of property along the railroad right-of-way escaped the attention of Jaramillo.

Our new friend, sweet young Elijah Manassero, has written a letter to selected Fullerton City Councilmembers and FFFF got a copy. This communication is very is ignorant and confrontational; and if the writer thinks it is going to persuade through reason or threat, he’s sadly mistaken.

The topic is the Bushala lease revision at the Santa Fe Depot that would be expanded to include the abandonned loading dock area. Here’s what tender, innocent Elijah had to say to Councilman Nick Dunlap:

Dear City Council,

I’m writing to express deep concern about the lease agreement approved for Mr. Tony Bushala. The terms are lopsided, irresponsible, and betray the values you claim to uphold: fiscal responsibility, transparency, and local control.

Worse, they come in the context of political donations from the very party benefitting. This is a breach of public trust.

⸻

Councilmember Dunlap,
With your background in commercial real estate, you know how bad this deal is.

Section 10 of the agreement allows Bushala to assign or sublease the lease to any entity controlled by George, Tony, or Salma Bushala, including shell companies. This eliminates oversight, obstructs transparency, and gives one political donor unchecked long-term control over public property.

Even more troubling: the lease includes rent credits that discount the already-low rent by up to 75%. That means Bushala can pay pennies on the dollar and then turn around and sublease to a third party at market rate, pocketing the profit with little obligation to improve the property. The City receives nothing from this resale.

You know this isn’t standard in municipal leases. Cities typically reserve the right to renegotiate when property is flipped for private gain. That clause is missing. The power to cancel a lease or require public bidding? Gone. That’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s a giveaway.

This lease is also next to the development, The Tracks at Fullerton Station, which makes the low rent and numerous benefits even more egregious. Mr. Bushala can lock-in a low payment now, before major development takes place which will raise the value of the surrounding area.

You say you believe in local control. But locking the public out of a city-owned property next to a major transit hub until 2060, while giving control to a donor network, is the opposite of local control. It’s donor control.

Ah, poor, sweet boy. Completely uninformed; and he doesn’t let ignorance interfere with the enthusiastic gush of opinion. Elijah wants to come across as knowledgeable and yet shows his political motivations at every misstatement. He’s obviously Ahamad Zahra’s latest toy, and he shows it.

It’s a bad deal because Elijah was told it was.

1. The term “shell company” nonsense is rolled out for sensational and perjorative effect. Really the object here is to secure and expedite future assignment rights for the leasee, acceptable to the landlord, too. There is nothing illicit or objectionabl about this; it’s not uncommon.
2. Excitable young Elijah’s next objection (he’s even more troubled!) is a “rent credit” of 75% – lowering the rent even more. Poor, sad Elijah. He’s referring to the construction rent credit that offsets rent by applying the contruction cost to rent over a long time. But the poor boy misunsterdands (or pretends to). The 75% figure refers to the qualifying amout of the credit – 75% of the construction cost – agreed to by the City. Construction rent credits are not rare, in fact they are used all the time, althought young Manassero doesn’t know anything about it. At the end of the lease the owner gets a built facility, in this case commercial/retail space in the otherwise useless loading dock. And, by the way, how does this impressionable sprout know what’s “standard” in any sort of lease?
3. Newly blossomed Elijah seems to think that something is being “flipped” and a “resale” is going on. Oh, well, how can you even respond to nonsense like that?
4. Finally! The young bud mentions “The Tracks at Fullerton Station” a project that will make the Bushala’s “low rent” even more “irresponsible”egregious.” How, Elijah doesn’t say. And he doesn’t mention that “The Track” developers are convicted conmen, have missed all of their required milestones, and are embroiled in a lawsuit with the heirs and assigns of the original mastermind, Craig Hostert. And Elijah isn’t done omitting facts, probably because Zahra never told the eager youngster: “The Tracks” (that Zahra voted for) amounted to a fantastic giveaway, entitling property that increased in value geometrically and was concurrently sold (by Zahra, again) for 6 cents on the dollar: a real giveaway. Naturally, the land involved was never offered to the public in the form of a developers RFQ. Finally, if “The Tracks” ever happens I’ll fly with callow Elijah to the moon on gossamer wings.
5. Our puerile interlocutor wraps up by asserting that the lease will somehow “lock out” the public from a city-owned property. I have no idea what this means. We could guess what Elijah means, or what he thinks he means, but really, why bother?

Nick Dunlap is involved in commercial real estate. As such he knows that the Santa Fe Depot space is highly unique and not in the way typical real estate types use the phrase. The three parts, not counting the loading dock, are comparatively small, noncontiguous areas that are hard to lease; the Bushala’s are also responsible for a share of the maintenance that would otherwise be paid for by the public. The Loading Dock is of no use to anybody but the Bushalas: there is no access to the dock except through their existing leasehold. In other words the rents here are not comparable to other properties downtown and certainly not to any other city leases. Dunlap surely knows all this, even if sweet, young Elijah and the Kennedy Sisters and Zahra don’t.

The public’s trust is not being “breached” as asserted in young Elijah’s attempt to make his rhetoric take flight. It’s actually being tended to in a way that will generate sales and property taxes to the city and to the county.

These things never seem to go well in Fullerton.

Apparently the Union Pacific Trail disaster-in-the-making has lost another month – groundbreaking on July 2nd, as reported by Sanka Kennedy of the Fullerton Observer Kennedy Sisters. She fails to remind her followers that the project completion, including plant establishment is the end of October per the agreement with the bankrollers of the project, the incurious and somnolent State Natural Resources Agency. This bureaucracy is much better at handing out free money than they are securing its efficacious expenditure.

Congratulations all around.

In another Union Pacific story, Siaska tells about a workshop of some sort to gin up ideas for renovating Union Pacific park, the dismal space purchased by the City in 2000 without benefit of environmental testing. The first park was a drug addled, gang infested disaster and closed even after soils remediation and a cost of $3,000,000. Since nothing has changed there is no reason to suspect a new park will succeed any better than the old. But pickleball courts are in high demand in the barrio!

Skasia misinforms readers that the remediation issue took place in 2014, probably so as to cushion the shock of the real truth: the park was built, closed because of contamination, remediated in the 2000s and not opened again because nobody wanted it reopened – especially the people who wasted all that money in the first place.

Sankia reminds us that a committee was formed to review this park four years ago, but not that it dissolved into nothingness as these committees always do. Start over, says the City, the land is your canvas,and toy hardhats for everybody, and whatever happens, don’t look in the rear-view mirror. Here’s my favorite line:

“The initiative, which seeks to reinvigorate the family-oriented neighborhood, has been in the works since discussions about the park’s redesign began in 2019.”

A family oriented neighborhood? As opposed to what? The truth is that discussion of reopening the park came from Fred Jung who was disgusted by the whole disaster of the “Poison Park.”

Digging back to 2023 Kennedy found the ever quotable “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra to lend HIS vast knowledge of his district:

District 5 representative, Council Member Dr. Ahmad Zahra expressed his support at the City Council Meeting in October 2023, highlighting the project’s importance: “Many residents in that area have seen an entire generation of children grow up without access to a park.”

What a load of utter bullshit. The residents of “that area” have free and unfettered access to Independence Park, Richman Park and Lemon Park. If you believed Zahra you’d have to conclude the kids in the ‘hood were living in plywood crates in a Tijuana slum.

Naturally, Skaisa omits reference to Zahra’s 2021 vote to turn the park space into a private event center, a bone-headed and illegal move. But, again, Fullertonions, we don’t dwell on the past here. Forward to the Future.

On Tuesday the Bushala Depot lease agreement was not voted upon. It item was continued until July 15th.

But that didn’t keep a gaggle of Zahra followers from trying to continue the narrative of subsidies and below market rate rent.

Our new friend, tender young thing Elijah Manaserro, local scholar, was there to do just that. And a few other callers in.

My favorite speaker was the itinerant pest Curtis Gamble, whose near homelessness makes him qualified to opine on real estate deals.

When public comments were done, Zahra showed his role as coordinator of the opposition. He wanted comparative market rates, he said; there won’t be any, but okay, fair enough. But then he displayed his fundamental ignorance by including agreements with The Summit Restaurant and the Boys and Girls Club – completely different properties.

The fact is that the Santa Fe Depot doesn’t have any “comps” in Orange County. The historic building is is unique and made up of several disparate areas, each of pretty small space; in other words, hard to rent out. And the Loading Dock, proposed for inclusion in a revised overall lease, is only connected to an area already leased by the Bushalas. Adaptive reuse will require a huge outlay of money to effect structural reinforcement, enclosure and interior finishes. And because there is no place for kitchen or restrooms, it is functionally useless for anybody except the Bushalas who have ten year lease extension options.

Here’s the hypocrisy part. Remember the ill-fate “boutique hotel/monster apartment,” an unsolicited proposal with no RFP, no RFQ, no RF-anything? Do you remember any of Fullerton BooHoo raising Hell about that? Me neither. I do remember that Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles voted to give con-men Johnny Lu and Larry Liu a $14,000,000 price subsidy on a parcel they upzoned themselves. Talk about short-term memory loss.

Hopefully when this item returns, staff will explain (based on their extensive expertise) the expertise Fullerton Boohoo is always praising – that the deal they negotiated is not a subsidy and that rather than losing money, the deal will bring in tax revenue to the City and to the County; and that letting the Loading Dock fall down doesn’t help anybody – even those taxpayers Zahra and Charles pretend to care so much about.

On tonight’s City Council meeting agenda you’ll see an item about a lease revision at the historic Santa Fe Depot between the City (owner) and the leasee – Bushala Brothers. Inc.

Apparently the Bushala’s have been trying to get a lease on the entire loading dock portion of the Depot for the better part of 10 years while rolling it into an updated lease for the entire building. These efforts seem to have been met with the usual obstructionism from City staff, who in the past seemed happy to stall and temporize.

But mirable dictu, the Age of Miracles isn’t past! A lease has finally been agreed, and the opportunity to see a successful adaptive reuse of the loading dock into a commercially viable space may be at hand.

Happiness all around, right?

Heavens, no! Enter Ahmad Zahra and Fullerton Boohoo. The new running dog for this dog and pony operation is a sweet young thing named Elijah Manassero who writes articles for the Fullerton Observer attacking Tony Bushala and using the phraseology of Zahra and Vivian Jaramillo. Apparently Elijah has taken to social media to proclaim his outrage over the Depot lease.

Crazy deal? Insanity? Really, innocent, young Elijah? That’s what you wanna go with? No “City taxes” are spent on this arrangement and there is no subsidy, ya poor, dumb sap.

Now we may be sure that the “well below market rate” nonsense was fed to him by Zahra or somebody else who knows even less about commercial real estate – like Skaskia Kennedy who is also parroting the idiot “subsidy” line. The fact is that there is no other potential tenant with any interest in the loading dock and never has been.

A tax-paying tenant on the loading dock would increase sales taxes to the City. Having no tenant contributes nothing, a fact that has escaped poor young Elijah and the younger Kennedy Sister.

Over thirty years ago the Bushalas were the only non-subsidy demanding respondent to an RFP by the City of Fullerton to lease and restore the Santa Fe Depot, a fact reflected in the lease value – then and now. The restoration was successfully performed and the building is now on the National Register of Historic Places – an undeniable and rare success story for Fullerton Redevelopment.

More recently, the Bushala’s have donated tens of thousands of dollars in labor and material to help volunteers perform stabilization and repair efforts on the loading dock roof structure that the owner – the Fullerton taxpayers – haven’t had to spend a dime on. More malfeasance, naive Elijah?

It’s way past time to put the loading dock platform to productive use – use that is profitable to the taxpayers pliable young Elijah and Fullerton Boohoo pretend to care so much about.

And tonight’s the time to finally do it.

At the June 3rd Fullerton City Council meeting, George Bushala directly asked Shana Charles something I raised a few weeks back when I discovered that her husband, Andre Charles was paid $4000 by the marijuana workers union that was invested big time in the ill-fated council campaign of Vivian Jaramillo.

Obviously, the issue raises questions about Ms. Charles relationship with the legalized dope lobby.

Her response to Mr. Bushala was pathetic. You’ll have to ask my husband about that, she said cavalierly through her idiot grin.

Hey, wait a minute “Doctor” Charles. California is a community property state, meaning that you benefited from that four grand just as much as your loquacious hubby. Your husband is not a public figure making policy decisions for the people of Fullerton. You are. And why should anybody have to chase down Mr. Charles on his daily rounds?

By the way, will you be showing that $4K on your Form 460, presuming you ever get around to filling it out? Will you declare yourself ineligible to discuss cannabis related issues, as your followers demanded (unnecessarily, it turns out) that Councilwoman Valencia do with regard to campaign donors? If not, why not?

As an aside, my favorite bit of the exchange came when “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra identified the union in question as a grocery store workers organization, as well as a cannabis workers crew. And this outfit isn’t a lobbyist, he proclaimed.

Hmm. Of course we remember that Zahra appointed the OFCW political lobbyist, Derek Smith to the ad hoc Fiscal Sustainability Committee so we know he’s lying about the lobbyist thing; but we also knew he was lying because his lips were moving and noise was coming out.

Why would grocery store workers union give a rat’s ass about a city council election in Fullerton that has almost zero control over their interests? And other than recruiting a few dozen potential union members from dope store workers why would the national union HQ flood $60,000 to Jaramillo’s election? Smart money places the donation of that kind of loot right back to the cannabis lobby itself, bankrolling the effort to elect pro-dope Jaramillo.

Zahra also made a point that it was bad to vilify unions, something nobody had done.

Ever ask yourself how America got stuck with not one but two Trump presidencies? There are lots of reasons, including the fact that a great many Americans are generally stupid, incurious, nativist, fearful of this or that, and of course, did I mention really stupid?

But there’s something else going on here too, and that’s the phenomenon of ordinary folk who are just sick and tired of liberal academic preachers preaching to them about how to live, what to believe. This is precisely why there is so little outcry among the masses about Trump’s war on academic elites.

They had it coming.

For decades the problem of an impractical and ideological driven agenda telling everybody how to talk and how to behave and what to think has gotten worse and worse. There was bound to be a reaction.

What does this have to do with Fullerton? Well, I’ll tell you. Fullerton is an academic backwater – with a third-tier university and a junior college; and that means that these institutions and their camp followers are going to try extra hard to polish the produce of their politically correct world-view. In some circles this passes for enlightenment – just like accepting at face value any idiot who checks the right boxes.

Let’s take Fullerton’s leading liberal politicians, two individuals who revel in the tile of “Doctor” and who, like the conscientious patent medicine peddler, love to dispense their dubious wares.

First exhibit for the prosecution. Shana Charles, a CSUF teacher whose specialty is “public health” a silly academic field of activity ginned up to fill the ranks of graduate schools. Ms. Charles is naturally a barely contained wind bag whose supercilious and lengthy lectures are truly annoying. But despite the smiles there is no doubt that Charles considers herself a superior intellect, perfectly suited to the role of moral preacher.

My second exhibit is none other than the good Doctor from Damascus, the self-righteous Ahmad Zahra, whose pontifications on moral probity and the defects thereof practiced by his colleagues are common fare at council meetings. Like his ally Charles, Zahra’s lectures run on for a long time and are characterized by hand-wringing and finger pointing. Yeah, Zahra looks down on you and me, and why not? He’s a member of the cosmopolitan intelligentsia, see?

Naturally Zahra and Charles have no experience that would actually help them understand their constituents. Who needs experience when ideology is so potent? Their playground is the unaccountable arena of feeling good about their liberal thoughts, and of course in telling everybody else what to do. This is exactly the high-handed moral bossiness that pisses off so many people.

In Fullerton we also know that our liberal moral and truthy exemplars have proverbial feet of clay.

The idea of the adipose Shana Charles lecturing anybody on any sort of health, is preposterous; wasting millions just to pay heed to the all-important concept, efficacy be damned – bike trails that nobody will use – is especially painful.

And then there’s “Dr.” Zahra, an unemployed parasite with no income (read his Form 700 for fun) whose speechifying on morality, the spirit of the law, and so forth is remarkably hypocritical even for a low-grade politician. We’ve seen his record: a phony marriage to a woman in Arkansas to stay in the country; claiming exoneration for an assault and battery case where there wasn’t any; plagiarizing articles to appear like an expert on water issue; and filing a false police report against one of his colleagues. What a guy.

These people need fuel to keep their fire going and that sustenance is provided by the various academic flotsam who think that Zahra and Charles represent everybody – instead of just themselves. In fact these folk are the ones who are always nattering about “the people” who want this or that (expensive) nonsense; and largely because “they” are “underserved” the classic liberal/bureaucratic label that patronizing boohoos stick on Latinos, and blacks and anybody else who needs a financial or bureaucratic middleman to give them something “nice.”

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention those other purveyors of liberal tripe, the Fullerton Observer Sisters, Sharon and Skaskia, whose censored blog and twice monthly screed is dedicated to supporting whatever nonsense is ladled out by their heroes, too dumb to understand the extent of how they are being manipulated.