Community Dialogue with Community Development Director Al Zelinka this Tuesday

This Tuesday Communit Development Director Al Zelinka will be holding another "Community Dialogue" from 8am-9am at the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, 444 N. Harbor Blvd.

These have been excellent opportunities thus far to speak with Al, voice your concerns and offer up solutions. 

Al believes community involvement in the planning process is "absolutely essential to achieving that goal and [he hopes] the public will take advantage of this meeting to share their ideas, issues and other information."

He will continue the bi-monthly dialogues in 2012. The schedule will be as follows:

- Jan. 25, May 24 and Sept. 27 – 6-7 p.m., Vision Center, Room 140, Grace Ministries International, 150 S. Brookhurst Road.

- March 27, July 24 and Nov. 27 – 8-9 a.m., Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, 444 N. Harbor Blvd.

Further information about the "Community Dialogue" program may be obtained by calling Zelinka at (714) 738-3347, or by email at alz@ci.fullerton.ca.us.

Persons requiring special accommodations to attend a "Community Dialogue" are asked to notify the Community Development Department at (714) 738-6547 prior to the meeting.

Taggers Hit Nicolas Junior High School, Nicolas Park, and Neighboring Business

FULLERTON - Sometime Sunday night or Monday morning, taggers redecorated some walls around Nicolas Park and a neighboring business. 

In what can only be characterized as amazing, two suspects were apprehended by Fullerton Police Captain Dan Hughes who, while in charge of the Patrol Division, was conducting surveillance of the area.

Yesterday, Captain Hughes responded to an email I sent him regarding the mess and if any suspects had been identified. 

"I was conducting a surveillance of Nicolas and contacted two adults near the bathroom area.  One had a warrant for being a parolee at large and was arrested.  The other was identified but there were no violations.  The parolee arrested had been found guilty on 7/15/11 of vandalism to the school property.  The female that was with the parolee also has a history of committing vandalism and both live in the area.  While at the bathroom area, the school principal contacted me and told me both of these individuals have been seen writing graffiti in the area and he has also video taped both.  The previous graffiti they have been connected to is similar to the recent graffiti committed over the weekend."

Detective Bolden has already made progress on several cases and is moving very quickly towards several arrests in coming days.  I will be following up on this next week to see if there is anything new.

After I commended Captain Hughes for his efforts to clean up our city, he modestly wrote, "Every once in awhile I get lucky and escape the paperwork to go look for bad guys. I'm glad this worked out." 

So am I.In a follow up email today, Captain Hughes said that Gang Detective James Bolden has been assigned to actively investigate these incidents.  This will allow all of the tagging incidents in the area to be investigated and prosecuted with the same vigor as any other gang-related crime.