Barry Levinson
I watched this wife and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Sharma tell their family’s incredibly scary story and I could not believe the inhuman, insensitive and uncaring treatment by Fullerton Mayor and OC Supervisor want a be Doug Chaffee. Mrs. Sharma was very distraught, yet the Mayor cut her off before she could finish her story because she had gone over her allotted three minutes of time.
Apparently the Mayor was more concerned that the meeting end a few minutes earlier for him than with this woman’s heart breaking story and making sure that the city takes proper and complete action to make it more unlikely that it would every happen again. Doug Chaffee is a poor excuse for a human being. He now incredulously wants to be our OC Supervisor. To quote you Mayor Chaffee….”YOUR TIME IS UP!!!! Joe Imbriano calls Doug Chaffee the Mayor from Hell. Well Joe I do not know if that is where he comes from but I can assure you that Mayor Doug Chaffee will at the end of his life end up in HELL and Deservedly So!!
The arrogant, pompous Doug Chaffee gave this distraught mother 260 SECONDS to attempt to tell her frightening story about what transpired and how both EV Free and Mercy House had some responsibly for apparently violating the city code for dealing with the homeless. Doug Chaffee said at the end that the daughter needs medical i.e. psychiatric help. How about you Mayor Doug Chaffee enforce the city code on EV Free and Mercy House? How about you do your F-ing job? Unfortunately, he was in too much of a rush to get home a few minutes earlier by cutting off this distraught woman. I remember not to long ago when ex-council member Jan Flory got up to speak during public comments and the council members, many the same as today gave her well over 10 minutes to go on and on and on! They only enforce the rules when members of the public who are not their buddies get up to speak no matter how important the topic as was the case here! Chaffee is a pompous, arrogant, unfeeling, insensitive piece of garbage who is much more concerned about how much time is given to a Fullerton citizen then actually making sure this failure by Mercy House, EV Free and the City of Fullerton does not happen again!! Remember this atrocious behavior by Doug Chaffee who is running for OC Supervisor when you go to vote for that position later this year!
Could it be that Doug Chaffee who is a big supporter of Mercy House did not want to hold them accountable for their apparent failure to run a homeless shelter within the rules for shelters of the City of Fullerton? Want to hear a really good joke? This poor excuse for a Mayor and a human being now wants to be our next OC Supervisor! You got to be kidding us!!
Her husband told Mayor Chaffee that it was unfortunate that he cut off his wife’s comments. In response Mayor Chaffee stated “we extended the time well beyond” the 3 minutes allotted to her. Well I went back to the video Mr. Mayor and I guess your definition to going well beyond the allotted 3 minutes is to give her a whopping additional 80 seconds to tell her very important story. I do not know how many tens of hours of comments others and I have had to endure about your various vacation trips or which function you and your wife attended. All of that is such self-serving drivel. But when it comes to something really important you gave her an additional 80 SECONDS! How incredibly magnanimous of you Mr. Mayor!
Council member Jennifer Fitzgerald as usual was as phony as a three-dollar bill. It is not her fault really; because it is the only way she knows how to deal with the Fullerton public. She made this PR statement after all the public speakers had spoken for the evening. She said as follows: “I want to say to the Sharma’s how sorry I am that this happened to you and your family and um to your neighbors who came. It really is obviously um awkward for us up here, I mean we have, we do have a protocol we follow with 3 minutes of speakers speaking on public comments.” She goes on to state “We don’t get into discussions with people who come up during public comment”.
Jennifer Fitzgerald became Vice President of Curt Pringle & Associates only after her election to the council
Why don’t you Council member Fitzgerald respond to people with city issues especially when it deals with our safety It is your choice to ignore us at the podium Council member Fitzgerald. It is more than just awkward for the public who you and your cohorts choose to ignore us. I have seen many instances when someone has praised the council and you respond to them all the time. Like I said Jennifer Fitzgerald is as phony as a 3-dollar bill. The only restraint you have as a council member Ms. Fitzgerald is talking about an upcoming scheduled agenda item. You could have spoken to this issue to your hearts content if you really wanted to serve the people. But we both know that is not why you sit on that dais Ms. Fitzgerald.
Jennifer Fitzgerald became Vice President of Curt Pringle & Associates only after her election to the council
The Executive Director of Mercy House sounded very sincere and I do not mean to ignore the good works his organization does in the community. However, he must be totally honest with Fullertonians when it comes to a situation like the one disuccsed above. Unfortunately, he was not entirely forthcoming with his statements. He stated as follows: “I can’t prevent human movement.” Yet it is my understanding that your non-profit along with EV Free picked up these homeless from Santa Ana and dropped them off in Fullerton. So Mr. Larry Haynes you did in fact have a lot of control as to where these homeless people were the day and night in question because it was your group that brought them into our community sir. Mr. Sharma also stated that to run a homeless shelter in Fullerton you are required to find the homeless another place if you turn them away. You did not follow that rule and according to Mr. Sharma you failed to follow other rules as well. This is in your purview sir and certainly not out of your control. So when you all stop doing your PR cover-up, it would be very appropriate if you would at the very least actually run your homeless shelter within the rules the City of Fullerton has laid out for you and that the City of Fullerton actually enforce those rules. Isn’t that a novel idea Fullertonians? It would be appropriate if before you made the decision to pick up the homeless from other locations and then bring them into our city that you attempted to do some kind of background check of those people. It would be nice that once you brought them here that you had some responsibility for their whereabouts and their actions. Mr. Sharma indicated that EV Free has security guards to assist them with dealing with the homeless. It shows that they have real concerns for their own safety. It is a darn shame that they apparently do not have the same level of concern for their fellow Fullertonians. That is NOT the definition of a Good Neighbor!
One more point about Mercy House. I pulled up their website and I learned that there one member of the organization, James Brooks who is their Orange County Program Director, Emergency Services and also on their Board of Directors. That very much appears to be a conflict of interest and I will ask Mr. Haynes to explain why this person has this dual role.
Everyone who spoke from the City of Fullerton and those responsible for the shelter, i.e. Mercy House and EV Free took no real responsibility at the last council meeting. And saying your sorry without taking responsibility and without taking real steps to ensure that this is much less likely to occur again is just a bunch of empty words. We demand that such organizations such as EV Free and Mercy House do more than come to our Fullerton City Council with words that amounts to not much more than CYA’s in my humble opinion! Finally, we expect that the City of Fullerton take action against these organizations when they fail to live up to the City Codes for running a homeless shelter. You noticed that none of the above was specifically dealt with or addressed during the council meeting.
And to the Sharma family and to all families in Fullerton, I SAY WE DESERVE BETTER FROM OUR CITY GOVERNMENT AND FROM OUR NON-PROFIT INSTITUTIONS.
PS: Council member’s Bruce Whitaker’s comments after all the public comments were over and he was asked by Mayor Chaffee if he had anything to say at this time were as follows: “Not at this time Mr. Mayor.” Once again Bruce Whitaker displayed his total lack of courage to speak out about the most important issues facing the good people of Fullerton. What a guy! What a poor example of leadership Whitaker displayed by being as quiet as a church mouse!
#1 by Anonymous on May 14, 2018 - 12:44 am
Strong comments you make. Nobody on this earth is all knowing and should wish harm on his fellow man.I was there and had a different take.you never know a story till you here both sides….don’t be so quick to judge that homeless man as a sex offender. The police found him sitting on the curb talking to himself. About Chafee, I noticed that he cut her off only when she started lecturing the council on patrolling the trails…I don’t believe he tested her any different .protocol is important even in highly charged cases. I’m a bit uncomfortable about the type of impunity you post…..