Loyal Friends, on June 16th the city council again demonstrated why the process behind selecting the boundaries of the proposed expansion area are almost completely arbitrary. The council voted 3-1 to remove 7 selected properties from the area. Read more.

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The race to replace termed out Supervisor Chris Norby just got interesting.  Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, who is a Democrat, has announced that she is running, according to the Red Klownty blog and the Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog.

This is very bad news for O.C. Clerk-recorder Tom Daly, who like Galloway is also a Democrat.  Particularly since Jerbal, at Red Klownty, is also reporting that La Habra Councilwoman Rose Espinoza, who is also a Democrat, is thinking about running for Clerk-Recorder instead of running for the 4th Supervisorial District.

Daly is already being opposed by Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu.  Now Galloway will further dilute Daly’s base in Anaheim, where he was once the Mayor.  Read more…

The Fullerton Observer continues to sink to new lows in its coverage of important Fullerton issues. Or lack of coverage.

In its most recent edition it published a redevelopment article which was simply an interview with RDA Director Rob Zur Schmiede, whose very job depends on RDA expansion. Wow, that’s cutting edge investigative journalism!

The Observer has totally ignored the RDA’s $6 million McDonald‘s move.

Read more.

The proposed redevelopment expansion in Fullerton hinges upon on the city councils ability to discover “blight” in this vast area. Two of the biggest cheerleaders for this expansion of government power are councilman Dick Jones and Don Bankhead who are happy to make the necessary ”finding” of blight. Click here to read more.

Fullerton has terminated a dubious partnership with failing red light camera vendor Nestor Traffic Systems after the contract for operation of the cameras was declared to be illegal by an appeals court last year. It’s a long story, but stick with us as we tell this tale of inept vendor selection and blatant disregard for the law in Fullerton
Read more…

Word has it that Don Bankhead has endorsed Hieu Nguyen for Clerk-Recorder, joining Dick Ackerman’s anti-Norby jihad. This is a slap in the face for the lone councilman who supported Don’s quixotic bid for Sheriff back in 1990. Ackerman supported Brad Gates, who easily turned back the Bankhead challenge.

Click here to read more.

Dick Ackerman, Fullerton Redevelopment boondoggle history, college football, and Molly McClanahan.

It’s not often that so many local topics intersect, so when they do this intersection should be scrutinized and at the very least enjoyed for it’s entertainment value

Click here to read more.

Downtown Fullerton was once an enchanted part of the city, complete with significant buildings and full of character. Comparing a photo of downtown in the late 1950’s to the same street today is like looking at two completely different places. The before pictures depict a hip and high-energy part of Fullerton. As opposed to the after snapshots. Click here to read more.

After receiving a barrage of criticism about her support of the McDonald’s relocation fiasco, Fullerton council member Sharon Quirk informed us and others about her decision to change her decision.

Our Redevelopment sources at city hall have told us that at the latest closed door session of the city council Quirk was dissuaded from her decision and in effect signaled her decision to changed her decision to change her decision. Click here to read more.

It takes a lot to keep the eight full time redevelopment staffers busy. With the economy tanking, widespread commercial vacancies and developer money drying up, the wheeling and dealing–at taxpayer expense–is a thing of the past!

Falling property values mean tax increment revenues are slowing to a trickle. Even the bond market is looking murky for RDAs.

So what’s a bored staff with a lot of time on its hands to do? With the only recent feather in their cap (a black eye) really is the $6 million McDonald’s move (150 feet west, right across from Fullerton H.S.) They need more self-justification. Click here to read more.

After a month of speculation, and against the odds he’d be a no show, Councilman Dick Jones did reappear as Fullerton’s representative at the Orange County Vector Control District meeting held earlier today (to the uninformed—vectors are mosquitoes, fire ants, killer bees, rats, flies and other living things that really bug people).

At the May meeting, other city rep’s were abuzz at Jones’ Texas-twanged tirade that interrupted a staff presentation on property assessments. Bored, angered and irritated at all the background info he was getting, he suddenly cried out—“ENOUGH, ENOUGH, FOR GOD’S SAKE!”.

Click here to read about what he did today.

In the spirit of open government, Fullerton Police Chief Mike Sellers made a promise to publicly disclose internal department policies and procedures on the city website.

Even before Chief Sellers joined the Fullerton PD last month, there were musings of his strong stance on community-oriented policing. It sounds nice, doesn’t it? After a month on the job, it was time to put the PD to the test.

I made a quick request for the department’s taser policy in preparation for an item on the council agenda that would allocate $40,000 for new tasers. Chief Sellers’ initial reaction was the best that we could hope for
 his command staff even offered to bring the policy by my house so I would have it in time for the meeting! But, then……Click here to read more.