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On Tuesday night, December 9th, 2014, Garden Grove said farewell to Bruce Broadwater. For some residents this was a somber occasion with respectful accomplishment-timeline speeches, emotional goodbyes and a standing ovation. For many others, like myself, it was a celebration. 
The 76-year-old Broadwater has been our own Darth Vader, with our city manager, Matt Fertal, playing the role of the Emperor. Yes, we have a Rebel Alliance.
Well, neither Broadwater nor Fertal will be around in 2015. After twenty years’ worth of elections, it was Bao Nguyen that launched a Proton campaign and destroyed the Death Star. Despite a long list financial backers, a real who’s who list of developers and other city contract holders that backed Broadwater’s campaign, he was taken out of office by the young Jedi, Bao Nguyen, on his first run for a council position.
This is a classic story of the underdog facing a long-running, seemingly untouchable career politician who had a death grip over any opponents daring to challenge him for control of our galaxy. It was a tight race, as close as they come, with only 15 votes deciding the winner. Broadwater chose to challenge the outcome of the votes with a recount, but it was soon called off after no changes to the voting results were found. It’s unclear who requested the recall – Broadwater had said he shouldn’t even have run again, and appeared to have felt beaten up enough this past year.
He took a beating, much of it from myself, over the controversies regarding the Garden Grove Fire Department’s leadership and the hiring of his son, Jeremy Broadwater. JB was hired over 499 other candidates to the GG Fire Department. 
Broadwater denies having had anything to do with the hiring of his son. Yes, he expected us to swallow that pill! Does anyone really believe that Jeremy Broadwater was the cream of the crop, the best candidate for the position, over everyone else? No, he was the mayor’s son.
Our recently resigned yet promoted Fire Chief, David Barlag, who is now our city’s first Safety Administrator, is the one who hired Jeremy Broadwater. It appears Barlag was approached by Mayor Broadwater a while back, who wanted to make sure the next fire chief would get his son a job on the fire department, regardless of his background and qualifications. Barlag agreed and was given the conditional Fire Chief position.
Soon after, all hell broke loose when Jeremy’s performance turned out to be severely under par, but his position was protected as long as his dad was pulling strings in the city. So now we’re all waiting to see what happens with Jeremy at his new desk job at the Fire Department. Will he last without Barlag, Fertal and his dad securing his position? Time will tell.
Sign of the times, fall 2014.
Revolt of the East
An interesting aspect of the recall was the first zone chosen for recount – the far east side of the city, near Garden Grove Hospital. I find that telling, as this was the very same neighborhood that had been deemed blighted, the whole area, just a few years ago. Broadwater and friends had been trying to build a theme park here, less than 2 miles from Disneyland, the most famous theme park in the world.
The first huge meeting to save our East Side neighborhoods, which got me involved in local politics.
That didn’t work out, but it did light a fire on the east side of town. Soon neighbors that had never spoken with each other had united in a grassroots movement to save their neighborhood. Anyone that didn’t already know the name Broadwater soon associated it with the bulldozers. My mother lives in this neighborhood. I lived there for a few years and many of my close friends still do. I’ve still got fond memories of skating at the Slime Pit and trolling the City Mall.
Well, rule number one is you don’t mess with mama. When I learned of the threat to remove her and my friends from their homes I got involved in local politics. I started getting involved with community activists that were not afraid to fight city hall. This was a mixed group representing all ages, races and genders, united by their shared neighborhood.
No more lovely sunsets from my mom’s neighborhood, with this monstrosity going up!
So, Broadwater’s camp thought that they should start their recall effort here on the east side. Maybe they thought that these folks, with a lower annual income on average than the west side, would be more likely to commit voter fraud. Maybe they chose it because they felt that both central and west Garden Grove are where where his core supporters live. One can only speculate.
Regardless, it backfired. Not one vote was found to be fraudulent. There were no dead people voting. No funny business here. These were simply people who remembered that it was Broadwater who tried to take their homes away. Once again, united, the east side Garden Grove residents defied and beat Bruce Broadwater!
My girlfriend Cathy trying in vain to convince old Mayor Broadwater that tats are not the root of all evil – over non-alcoholic drinks of course!
Always assess politicians by what they do, not what they say – which is 99% self-serving BS.
In this case start, making a list of real accomplishments by this guy that he can really take credit for. Please report back a year from now with your list.
It seemed like he was in office forever… And there was hardly anything that could be done to remove him from office. It’s still so surprising to think Bruce Broadwater isn’t pulling strings at Garden Grove City Hall any more.
I want to know how Bao managed to gain – and lose – enough weight to pull off his brilliant portrayal of Kim Jong Un in The Interview?
Bao knows me and will probably wave to me at next years Truman Dinner.
Thanks for the story Josh!
It’s great to have more variety and interesting news in the OC. Corruption and entitlement of course no no boundaries, but hope springs up in little rivulets when these entrenched parasites are finally pried off of the public’s vital .organs
Power and influence must be very seductive…it really seems ridiculous having the mayor’s son chosen for a position
on the fire department ahead of 500 other applicants! Jeeze!
Hope Bao can keep true to the principles that helped place him in the position he holds.
Before we get all excited about a new mayor, remember that there are still four other members on the city council. My inside sources tell me that we are still looking at 3-2 and 4-1 votes with the new mayor on the losing side, at least when it comes to development and other similar issues. While it is nice to have a breath of fresh air running the meeting, at least two more have to go before there is any real change in the way things are done.
Fifteen votes is hardly a mandate, but the Vietnamese people have spoken. Bao, like many before him, is already thinking about his next political “job.”
In spite of all of the inane comments made by the usual gadflys, the hotels that have been built (and yet to be built), have generated millions of dollars annually and will continue to generate millions to the city long after the last of the tax sharing development agreements with the developers expire. That is a fact.
Another fact, is that those hotels displaced a former nightmare of blight and crime. Was there some overreach? Yes. Was it corrected? Yes.
Now let’s hope, for the sake of the continued clean up of the city once dubbed “Garbage Grove,” that improvements continue throughout the city and city hall. Good luck to the next city manager; he or she is going to need it.