WATER RATE INCREASE - Just say NO!

This week I received a notice from the City of Fullerton that they would like to raise water rates...AGAIN!  

The proposed rates are specifically for pass-through costs from Metropolitan Water District, Orange County Water District, Southern California Edison, and the City of Anaheim (we purchase electricity from Anaheim for Fullerton's wells in Anaheim).  

We know MWD (the agency that gave each employee a $6,000 bonus) recently raised rates to help cover salaries and pensions as well as some infrastructure needs.  We are required to purchase about 30% of all water from MWD.  The OCWD charges us a pumping tax that is significantly less than MWD but those rates keep creeping up. 

And those pesky electric bills keep going up as well.  

Let's recap a few important changes to your rates:

In 2012, a post-recall Council directed staff to refund about $7.4 million: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-374846-water-bills.html 

In 2013, a new council majority (Chaffee, Flory, & Fitgerald) voted to redirect staff to only refund about $3.3 million and concocted a new scheme to keep the rest and continue their slightly smaller skimming operation: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/customers-522970-water-city.html  & http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/03/fullerton-water-heist/

Now, the City will charge you more and as a direct result skim more, and claim it in the name of pass-through costs.

Fill out your protest form that was attached on your bill.  If you didn't get the notice for any reason, fill out this form and send it in immediately.  Share with all of your neighbors, employers, friends, and family in Fullerton!

(Click image to view/print)

$6,000 Bonuses Part of Fullerton Water Rate Hike

As the Fullerton City Council prepares to hike water rates as "pass-through increases" I thought it would be good to share the sweet deal MWD employees get on April 1, 2012 (no, its not a joke) and see just what is being passed through to us.

Come April 1st the employees of MWD get a $6,000 bonus as part of their contract.

9.3 Effective the first day of the pay period that includes April 1, 2012, each employee in the bargaining unit shall receive a one-time only payment of $6,000 which shall not be considered part of the employee‘s regular pay.

If that wasn't bad enough, July 1, 2013 MWD employees will get a 0.25% raise.  And if you think 0.25% isn't much of a raise, consider what else gets slipped in.  How about creating "higher steps" for employees who have hit the salary ceiling and giving them raises as well?

9.4 Effective the first day of the pay period that includes July 1, 2013, there shall be an across-the-board salary increase of 0.25%. In addition, all bargaining unit classifications shall be moved two (2) salary grades higher (approximately 2.75% for each grade), and placed at the equivalent salary step in the new grade (e.g. an employee at step 11 on June 30, 2013 would be placed at step 9 of his new salary grade).

All bargaining unit employees will be place on the same evaluation date, and will receive a performance evaluation for the period ending July 1, 2013. Employees will be eligible for a merit increase pursuant to ARTICLE 65—MERIT INCREASES.

These generous employee benefits are being passed along to Fullerton water customers in the form of "pass-through" rate increases.  When the City Council pushes for a rate hike this year, be sure to speak up in opposition.  The City Council will be happy to pass the buck so long as we sit quietly and let them.

You can read the MWD employee agreement here.

Fullerton Water Rates - Be Heard Tonight!

With California’s drought officially over, many are wondering why Fullerton’s appointed and elected leadership are planning on nearly doubling water rates. 

Tonight at 6:30PM at City Hall (303 W. Commonwealth Ave.) city staff and leaders will be discussing the need to repair the City’s aging water system and how best to pay for these much needed repairs.  If left to their own devices, city leadership will nearly double water rates.  Compounding the problem, the same plan includes massive tax bonds at great expense to our children’s future.

Please come out and let City Hall know that you tired of their tax-and-spend attitude.  The Orange County Register reported yesterday that we are headed into a double-dip recession, the worst recession since the start of the Great Depression and we just can’t afford to pay more taxes.

Did you know that the City charges each water user a 10% tax (franchise tax) within your water bill?  That money goes into “programs” and management overhead but should be going back into the water system.  Unfortunately, this mismanagement of prioritizing funding is business-as-usual and will surely continue unless YOU step up and SPEAK at City Hall tonight.

As you may know, I will not be able to attend the “workshop” until late in the evening because of a city commission on which I serve.   That means I need your help in voicing our disapproval and opposition for the City’s plan to raise water rates. 

We all agree that water should be one of City Hall’s highest priorities but taxing us out of our homes and community just isn’t the answer.

City Attorney's Felonious Fig Tree Fight - Part 1

Standing before the Fullerton City Council January 18, 2011 was Shannon Ellis, a long-time Fullerton resident, mother, Boy Scout mom, West Fullerton Little League team mom, and Fullerton College employee.  Despite her selfless dedication to her husband, children, and West Fullerton neighborhood, she wasn’t at City Hall to receive any awards or certificates.  Instead, Shannon was there to express her frustration for what many are characterizing as the systematic harassment of her family by Fullerton’s Community Preservation officers. 

Shannon gives some background to her problem and explains how she has a pending criminal case as a result of her fig tree. 

 During summer months the fig tree grows quickly and produces fruit.  Admittedly, during these summer months the tree extends beyond her 6-foot tall block wall and over the sidewalk on the other side of the wall, much like others around Fullerton as shown below.

But the Fullerton Community Preservation officers will have none of her fig tree over the wall.  Instead, they will turn a blind eye to similar encroachments like those shown above so that they can focus their combined efforts on eradicating a fig tree from the sleepy 2400 West Olive neighborhood.

Just a few blocks north on West Avenue, residents have felt a similar squeeze by City Hall in the form of parking tickets.    Fullerton police officers have been targeting the neighborhood and citing pickup trucks which are classified by the California Department of Motor Vehicles as commercial vehicles.  Also being cited by the police officers are toy haulers and recreational trailers that are not attached to the tow vehicle. 

These are but a snippet of the gauntlet Fullerton residents and taxpayers face having a Fullerton address. 

Is it just dumb luck that enforcement officials are patrolling West Avenue and West Olive while ignoring neighborhoods in North Fullerton with similar conditions?  Doubtful. 

With the amended ordinances which will make it a crime to leave your trash cans out or throw a tarp to cover your leaking roof having been approved, many residents are concerned just how far the City’s Community Preservation officers will take these issues. 

Despite assurances from “staff” seen here...

...that the ordinances will not be unfairly enforced, the abuse continues.   As mentioned, Shannon is going to trial where she faces jail time and a stiff fine if she is found guilty – for a fig tree that has been cut back and is in full compliance with the Fullerton Municipal Code.   

“We have gone to court half-dozen times now,” Shannon writes in an email to me.  “Each time the city attorney has said we have not done enough…they are never going to be happy with anything we do.”

Unmaintained City-Owned Trees



Moreover, she sees the City as “always out ‘beautifying’…other upscale areas of Fullerton but they barely come around to remove graffiti and trim trees in the areas they are ticketing.”

Shannon notes that she has been charged for not maintaining property she doesn't even own.  Public records do not list her as the property owner.  

"Non-compliant" trees over the public right-of-way

"Non-compliant" trees and cacti over the public right-of-way

Stay tuned, more to come...

Mayor Pro Tem Don Bankhead Considers Using Public Funds to Bailout Opera



Public Funds


Mayor Pro Tem Don Bankhead seeks to use Redevelopment Agency funds, originally set aside for combating blight and providing low-income housing, to prop up the Fullerton Civic Light Opera (FCLO).

In an article penned by Eric Marchese of FullertonStories.com, Bankhead indicated he is “…investigating the use of Redevelopment Agency funding to assist the Duncans and FCLO.”

What would prompt this Republican and self-proclaimed conservative council member with more than 22 years of elected service under his belt to conclude a necessity for a taxpayer bailout of the FCLO?

Bankhead was quoted as saying, “It would be a blow, a terrible loss, to the city if [the Duncans] can’t figure out some way of saving [the company].” 

And therefore taxpayers must somehow bailout this private endeavor?? 



Infrastructure lying in ruin from continuous neglect.



What about the public employees who have taken significant cuts in pay (and service hours) to help shore up the financial debacle created by a city council with their collective heads in the sand?  Should the Redevelopment Agency also bail out these other departments and public employees? 

The short answer: NO!  Before the Redevelopment Agency existed taxpayer funds were meant to go toward all of our public services from engineering and education to public safety.  But after the Redevelopment Agency was created and expanded, taxpayer funds were redirected to combat blight and fund low-income housing.  Meanwhile, our infrastructure lays in ruin from continuous neglect and habitual misappropriation of public funds. 

If we use Redevelopment Agency funds to bail out the FCLO we will have effectively robbed all of our public agencies so that a select few can be entertained. 

I cannot think of a more egregious abuse of public funds except perhaps spending $6-million to move a McDonald’s restaurant 200 feet or borrowing $29-million to evict low-income families. 

Does the recall effort begin now or do taxpayers wait for further damage to be done at their expense?

Fullerton City Council Got It Wrong

The Fullerton City Council got it wrong.  The ire is not over the low-income housing as council members suggested before they stuck us with a $45 million bill; it is the fact that they busted out the taxpayer’s credit card.  Like Councilman Jones analogized at Tuesday’s Council/Redevelopment Agency meeting, Council went to the bank and took out a loan.  And the collateral is the future property tax increment on properties in Redevelopment Agency zones.  That property tax increment should be going towards the infrastructure, public safety, and education.  Instead, the tax increment will go into other redevelopment boondoggles with at least 15% of it annually being used to pay off the $29 million bond plus the interest and fees totaling around $45,500,000 over the next 16 years.  Shame on the Redevelopment Agency staff for taking taxpayers for a ride and shame on all four council members for growing our debt.  To say that the end justifies the means is unacceptable.  Council members have a fiduciary duty which was clearly neglected by the intoxicating allure of taxpayer MONEY. 

And council members point their fingers at “mandates” from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG).  They point to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) that SCAG performs.  Who is SCAG?  As the name implies, our city, our county, and neighboring agencies.  Who runs it?  Our council members along with those of the member agencies in much the same manner that our council represents Fullerton taxpayers on water and sanitation boards.  SCAG is a governmental agency which receives taxpayer funding from, among others, Fullerton residents and businesses. 

Let’s not forget that the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency was ready, willing, and able to spend $6 million to move a McDonalds 150 feet.  Succumbing to public scrutiny and pressure, Fullerton City Council backed out of the deal. Let’s also no forget that the Fullerton Redevelopment agency spent $22.7 million to move 600 low-income residents out of the Richman Park area so that they could build fewer units than those bulldozed.  According to project manager Charles Kovac, “…the agency doesn't know yet how many more properties it will acquire or how much money it will spend. It depends, in part, on what funding is available.” (July 2010, OC Register)  Pushing our low-income problem onto another community through a taxpayer-subsidized mass relocation is one way to do erase Fullerton’s problem from SCAG’s tally sheet, but it certainly isn’t ethical. 

There is no end in sight for the insatiable appetite of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency under the direction of our current council. 

For more informmation on Redevelopment Agencies go here:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/agency-256370-kovac-housing.html
http://www.coalitionforredevelopmentreform.org/references/morrreport.php
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-redevelopment-20101002,0,1187883,full.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/me-redevelop-housing-20101003,0,3080263.story