SPEAK AT 3:30 TODAY! Will Kring Help Brandman Line His Pockets and Cement His Influence on the Way Out?

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Before Harry Potter fans correct me, Brandman is NOT a Dementor (he's never been locked up, for one thing) -- but he DOES serve Voldemort!

Before Harry Potter fans correct me: Brandman is NOT himself a Dementor (he’s never been locked up, for one thing) — but he DOES serve Anaheim’s equivalent of Voldemort!

Evidence has been mounting that Jordan “Subsidies!” Brandman is trailing significantly in his campaign for election to Anaheim’s substantial Latino majority District 3, where he is running against Democrat Dr. Jose Moreno and Republican Robert Nelson (plus two also-rans.)  The agenda for today’s Anaheim City Council meeting tells us that Brandman is making his plans to serve himself for after he loses that election and before he skips along to the next office that his backers cue up for him.

(1) Brandman wants to lock in his appointment to the Orange County Water District, where he can not only personally receive a nice amount of money and benefits, but also vote for the lamentable “Cadiz” project coming from his best buddy Kris “Subsidies!” Murray’s employer Willdan.  That’s Item 33, open session.

(2) He wants the City Council to appoint Arturo Fierro – father of his campaign manager Danny Fierro (who working under Brandman in Assemblyman Ian Calderon’s District Office until July) and father-in-law of Felicia Fierro, Brandman’s City Council aide (!) – to become City Attorney, where he can fight off efforts to uncover what happened during the Pringle and Murray years, such as who’s responsible and what consequences they should face.  (It also gives the senior Fierro him a whopping six month’s severance pay — over $105,000 — even if the new City Council decides to fire him in December!  (Brandman apologist Liberal OC notes that 25 people applied for that position – but it could have been 25,000 applicants and it STILL wouldn’t matter if the council majority’s secret unstated qualification for the office was personal loyalty to Jordan Brandman!)  That appointment is considered in the closed session, Item 2 – but if you show up at 3:30 you can speak directly on it then – and it is confirmed in Item 5 in the open session, on the consent calendar!  The appointment would come only about a month before this City Council’s final meeting and three weeks before the city’s first district election – which Brandman, Kring, and Murray all at various points opposed.

But the agenda items tell us something else as well.  It also tells us that Brandman doesn’t mind if nis feathering his own nest pulls down Lucille “Subsidies!” Kring’s campaign in District 4, because literature tying Kring to this self-serving, cronyism, and facilitation of a cover-up will surely be spread throughout District 4 if she goes along with the vote today.  (So the news is not all bad.)

Let’s unpack all that more clearly for people who love bullet points:

  • The Council majority wouldn’t be trying to cram these appointments with “poison pill” severance if they thought that they had a decent chance to hold on to power, because these appointments make their holding on to power less likely.
  • Brandman may be doomed, but Kring isn’t, partially because of the underhanded imposter “Joe Moreno” picking off people who think that he’s Dr. Jose Moreno.  The dirty trick he’s been playing for hears might finally matter.
  • Anaheim could do without an OCWD rep for one meeting.  Or the new Council could hold a special meeting on December 1 or 2 to make an appointment.  There’s no need to lock doomed Jordan in for four years to a position where crony capitalism is deadly.
  • KRIS MURRAY SHOULD RECUSE HERSELF FROM THIS VOTE.  She is a Senior Vice President at Willdan Group, which has a substantial financial stake in the Cadiz (“water from the desert”) project.  Her vote to approve one of her best friends and political allies to this post serves her own financial interests.  She has intervened with the City on behalf of her employer before, and do you know who called her on her ethics?  The Liberal OC!  (Don’t get the wrong idea — it was Chris Prevatt, of course!  We sure miss him!)
  • Brandman runs Assemblyman Ian Calderon’s district office where Danny Fierro worked until June.  (Fierro’s wife Felicia is Brandman’s Council aide.)  Calderon has not yet been implicated in the Calderon family’s legal and ethical problems, which got uncle Ron booted from the Assembly, got him and uncle Tom sent to jail, led Ian’s father Charles to lose an elected judge’s position that should have been a gimme for someone of his stature, and led Ian himself to squeak past his opponent with only a 3% margin in a district with a 24% Democratic voter registration advantage!  (So, as a Democrat: thanks a lot, Jordan, for not only failing to devote your free time to your boss’s re-election, as most district directors do, but also for stealing away a key staffer!  If Ian loses, you’ll deserve lots of credit!)  These are more than ordinarily close ties — and it is hard to believe that they didn’t affect Arturo Fierro’s selection by Brandman and Murray.  (And maybe Kring.)
  • Arturo Fierro would be in a position to block and fight any sorts of investigations into Anaheim’s cronyism — which directly protects the Council majority.  (Kring might be safe from that — she’s not an insider — but Murray and Brandman are not.  For them to chose the city’s next attorney is disgusting at best.)
  • By giving him a $105,000+ severance package even if he works for no more than two months, this move is intended to hold the city budget hostage and make it very difficult for Anaheim to remove him.  That is despicable.  And no, Chumley, this is NOT like the Merrick Garland situation, you dolt.  The City Attorney position is being ably filled right now, and if Scalia had died just last month Obama would probably follow tradition and not appoint this close to the election.  THIS is outrageous!
  • The powers-that-be are prepared to screw over Kring again.  This trying to set up a cover-up WILL BE A MAJOR ISSUE in the last three weeks of the campaign, if it passes!  Brandman is already a goner, but Kring will be the one affected by it.  (You’d think that she’d get tired of being screwed over after a while.)

COME SPEAK ON THIS — ONCE BEFORE CLOSED SESSION AT 3:30, THEN AGAIN BEFORE THE MEETING AT 5:00!


About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)