by Barry Levinson
Exactly 1,603 days after the savage beating death of a 135- pound “innocent man” (Police Chief Dan Hughes so proclaimed Kelly Thomas posthumously at a council meeting about a year or so latter), the tragic tale of Kelly Thomas comes to a dramatic close.
Although, I am very disappointed that Mr. Thomas chose to accept the City of Fullerton’s large offer of 4.9 million dollars, instead of going through an open civil trial, it should not be the focus of our thoughts and concerns.
Let’s just review that various costs involved in the Kelly Thomas savage beating death has cost the Fullerton public.
Payout to Mrs. Kathy Thomas $1,000,000
Payout to Mr. Ron Thomas $4,900,000
Estimated legal related fees $500,000
Potential estimated settlements with
fired officers who are attempting to get
their jobs back.
(We shall have to wait
and see on this one.) $5,000,000
—————
Total cost to pay off victims for the FPD’s
bad acts: $11,400,000
The impact this has for the Fullerton
Public. ………………………………… A lasting mistrust of the FPD
Here is the way to start the healing.
Removing Dan Hughes and Joe Felz from
Fullerton city government forever. …………… Priceless!!
Dan Hughes-FPD chief
It is ironic that the settlement approval came at a hastily called for “Special” City Council meeting for 8 AM the morning before the Thanksgiving Day Holiday. Any fool knows that the timing of this meeting was carefully selected by a majority of our city council along with City Manager Joe Felz.
Joe Felz Fullerton city manager
It was probably the same majority who voted for the $4.9 million settlement, i.e. Fitzgerald, Flory and Chaffee. So the next time Council members Flory, Fitzgerald and Chaffee have the audacity to talk about the openness and transparency of city government, I hope a large segment of the council audience will have the courage to remind them of this 8 AM council meeting.
Now that Police Chief Dan Hughes does not have to worry about testifying under oath before the civil jury (and the world) and answer some very embarrassing, tough and even a few unanswerable questions, he can now sit back and wait for his approximately 200K pension to arrive just over the horizon. It is good to be the king, which is what many of the top public servants truly are these days. It is we the people who get incredibly little consideration from all these so-called civil servants and elected officials. They are supposed to be looking out for the citizens of Fullerton wellbeing in their fiduciary roles. They make multi-million dollar decisions such as with the passage of several 4-year union contracts and in their public council deliberations did not even mention the word “taxpayer”. Their actions certainly show no empathy or concern for those that pay the city’s bills. Council member Fitzgerald as a self-described Republican, deserves the loudest shout-out for her apparent lack of concern for the financial wellbeing of the city and taxpayer.
But I want to leave the readers with a positive message. We the people of Fullerton can look forward to a better-run city government. All we have to do is vote out Ms. Flory and Ms. Fitzgerald next year and vote for people such as Joe Imbriano.
My role going forward will be to do whatever will do the most good for our city. I look forward to continue speaking out whenever our city leadership goes astray or fails in their responsibilities to you the good citizens of Fullerton.
P.S. The city of Fullerton government and its services are in very bad shape. Therefore, we must reject politics as usual. Too many elected officials either work against the people or try to straddle the fence and in so doing accomplish little. Well I am here to tell all of them, to either get with the people 100% or get out of the way for a change is coming.
I report, you decide.
Barry Levinson
#1 by Fullerton Resident on December 1, 2015 - 12:08 am
Mr. Communication, Dan Hughes since last November hardly ever sits in on Fullerton Council meetings. I guess he is afraid that a council member or a citizen during public comments might ask him a serious question. Yes Mr. Communication is not very communicative when he is not controlling the conversation.
#2 by Fullerton Lover on December 7, 2015 - 10:35 am
The only two city councilman with any decency.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/council-694866-city-public.html
#3 by Telling It Like It Is on December 8, 2015 - 12:02 am
Let’s see if these two council members continue to speak out on the subject of FPD abuse or was this a lame attempt to placate their base after all the damage was done. It seems to me that if any council member really wanted to impact the results of any settlement deliberation and/or the reform of the FPD itself, they would have spoken out at council meetings and to the press prior to any settlement. How many times did people speak out at council meetings about the Kelly Thomas death at the hands of Fullerton cops and collectively the council members were totally silent? How about speaking out on the leaked confidential Gennaco Report? It is out in the public domain and it should be fair game for anyone even a council member to talk about it. Yet, I have not heard either Sebourn or Whitaker mention that report even one single time. They have ignored it, just like the other three council members, like the plague.
#4 by channel 3 on December 8, 2015 - 10:01 am
So I just don’t get it. Barry has been talking about this issue for months at council meetings. Crickets from Greg and Bruce. Greg and Bruce have not even acknowledged Barry’s comments. Why?
#5 by Fullerton Lover on December 8, 2015 - 11:26 am
Did you actually read the article?
Quote from Bruce Whitaker….
“Since Kelly’s death, I, along with nine other council members over the four-plus years – five of us still on the council – received legal advice and presided over litigation strategies intended to obscure and distort information, attack victims, punish protesters and deny even the smallest measure of responsibility and accountability. At every stage, my efforts at ensuring clarity, accuracy, transparency and even-handedness were stymied – to the extreme of my being presented a restraining order to desist in my demands to audit city property in my capacity as a councilmember. The restraining order was sought by the Fullerton Police Department with the cooperation of many others.
I strongly oppose this action by a majority of this council.”
These two have been stifled at every point by the majority of Doug Chaffee, Jan Flory, and Jennifer Fitzgerald.
If you or any one else votes for any one of these three in the future, expect more of the same.
#6 by Anonymous on December 8, 2015 - 11:51 am
Yes and I think Bruce needs to elaborate. Sounds like a criminal conspiracy to me. This is amazing! If only Fullerton had a few more like him.
#7 by Fullerton Lover on December 8, 2015 - 12:25 pm
Agreed!
I believe that the only obstacle in another Fullerton resident stepping up to the city council dais is the money required to win.
How does one of us have the ability to spend the $50,000 needed, to defeat the candidates that the public safety unions supports?
Ask your spouse and your family how they would feel about you spending $50,000 to win an election?
#8 by Telling It Like It Is on December 8, 2015 - 12:24 pm
Fullerton Lover each person is responsible for what they do and say and for what they do not do or say. This should be doubly true for any elected representative of the people. For an elected representative to make the claim that others are controlling his free speech rings somewhat hollow and does not speak well for his independence or bravery.
#9 by Fullerton Lover on December 8, 2015 - 12:44 pm
I believe that restraining orders that were issued by the Fullerton Police Department, and were signed off by a Superior Court Judge, do NOT allow for the latitude you suggest in deciding when these two council members should speak up.
I think that that was the point of the editorial that Bruce Whitaker wrote in Sunday’s Register
I also found this article that I remembered Greg Sebourn penning awhile back, which helps illustrate how these two gentleman have not remained silent on the issue of how city employees are gaming the system and using their dues to sponsor candidates like Jan Flory, Doug Chaffee, and also the unsuccessful city council candidacy of (B. VERY WARY) of Larry Bennett.
#10 by Fullerton Lover on December 8, 2015 - 1:07 pm
Article by Greg Sebourn detailing the frustrations of dealing with city employee contract negotiations which appeared in a Register editorial page…
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/coin-627751-fullerton-counterfeit.html
#11 by Joe Imbriano on December 8, 2015 - 1:19 pm
Obviously Fitzpringle, Jan Fluoride and Chaffeepoo didn’t need a restraining order because they have had nothing to say about anything but do we know if Greg had a restraining order?
#12 by Anonymous on December 8, 2015 - 10:45 am
look deeper and you will see that it is all political machinations with no substance