Taking Office

"So when do you take office?"  That seems to be the big question on many people's minds.

It's needlessly convoluted so stay with me.

Thursday morning, June 28, at or about 9:00AM, a City Council meeting was to be held in the Council Chambers to accept the results of the recall election.  However, the City Manager reports that recalled council member Dick Jones backed out.  Mayor Quirk-Silva and Member Bruce Whitaker were willing to be there.

As of this morning, Mayor Quirk-Silva was planning on calling for a special meeting on Monday morning, July 2nd, at 9:00AM.  I have been told by City Manager Felz and City Attorney Jones that recalled council member Pat McKinley has promised to participate.  According to City Manager Felz, Mr. McKinley has planned to be out of town this week for perhaps several months.

Regardless of whether the July 2nd meeting occurs, I have been told that Mayor Quirk-Silva will have a meeting Tuesday night.  This would be a normal meeting but it had been canceled due to the July 4th celebration on the following day.  So, if Monday's meeting is canceled, perhaps Tuesday's meeting will result in the new council being able to act.

If Monday's and Tuesday's meetings fail to have a quorum and seat the new council, I have asked City Attorney Jones to take the matter before a judge on July 5th.  If that does not happen, I am preparing to take the matter before a judge on July 6th myself.

July 17 is tentatively scheduled to be the first regular City Council meeting though will be largely ceremonial including public ceremonial swearing in of the new members.  There may be an item or two that will be addressed but I don't know what those will be.

As we approach this tumultuous transition in Fullerton's governance, I reflect upon President George Washington's Farewell Address and the elegance with which he stepped down.  With quiet dignity and gentle words of wisdom, he stepped aside to allow someone else, John Adams, to preside over the United States.  It is too bad that some of the recalled council members appear to have neither dignity nor wisdom to do what is right.

Why can't the City of Fullerton track labor for the Water Fund (or anything else)?

After listening to the City Manager and various department managers discussing their budget woes at the City's Budget Workshop on Tuesday night it occurred to me to ask a basic question.

Having worked for a few different employers over the years one learns that employee time sheets are an important tool for allocating labor costs and client billing.  "If you cannot measure it," says professor Barry McCarthy "you cannot manage it."

Something I heard, I can't recall just what specifically, caused me to rise out of my seat and approach the dead microphone.  The question was so simple I thought I might be asking a "stupid" question.

My question: "Do employees bill their time to specific projects or funds?"


The answer: "No."

A short time later, Director of Engineering Don Hoppe told me his Engineering Department does track time based on the engineering project.  So, while nearly all of City Hall fails to track employee time, a fundamental principle of management, Don Hoppe's engineering team gets an "A".

If the City were anything like a business, it would have failed decades ago.  But they can simply raise taxes (fees) and continue their charade until someone notices.  Like when water rates skyrocket.

Several managers that I spoke with after the Budget Workshop said they wanted to know how much time their employees are spending on specific projects and tasks but that the current (and new) accounting system just isn't set up for that type of data input.

Of all of the jobs I have ever had, in the public sector and private sector, only two employers did not have employees fill out time sheets and list what work they did.  Both companies went out of business years ago.

The City's inability to account for labor and, therefor actual costs, is at the heart of the issue.  It also blows a titanic hole in labor  arguments about efficiency and effectiveness of employees.

And so City Hall, when faced with running out of money, looks to the taxpayers for the bailout.  Its time to end taxpayer funded bailouts and require employees to track their time based on project funding - just like that which the City requires of their own consultants and contractors.

Mayor Throws City Manager & Interim Police Chief Under Bus and Apologizes

After FPD interim chief Kevin Hamilton apologized to the Nordell family and after Mrs. Nordell accepted the apology, Fullerton's Mayor Dick Jones said that it wasn't until the apology was placed on the council's meeting agenda did the council begin to get information.

Mayor Jones went on to blame the lines of communication between the council and police chief are poor. 

"Its not real easy to get information out of departments.  We don't have direct access to them," said Mayor Jones who added "Usually the information chain goes through the City Manager to us."

Mayor Jones apologized as both the Mayor of Fullerton as well as an individual.

The Mayor uses the excuse of poor communication as a way to not apologize for the council's clear lack of concern until a month ago after a year-long bureaucratic ordeal.  The Mayor's admission of poor communication tells us a few other things as well:

1. The Mayor is aware that his department heads and managers are not openly communicating very important information to the council;
2. Our fears of a dysfunctional City Hall are justified;
3. The severity and depth of corruption within the walls of the FPD is being kept from the Fullerton City Council;
4. The Fullerton City Council is ill-informed and, therefore, unable to adequately govern;
5. The Mayor and perhaps other council members do not seek out information on their own from department heads, choosing instead to rely solely on the City staff and the Council's meeting agenda;
6. If the Council is being kept in the dark, how much is being kept from Fullerton residents? 

The City Council should be given progress reports from each department regarding allegations of misconduct.  The Council should know that their were several reports against former Fullerton cop Albert Rincon alleging sexual assault, kidnapping, battery, false imprisonment, etc. all under the color of authority.  And when Federal Judge Andrew Guilford slammed the City saying, "the City’s failure to investigate or punish sexual harassment allegations suggests tacit authorization."

But the Judge didn't stop there. "As stated above, Plaintiffs raise a triable issue of fact as to exactly when the City first learned about allegations against Rincon. The sheer volume of incidents in 2008 alone relative to Rincon’s arrests is sufficient to call into question what exactly the City knew or should have known before November 2008."

It would appear that the command staff of FPD chose not to do anything. 

The sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and chief (McKinley at the time Rincon was implicated) ALL CHOSE TO DO NOTHING.

Last night I suggested the council publicly share what a contract with the Orange County Sheriff's Department might look like.  How much money would we save, not just from law suits but from the actual contract services? $5-million?  $10-million?  More??? 

And if you wondered why the FPD should be scrapped, please read this conclusion from U.S. Judge Andrew Guilford:

You can read the entire Motion for Summary Judgement at FullertonsFuture.org.

seven women certainly raises questions about the City’s custom and practice around sexual assault. Requiring Rincon to attend “pat-down” training is weak sauce that does nothing to hide the unpleasant taste of complicity. At the end of the day, the City put Rincon back onto the streets to continue arresting women despite a pattern of sexual harassment allegations. A reasonable juror could conclude, based on these facts, that the City imply did not care about what its officers did to women during arrest.

Most shocking is the City’s weak “Reprimand” of Rincon. If one woman had brought an allegation of sexual assault, then the Court could understand how the City might have concluded that the allegations were not believable, and find no misconduct on Rincon’s part. But to dismiss the accounts of

Clearly the Fullerton City Council has relinquished their elected authority and are no longer able to effectively communicate or lead.

How long will Fullerton residents allow this to continue before they have had enough?

Illegal taxes and misappropriations? Give the man a raise!

After putting a spot light on what the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association has characterized as an illegal water tax and then discovering rampant misappropriations of earmarked funds, its frustrating to learn that City Manager Joe Felz is up for a raise.

According to the August 16, 2011 City Council agenda and associated staff report, Felz will get a salary of $201,000, for his salary, $41,000 for retirement costs, and $24,000 for benefits. It's not clear if the "benefits" include Felz's $625.00 per month car allowance.  Felz currently earns $166,250 per year.

Felz is the most approachable and humble city manager I have met but does that mean we should be giving him a MASSIVE raise in the midst of multiple crises?

Let’s recap.

We have an $8-million budget deficit which city staff says will be shored up through employee contract negotiation.  At this rate, are deficit will GROW, not shrink. It's not fair to ask other city employees to take huge pay cuts while the top dog gets a big raise.

The City has been applying an illegal tax on the Water Fund, siphoning nearly $3-million a year to cover salaries and benefits for public safety employees.

The current budget (with its deficit) shows that earmarked taxes for sewers and storm drain maintenance are being used to cover salaries and benefits in the fire department, community development, and human resources.

And then there is the most recent debacle, the complete mishandling of the death of Kelly Thomas at the hands of City employees.  Who knows how much this will cost Fullerton taxpayers...

I’m all for giving our new city manager time to right these many wrongs but I think pay should be based on actual performance and not intentions or platitudes.  

Dear Joe,

If you want a raise, close the budget deficit, end the illegal “franchise tax” on water, end the practice of misappropriating public funds, and put a stop to police corruption.

You know the timing couldn't be worse and think about how this will reflect on the City of Fullerton.  Please do the right thing and reject the raise.