PR Firm With Ties To Curt Pringle Courts Anaheim Officials Day After ‘Civil Unrest’ With Plan To Pacify ‘Latinos’

URBAN PACIFICATION: A day after “civil unrest” rocked Anaheim City Hall, Faubel Public Affairs, one of Orange County’s most politically-connected public relations firms, quickly approached city officials with a “crisis management proposal” to pacify the “Latino community.”

Less than 24-hours after more than 1,000 working-class Mexican residents took to the streets outside Anaheim City Hall to protest police brutality and misconduct, Faubel Public Affairs, one of the most politically-connected public relations firms in Orange County, quickly approached city officials with a “crisis management proposal” to pacify the “Latino community.”

According to an email dated Wednesday, July 25, 2012 that was obtained under a California Public Records Act request, Jonathan Volzke, a Senior Account Manager for Faubel, contacted Mayor Tom Tait and City Manager Bob Wingenroth to offer his firm’s services “in developing a strategy that will not only address the immediate crisis, but move the city and its residents toward a trusting relationship.”

Quote:

As experts in crisis management, Faubel Public Affairs would like to help the City of Anaheim develop and implement that plan. As a full service public relations firm, we have worked for the City in the past, notably in the campaign against the Angels’ effort change their name. We also worked to mobilize Anaheim’s Latino community with private clients.

Joining us in the effort would be Ybarra Company and Richard Ybarra, a highly experienced–and respected–community organizer with deep roots in the Latino community. He is the son-in-law of the late Cesar Chavez.

“We’d like to meet with you as soon as possible,” writes Volzke, “to discuss the next steps that need to be taken to stop the momentum of the crisis, move past it and on to the healing.”

Over the years, Faubel, which is run by Roger Faubel of Mission Viejo, has steadily forged close relationships with some of Orange County’s most powerful business and political elites.

Earlier this year, the Voice of OC said:

In addition to running his own PR firm, Faubel is a member of the Santa Margarita Water District Board of Directors and previously served on the Mission Viejo City Council.

According to his biography on the water district website, he also is an active member of the Orange County Taxpayers Association, whose board of directors is a Who’s Who of county political and business leaders. The current chairman is former Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, and board members include the Disney Resort, the Irvine Co., Chevron Corp. and other influential firms, lobbyists and organizations.

In 2010, the OC Metro reported that the Orange County Taxpayers Association entered into a contractual relationship with Faubel’s firm to do public relations work:

The Orange County Taxpayers Association , a nonprofit tax watchdog organization, has hired Faubel Public Affairs to amplify its mission and build its brand.

“This is a very exciting time for OCTax right now, and we are very much looking forward to the great improvements that Faubel Public Affairs will bring to the organization,” says Reed Royalty, OCTax founder and president. 

In 2011, Brian Lochrie, one of Faubel’s employees, issued the press release announcing OCTax’s decision to appoint Pringle as chairman of that group.

Faubel’s ties to Pringle are nothing new and began as early as 2002 when his firm, then-called Waters & Faubel, was hired by Gigante, a multi-billion dollar Mexican grocery store chain, to put pressure on the City of Anaheim to allow the issuance of a permit to sell hard liquor at a supermarket it was opening up at the Anaheim Plaza.

As part of a well-orchestrated media blitz, Faubel’s business partner, Meg Waters, held a press conference and trotted out Pringle, at the time a mayoral candidate, to blast city officials for denying Gigante the right to peddle booze, arguing the company was a “good corporate citizen” and their action violates “free-enterprise principles.”

[For purposes of disclosure, the author of this article, Duane Roberts, is a candidate for Anaheim City Council]


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