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 Reality Is..... on December 1, 2015 - 10:16 am
One thing to keep in mind is that DannyBoy and Joe are eligible to retire with full pensions already. So they plan on leaving at any moment. So they wouldn’t ever be fired but maybe if you could spark something up new, they would run out the door on their own? Entirely possible. But seeing what Tony Bushala and Travis and that group did when the pressure was real and current and new, I don’t think anything is possible this late in the game.
#2 by Anonymous on December 1, 2015 - 11:22 am
All we got from Tony’s half a mill, and the work of Travis, Greg and Bruce so far was a measley 60 dollar water rebate, fireworks, Flory, Fitgerald, Chaffee, Hughes and Felz. Nice going gang.
#3 by Reality Is..... on December 1, 2015 - 11:25 am
True that. You had Travis for a few months until he opened his mouth and acted like he was Obama. Then he was out quickly.
#4 by Fullerton Lover on December 1, 2015 - 8:47 pm
I think your forgetting that the greatest benefit of all of the great Fullerton recall, was that it was also responsible for removing the three blind mice, ex-Fullerton City Councilman Don Bankhead, Dick Jones, and Pat McKinley, from inflicting further harm to those that reside within Fullerton.
Compared to the 10 million dollars that the residents of Fullerton have paid Kelly Thomas’s family, a half a million dollars seems like a bargain to remove these three from completing their terms as Fullerton City Councilman?
#5 by Reality Is..... on December 2, 2015 - 9:05 am
Yes. However. Are the ones now really any better than those? Or just clones? I sometimes wonder if all cities have brain dead council people. It seems consistent with every city that I have interactions with.
#6 by Fullerton Lover on December 2, 2015 - 10:14 am
No they are not.
However these City council clones were bought and paid for by public employee unions money to ensure themselves a city council majority to guarantee liberal raises and early retirements for themselves.
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2013/fullerton/
#7 by Anonymous on December 1, 2015 - 12:49 pm
The good people of Fullerton will hopefully keep up the pressure so that both Hughes and Felz take the earliest possible retirements.
#8 by Fullerton Lover on December 2, 2015 - 12:02 pm
Last night’s City Council meeting …
http://fullerton.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=718&meta_id=41973
If you want a real treat, go to the 30 minute mark and listen up to about the 40 minute mark, and then ask yourself if you think that these two gentleman, Joe Imbriano and Barry Levinson, should be elected to City Council next November?
Note the stony silence from Fitzgerald and Flory when asked if they would like to respond.
#9 by Fitzgerald... meet the Devil on December 2, 2015 - 4:52 pm
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#10 by Rocko on December 2, 2015 - 8:16 pm
I have to agree with that. It is clear that those who we currently have are relatively ineffective if not downright harmful to the city. I am not sure however, that Barry and Joe can get in with the deck so stacked against anyone that won’t play ball. Its gonna be a real uphill battle. Not saying it cant be done but its gonna be tough.