FFFF Founder Tony Bushala
FFFF Site Administrator Travis Kiger
If the FFFF website was run by objective straight-forward people they would know that they only had to look into a mirror to find some of the people responsible for the construction disaster, known as the City of Fullerton Hillcrest Park to Lion’s Field Stairs. For you blame Ms. Cox for her phony, contrived and orchestrated statements.
Yet who put Ms. Cox in the position of Park and Recreation Committee member? That person was none other than Council member Jennifer Fitzgerald. And what Council member among others has this website given a pass over the last 5 years? I believe that would be the same aforementioned Ms. Fitzgerald. So FFFF, look no further than into a mirror to place some blame for those hideously constructed stairs.
I believe that would be the same aforementioned Ms. Fitzgerald. So FFFF, look no further than into a mirror to place some blame for those hideously constructed stairs.
It is so obvious to see that this website is exactly the carbon copy of the political careers of Bruce Whitaker and Greg Sebourn who they so often tout.
They acknowledge problems, wring their hands over the issues and then do absolutely nothing to solve the problems. Giving Greg Sebourn credit for stating the obvious after the many problems with the stairs were exposed by the public is so, so ridiculous.
Sebourn failed to bring forth a motion to agendize an internal investigation over whom within the city approved the shoddy and very substandard construction and then Sebourn did not bring a motion to sue the contractor responsible for all the derelict construction. This demonstrates clearly that he is only good at grandstanding. The same could easily and correctly be said about Appointed Mayor Bruce Whitaker who touts limited fiscally conservative government. But did he make either of the above motions as Mayor…of course not. For it is so obvious that neither have the integrity or the courage to do the right thing for the people of Fullerton. However, they are all too often ready to take credit for statements they make that never do the good people of Fullerton any darn good. What a pair they make on that dais!
Questions for those responsible for the Friends for Fullerton’s Future as follows:
- Please explain as libertarians your censorship and your lack of candor about your moderation and canceling comments that you obviously do not want to be posted to your website?
- Please also explain why this web page waited until literally the day after the 2016 election to go back on the Internet. I guess the outcome of the 2016 election for a so-called political reform website was not important enough to restart it prior to rather than immediately after the 2016 elections.
I believe you owe it to your readership to answer the above two questions.
One last comment concerning the name of the website. Friends for Fullerton’s Future can’t be a more vague and nebulous title. Unless you believe that the end of days is quickly approaching, or a meteorite will destroy the entire planet very soon, or if the entire world will cease to exist due to a nuclear annihilation, the future is a given. But it is a very appropriate title for your website because it says nothing, means nothing and your website accomplishes nothing; no solutions, no improvements just grandstanding and allowing undisclosed bloggers to defame good people like myself.
What I am concerned about is the quality of the future we will leave to our children and grandchildren and the honesty and integrity of those we call our leaders including those that work at Fullerton City Hall.
#1 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.
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.
#2 by Anonymous on June 14, 2017 - 7:41 pm
Who the fuck are you, Tony’s unofficial autobiographer? You are full of shit.
#3 by Anonymous on June 15, 2017 - 12:19 am
I think the fullertoninformer.com hit a nerve.
#4 by Fullerton's Conscience on June 15, 2017 - 12:45 pm
This is what you get from the FFFF website, the majority of writers not willing to stand behind their articles by giving out their real names.
Then you have those supporting Tony Bushala like Anonymous above who use a lot of disgusting four letter words and nothing else.
Not very impressive.
#5 by Anonymous on June 17, 2017 - 9:21 am
Its a hate blog populated and frequented by sarcastic children hiding behind Bushala’s bead curtain.
#6 by West of Spadra on June 14, 2017 - 10:02 pm
This is absolutely golden. If I may, I would like to expand on what Lee has put out there. You forgot one key piece of information in this whole expose. You failed to mention how Curt Pringle factors into all of this.
For those of you who remember, Jennifer Fitzgerald was conveniently passed over by The Friends for Fullerton’s Future website which devoted its attacks to Doug Chaffee and Jan Flory during the months preceding the 2012 election. This enabled an extremely well-connected stealth candidate, Ms. Fitzgerald, who was the darling of Ed Royce and Shawn Nelson to win by a very handsome margin.
The Vice President of Curt Pringle and Associates position was handed to Jennifer Fitzgerald withing a mere month of her taking office, and clearly all part of the carefully laid out plan and strategy. Going back several years, you will recall with the SOCO walk project, the Bushala Brothers sold the lots and the development deal to the Olson company without pouring one slab. When you just sit on dirt and push paper to turn a massive profit, everyone wants to replicate that over and over again and people were lining up. That was the plan here on a massive scale. The DCCSP would have rezoned a majority of The Bushala Brothers properties creating immense wealth overnight.
With Tony Bushala’s people on the council, S.C.A.G was allowed to gain a foothold in the planning decisions with the appointment of Ma’Ayn Johnson to the planning commission. Ms. Johnson took the initiative whenever possible to move the transit-oriented development plans and projects forward in the most expeditious manner possible clearly taking the reins whenever possible.
Jennifer Fitzgerald’s joining with CPA had everything to do with positioning Curt Pringle to come in and bring his crew with the big box developer boys to Fullerton. All the Bushala Brothers had to do was simply wait for the DCCSP to pass, and then sign away all the deeds at ten to twenty times what they paid for the parcels, move a few historic buildings to keep the preservationists happy and wait for the money to start pouring in. Well as you can see, it never happened.