City Council Meeting Tuesday Night

Fullerton City Council Meeting August 7, 2012 at 6:30PM at City Hall, 303 W. Commonwealth Ave

The Agenda has some big-ticket items that you should be aware of.  Among them is the massive issue of water rates and determining what costs should be appropriately charged to the Water Fund.  

There are a total of 27 items on the agenda and I hope to hear you speak about them.  Your voice matters so please speak up.

Click HERE for the Agenda!

April Money Bomb - Please Donate Today

After scoring a major victory for Fullerton Water Ratepayers on Tuesday with the elimination of the decades old water tax, it's easy to get complacent.  However, we mustn't get too comfortable.  If you want to see actual reform hit City Hall, if you want to know what it means to improve city streets, if you want accountable, open, honest leadership...

Please donate today!  

I need your help raising money so that I can focus on the issues at hand.  With a $1.1-billion debt hanging over us, its important we continue to find real solutions that keep us from going bankrupt.

Helping is easy and there are no minimum or maximum limits.  

$50

$75

$100

$250

$1,000

You Choose!

All major credit cards accepted.

Donate online through PayPal by clicking HERE

or click on the donate page at www.GregSebourn.com.

Campaigns are costly and time consuming.  Signs, mailers, and fliers are all important and very expensive when you look at the size of Fullerton and the quantities I need to purchase.

With your support I can win the election and represent you at City Hall.

End the madness!  Please donate today!

The Taxpayer-Subsidized Racing Boat?

The City Council would like to give Sunny Hills High School $2,500 and sponsor the school’s participation in the annual Solar Cup Race.

Interestingly, the race is being put on by our water supplier, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. 

The idea behind the race, according to the City of Fullerton staff report, is for the high school students to build and race solar powered boats. 

And what are the benefits to the taxpayers?  According to the same staff report, the benefits to MWD and its member agencies include:

• Promote stewardship of natural resources, water quality and recreation
• Increase understanding of water conservation and many issues, perspectives, and science of water
• Greater ties to secondary education audience (high schools) in our service area
• Legislative outreach opportunities both locally and regionally
• Intense collaborative effort between MWD and sponsoring agencies
• Community outreach opportunities to service groups retirees or organizations – Lions, Elks Clubs
• Increase awareness to paths into water industry careers

And where will the $2,500 come from?  The Water Fund.  This is the same fund that, just a few short months ago, city staff were crying was underfunded and that they just had to raise our water rates.  They said they wanted to sell tens of millions of dollars in bonds to fund replacement of the City's ancient water system.

How is it we went from “Captain, Captain, the ship is sinking!” to floating a $2,500 sponsorship fee (made payable to a public agency – MWD) for a high school outreach program? 

What could have changed?  Did ending the decades-long franchise tax on the Water Fund result in more cash on hand for “outreach” efforts like this?  Was there a sudden revenue spike in Water Fund revenue resulting in a massive surplus?

Is this water education allocation a good use of public funds at a time when we are being asked to pay nearly double on water rates?  Does the Water Fund’s “water education” allocation need some scrutiny?

If any of these questions have raised the hair on the back of your neck, you might want to ask your City Council to justify this $2,500 expenditure.  In 2009, the City Council voted to support the Sunny Hills Team for the 2011 race in name only and not give them any funding.  That was responsible.

So what changed since 2009?  Our City Council voted to approve a two-year budget with a $8-million deficit and passed a $29-million tax bond that will cost Fullerton taxpayers $45.5-million!  Oh, and in 2010, the City Council voted to resume sponsorship of the team.  Now we’re broke!

Time and again, we see Fullerton’s failed leadership implement meaningless policies with little benefit to the taxpayer who makes it all possible. 

Waste at any level is waste and when we have a massive deficit coupled with out of control spending, it's time to stop the party bus. 

I know some of the teachers involved in the Solar Cup Race at Sunny Hills.  These are truly some of the brightest minds our high school district has to offer.  My opposition is to the City's use of our funds for the sponsorship and not extracurricular activities that help students learn.

I suggest the Sunny Hills team have fundraisers like the other clubs and athletic teams.  They should start soliciting donations from the District’s Board Members and Superintendent. 

The team should contact all of the City's, as well as the District's, employee unions and ask for donations.  Come election season they always seem to be flush with cash for campaign signs and glossy mailers - surely their members would like to contribute to such a worthy cause.

They can even call me, I'd love to chip in.  When the City said no in 2009, Marty Burbank jumped in and donated.  (MY HAT'S OFF TO YOU, MARTY!!)  But please don’t ask for money from City Hall until we can pay off the mounting debt and balance the budget. 

The El Dorado Ranch - Is it Public or Private

Here is an update to a story I brought you on April 6, 2010.

Clearly this sign warns potential visitors to the El Dorado Ranch that it is "PRIVATE PROPERTY". However, the sign lies! Or rather the person who placed the sign there is either a liar or is misinformed. The Grant Deed below makes it clear that the property has been granted to a public agency which places the property in the hands of California residents.

So, despite the very official albeit old and faded sign, you and I own the temporary residence of Milton A. Gordon, President of Cal State Fullerton whose salary exceeds $300,000 per year. With all that money he saves living rent free it's no wonder he left the light on for us.

Here is a nice view of what Mr. Gordon enjoys...


I spy a tall tower...

Hundreds Gather for Trigonometry Competition at Santiago Canyon College

March 20, 2010
Trig Star 2010 attracted hundreds of high school students and their parents from a dozen Orange County area schools. Also in attendance were Santiago Canyon College students. What could possibly compel these students to wake up early on a Saturday morning to take a trigonometry exam? How about $500 and scholarship opportunities! Winners walked away with $500, $300, and $200 for first, second and third place respectively. The college students took the same exam but were competing for their own prizes in the same amount of money. Exams were scored immediately following the exam by a dozen volunteer proctors. The event closed out with the announcement of the winners of Trig Star and an exciting competition known as the Surveyor's Challenge. The winners of the Surveyor's Challenge walked away with $50, $30, and $20 awards for measuring angles and distances and then applying trigonometric principles to their measurements to determine the size, shape, and area of certain features on campus. A grand prize was also handed out. The Garmin eTrex Legend H, worth about $150, went to the overall Surveyor's Challenge winner, Vallentino Leanarduzzi, a Santiago Canyon College Survey/Mapping student.

Numerous industry leaders were on hand to recruit and educate visitors about land surveying and mapping.  The primary sponsor, the Orange County Chapter of the California Land Surveyor's Association (OC-CLSA), donated nearly $6,000 to make the event a success.  Other sponsors included the Port of Long Beach, California State University at Fresno's Geomatics Engineering, Psomas, Johnson-Frank, RBF, the County of Orange's Geomatics/LIS Division, Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG), Santiago Canyon College's Career Education, and me. 

Two TV Shows With Land Surveyors

http://www.wtsp.com/news/columnist/story.aspx?storyid=108025&catid=79

“Tampa, FL - Robert Sullivan, a land surveyor, was one of more than a thousand people who showed up at the St. Pete Times Forum at 5 a.m. for a chance at getting in the hot seat on Who Wants To be a Millionaire?.
Before he even filled out a form, he knows where the money will go. "I have two five year olds. Anything that I can do to secure their education and their futures is where the money will go." His slow work schedule allowed him to take off time to audition.
Producers say they have seen more and more people affected by the economy who are auditioning. "It's not people that are desperate, that their house is about to go on foreclosure, but it's people that are afraid they are going to get there," said Co-executive Producer Rich Sirop.”

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/numb3rs/recaps/601/recaps.php

Season 6: Episode 01: Hangman
"Don’s team is charged with running VIP security for a big political rally featuring high profile activist Benjamin Polk. While scouting out the venue in preparation for the event, Don and his team come under heavy fire and receive a message to stay away from Polk during the rally. This overt attempt to scare Polk and the FBI away doesn’t work, and Polk insists on keeping his speaking engagement at the gathering. The FBI then digs in to try and discover who is making the threat, and discover that it’s a man who’d lost his son during a violent riot orchestrated by Polk to gain political street credit in order to further his own career. Furious that his son had been blatantly used as a pawn, the man, Shepard Crater, had come to LA to exact revenge. On the day of the rally Crater sets off a sequence of events to force Polk back to his hotel, where Crater is set to ambush and kill him. Charlie deduces the plot just in time, and David and Colby move in and take Crater down before he can kill Polk. However, after learning the whole story from Crater before they take him down, Colby and David meet with a political journalist and blow the whistle on Polk’s tactics, effectively ruining his political career."

This excerpt doesn’t mention it but in the middle of the episode a character pulls out an old Geodimeter total station and places it on an aluminum tripod to collect supplemental data for a 3D map. It wasn’t a long scene nor was it perfect but it was cool!

The A-Team

Lofty Idea Auctioned Off

The Orange County Register is reporting that the Harbor Lofts in Anaheim (adjacent to Angel Stadium) put 60 condos on the auction block! 

With original prices starting at an inflated $350,000, some units were auctioned for as little as $250,000. 

It looks like these lofts were someone's lofty idea for moving more apartments... That's redevelopment for you!

Rio Hondo College President Under Fire From Faculty and Community

Whittier Daily News has reported that Rio Hondo College President, Dr. Ted Martinez, has been given a raise and a boost in benefits. There are some strings attached but is it appropriate to have the administrative leader getting a raise while the faculty and staff are taking cuts in pay? Of course not! But should we blame Dr. Martinez or the RHC District Board Members who voted to give him the raise? I don't think I would turn down a huge raise or the $700 per month car allowance. But perhaps the board members should be reminded of who they represent. Read the whole story from the Daily News at http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_13631708.