GOING FORWARD LET’S REPLACE LOVE FULLERTON DAY WITH FULLERTONIANS WHO LOVE LEARNING AND READING DAY, STARTING WITH A FIRM COMMITTMENT TO REOPEN OUR HUNT BRANCH LIBRARY. By Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
I have reviewed what activities were accomplished at prior Love Fullerton Days and most of the efforts were to help the city government do its job, such as cleanups in our parks, washing Police vehicles, etc. I commend those who join with city employees to make our city a little cleaner and little more beautiful, etc.
However, instead of doing things that at best have a very short useful life, I suggest we do something that could change the lives of many Fullerton residents forever. What better thing to do than to help educate and motivate our children and adults? That is what we could accomplish by reopening our Hunts Branch Library. Instead of washing a police vehicle, we get a hundred or more volunteers to paint, clean up, repair as well as create a reserve to help meet some of the costs to have a grand reopening of our Hunts Branch Library. It is always nice to do something that makes us feel good. How about we help to make reopening the Hunts Branch Library a reality, which will do much good for so many members of our Fullerton community.
The library is off limits to the public as it is currently being rented by a church with a different mission than one would expect
I love the Hunt Branch Library. But more importantly, I love the positive impact that library would have on the members of my community being inspired, educated and motivated by the books and the future programs in our newly reopened Hunt Branch Library.
All of Us Remember the Slogan, “A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste”. So let us all agree that the Hunt Branch Library is a community resource that should never be wasted or discarded.
r stolen by a backroom deal
I ask that the Fullerton City Council join with me to make reopening the Hunt Branch Library a reality for our community.
The City of Fullerton’s official website (see below) states that the Hunt Branch Library is “temporarily closed”. It has been approximately 3 years since this temporary closure has taken place with no date certain of when it will be reopened or if it will ever be reopened. Please let the Fullerton City Council and Fullerton City Manager that you demand that the city reopen one of the communities treasures, The Hunt Branch Library.
201 S. Basque Ave.
Fullerton, CA 92833
The Hunt Branch is Temporarily Closed. Questions? Concerns? Please contact Library for additional information call 714-738-6388.
#1 by Barry Levinson on May 5, 2016 - 11:10 am
Yes fellow Fullertonians, our City Council with the support and leadership of our Mayor, Jennifer Fitzgerald and City Manager, Joe Felz has delivered big time to the city’s special interest groups. When was the last time you received a 6% raise without a promotion. When was the last time you received a 9% raise over two years without getting a promotion. The Fullerton police and fire unions got that for their employees this past year. It was none other than Council member Doug Chaffee who voted for and defended these raises saying at council that the city negotiated the very best deal for the Fullerton taxpayers. Council member Chaffee I think your defense of the indefensible speaks volumes about who you represent on the dais sir and it certainly is not the Fullerton residents. These raises will cost the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars each and every year going forward. How much was just voted to fix our decaying sidewalks for the entire city? The answer was approximately 200 thousand dollars. When it was stated that this amount will not even make a dent in solving that problem, Director Don Hoppe stated that we need a lot more money to adequately deal with this issue but the money is just not available. Hey Director Hoppe, the city found millions and millions of dollars in extra money for every year going forward for our police and fire employees. How come you could not get some of that money for the residents of Fullerton? I am just curious sir. It would be so nice if we had one person on the dais who would state the obvious and that is they do not represent us. You will not hear those words uttered by any of our current council members. Yes one or two council members will take exception narrowly to an agenda item before them but will never disclose the real and broader problem that the council majority does not work for us. Their agenda is not our agenda.
Remember that our corrupt City Council “found” the money for police and fire employees but not for us. The same corrupt City Council has kept our Hunt Branch Library “temporarily” closed for approximately 3 years supposedly for lack of money. Now our City Manager has stated that he recommends selling this treasure as a sole source bid to the same people who have leased part of the building for a below marked lease rate.
City hall has been trying to make Fullerton look like the Anaheim Triangle area around Anaheim Stadium or worse for the last few years with their Downtown Core and Corridor Specific Plans. Tens or hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake for another special interest group, the developers. Finally, how is the city going to come up with the tens of millions of dollars in extra pay and benefits for the police and fire in the coming years….you guessed it the $11,700 per residential unit fee/tax for every apartment, condo or house built in this city. Yes this money is designated for our parks. Have you seen the condition of our parks considering all the additional millions of dollars of past park dwelling fee money collected as well as the normal budgeted amounts are parks? Based on the above, our parks should be in pristine condition, but they are for from it. Remember folks money is fungible. More money from developer fees means the city is able to reduce the budgets for Parks and Recreation and really use that money elsewhere… like for police and fire raises for instance. The proposed mixed-use development discussed at the last Planning Commission study session would build 295 market priced apartments bringing in $3,451,500 ($11,700 per unit times 295 units), if passed as proposed. This proposed project represents over 98% of the total square footage to be developed at that proposed site. It is called paying Peter by robbing Paul where Peter represents all the special interest groups and Peter represents you and me. The developers, lobbyists and the Fullerton police and fire employees make up less than 1/10th of 1% of the entire voting population of Fullerton, yet control our city council. I hope the readers are starting to understand the huge conflict of interest voluntarily created by our Mayor Fitzgerald when after she was elected to council, she chose to accept an offer to become Vice President of Curt Pringle and Associates. Are you starting to see how these special interest groups are able to yield such tremendous influence over our city council?
Finally, I hope the readers see how imperative it is to have honest, smart, knowledgeable council members representing the public. For our city council controls hundreds of millions of our tax dollars over the course of one four year term. They have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure every dime of that money is spent wisely and efficiently for the exclusive benefit of the people of Fullerton.
If you can honestly state that you believe that all of our Fullerton tax dollars are being spent wisely and efficiently then you should vote to reelect all the incumbents running for city council this year. If you do not believe our tax money is being spent wisely and efficiently you would be wise to vote them out of office. If you can’t honestly answer the above question, I suggest you look at the condition of our streets, sidewalks, sewers, the increased traffic congestion and the fact that the city has a $2.8 million dollar current 2-year budget deficit and hold our elected officials accountable for the deplorable conditions within our city.
I report, you decide.
#2 by Fullerton Lover on August 15, 2016 - 11:34 am
…looks like the Pastor of Grace Ministries is “in bed” with Jennifer Fitzgerald, in more ways than one!
https://fullertonrag.com/2016/06/01/jesus-loves-the-nightlife-grace-ministries-supports-fullerton-bar-owners-district-elections-map/
#3 by Danny Boy on August 15, 2016 - 6:00 pm
do you think they fiddle each other’s fingers when they are in bed together?
#4 by Anonymous on August 18, 2016 - 9:40 am
Only when it comes time to change the sleep number.