Roland Chi Archives - Friends For Fullerton's Future

October 28, 2010October 28, 2010Food and Drink

Selected Reviews from Roland Chi’s Market

Last night one of Roland Chi’s buddies came on to our blog and tried to convince us that “the food taste great” at Roland’s market, and that the food poisoning “90% is the people’s fault.” Well, blaming others for one’s failure is a par for the course in Fullerton, but blaming the victims? That’s a new low.

If only there was a way to use the Internet to see what the rest of Roland’s customers think…

Oh wait, that’s easy. Scroll through the supermarket reviews on the popular Yelp.com, and you’ll find that Roland’s friend was partially correct: most of the reviewers do like the taste of the food. But when the subject turns to cleanliness, things get ugly:

“Dead Korean Halibut in a big fish tank?”
“This place is pretty dirty & smells horrible” – Tiffany B.

“The place seems unusually dirty for a place that sells food for consumption”
-Ran C.

“Seriously, this place is getting more and more dirtier each time I come here. The floors next to the meat department is disgusting and unsanitary.” – Andy P.

“ended up buying some spoiled milk WTF my fault for not lookin at the expiration date but damn….. put that spoiled shit away!” – john t.

“I purchased some meat to make dduk bo sam… dang the meat smelled funky when I opened the package… and it was rotten… ” – Eri H.

And so the amateur critics generally seem to agree with the county health inspectors and the DA: health standards at the Chi family supermarket have been serially ignored. Eat at your own risk, and hopefully you won’t be one of the unlucky customers who end up on the bathroom floor or in the ER.

Sadly, most of these reviews were posted in 2010, well after the DA made Roland promise to clean up his act. Can this guy be honest about anything?

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 21, 2010October 21, 2010About Us

Neither rain, nor snow, nor thieves…

by Travis20 Comments

…shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.

It was a busy week for Fullerton’s trusty mail carriers. Here are some of the more entertaining pieces that landed in our Friends’ mailboxes in the last few days. As always, click to enlarge.

I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of hit pieces this year.

October 21, 2010October 27, 2010Dead heads

The Lineup, Part I

by admin20 Comments

We’re not too sure how diligent the FPD is going to be in its investigation into the political sign theft ring that is operating out of Roland Chi’s van. So, ever helpful, we thought we might be able to facilitate things up a bit with a little help from our Friends.

So let’s roll back the curtain and take a peep at Perp #1. Remember this fine fellow, the one photgraphed stealing “No McKinley” signs at the intersection of Euclid and Rosecrans? Take a good look.

And now consider the image below, taken at the CRA endorsing event that was held a few weeks ago – the one where, Roland Chi stacked the meeting with a gaggle of newly minted CRA members, many of whom had to be told what to do and when to vote.

The handsome dude in the yellow shirt sure looks familiar. Could this indeed be the sign thief pictured above? Can’t quite zoom in on that name tag. You decide.

If you know, please share the identity of this individual. Your fellow Friends will be grateful. Hell, you may even get a Special Fringie Award come December!

October 19, 2010October 27, 2010Dead heads

Sunday Afternoon Pilfery

by admin16 Comments

So what do you do on Sunday afternoon after church and you don’t give a damn about pro football?

I know! Let’s go steal some campaign signs!

Let’s hope this was not the message of Sunday’s sermon!

An alert Friend snapped this image of a respectable-looking, necktied gentleman who was taking down “Bad Chi” signs on Euclid and Malvern. Here’s what our Friend told us:

“This Chi supporter was removing Bad Chi signs Sunday afternoon.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with Nextel Direct Connect”

Yikes! White collar, solid shirt! That 80s look ain’t workin’ for ya, brotha’.

Can anybody identify this lawbreaker? We are now giving odds that this guy is not related to Roland Chi in some way. And the odds are starting at 100-1.

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 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.

October 14, 2010October 15, 2010Don Bankhead

Yep, Chi’s Non-Profit Was Used to Promote His Campaign

by Travis16 Comments

An unmarked compact disc was anonymously placed in our drop box the other day by someone who we presume is close to the Chi campaign. It was loaded with photos taken from Chi’s event last week, confirming earlier suspicions that Chi would be using his tax-exempt non-profit to promote his political campaign, in defiance of IRS tax rules.

Perhaps a more interesting observation: It looks like hardly anybody showed up.

The boring photos reveal a very small audience comprised mostly of political candidates, including Janny Meyer, Bev Berryman, Don Bankhead, and a few of their family members.

The whole event appears to be a lot of wasted effort for an unsuccessful attempt at self-promotion.

Of course, we couldn’t help but notice that the event was catered. For the health and safety of Chi’s guests, let’s hope the food didn’t come from his own supermarket.

Chi-Party-07-crop — Did you try the shrimp?

www.rolandchifullerton.com

October 12, 2010October 12, 2010Fullerton 2010

It’s Time for Shawn Nelson to Rescind His Endorsement of Roland Chi

by The Fullerton Savage10 Comments

We’ve all heard the story….Shawn Nelson endorsed two candidates for Fullerton City Council, Bruce Whitaker and Roland Chi, before both decided to run for the same seat vacated by him when he was elected to the Board of Supervisors earlier this year. Fair enough, Mr. Nelson. There were three seats open on the Fullerton City Council, two four year seats and one two year seat, and you had no way of knowing when you gave your endorsements that Whitaker and Chi would run against one another for the single two year seat. But that was then, and now you have to make a choice about who you are supporting. Will it be Bruce Whitaker or Roland Chi?

Here are your choices…

Roland Chi:

As reported on this blog,

————-

Bruce Whitaker:

Serves on the Fullerton Planning Commission (appointed by Shawn Nelson)
Has lived in Fullerton for 22 years
Founded Fullerton Association for Concerned Taxpayers (FACT) and repealed an unjust utility tax
Statewide Coordinator for Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform (MORR), an organization dedicated to reforming out of control Redevelopment in California

Shawn Nelson, you can’t vote for both candidates. Do the right thing for your hometown and put your support behind Bruce Whitaker for City Council today.

October 11, 2010August 27, 2012Food and Drink

That’s Not Funny, Roland. That’s Sick.

by Travis43 Comments

Anyone who’s ever suffered from severe food poisoning understands how painful and dangerous it can be. It’s typically twelve to eighteen hours of intense vomiting with excruciating pain that can only be relieved by a morphine drip at the E.R. The symptoms are so intense that food borne illness causes an estimated 5,000 deaths per year in the United States.

Last year Fullerton City Council candidate Roland Chi was charged with multiple misdemeanor health code violations when eleven people got sick (source) after allegedly eating food prepared at the Arirang Supermarket in Garden Grove. The DA wrote that Roland holds the position of Director for the troubled Korean market.

Chi_Roland — Me? I don’t eat there anymore.

When county health inspectors showed up at the market to investigate the reported illnesses, they described conditions there as “filthy” and “contaminated”. The violations they listed include no hot water for hand washing in the restrooms, unacceptable sanitation practices, raw beef and seafood sitting at room temperature, filthy utensils being washed too close to meat, raw beef being washed with a garden hose, and raw beef water splashing all over the kitchen. And that’s only part of the first report, which also included these graphic photos:

The incident led to a meeting with the District Attorney and a few more health inspectors. The meeting minutes show that while interviewing with the DA, Roland Chi admitted to understanding all of the violations and promised that they would be corrected. Chi was warned with an exact date and time for another inspection one week later.

the-shrimps — Make sure you try the shrimp

When the health inspectors arrived for the follow-up, they found major uncorrected violations and a few brand new ones. And so after promising the DA that he would clean up his act, the market failed inspection for a second time.

wash-bucket — The hose water marinade adds something special.

That second report described an employee cutting squid while raw seafood juices were splashing on the nearby sesame oil and spices, along with a bunch of meat and seafood sitting out at room temperature.

But it gets worse. Two weeks later the inspectors came back and found even more violations, listed in a third report.

Just in case you think we are exaggerating, here are some of the health inspector’s own words:

Observed an employee scooping salt with a metal bowl (without handles) from the large pull-up container. The salt and the bowl were observed contaminated with a crusted build-up of meat blood. The sugar in the pull-up container was also observed contaminated with blood.
Observed a meat handling employee with a meat label in his mouth, then picking it up with his gloves and putting it on the meat packaging then resumes to meat serving/packaging process.
Observed an electrical fly catcher stored above uncovered rice bags in the produce department. Discontinue storing food beneath the fly catcher.
Observed an open sewer line between two walk-in coolers in the warehouse.

Workers — Table. Floor. Would you like some more?

If you’ve been counting, that’s three consecutive sets of violations, 11 sick customers and one smarmy owner. The DA decided to charge Roland and his business partner with five health code violations.

leakage — A seepage of unknown origin. Care to look closer?

Six months later the DA dropped the charges against Roland, presumably in exchange for his business partner’s guilty plea. Still, the damage to the victims had already been done. The DA’s charges against Roland Chi for persistent neglect for the health and safety of his customers would be quite disturbing even if he wasn’t running for city council. But since he is, we have to ask: Should someone this irresponsible be elected to run our city?

October 8, 2010October 8, 2010Fullerton 2010

Another Chi No-No: Using a Non-profit to Promote a Political Candidacy

by Travis27 Comments

Tomorrow the Roland Chi campaign is inviting supporters to an event hosted by his non-profit. Unfortunately for Chi, using a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to promote a political candidacy is illegal according to federal tax law.

Here is is in the IRS’s own words: “All 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Violations of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.”

If Chi is using his non-profit to pump up his campaign, he could indeed have another run-in with the law. Read this press release and decide for yourself if Roland Chi’s tax-exempt status should be called into question by the IRS:

————————-

NON-PROFIT FOUNDER ROLAND CHI TO AWARD SCHOLARSHIPS TO FULLERTON STUDENTS*Former Fullerton Mayor Buck Catlin and School Board Member Minard Duncan are attending the Fullerton Museum event this Saturday

FULLERTON – Roland Chi, City Council Candidate and Founder of The Sustainable Foundation of Orange County (SFOC), will award $1,500 in scholarship grants this Saturday, October 9, 2010, to the winners of the non-profit’s scholarship program. Chi will be joined by special guest community leaders, former Fullerton Mayor Buck Catlin and School Board Trustee Member Minard Duncan at the Fullerton Museum Center, located at 301 North Pomona Avenue in Fullerton. The event will begin at 9:30 a.m. and is open to the public, offering a free continental breakfast for guests in attendance. For further information and to view the event invitation, please visit www.rolandchi.com/events.

SFOC is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization dedicated to community development and supporting public service minded youth. SFOC Scholarships are available each year during the academic spring semester, inviting all southern California high school seniors to apply. Application and scholarship information can be found at www.scf-oc.org.

The Scholarship Review Committee evaluates candidates by their leadership and involvement in community activities, academic achievement, difficulty of coursework, letters of recommendation, and statement of purpose articulating the student’s future goals.

“We received many qualified applications, and it was very encouraging to see so many young students who had such high ambitions and passion to serve the community. The recipients of these awards all overcame unique hardships, achieved high scholastic marks, and showed exceptional promise for future success in public sector.”

This year, Michelle Cho, a Sunny Hills High School Valedictorian, will be awarded the highest scholarship of $1000. Cho is attending University of California Los Angeles and majoring in Anthropology. A scholarship of $500 will also be awarded to Fullerton High School graduate Ana Coria, who is attending University of California Riverside.

Candidate Chi, on behalf of SFOC, would like to thank all scholarship applicants and the Fullerton community for their support. For further information about Fullerton City Council candidate Roland Chi’s platform, additional endorsements, and upcoming events please visit www.rolandchi.com.

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