I’ve heard stories about the lame-brained action of returning a $50,000 grant because the Bushalalibertarian Council majority doesn’t like checkpoints for drunk drives. I wasn’t at the Tuesday Fullerton Council meeting, though, so I haven’t written about it. And, apparently, while I as arguing with FFFFsters who are so exercised about Flory that literally 8 of the last 16 stories there have involved personal attacks on her in the title, I missed the most interesting and damning aspect of the story.
I’d try to improve on the version of it that she posted to Facebook this afternoon — but why bother? She has a way with words — which is probably the biggest problem they have with her, besides her apparent lack of fear.
OKAY, so let’s get this straight, our Tea Bagger councilmen (Kiger, Sebourn and Whitaker), voted to reject a $50,000 grant and send it back to the state because it was to be used for DUI sobriety checkpoints that they believe are unconstitutional. They did this without walking across the street and talking to Police Chief Dan Hughes, or Captain George Crum who wrote the grant application.
Whoops! They find out after the fact that $146,222 in additional grant funds were tied to the $50,000 for the sobriety checkpoints, soooo, if the $50,000 is rejected, then the $146,222 has to be turned back too. It’s not like our understaffed police department could use the money, right? Maybe they thought the state would know how to use the money better than we do at the local level. Massive miscalculation!
Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) caught wind of the ill-considered action and showed up in force at last Tuesday’s council meeting to ask the Tea Baggers to reconsider. During public comments, many family members described the devastating loss of the death of a loved one at the hands of a drunk driver. Particularly moving were the tearful remarks of Jon Wilhite, who survived the horrific crash that killed his three friends, Nick Adenhart, Courtney Stewart and Henry Pearson in April 2009.Displaying keen sensitivity to the issue, Travis Kiger, interrupted a MADD spokeswoman in the middle of her comment to ask whether she would have been as interested in speaking before the council about the hiring of Fullerton cops charged with DUI offenses themselves. The woman begged off, stating she knew nothing about what he was referring to. No one else did either.Whitaker took a stab at discussing the efficacy of “saturation patrols” as opposed to DUI checkpoints apparently trying to justify turning away $50,000 of grant money (with $146,222 behind that). Tony Bushala was observed in the back of the chamber wildly applauding Whitaker’s sage remarks. Are you getting the picture here?Again, we have three Cowboys on our city council who are hell bent on furthering their Libertarian agenda without doing the most minimal research to determine the consequences of their rash acts.Mayor Quirk stopped the insanity by moving to place the matter back on the council agenda for September 18th. You should be there to voice your opinion.
Yikes! I’m not sure whether that will leave a mark — or some smears.
The stench of fear over at FFFF over the Flory candidacy is so thick it’s hard to read through it. I had no idea that they were this freaked out by her. They’ve enjoyed making fun of her with a certain photo take years ago where — as part of a Police and Orange County Bar Association presentation of the dangers of drunk driving — she and a couple of volunteers took part in a “wet lab,” drinking specific amounts of alcohol so that their inability to drive a car would be memorably evident to the audience.
I’m happy to say that I’ve now “fixed” the photo to bring it up to date. Come to think of it, on closer inspection it always did make more sense as a still taken from a martial arts routine!
Whew! I’ve finally found my illustration for the 2012 Fullerton City Council race!
Tony and the FFFF are freaking out over Flory’s campaign because she is one of the few people in Fullerton willing to expose them for what they are, and publically call them out on their bully-boy tactics. They recently changed the rules during Council meeting public comments so members can “reply” to statements made by residents. The Big Three have used this as a chance to attack and insult anyone who disagrees with them, just as they do on their blog.
Greg, I really think you need to start an hypocrisy chart illustrating the difference between what these guys said during the recall and what they’ve done since being elected. When Flory called Travis out about the drunk driving picture, all Travis could do was bleat that he was “just the webmaster” and didn’t write those posts, but he believes in the First Amendment. But didn’t he run because he said the old Council refused to take responsibility for Kelly Thomas’ murder and a host of other issues? Yet he can’t be responsible for a blog he manages? And whle we’re on the subject, they also ran on a anti-cronyism ticket, yet Travis is pulling down a nice salary running Tony’s blog, a blog with a clear ant-City agenda. Sebourn may not be as blatantly obvious, but after he failed to get his wife appointed to the Library Board, he, Travis, and Bruce banded together to appoint a fellow FFFF member to be the city’s Representative on the OC Water Board.
Time after time, these guys have violated their own campaign promises and toed the Tony/libertarian line despite the best interests of the city. The real problem is that Kiger is a True Believer; Whitaker is a rank opportunist who never misses a chance to trumpet on the air (Downey, Costa Mesa, etc.). and Greg, while perhaps a little more independent, dare not stray too far from the man who paid to get him elected. Kiger probably knows he’s already lost the November election, and now it appears he’s hell-bent on causing as much damage in the name of his ideology as he can in three months.
There are a few commenters on this blog who don’t like Flory because she opposed the recall. But when she was on the Council, she was never gig Bankhead/Jones fan. Maybe she opposed the recall because she knew what an FFFF-controlled Council would look like. And maybe she was right. BTW, take a look at the latest issue of the Fullerton Observer–it looks like Shron has finally woken up too.
Are you sure that Travis is getting paid by Tony? Wouldn’t that be disclosed somewhere?
I think that in your last paragraph, you’re reading Flory exactly right. She hasn’t endorsed Bankhead, and has generally disagreed with him (especially when on Council), but she also realizes that he’s not going to be in the majority next year no matter what so he’s not the urgent problem.
Are you sure that Travis is getting paid by Tony? Wouldn’t that be disclosed somewhere?
From Flory’s website: “Travis Kiger, our newly elected council member, is paid $4,000 a month to work for the 4-F blog.”
Oddly enough, Travis has yet to post his bio on Fullerton’s website, so its still murky as to what he does for a living. But there’s no doubt he’s FFFF webmaster, which is really the crux of the issue.
The real shame here is that many people supported the recall in the hopes of electing a more responsible, just, accountable, and community-oriented Council. What they got was three guys being directed by their boss ifrom the back of the Chambers.
“From Flory’s website”
Seems legit. Diamond, please look into it.
What forms would I look for? I don’t think that Flory’s site is an official record; I’d want to check it out myself.
Its been openly discussed during public comments at the last two Council meetings.
I haven’t been there for most of them. Did Travis say “I make $4000 per month from Tony”? I’d find that convincing. My sense, though, is that he’s been playing his cards close to the vest for whatever reason.
Should be on the financial disclosure form he was required to file on assuming office. Public document available from city clerk. Not exact amounts, but ranges.
Hosting a website is not managing. All you do is provide a server (computer) connected to the Internet for your client to put content. That’s it…
My sense is that Travis takes a more active role at FFFF than that. He’s welcome to comment and clarify, of course.
Nice job Dimebag. I love the way you take a completely unsubstantiated story broadcast by Jan Flory and try to spin it into something meaningful.
Why don’t you just get off your fat ass and call Travis. He is your webmaster, right?
Jesus Christ you really are a useless sack of crap.
“Dimebag” — is this your way of saying that you’re hooked on me?
I haven’t tried to substantiate it separately from Flory, whom I consider a credible source. Is anyone even denying it?
Yes, I guess I could have contacted Travis and asked him about the $146,222 the council majority was apparently giving up out of sheer ignorance, or whether he said what Flory says he said to the MADD rep (although I think I got pretty good corroboration from FFFF people who thought it was great), or why FFFF was so completely freaked out by Flory — but that seemed like it would be mean. I don’t deal with webmaster issues; that’s Vern.
We here have pretty much gotten past the sorts of insults you have at the end, Rodger. Please leave them at the door.