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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!
The only good thing out tonights meting is that in November 2018 we get to undo only 300 million of the 700 million in corporate welfare. But then again we have 4 more years of this monster brandman wreaking havoc on a larger number of county residents on the ocwd board.
Good, we had to leave around 8:30, I’m glad they didn’t try to call a special election.
And Jordan is GONE off the OCWD as of December, assuming two of the following win Nov 8: Jose or Robert, Arturo, Donna, anyone good from Dist. 1 (Mark D, Denise, Freddie, Angel.)
Worst thing is it’s gonna cost us six digits to get rid of this Fierro attorney (unless he turns out to be unexpectedly honest and competent.)
“…unless he turns out to be unexpectedly honest and competent”
Or unless a fortuitous meteorite falls from the heavens. Thanks for starting the day with a little humor.
Well here is some sunshine for you. There is no December Board meeting scheduled for OCWD (as of a few days ago when I checked the website) so Jordie does not get to play with the WillDan football until January, and by then (please God please) we will have a whole new Council. And as we learned in the callous treatment of Bruce Whitaker and his Fullerton seat for the OCWD, that appointment can be rescinded at any time. (Sorry Jordan, elephants never forget)
So instead of quietly shuffling off to whatever special district board his buddies will find for him to keep his resume fresh until 2018, NOW Brandman gets to endure the public humiliation of not only being rejected by voters in his own neighborhood, but also be publicly and humiliatingly removed from the OCWD only a month or two after his pals reappointed him. Now THAT is gonna leave a mark.
Debbie Cook was one of our guest speakers on OCWD/Cadiz/Poseidon/Jordan. One point she and John Earl both made against Jordan is that he has the WORST attendance record of any OCWD member since the 1930’s.
This (among other considerations) led her to suggest that elected officials (councilmembers) are NOT good choices for OCWD members – “by definition they are overcommitted.” And also not expert, and also vulnerable to lucre. She said councils should instead appoint someone from their cities who they feel is honest and has a good grasp of water issues and economics.
Who knew that was possible, but apparently it is. It seems like the three cities (the charter cities I believe) who get to name a director rather than elect one – Anaheim, Fullerton, Santa Ana – ALWAYS pick a councilmember – I’d assumed that was the rule, but it’s not.
And James Vanderbilt (many of our first choice for Jordan’s replacement) thought that was a great idea. Names anyone? There must be several great possible candidates in the OC’s biggest city. Who is our Peer Swan?
Me?
I’d love to work side by side Bilodadeau and Sheldon.
Brilliant. Think you can be on time?
I say ZENGER.
First things first, amigo.
One has to be an Anaheim resident. Doesnt David live in Fullerton?
Noop. Anaheim district 4.
Countdown now to the two klepto blogs, who don’t miss a word over here, straining to ridicule this brilliant idea.
BTW I got a surprise call from Bilodeau a few minutes after David’s offer on a completely different topic (he wanted to fill me in on Faessel ‘s ACTUAL role in the Ball Basin drama, which Cynthia confirmed.). And he said he too likes the idea of working with Zenger again. (Whether he really meant that is another question.)
I get to be Zengers Assistant! I call dibs
And as for the City Attorney’s office, they thankfully did not vote to fill it. But had they done so, the severance would be a drop in the bucket in comparison to what MIGHT be regained for the General Fund if we can get an honest, competent, and experienced CA into place to review every jot and tittle of every agreement in place to see what may have been the result of professional negligence or fraud, or to identify and exploit any minute legal loophole that might be used to protect the taxpayers of Anaheim. You KNOW that THEY would do it. While i don’t like to use their behavior as a benchmark for our own, I say that only to pre-emptively stop their whining at our lack of respect for the process or whatever drivel Cunningham will come up with if the new Council demands we go back over those deals with a fine tooth comb.
Now thankfully THOSE deals (from spring 2013 to summer 2016) have been the work of someone lacking experience in the field of government code, and maybe that becomes our saving grace. Houston gifted us with the “4 vote Charter change” now being used by Eastman of all people. God knows how many other bread crumbs he dropped in the forest, in fact that 4 vote Charter change nearly looks as though he may have been on OUR side….
What??!!
I was assured that they had, but with this being the final “tie loose ends and deliver keys” day of our move, all has been a whirl.
What did they do when it came to agenda item 5?
I missed that portion, done between my leaving at end of Pub Comments to help a neighbor with missing keys and getting to a laptop to watch but was told they postponed the CA’s appointment. I have to go back and watch and see why in the name of Pinnochio James would go along with the Brandan reappointment. On the one hand it is a smart move, if you are dealing with someone who is A) a vindictive little (insert favorite expletive here) and B) you might have to put up with for a while if voters don’t wise up and C) you know you can remove later without harm, I guess you roll with the majority and undo the damage later. But i didn’t see James as the guy to play that game. On the other hand I cannot fathom him believing Jordan is a doing the public’s bidding on this board…who knows.
I was told that that OCWD vote was 3-2, with James dissenting.
I’m going to have to recheck that source.
BTW I second the nomination of David Zenger for OCWD Board.
Now if only ANY of us here had an ounce of power, authority, or influence…we could maybe DO something with the visionary seedlings that blossom forth upon this internet garden of ideas.
Greg, the OCWD was 4-0 Tait left the dais for potential conflict, since CA’s office had not been able to review his firm’s work for the District. It’s OK, it just means Brandman is subject to the humiliation of being REMOVED when he loses his majority. That is kind of better than not re-appointing him. if we wanted to play Karmic games.
http://voiceofoc.org/2016/10/anaheim-council-postpones-vote-on-city-attorney-appointment/
The CA’s appt was pulled from Agenda before the meeting began, one assumes they hoped if it was announced to have been pulled prior to Public Comments the Public would fail to comment. Nope. And it is not on today’s agenda released for Tuesday. They have 3 meetings left before their replacements are sworn in. Watch for the Thanksgiving week meeting to be BAD, post-election they have nothing to lose and one last meeting to shove meat through the sausage grinder for their pals to cushion their own landings in the civilian world.
In other news, Jordan’s boss’s uncle was sentenced to prison time today. He reports to the slammer in the New Year. I guess Ian does not get his roomie back in the Sacramento condo.