Archive for June, 2017
Is Fitzgerald’s usefulness to Curt Pringle gone despite her best efforts to turn Downtown Fullerton into Downtown LA?
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Agenda 21, Fullerton politics, FULLERTON PRAVDA, Fullerton's downtown core and corridor, The DCCSP, Tony Bushala on June 28, 2017
With the DCCSP and the mini DCCSP they wanted to build massive high density housing in and around the Downtown area as well as expand the Downtown area. The DCCSP, if passed, would have allowed for up to ten story buildings all throughout the major thoroughfares in Fullerton.
Jennifer Fitzgerald was given a walk up right on to the city council by people including Tony Bushala who is a long time associate of Shawn Nelson. Right after she was elected, she was given the very lucrative Vice President position at Curt Pringle and Associates.
Curt Pringle and Associates is in the business of selling influence and getting large projects developed. On their website they highlight not what they know but who they know. Meet Curt Pringle, Jennifer’s Boss for now.
The claim to fame of Curt Pringle and Associates is their connections. Fitzgerald is Nelson’s darling and an ardent pro development vote every time. With Bushala’s boys Seaborn, Whitaker and Kiger, plus Fitzgerald, there would have been 4 votes guaranteed for the DCCSP.
Bushala’s boys Seaborn, Whitaker and Kiger, plus Nelson’s darling Fitzgerald stacked the planning commission so the DCCSP would pass and it did. They even doubled down and put a SCAG senior planner on the commission just for good measure.
Well thanks to Barry Levinson and others, it never got passed the council. Thanks to Barry Levinson the revised version never got off the ground either.
Well, the DCCSP is dead for now, the mini DCCSP is also dead for now, and College Town on is ice, The Polly’s shopping center project is off the table, and The Sunrise Village development has been head off at the pass Is the handwriting on the wall? Is Fitzgerald’s usefulness to Curt Pringle gone despite her best efforts to try to turn Downtown Fullerton into an Agenda 21 version of Downtown LA?
Thank you Barry Levinson for exposing the corrupt scheme and laying bare the achilles heel of dirty Fullerton Politics. It is very healthy for Fullertonians to know who all the power players are and what their real hidden agendas may be. The animus against us is directly a result of our doing just that. We are exposing the strings to and from all the power players in our city including Tony Bushala.
We are exposing the power players who are the reason our city is in such awful shape. For doing what is right by the citizens has never been at the top of our city council’s agenda. As is the case always, just follow the money. We did and found that Bushala over the years bankrolled Whitaker, Kiger and Sebourn’s campaigns to the tune of upwards of six figures between the three of them. Bushala, the founder of the SOCO walk high density apartment development, was notably silent on the massive development plan called the DCCSP and so were his hired hands Kiger, Whitaker and Sebourn. Well the DCCSP is dead for now.
Is Fitzpringle done? Perhaps. Was Bushala’s involvement in getting Newman elected an attempt to influence state legislation that would bypass local control over certain zoning changes? We believe so. Nothing else makes any sense to us.
Was Bushala’s involvement in getting Newman elected an attempt to influence state legislation that would bring high speed rail to downtown Fullerton? You know right to the train station whose lease Bushala controls along with his many parcels in the area that can be turned into giant SOCO walk monstrosity ten story high rise apartments as he opens pot clinics and bars to serve all the patrons he could be wharehousing if he can get his peeps into the places where they can pull the strings? We know the local strings have been exposed and almost cut at this point.
Right after the recall election, Shawn Nelson who is Bushala’s buddy became Jennifer Fitzgerald’s mentor.
Tony Bushala totally gave her a pass throughout the entire 2012 campaign, and remained silent during the 2016 campaign. The negative comments now about her by The FFFF crowd after she has been elected to another 4 year term are some of the most Machiavellian style subterfuge I have ever seen in my life. It is all overseen and orchestrated by one of Fullerton’s major pupeteers, Tony Bushala.
If Jennifer Fitzgerald is washed out and the residents have woken up to the secret plans to turn Fullerton into downtown LA, ending the local officials ability to ram massive development through, then it would make sense to try to influence it at the state level. Bills like SB35 would make certain local zoning a thing of the past and must be fought with just as much might as the local power players trying to ruin our city for their own interests. We will keep exposing them, fighting them and keep you posted folks.
Why Are So Many Regular Unnamed Supporters/Defenders of the FFFF Website Running Scared? By Barry Levinson
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Fullerton politics, FULLERTON PRAVDA on June 27, 2017
They claim Tony Bushala has nothing to do with the FFFF website yet Google and their own site clearly prove otherwise.
Here is my one comment I made on the FFFF website in response to the post entitled Gretchen Cox and Fullerton First dated June 26, 2017 by pseudonym, Mr. Peabody. .
“Barry Levinson June 26, 2017 at 1:47 PM Joshua Ferguson, Anonymous raises a very simple question and up to now you have completely dodged it. Why? You brought forth a problem with the quality of the construction and safety of the Hillcrest Stairs. Yet since then the Fullerton City Council including Mayor Whitaker and Council member Sebourn (two council members that Tony Bushala and/or one of his PAC’s have supported politically and financially) have not taken one tiny step forward to hold either the outside contractors or the city inspectors accountable. Why? Your silence since that May 16th city council meeting makes absolutely no sense and I am sure it puzzles many Fullertonians. You bring it forward once and then you drop the subject completely at subsequent council meetings. Could it be that your support for Sebourn and Whitaker has convinced you to remain silent going forward? Is protecting their total lack of follow through more important than holding those inside and outside city hall responsible for all the apparent construction and design defects. Again what is your explanation for your total lack of follow through on this problem at any city council meetings after your remarks at the May 16 meeting? Second question that your readers deserve an answer to is why the FFFF a Fullerton local political blog waits until right after the 2016 election (with three seats to be chosen for the council) to come back online? That also makes no sense to me unless the purpose of this blog is not to help reform Fullerton but rather to help Tony Bushala with his development agenda for his many downtown Fullerton properties.”
Now here is a sampling of the comments of FFFF pseudonym contributors attacking me for the above comment as follows:
Seek Help June 26, 2017 at 1:51 PM “if I were Bushala I would sue your useless and ungrateful ass for serial defamation. Unfortunately you don’t have anything except a big fat mouth which is of use to no one except, apparently your fellow paranoid nut case Joe Embryo.”
nipsy June 26, 2017 at 3:22 PM “Please, neither of the Kook Brothers are fit to stand trial.”
“Joe Sipowicz (pseudonym) June 26, 2017 at 1:56 PM “Hey dumbass, Bushala is no linger (his spelling not mine) affiliated with this blog.”
The most outlandish claim is that Joe and I are plants for Jennifer Fitzgerald and her friends. This tells me that the FFFF crowd is getting very worried that the motives of the leaders of that blog are no longer hidden in my opinion. The blogger who is spouting this nonsense calls himself/herself Conspiracy Lunatic. Here are just a few videos those blows that claim to smithereens.
………and the list goes on. We don’t work for Curt Pringle but she does.
The FFFF comments go on and on and on with no facts but pure unadulterated character assassination. I am more than willing to have a debate on the facts but the likes of Seek Help, nipsy and Joe Sipowicz prefer name-calling and nothing more. I ask serious questions about city business without the use of any pejorative words and I am called a kook, dumbass, a paranoid nut case and a useless ass. Wow and many of these comments are coming from regular bloggers on the FFFF website.
What is most disturbing about the FFFF website and an iron clad reason that no smart and objective person in Fullerton should ever trust this website is that the majority of articles are written by nameless people. How credible is that Fullertonians? There is logic to allow people to respond to posts without giving out their real names but there is absolutely no good reason to allow people to post articles making unfounded and unsubstantiated claims and insults under the cover of anonymity. In other words they are cowards and bullies pure and simple and the people running the FFFF are the same. It is my educated opinion based on 8 years of very closely watching Fullerton politics, that it is all about placing Tony’s pals into elective offices with the grand prize to maximize the value of each and every one of Bushala’s properties here in Fullerton.
Here Is A Post Responding To A Citizen Article About Fullerton Traffic Enforcement In The Early June Fullerton Observer By Susan Levinson
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Public safety is becoming an oxymoron on June 26, 2017
In response to Beth Dieckhoff’s letter to the editor in the early June issue of the Fullerton Observer, I have two examples that may shed light on the reason why the Fullerton Police Department doesn’t make an attempt to enforce traffic laws to reduce the number of drivers running red lights in the city.
EX POLICE CHIEF DAN HUGHES
About 4 years ago I asked then-Police Dan Hughes to observe the morning student drop-off at Laguna Road Elementary School to witness how drivers did not obey traffic laws for speed & turning lanes that created (& continue to create to this day) a very dangerous situation on a daily basis. When I asked Chief Hughes why drivers were not ticketed for these & other violations in the school zone his response was “the city doesn’t make enough revenue from the tickets to make it worth our time”.
EX CITY MANAGER JOE FELZ
Another example occurred also during Chief Hughes’ tenure. While driving south on Harbor, I stopped in front of Big Slice Pizza because students were coming from the east side of the street in the crosswalk. A Fullerton motorcycle officer (regretfully, I did not see his badge) and I both watched as 3 cars driving north went right through the crosswalk even as the students were already crossing, causing them to jump back a few steps to the sidewalk. After we were able to drive on, the officer and I both ended up next to each other at the red light on Chapman. I rolled down my window & said “excuse me, don’t pedestrians have the right of way in the crosswalk?” He nodded, “yes”. I said, “you very easily could have made a u-turn and ticketed any or all of them then, right”? His response was “I never liked that crosswalk. I told the city it was a bad place for it”. Taken aback by his answer, I told him it was “irrelevant whether he liked it or not”. I said “they should have gotten a ticket, right?” He shrugged his shoulders, nodded his head yes and drove off.
I have never forgotten the quotes from either of those days. I thought our children’s lives were worth more than that but as you can see our Police Department felt otherwise. Their apathetic responses from the top brass on down speak volumes.
Susan Levinson Fullerton
Crooked, Inept and Negligent City Officials and more of Fullerton’s Third world infrastructure on State College and Kimberly
Posted by Joe Imbriano in FULLERTON PRAVDA, Public safety is becoming an oxymoron on June 26, 2017
What kind of Banana Republic engineering is this? What kind of third world infrastructure are we paying for? This photo was taken on June 26. 2017 on the corner of State College and Kimberly. This has been like this for weeks!
Look at this unbelievable sight in Fullerton. Who did this? When did this happen to the pole? How did this happen? Who is allowing this to remain in this condition? What the hell is wrong with the building inspectors and our city officials? Who is paying attention? What on earth is wrong with our city government? What is keeping this pole from failing and falling down onto the road and killing someone? What about the railroad tracks? Some braided steel guy wire that has been jerry rigged? What on earth?
The police have been called. Nothing has been done. Edison was called weeks ago. Nothing has been done. The fact that the pole has been in that condition for weeks is deliberate dereliction on the part of any city employee that has driven by it for weeks and done nothing. It is still a hazard and threat to the community.
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This has been like this for weeks. When public servants ignore major issues, they should be held personally liable. Those wires are live and this power pole has NO structural integrity. There is no way that this situation should have been allowed to go un-remediated for weeks. These lines are near railroad tanker cars that carry highly volatile, caustic, and poisonous chemicals and gasses under pressure. A detonation of these rail cars could kill many people if these lines were to come in contact with these rail tankers. This is putting the citizens of Fullerton at great risk. An earthquake of any size could spell ruin for this Banana Republic rig job. That pole will come down, take the live wires with it and ignite the 38,000 gallons of liquefied petroleum gas in one car, that could explode and release the 38,000 gallons of hydrogen cyanide in the other one which could then react with the 38,000 gallons of oxidizers in the other cars. This could spell a total disaster for a hundred thousand people if things went south on this corner.
This is acceptable to our city officials who for weeks have allowed this situation to go on.
Its an Edison pole located on a city owned utility easement. It has been like this for weeks. The city officials have jurisdiction over city property and can and should demand this be fixed immediately. The current condition of the utility pole is in violation of multiple local, county and state regulations. The fact that it has been allowed to to just “hang there” for weeks in a clear indictment of our city staff and city officials. This is clearly a threat to public safety. Normally, guy wires that are correctly installed to support utility poles at a 45 degree angle also come with non conducting porcelin insulators which are designed to keep voltage that may escape the system from passing through the guy wires into what ever they are in contact with.
These people have fastened a severely damaged utility pole supporting live high voltage transmission lines with compromised structural integrity with steel cable directly to a metal utility pole with no porcelin insulators connecting the cables which could make a circuit out of the steel pole supporting the high tension wires above the transmission lines.
That steel pole could also become a circuit and ignite the high pressure gas line right under the wires on Kimberly. than run parallel to the train tracks. Edison was called weeks ago. They know about this because their subs tied this baby up like that and hung this monster WEEKS ago. I don’t need to send them a photo and a 20 dollar bill so they can get me a room upgrade. This ain’t Vegas. The area is currently undergoing a rail underpass conversion paid for with Measure M and OCTA funds. The project requires daily visits from City Inspectors and public works personnel. For weeks this has been allowed to go unmitigated. I called the police department and of course, they know how to delegate this just like when I call them over a water main break. The facts are the facts and the facts are that no one in city government has nudged anyone to do anything about this problem for weeks, they have all ignored it and apparently it is now incumbent upon me to solve what is supposed to not even be a problem in the first place. Is it any wonder we have such problems when people cannot come to grips with the corrupt, inept leaders and city employees that have left this town in ruin?
This issue involves far more than just Edison or PAR electrical contractors. It involves city inspectors, public works employees, police officers, fire department personnel and city officials elected and unelected. It is not acceptable for that pole to be in that condition for weeks considering what it is adjacent to. I refuse to accept third world infrastructure for the amount of taxes we pay.
Only a corrupt cabal of crooks would turn their backs and not demand that an economic giant like Edison not clean up crap like this. This is not acceptable. How many city employees, police and fire employees drove by this and ignored it? Who is watching out for the residents? Do you people have any idea just what a disaster this could turn into if these rig job wires fail? Maybe they will if this thing ends up killing a bunch of people. Lets hope not.
Gretchen Cox, the Fitzgerald sycophant doubles down on protecting corruption
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Fullerton politics, FULLERTON PRAVDA, Gretchen Cox, Pam Keller on June 23, 2017
Fullerton is in dire straights financially with our infrastructure in ruin. Dirty Agenda 21 deal after dirty deal gets passed by the council shortchanging the residents twice a month on TV. We have the worst roads in Orange County, with police, and fire overtime pay skyrocketing, a corrupt police department that has learned nothing from the past, high rise developers chomping at the bit, all but losing their patience, a bought and paid for city council, and a city hall crowd that is so scared of the truth that it has to enlist the help of anyone that they can get their hands on to run interference.
Is Pringle about to dump Fitzgerald because we have derailed all the ten story buildings that he wanted her to ram through on the clowncil?
So what is in it for these establishment water boys and girls? Well they get to have some thinly veneered phony friendships and they get to go to the phony establishment happy parties.
Well lately, this ardent Fitzpringle sycophant and lackey, Gretchen Cox, who for years among other things, has ignored a 5 million dollar finding of fiscal mismanagement and potential malfeasance on the Park and Recreation commission brought forward by former commissioner Barry Levinson, has been rearing her head trying to bury the facts about all the aforementioned getting exposed with a bunch of fluff and calling truth tellers who expose corruption “bullies”, “malcontents”, “flat earthers” ,”tin foilers”, and the like. Heck it is easier to believe the earth is flat than to believe Fullerton is run by honest people. Just look around.
Cox in a rare moment on Park and Rec trying to shut Barry Levinson up as he exposed the Five million dollar shortfall to the taxpayers with the American Golf contract. Bruce Whitaker fired Barry for exposing this and other items like calling out the commission and council for approving blank contracts.
We expose the real bullies like those that did this. Where was Gretchen when the real “bullies” did this to a totally innocent man?
Of course it looks like she has teamed up with the self declared queen of the limousine liberal establishment, FPOA attack dog Pam Keller who defended the killer cops.
Keller moments before obsessing with me as she got within one inch of my face with her cell phone camera.
Hey forget the potholes, the holes in the budget, the blank contracts the council approves, the blank grant applications, the downtown bar owners that cozy up with and parlay the patsies on the council that allowed to write the district election maps as they suck us dry and ruin our community, forget the massive development they tried to ram through, the multi-million dollar overtime scam, the busted water mains, the killer cops, the crooked cops, the deranged cops and the just stupid cops, the dead trees, neglected parks, gopher holes all over the ball fields, dead grass, the bums all over the place, the building code violations found on multiple municipal projects, the run down shopping centers turning into homeless encampments whose owners were promised the high density payday development bonanza by the crooked city hall insiders that never came thanks to us and of course the abuse and ripoffs by city employees, because we work for them right? Well, not exactly but Gretchen and Pam certainly do. I expect Jan Flory to join in any day now. I hear the divorce business is slow because of the all the scumbags who have trained everyone not to get married anymore.
Good news about Fullerton
from Fullerton Hills
“Are you sick of and bored to death by the ” fraternity” of chronic malcontents that plague our city by endless complaining on every subject at most city meetings, unsubstantiated accusations of malfeasance and general mis-information, rants and bullying on their blogs?
I am, so come check out the “Fullerton First” group on Facebook! I started it to give the normal people a place to post and share info. about good things happening in town. Feel free to comment or post about anything, any activity, any people, teams or groups that you think are doing something fun, something interesting or just good things for the city. You can do so and not be afraid of being insulted or bullied by the naysayers and flat-earthers and conspiracy theorists. We can and will, however, call THEM out from time to time, as needed. But not too much… I’d like this to mostly be a positive place to highlight our wonderful town.
Come join Fullerton First and let’s encourage a positive spin on the town we live in!”
The Fullerton School District Refuses To Correct Their Erroneous Message To All District Families About The Impact Of The Repeal Of Fullerton Ordinance No. 3149 (The Child Sex Offender Residency Restriction Act).
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Are they turning their backs on the children? on June 22, 2017
Casting pearls before swine: Another night as Joe Imbriano and Barry Levinson address the corrupt Fullerton City Council
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Fullerton politics on June 22, 2017
Please Read The Words Of Long Time Resident Lee About The Motives Of The Friends For Fullerton’s Future Website and Tony Bushala And All His Connections with Fullerton Council Members Past and Present (Bruce Whitaker, Greg Sebourn, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Chris Norby, Shawn Nelson and Travis Kiger) By Barry Levinson
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Fullerton politics, FULLERTON PRAVDA on June 16, 2017
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COMMENTARY BY BARRY LEVINSON BELOW
Barry Levinson
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Lee thank you for your comments above. All I can say is that you my friend have been paying very close attention to the political games being played in Fullerton for decades.
With regard to the District voting that will start in 2018, I would like to clarify what transpired at Fullerton City Council earlier this year. The city was dealing with an agenda item to determine the sequence of district voting starting in 2018. The concept of the district elections as mandated by the courts was to have local council members representing each of the districts (in our case 5 districts) within Fullerton. Mayor Whitaker and the rest of the council got their map approved 5 to 0. This was not one of the many maps worked on by citizen groups for many months as part of the process but rather a late entry by Slide Bar owner Jeremy Popoff, a contributor to past Whitaker campaigns. I like to call this map the downtown developers map because it basically disenfranchised all the voters living in and around downtown by splitting that area into all the other five districts grossly diluting their voice through the ballot box. The first vote by the council approved a schedule that would result in having one representative for each of the five districts starting in 2018. This schedule to have elections in District’s 2 and 5 in 2018 was approved with Whitaker’s yes vote along with Chaffee and Silva. A motion by Fitzgerald seconded by Sebourn to have District 3 instead of District 2 in the 2018 election failed 3 to 2.
The problem for Bruce Whitaker was that Greg Sebourn’s four year term would run out in 2018 and his Third District would not vote again until 2020, while still being represented by Jesus Silva. So ignoring all democratic principles, the rationale for going to district voting in the first place and the will of the majority of the people, so-called limited government Bruce Whitaker decided to totally limit, i.e. disenfranchise the Second District from 2018 to 2020 (the one coincidentally both Joe Imbriano and I live in) in order to help keep his buddy Greg Sebourn on the council.
The problem with this move again was that it was totally undemocratic for it disenfranchised the Second District for 2 years while giving the Third District 2 representatives, Jesus Silva and Greg Sebourn or a challenger.
Bruce Whitaker after the first vote on the 2018 District voting schedule was completed had a choice. He could let the vote stand (as is the case in 99.999% of agenda votes) as the most democratic and most popular choice to handle the district elections; or he could as Mayor attempt to change the just approved voting schedule for what I believe was the dual purpose to please his campaign benefactor Tony Bushala and allow Greg Sebourn (also financially supported by Tony Bushala) to run for reelection in 2018.
What did self-proclaimed statesman and Appointed Mayor Bruce Whitaker do facing this not so tough choice? He chose to throw democracy and the people of the Second District under the bus for the express purpose in my opinion to take care of his fellow council member Greg Sebourn and his campaign benefactor Tony Bushala.
I believe the knowledge of this latest chicanery by Bruce Whitaker is more than enough to prove that this self-proclaimed statesman, is nothing more than a phony and extremely flawed politician.
Did Tony Bushala and Jack Dean give us Josh Newman?
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Tony Bushala on June 16, 2017
The group Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform was responsible for these campaign signs during the June 2016 primary election against State Senate candidate Sukhee Kang.
The signs reading “No Kang – Irvine Carpetbagger” were paid for by the Fullerton committee called Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform whose principal officers are none other than Tony Bushala and Jack Dean.
Jack Dean
Tony Bushala
Josh Newman
Was this “No Kang Irvine Carpetbagger” campaign designed to pave the way for none other than Josh Newman to write his ticket for the November ballot? Well there WERE NO OTHER DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES IN THE RACE for the June Primary and I certainly didn’t see Dean and Bushala’s group supporting Ling Ling Chang the Republican challenger.
Were the intentions of the Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform to knock Kang out of the primary election, so that Newman would end up on the November ballot and perhaps win? Well thanks to the help of Jack Dean and Tony Bushala, Newman defeated Kang in the June primary. Locally, it worked like a charm. Newman, would not only end up on the November ballot, he actually won the election. So what could have been the motivations of Tony Bushala and Jack Dean to inject their group and exert its influence into a Senate primary election? Was it to ensure Josh Newman’s place in Sacramento? Everyone knew that the anti Trump sentiment among the Latinos was going to fair well for the Democrats in this part of Orange County. Any politically savy individual would know that massive Latino voting block coupled with the illegals that have been registered to vote all showed up in droves. That is how we ended up with Jesus Silva on the City Council and Sharon Quirk Silva in the Assembly both edging out Republicans.
Does Bushala’s meddling in this Senate race have anything to do with development? Is Jack Dean just along for the ride unaware of the Bushala high rise development agenda? We do know that an end run around local control over high density housing approvals has been the subject of several bills out of Sacramento just this year. It would certainly bode well for Bushala to bypass his plants on the council which have been hogtied by the relentless pressure of local activists.
Then we have the Shawn Nelson school of political science at work-focus on a narrow item like a tax and make it all about that. That is what Tony’s tool Sebourn did during the recall.
Nelson-Bushala’s buddy
Isn’t it ironic how Bushala’s blog, The Friends for Fullerton’s Future is currently hosting articles that are promoting the recall of Josh Newman and they make it all about a gas tax? What did you expect e Democrat to do, vote down a tax increase?
This kind of reminds me of the Bush Family funding and The Ford Motor Company selling equipment to both the Allied Troops and the Nazis at the same time. Then again, this is how political operatives play the game. They work both sides to their advantage.
Well folks, I cannot prove that Bushala was behind Newman all along but then again, the circumstantial evidence sure leads me to that conclusion and of course, political operatives can turn on someone on a dime when the wind starts blowing the wrong way. We sure have seen plenty of that in Fullerton.
No matter what the outcome of this recall and the subsequent elections, you have my word that we will continue to objectively work towards draining the swamp at City Hall, exposing and ridding Fullerton of its political operatives and continue fighting these creeps that want to turn Fullerton into downtown LA. On this my friends, you have my word.
Screen Time In Schools: Why Parents Should Care
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Are they turning their backs on the children? on June 13, 2017
https://www.screentimecolorado.com/
https://youtu.be/Hu3-i3IOS44
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), today’s children are spending an average of SEVEN hours per day on electronic devices! Screen use and the electromagnetic radiation emitted from these devices have been associated with health risks such as myopia, retinal damage, sleeplessness, addiction and behavioral issues. Screen use at school also brings with it information sharing and privacy issues.
We invite you to experience this well-received event featuring a distinguished panel of experts sharing their experience and advice on this important topic. We believe you will find it worthwhile, especially if you are responsible for the health and well-being of a child.
LINK to Event Website: https://www.screentimecolorado.com/
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Speakers’ Links:
Victoria Dunckley
www.DrDunckley.com
https://www.amazon.com/Reset-Your-Chi…
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/paren…
Tracy Markle
http://digitalmediatreatment.com/
http://collegiatecoachingservices.com/
Slides: http://prezi.com/3jk_jl-gqhhz/?utm_ca…
Camilla Rees
www.ElectromagneticHealth.org
https://www.facebook.com/ManhattanNei…
Cheri Kiesecker
Slides and Video Presentation : http://tinyurl.com/kxgsyug
Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy –
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.or…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/a…
Cindy Eckard
www.screensandkids.us
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/…
SUGGESTED RELATED RESOURCES:
Cecelia Doucette’s Presentation to the Board of Health
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T-4A…
HISTORY: How Did We Get Here?
“The Anatomy of Education Reform, Part 1”
http://www.nacst.org/education-reform…
Wi-Fi in Schools Proven Dangerous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84qOy…
Turn it Off 4 Kids Initiative
http://www.nacst.org/turn-it-off-4-ki…
Screens in Schools Are a $60 Billion Hoax
http://time.com/4474496/screens-schoo…
BioInitiative Report – Announcing a Special Section of Child Development – Child Development: Electromagnetic Fields, Pulsed Radiofrequency Radiation, and Epigenetics: How Wireless Technologies May Affect Childhood Development http://www.bioinitiative.org/how-wire… 20/20 ABC || Digital Addiction 5/19/17 – May 19, 2017 – Three desperate families have reached the point of no return…their loved ones lost for hours on social media and video screens. “You have used the term Digital Heroine….” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmCZp…
Dr. Erica Mallery-Blythe – Electromagnetic Radiation, Health and Children 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNFdZ…
Wi-Fi in Classrooms Liability Notice Served to New York School District
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmhOP…
LINKS to EYE ISSUES:
http://local12.com/health/health-upda…
http://6abc.com/health/can-increased-…
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n…
http://www.screensandkids.us/2016/12/…
LINKS to ADDICTION ISSUES:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hooked-on…
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brain-hac…
MANUFACTURERS’ FINE PRINT WARNINGS:
http://showthefineprint.org/see-the-f…
The Strong Case Against Making Fullerton Captain John Siko Our Next Fullerton Police Chief And A Few Comments About The Just Departed Interim Fullerton Police Chief David Hinig. By Barry Levinson
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Fullerton politics, FULLERTON PRAVDA, Government sponsored terrorism on June 8, 2017
ACTING CHIEF JOHN SIKO
the die has been cast but we cannot allow the ink to dry on this
Just a few weeks ago, Interim City Manager Allan Roeder gave the citizens of Fullerton an update on the status of finding a new Police Chief. He said then that it was only a few weeks away until the city named this new Police Chief.
Here is a photo of the New Fullerton Police captain John Siko eager to help shape future of agency back in 2015-shape it into what?
During the short time since 2011 since Siko was promoted to lieutenant and later to captain by Dan Hughes who was the chief, 35 percent of the Fullerton police force left for greener pastures and these were the good officers who left leaving us the dregs. Yes he and Hughes sure shaped it alright and shaped in in their image leaving the worst of the worst to take care of the population of Fullerton.
A week or two later, I learned to my surprise (not a complete surprise since nothing the city does truly surprises me anymore), that the city has named Fullerton Captain John Siko (pronounced psycho) as our new Acting Police Chief. I then asked myself why this turn of events. Why didn’t Hinig wait a few more weeks for the naming of the next permanent Chief of Police as was the plan according to City Manager, Allan Roeder?
The city attorney dozing for dollars while chief Heinig prematurely abandons ship
Did the scheduling of that event just change due to the recent corruption allegations against our last permanent chief Dan Hughes? Did Hinig finally have his fill of embarrassment to continue as chief? As an example he remained publicly silent about a very important police matter, i.e. the repeal of a law enacted to help protect our children from pedophiles, Ordinance 3149. For he did not speak on that agenda item at all. He sat in his chair during that Agenda Item and said absolutely nothing on a matter that should have been front and center for any police chief. Well all I could say is that the only thing for sure that David Hinig appeared to do from my vantage point was to collect a whole bunch of money for 6 months?
Heinig on the right. Was the heat was too much for Heinig?
Will Mayor Bruce Whitaker or any of our other council members bring up that the city just wasted approximately $100,000 or more to bring in an very high price temporary employee for the sole purpose of being a powerless figurehead? Why did they ignore their fiduciary responsibilities once again?
Now lets talk about the guy who really has been running the FPD since Dan Hughes retired from his police chief role in early November 2016. The person I am referring to of course is none other than the recently appointed ACTING POLICE CHIEF JOHN SIKO.
My only exchanges with then Captain Siko (Captain of the Fullerton Uniform Division) was a few weeks ago twice at the Fullerton Police Department. Both times he showed up to deal with our request to file a police report against former Police Chief Dan Hughes for criminal obstruction of justice. The first time he told us that we could not file a report. The second time he told us that he actually filed the police report for us. I specifically asked him then if the police report stated that we were filing charges of obstruction of justice against Dan Hughes. He responded in the affirmative. We learned a few days later from a Cadet at the front desk that Captain Siko did not file a police report on our behalf but rather a Miscellaneous Report outlining the conversation that is solely a Receive and File Report. Unlike a criminal police report that requires the department to investigate the allegations in such report, the Miscellaneous Report requires absolutely no action by the department. Its only function I guess is to gather dust in a file cabinet.
So what did these two encounters teach me about our new Acting Police Chief? First that he can look me in the eye and flat out not tell me the truth. Second, I learned that as the Uniform Officers’ Division Captain that he apparently was already running the FPD micromanaging the department or at least the potential scandals. For I learned that he was informed by the Watch Commandersf when Joe and me made a request concerning former Police Chief Hughes. For in an honest police department, filling out a police report is a very simple and straightforward activity. But Captain Siko apparently had made it his business to be notified of our attempts to file such a report immediately each time. He then chose to take total control of the situation twice while telling us he was actually off-duty both times. Why this perceived kind of paranoid interest in making sure that he would deal with us personally?
One might expect that over the top involvement by an off-duty police captain or chief to come from the Nazi Gestapo or from another fascist police organization but certainly not from an honest small city police department that has nothing to hide.
I have learned one more very disturbing alleged fact about Captain Siko. An unnamed reliable source claims that it was Captain Siko who called the four initial responding officers to the Joe Felz accident into his office a few days after the incident. The source claims that Captain Siko chastised them for not having the common sense to turn off their Axon cameras in such a political situation and for ruining a good man’s life (Joe Felz). This by itself, if it could be confirmed by one of those officers would be such a serious violation of police procedure and ethics to merit severe punishment, even dismissal. For the source is alleging that Captain Siko was upset that the officers did not destroy evidence (shut of their cameras). He also was alleged to be upset with them for being truthful about the condition of Joe Felz at the scene of that accident (i.e. the stench of alcohol). I am hoping that one of those officers or anyone who has first hand knowledge to come forward to stop our City Council from making John Siko’s appointment permanent. We have one former Police Chief, Dan Hughes being accused of criminal obstruction of justice by a OCDA investigator. We certainly can’t afford to appoint another one who allegedly condones the obstruction of justice by FPD personnel.
Protecting Corruption, Malfeasance and Wrongdoing Was Once Again In Full View For Anyone Watching The June 6, 2017 Fullerton City Council!
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Bruce Whitaker, Greg Sebourn on June 7, 2017
The Scandal, Which Is The Hillcrest Stairs, Was Never Mentioned By Anyone On The Fullerton City Council Dais. The City Council has failed to take any action to get monetary damages from the contractor and designer of those stairs and has also failed to start an internal investigation as to who within the City of Fullerton approved that very shoddy and structurally substandard stairway. Therefore we can thank Mayor Bruce Whitaker, Council members Greg Sebourn, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Doug Chaffee and Jesus Silva for another fine example of their total dereliction of duty as our duly elected city representatives. For truly with elected representative like them, we don’t need any more enemies. By Barry Levinson
Fullerton Community activist Barry Levinson
Why won’t the council protect us? Why won’t the council act in our best interest? Could it be that to expose the guilty would expose our council members as well? Joshua Ferguson gave a very good pictorial presentation of the numerous problems but has not asked that our City council take action against those responsible for the many problems with those very expensive stairs.
Joshua cozying up with Bruce Whitaker
Why? He actually spoke again at the June 6th meeting and did not once even refer to those stairs? What he did do was give the city council members another way to extend their ability to continue to not provide the citizens of Fullerton with its basic services from the General Fund.
Seaborn
Instead I would surmise working in tandem with Greg Sebourn and Bruce Whitaker,
Ferguson
Ferguson proposed diverting or siphoning off much need park dwelling fee monies away from the desperately needed expansion of greening up Fullerton with more parks. How is that a good idea?
Sebourn thinks its a good idea
The fact is the neglect of these parks has been covered up for years and now, right on cue Greg Sebourn made a motion to put just that on the agenda.
No explanation as to why for decades are city has not provided adequate funds from our general fund to do routine maintenance for our parks but willing to rob from Paul to give to Peter instead thereby not having to answer to the malfeasance of our city council for decades of neglect of our city parks. This is not acceptable considering Greg promised to do a top down audit of all city departments when he was elected in 2012.
Then there is the scandalous issue of those Hillcrest Park stairs to be received and filed in the dustbin of our city council.
CODE VIOLATIONS GALORE that should have resulted in a lawsuit and pink slips for the inspectors that signed off on them
Fitzgerald loves the shoddy workmanship
Well I heard directly from the mouth of our Appointed Mayor in a recent interview, Bruce Whitaker, who is no stranger to ignoring alleged malfeasance, who without hesitating to the interviewer’s question stated that he would seriously consider running for Josh Newman’s seat if the recall makes the ballot.
TAX AND SPEND DEMOCRAT NEWMAN
I have a loud and strong message for Bruce Whitaker. How about taking care of at least one of our many problems here in Fullerton before you seek higher office?
Whitaker
Because I find it ludicrous and very arrogant on your part to think that you deserve to be elected to higher office when you have accomplished literally nothing after 6.5 years as one of our council members. You have repeatedly cried to the public that you are only one man and therefore do not have the support to get things accomplished. Well here are some hard facts for Whitaker to swallow. The whole time you have been on the city council you have had a REPUBLICAN MAJORITY SIR!
6 YEARS OF FAILURE TO LEAD
In the State Senate the Democrats would outnumber you 2 to 1. If you can’t persuade your fellow Republicans to get anything done having the majority on your side, how in the heck will you possibly get anything done in the State Senate? I have given Fullertonians written detailed supportable example after example after example of how Whitaker has failed his conservative limited government base of support. The latest example is of Whitaker’s failure to take any concrete steps; pun intended to solve the obvious problem of Hillcrest Park steps! As I have pointed out before our Mayor is all talk and no action. In other words a typical slick phony politician out for only number one. I guess that means leaving no room for the good people of Fullerton.
The Evidence Is Piling Up To Conclude That The Fullerton City Government Is Not Capable And/Or Not Willing To Honestly Carry Out Their Fiduciary Duty To Represent The People of Fullerton. The Following People Must Be Held Accountable: Mayor Bruce Whitaker, Council members Jennifer Fitzgerald, Greg Sebourn, Doug Chaffee and Jesus Silva as well as City Attorney Dick Jones, Former Police Chief Dan Hughes and Former City Manager Joe Felz. By Barry Levinson
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Fullerton politics, FULLERTON PRAVDA, Greg Sebourn, Jesus Silva on June 4, 2017
Barry Levinson
There are at least a half dozen major scandals in full view now playing out in Fullerton City Government. Yet our esteemed five-member city council (Mayor Bruce Whitaker and Jennifer Fitzgerald, Greg Sebourn, Doug Chaffee, and Jesus Silva) have all remained silent on each and every one of them. What a City Council?
Silva
Sebourn
Chaffee
Whitaker
Fitzpringle
Why are the City Attorney, Dick Jones,Interim Police Chief David Hinig* and our Interim City Manager Allan Roeder also being totally silent as well? Here is a partial list of the scandals going on right now as follows:
- City Attorney provided blatantly false information about a Fullerton city ordinance 3149, (the Fullerton Child Sex Offender Residency Restriction Act) and then used that to support and argue for its repeal. I disclosed to the city council and to the city attorney their “error” and what does the city attorney and all five council members do, they ignore the facts and me and vote to repeal a very good and sound law. It seems to me that California attorneys’ have been sanctioned or even disbarred for less.
- Then the city via the FPD and the Interim City Manager provides this false information to the Fullerton School District and they in turn send out via recorded phone message and emails to every parent in the district, a false assurance that the kids are still protected as if nothing has changed. Others and I then put them on direct notice of their “error” and yet they too have not corrected their blatantly false statement to the parents. Why not Superintendent Robert Pletka? The Fullerton School District Mission Statement states that safety of our students is a major goal of the FSD.
- Dan Hughes after being contacted by Joe Felz at approximately 2 AM gets a ride home by the FPD instead of following normal police procedure to arrest him for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident with damages. All five council members, new police chief, new city manager, long time City Attorney all have been completely silent on what I believe clearly demonstrates the corruption as well as a criminal conspiracy lead by Dan Hughes.
- The next scandal is the City Council voting to approve a Grant Application that was not yet produced by the City. But that did not stop our former now disgraced City Manager from putting this on the Agenda for approval and then to my astonishment being passed by the City Council. This is the equivalent of Approving a “blank check”. This is a total and complete abandonment of the City Council’s and the former City Manager’s collective fiduciary responsibilities. I came up with a simple and no cost solution going forward and every council member refused to take those steps to make this problem go away permanently. What a City Council.
- Ignoring documented evidence/proof of city council voluntary actions that over 20 years starting in 2010 will waste 4 to 5 million dollars of taxpayer monies relating to the management of the Fullerton Golf Course. I was Bruce Whitaker’ appointee to the Park and Recreation Committee, yet he and all the other council members refused repeatedly to have any discussion about this very important and very costly issue to the Fullerton taxpayers. As of today a portion of that money is gone for good but I have made it abundantly clear that current remedial action by the city council could save upwards of 2 million dollars going forward. Unfortunately they are apparently not interested in discussing taking action to save up to 2 million dollars. However our current Appointed Mayor Bruce Whitaker has chosen to talk instead about one or two $300/$400 dollar employee hotel bills. Which do you believe has the greater financial impact on our city? Question: Why won’t Bruce Whitaker and the rest of the council discuss this issue?
- At the last council meeting we learned that the just completed 1.7 million-dollar Hillcrest Park to Lions Field Stairs has many very serious construction and design issues. Way too many of the concrete foundations are cracking already and in at least one case has a large portion already broken off. In addition, the wooden posts are all too often way to close to the edge of the foundations, a structural defect. Also the poor design had the wood posts sunk into the concrete foundations making it incredibly more expensive to replace and repair any of the wooden posts. Wood as any laymen knows has a much shorter lifespan than concrete so this makes absolutely no sense from a structural design point of view. How much did we pay some design company for this fiasco? We should be asking for our money back and then some for this as well. This is not a complete list of the design, construction and safety issues. But one member of the city council, Greg Sebourn indicated after Joshua Ferguson displayed these major problems via pictures that the council should get a refund from the contractor.
So after SEBOURN made that statement, he of course brought forth a motion to sue the contractor for damages, quickly seconded by another council member. Well that never happened. Well then of course he made a motion to put the possible lawsuit against the contractor on the next city council agenda for consideration. Well that did not happen either. So GREG SEBOURN did absolutely nothing along with so-called self-proclaimed fiscal conservative Mayor BRUCE WHITAKER. Thank you Greg for sounding indignant and then doing absolutely nothing. Yet after all this, Ferguson defended Greg Sebourn’s total lack of action on the FFFF website. Well I guess because they are political buddies you and the FFFF owner and administrator will support them right or wrong. So this begs the question as to what is the real agenda of the FFFF website. Apparently it is not to hold all council members responsible to the people. Certainly not the ones that Tony Bushala went to great lengths to get elected and then reelected, namely Bruce Whitaker and Greg Sebourn. This is only my opinion based on everything I know and I Fullertonians I know a lot about this.
However, we the people do not have to and should not give Sebourn and Whitaker along with the rest of the city council a pass for their dismal failure to do right by the citizens of Fullerton. I guess 1.7 million dollars does not buy us much if you have the unfortunate reality of the Fullerton City Council looking out for us.
What does all these items above have in common? They have several things in common. First, the abdication of the city council’s fiduciary duty to run the city with a modicum of honesty, transparency and decency. Second, when very credible evidence and documentation is provided directly to the city council they refuse to deal with it and bury it like they have in each of the issues/scandals above.
What the city needs is a full time ethicist/historian to keep track and document each scandal fully? Since the City of Fullerton has no one like that on the city payroll, I have taken it upon myself, free of charge to the good people of Fullerton to fulfill this very important role.
What this all proves is that there is no real difference between any of our council members for each and every one of them went along with or failed to deal with each and every scandal mentioned above. For when it really counts, each and every one of them fails us. The next time one of our council members states what a great job they are doing for us, please feel free to provide them a copy of this article and watch them ignore you afterwards. After all ignoring the public is one of the few things our City Council does extremely well. For example, after Barbara Rosen Sunny Hills resident, spoke about the terrible condition of Las Palmas Avenue bringing large chunks of the road, Mayor Whitaker stated that her concern would be addressed at the completion of all the public comments. Yet, neither Mayor Whitaker nor anyone else on the dais addressed her specific concern about Las Palmas Avenue. All you have to do is pay attention at any city council meeting and you learn very quickly that our city council members are anything but good public servants.
* Well I have just learned that Interim Police Chief David Heinig has stepped down and now we have Captain Siko as the Acting Fullerton Police Chief. Based on my recent past experience with FPD Captain Siko, I will do everything I legally can to make sure that the next City Manager and our City Council do not appoint him as our next permanent Chief of Police. I also will strongly request that the contracts for our next Police Chief and next City Manager be no longer than 2 years each. For not to do this shows that the City Council has not learned any lessons from its past mistakes. With that statement, I am making a very generous assumption that the City Council wants to have a city government more answerable to the Fullerton public going forward and we all know that all the evidence does not support that contention.
GOLFER TIGER WOODS VS. FULLERTON CITY MANAGER JOE FELZ. IF ONLY TIGER WOODS HAD FULLERTON’S FORMER POLICE CHIEF DANNY HUGHES LOOKING AFTER HIM DURING HIS DUI PROBLEM. BY BARRY LEVINSON
Posted by Joe Imbriano in Dan Hughes, Fullerton politics, Joe Felz on June 1, 2017
I recently was thinking about the similarities and differences comparing the Tiger Wood’s DUI arrest a few days ago and the free cab service home provided thanks to the FPD and Danny Hughes for Fullerton City Manager Joe Felz back in the wee morning hours of November 9, 2016.
Former City Manager Joe Felz
Fullerton Police Chief Dan Hughes. Don’t let the cross fool you.
If only the same never seen DUI arrest protocol referred to by Danny Hughes was in place for the police department handling the Tiger Woods DUI arrest and booking, there could have been a different result for Mr. Woods.
Obviously, the police department dealing with Tiger Woods had not yet gone through a similar extensive and complete reformation as had already been accomplished by Danny Hughes in Fullerton. For Danny Hughes thank goodness had already completely reformed the FPD.
For if that reformed minded DUI arrest protocol was in place for Tiger Woods, he too could have gotten to speak to the police chief and that chief of police could have explained the protocol to Tiger, thereby negating any reason to arrest Mr. Woods. Yes if only Danny Hughes was in charge, Mr. Woods would not have had to be subjected to a very, very bad mug shot at police headquarters. Yes, if only Danny Hughes was in charge of the Tiger Woods case, Mr. Woods would have found himself taken directly from the DUI scene to his sprawling mansion to be tucked into bed like the proverbial bug in a rug!
Tiger Woods is known for starting and supporting various charities by giving millions of his own dollars, while Joe Felz as City Manager gave away millions of our tax dollars not his money for bigger and bigger safety raises and benefits. Yet with all his celebrity and his 100’s of million dollars of net worth, Tiger Woods had to face the laws just like any other citizen but FOD (Friend of Dan) Joe Felz is not held to account by the FPD.
We the entire Fullerton public were so darn fortunate that Dan Hughes ran the FPD ship (kind of like Jack Sparrow in the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean film) for so many years. In fact we were so darn fortunate that it is still paying the good people of Fullerton dividends.
Yes and if Tiger Woods had his little car problem in Fullerton, he too would have been assured that everything should be done following normal procedures, which was the alleged comment by Mayor Jennifer Fitzgerald to Danny Hughes in their phone conversation shortly after the early morning accident. I guess the Mayor also was a big fan of strictly following the FPD DUI arrest protocol. Thank God that our former Police Chief and our former Mayor were seeing eye to eye on this case. For I am absolutely sure that under the exact same set of events that Joe Imbriano or Barry Levinson would have received the exact same treatment as did Joe Felz. Does the good news relating to our Fullerton City Government ever end Fullertonians? I guess the answer to that is no unless we the people stop similar charades and/or farces like the one that took place concerning Joe Felz on the morning of November 9, 2016 going forward.
3 by Lee on June 14, 2017 – 9:39 am
“I have been involved in Fullerton politics for over 2 decades as a lifelong Republican. There is nothing new under the sun and there is nothing going on now that wasn’t going on when downtown was just a bunch of thrift stores. The opportunists back then always used the political process to achieve their goals. The pay to play system was dominated by the redevelopment machine and the rewards it churned out for the players who knew the game were handsome.
The council was always effective at one thing, maintaining a crooked republican majority. This gave rise to the corrupt police department, the disastrous fiscal health of the city and the malfeasance that has left our infrastructure the laughing stock of the State.
This monopoly of power held in place by the centrist right working with the limousine liberals in Fullerton took care of its own and its own exclusively. This became problematic for those who wished to enter the ring and cash in on the looming development bonanza because no one was leaving their seats at the card table. This is where the left leaning libertarian political element on the outside looking in decided to run interference and come up the political sideline. These attempts were unsuccessful for almost a decade.
The tragic death of Kelly Thomas in 2011 presented an unprecedented opportunity to harness the momentum of the masses and redirect all the rage against elected officials whose hands were tied by the judicial process and the police officers bill of rights. The people of Fullerton were livid as they lined the streets demanding justice while looking for leadership.
Tony Bushala, who for years, without success, tried to chip away at the power structure at city hall, had finally found a fan for the flames with his FFFF blog. He immediately bought the picture of the bloody face of Kelly Thomas, posted it and then ponied up $250,000 for a recall election. He hired signature gatherers and orchestrated a successful recall campaign that launched the political careers of our current city council majority, Fitzgerald, Whitaker and Sebourn as well as Kiger’s 6 month failure.
TONY’S TOOLS
Kiger, Whitaker, Sebourn, Fitzgerald
The prior years of taking cheap shots, mud slinging, and chipping away at the establishment paled in comparison to this political firestorm.
Bushala’s connections to people like Chris Norby and Shawn Nelson were crucial in carefully charting the course he would take to orchestrate the payday he had spent decades preparing for. The city’s redevelopment agency was disbanded as a result of his crony Chris Norby’s legislative action in Sacramento.
Meanwhile, he and his brother continued to amass a small fortune in real estate holdings in Fullerton, namely in the downtown area. It was always their intention as developers to develop their properties. The recall of 2012 was the moment they had been waiting for. No longer would their plans remain obscure and dependent upon the help of a handful of connections like Chris Norby or Shawn Nelson. Bushala finally had the control of the council after years of failing to influence the political process through his obscure web site. He now had the power to control the entire city with his hired hands. He personally bankrolled the entire campaigns of Travis Kiger, Bruce Whitaker, and Greg Sebourn and got them elected. They in turn would stack the various commissions to pave the way for the fulfillment of the Bushala brothers’ dream, high rise transit oriented development all over Fullerton and for once, they would dictate how and where these projects would be built instead of the “republigans” that controlled the council and the redevelopment contracts for decades prior. If hatched, this plan would have proven to make the Bushala Brothers upwards of 100 million dollars if the plans were to proceed over the next decade.
In a bizarre turn of events, one of Bushala’s hired hands, Travis Kiger was voted out of office 6 months later in the general election. The strategy of running Kiger for the short term seat may have been the safest short term bet but turned out to be a costly mistake creating long term uncertainty for the brothers.
The wild card in all of this was really somewhat of an enigma. Jennifer Fitzgerald was allowed by Bushala to walk on virtually unchallenged in 2012 as a result of Tony Bushala’s agreeing to let Mr. Nelson’s wishes to do so be honored. Fitzgerald was actually the insurance money in the entire transaction that took place in the recall. An ardent political opportunist, she could be relied upon for a yes vote on every development project imaginable. As it originally stood, Bushala really had four out of the five votes locked up, or so he thought.
While all this political theater was playing out, the ducks were being lined up for the huge payday jackpot. The City of Fullerton, in the vacuum of the redevelopment agency’s dismantling, was in the midst of a massive undertaking in hopes of revamping the entire city turning it into a burgeoning metropolis. The DCCSP was the city’s ambitious forward thinking plan that would transform this once quite bedroom community into a bustling high rise transit oriented oasis in the heart of Orange County with ten story lining the streets.
After the 2012 elections, Bushala pulled the plug on his FFFF website and as expected, would never mention the DCCSP. The DCCSP went before the planning commission that his hired hands appointed and it was passed. Bushala sat quietly waiting in the wings for the most important vote in Fullerton City Council History. 3 years after he had spent upwards of $500,000 and 2 years after the flames of the Kelly Thomas event were doused by the waters of time, the DCCSP vote would finally be before the council. The problem was the council at that time did not have the four votes owned by Bushala as Kiger was defeated 2 years earlier. Jan Flory took Travis out in a major upset narrowly defeating him by a handful of votes. That night, in August of 2014, at a council meeting in the library room with no live video coverage, the 100 million dollar vote would be before 5 council members only to be tabled. The Bushala brothers plans were immediately thwarted and their properties remain in their original condition and subject to the same zoning restriction that were placed on them before the half a million dollar expenditure to liberate them had begun.
Bushala’s so called limited government, libertarian, fiscal conservative types who have run for office like Chris Norby, Chris Thompson, Greg Sebourn, Travis Kiger, and Bruce Whitaker have all been on Tony’s payroll for the most part. They understand the power structure, what they need to say and not say and they will perform when the time comes for them to perform. This is not limited to slandering and threatening anyone who gets in the way.
The only person that I know that would never play ball with this crowd was Barry Levinson. When Barry realized that Tony was playing him, Barry must have realized that there was never any room on that team for Barry. Barry may not have realize Tony’s agenda at that time, but because Barry is financially independent and not beholden to anyone’s ideology, he freely speaks his mind and has done a tremendous service to the residents of Fullerton by staying unbiased, objective and most importantly, involved. As a result, this has thwarted some of the most dastardly of development plans namely the DCCSP. Barry was the ONLY person to fully expose this undemocratic power grab and call it what it was. He also exposed how this would be ripe for graft and bribery if passed. He also continued to fight the cities attempts to bring this item back in different shapes and forms defeating it every time.
Fast forward to four years later and the newbies who recently ran for office either do not understand the power structure that is in place and the games that are being played or simply choose to look the other way. They are just weak-minded people with very limited financial resources and are willing to cozy up to the power structure as they hope to latch on to Tony’s pocketbook and maintain their connections. Their behavior speaks for itself. Listen to their rhetoric, watch their willful ignorance of the issues and of course their refusal to propose, or demand solutions. They do not even realize they don’t have a full grasp on the problems that we face so how in the world could they ever propose solutions? Fortunately those people will never get elected so we don’t have to worry about them. Tony Bushala has effectively co-opted, compromised and controlled the loyal opposition in town.
He has done well in figuring out how to throw them a bone so he can control them to work for his agenda. These people people don’t want to believe what his agenda is because to accept what his agenda is and to understand what his agenda is means that they may not get a couple thousand dollars in campaign contributions if they decide to run for office. The whole agenda is for Tony Bushala to build high-rise apartments all over his slums. That’s what he’s all about because he’s a developer. He plays all these political games and engages in political gamesmanship. It is and always has been Tony’s political chess game, and most of you have been and still are his pawns.
I am grateful for the platform that Mr. Imbriano has provided to put this information out for the people to read and to Mr. Levinson for his steadfast and uncompromising commitment to the good people of Fullerton. “