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The landscape of Murray/Eastman/Sidhu fearmongering. Shops near Anaheim High School boarded up for absolutely no reason. Local kids and our own Francisco Barragan to right, after the meeting.
It was bizarre, surreal, all those types of adjectives. As the Wednesday August 8 mega-Council meeting at Anaheim High School’s Cook Auditorium got closer, all the local merchants began to nail protective boards over their windows, and closed early. WHY? Nobody who’s been following the news in Anaheim, no-one who’s slightly in touch with the place, was expecting any trouble at all. But SOMEBODY, as one frightened merchant told my friend Cynthia Ward, was going around warning all the local businesses that there would be a RIOT Wednesday afternoon on account of the meeting.
What utter nonsense! The only reason there HAD been a riot on the night of July 24 was 1) two fatal police shootings had happened just days before, and 2) after being encouraged to come to the July 24 council meeting, the Anna Drive neighbors were [as far as they could tell] locked out of the meeting, and so felt helplessly enraged. But THIS meeting, the August 8 one, was intentionally located by Mayor Tait in a 1000-seat auditorium where they were guaranteed entry and guaranteed to be heard. Not to mention, tempers had cooled after two weeks and the bereaved were just grieving by now. So anyone who knew anything saw all this terrified preparation for a riot, scratched their heads and said “Huh?”
As with most things evil in today’s Anaheim, the manufactured fear of Wednesday’s meeting can be tracked back to the Council majority of Murray, Eastman and Sidhu, who had brought up phony safety concerns the previous week in an unsuccessful attempt to derail the meeting. You may remember how relieved they were when the July 24 riots aborted THAT meeting so they wouldn’t have to cast a vote on two very popular measures that they preferred to just let die on their own: districting, and putting future hotel subsidies to a popular vote. (You may remember Eastman’s exulting over having those measures die “without a shot fired.”)
Well, with Mayor Tait calling this special August 8 meeting, the two measures were not dead after all, and the three corporatists would actually have to kill the measures themselves, in public view, with their bare hands. How to prevent this meeting from happening? Feign fear of a riot, was obviously their best and only idea. Kris Murray quickly called an emergency closed session, to (among a couple other things) discuss with the police chief “the safety of public buildings.” In the public comments allowed before the closed session, dittohead supporters of the Terrified Trio lined up to bray out a quivering chorus of trepidation: the “school district would be in jeopardy” somehow, the meeting must be cancelled for safety’s sake! The closed session following was marathon-length, but the Mayor kept his meeting – smart money sez Chief Welter refused to humiliate himself by saying he couldn’t keep Cook Auditorium safe.
So, one byproduct of this shameful kabuki was this unnecessary wasteland of boarded-up shops and lost business. Outsiders should never underestimate “the hive mind of the Mother Colony” – and this WAS the Colony neighborhood, whose groupthink is legendary and whose rumor mill and propaganda machine – driven by Councilmembers Eastman and Murray and errand-boy/council hopeful Jordan Brandman and usually traceable back to uber-corporatist Curt Pringle – would make FOX News jealous. In this week’s exercise they successfully scared themselves shitless. [*Update – see comments section below for example from Anaheim Neighborhood Association.]
And now, there was no way out. The meeting was going to happen. And if Anaheim was not going to see districting and popular votes on hotel subsidies – an unthinkable outcome! – Murray, Eastman and Sidhu would have to do the dirty work themselves and have the whole public see what assholes they are. And in this they did not disappoint. But let’s examine exactly WHAT KIND of assholes they are.
The Wednesday August 8 Mega-Council Meeting.
Okay, everybody’s written about the meeting already, all the little eager-beaver journalists WHO GET PAID and get a lot wrong, but you already know the basics. Hundreds came, as expected, brushing past friendly youth giving out free “No Violence in Anaheim” teeshirts and glancing quizzically across the placid street at all the newly boarded-up shops. Nearly a hundred spoke (for over four hours of public comments) and most were there because of the police killings and police overreaction to the subsequent protests. Chief Welter sat stoically through multiple calls for his resignation (and is fully wiling, he tells me, to discuss a citizens’ oversight Board, and is not leaving any time soon either.)
But the people who were there for one reason had a chance to learn plenty about districting, hotel subsidies, how those two issues really affect them, which members of the council care about them and trust them, and which ones want to keep them down as long as possible. YOU already know the pre-ordained conclusion: the three corporatists killed (temporarily) the two democratic reforms. But let’s look at some details of the strangulation, and what it reveals about the uniquely despicable characteristics of each of these Three Corporatists.
The imperious Kris Murray. Outfit provided by SaveAnaheim.com
There’s no secret that the imperious Kris Murray wants to be the next Mayor when that possibility opens up in 2014. She and her allies have been savaging true conservative Mayor Tom Tait nonstop for his lack of fealty to Anaheim’s corporate power structure, making him out to somehow be some kind of leftist rabble rouser. The absurdity of these attacks only seems to add to his popularity and to put steel in the good man’s spine.
In defending her $158 million bed-tax giveaway to developer Bill O’Connell – known also as the “TOT” issue, and the controversy that led us to the “Let the People Vote” initiative – she launched into a half-hour revisionist history of the entire deal, which we have no room here to fisk, but Jason has begun to. It’s true what they say – when this woman begins defending herself, you can doze off, and wake up again, and do that ten times, and each time say to yourself, “DAMN, Kris Murray is STILL talking.” One thinks of Castro, Hugo Chavez.
The districting issue had more interesting wrinkles than the subsidies did – two big ones in fact. ONE – the world had woken up that morning to a Register article claiming that Disney themselves (the main driving force behind these three corporatists) had come out in support of districting. Now, it goes without saying that you’re not gonna learn much from a Register article beyond, “Something might have happened.”
Well, being fortunate enough to have made the acquaintance of Eric Altman, the executive director of OCCORD (OC Communities Organized for Responsible Development), I was able to see Disney’s actual letter that morning, and it was much more ambiguous in its support for districting than the jejune Register bothered to notice or convey. After some platitudes about diversity and democracy, and a half-hearted nod toward putting Tait’s measure on the ballot, they got around to prescribing their real proposal: (cue “When You Wish Upon a Star“)…
Gail “no shots fired” Eastman called in from Michigan and said she “understands all these issues better than” any of WE do.
…the city could begin an open and transparent, citywide dialogue with an independent, unbiased and equitably distributed group of Anaheim residents and employers to determine the number of seats, district boundaries and a new governance structure for the city – one that fairly represents residents in every Anaheim neighborhood.
May I try my hand at translating that?
…the Council majority could begin a process wherein they name a bunch of people they trust to study the shit out of districting for a long, long, fucking time; and then if they decide it’s a good idea they can decide to put it up for a vote nearly two years from now, at the sure-to-be-low-turnout June 2014 primary election, where if it passes (against whoever decides to throw money and propaganda against it, don’t look at us) it may or may not have time to go into effect for the Nov. 2014 elections. Oh, the millions Anaheim will have spent in the meantime in a losing battle against the ACLU? Oh, Anaheim taxpayers can handle that. Anything to keep our puppets in power for just a few more years. We DO love districting, diversity and democracy though, as well as ducks and dinosaurs.
Which, you may have guessed, if you didn’t already know, is exactly what passed, is exactly what Fuhrer Murray had proposed last week in the closed session, and exactly what Disney errand-boy/council-wannabe Jordan Brandman had outlined in HIS speech. (And it was strange how nervous that boy seemed, after all the public speaking he’s done.)
OCCORD Messaging Fail
I hate to bitch about my brand-new friends from OCCORD, who have been working so hard on the districting issue for so long while I’ve just been partying it up in Huntington Beach. And probably there was nothing that could have been done in any case that would have softened any of the three corporatists’ steadfast determination to suppress democracy. But still, it really muddied the waters to have them show up in force, in SUPPORT of Mayor Tait’s proposal to let the people vote this November on a SIX-district plan, and then go back to their seats waving dozens of pre-made bright yellow signs demanding EIGHT districts.
Smirking Harry”assclown” Sidhu, as adorned by Bushala’s gang.
It gave that imperious bitch Kris Murray exactly the opening she took advantage of: “Look at you people, you’re not even united yourselves! You’re saying eight, you’re saying six. This is obviously just one more reason we need to study the shit out of this until it dies.” (My paraphrase.)
They came to the meeting in force, but they came without a clear position, since so many variables were shifting all about them. At the aborted July 24 meeting Mayor Tait was planning to propose FOUR districts (and an at-large Mayor) which I agree was not enough. OCCORD was demanding EIGHT, and according to my colleague Gabriel San Roman they didn’t want it placed on the ballot either, as that would constitute “putting civil rights up to a popular vote.” (? Don’t see that.)
And Mayor Tait, who IS a good listener, came back Wednesday with a compromise proposal for SIX districts. I asked Mr. Altman before the meeting, so what’s your position now? Will you support six? And he said he wasn’t sure, they would just play it by ear.
And play it by ear they did. A dozen-or-so of them came up to speak, just generally, in favor of districting; they were obviously rooting for Tait’s proposal to pass, and loudly boo’d the “NO” vote, even as they fanned the room with “EIGHT DISTRICTS” signs.
When Generalissimo Murray naturally pointed out the contradiction, we all started chanting (by that point I was sitting with them) “GO WITH SIX! GO WITH SIX!” But to no avail.
Smirking Harry, and a few other disgusting tidbits.
Anaheim will be well rid of Harry Sidhu soon, thanks to term limits, and we can only hope he’s not replaced by young spry Brandman. For a while I wondered, Is Harry ALWAYS smirking? Is his face just like stuck like that? Then I saw that SOMETIMES he’s not. It’s only when he is getting ready to vote against the people that he smirks, and that is only MOST of the time.
Tait is a Mayor of great forbearance, but sometimes one of his colleagues will say something of such egregious assclownery that he can’t help but set the record straight. One such example was when Smirking Harry (who fancies himself a rare business genius due to his Pollo Loco franchises) scolded the audience that if the “Let the People Vote” measure were in place decades ago, the Angels’ Stadium could never have been built. Tait couldn’t let that one go, and pointed out that the measure only applies to HOTEL BED TAXES, which are a perennial giveaway favorite of council whores everywhere.
Another thought business genius Sidhu proffered in his condescending manner was that neighboring Garden Grove had just also made a similar bed-tax giveaway “deal” with a hotel, and what’s to keep all hotel developers from RUSHING to Garden Grove for such great deals? Is that what you want, Anaheim, a race to the bottom with Garden Grove? That’s what Harry Sidhu wants for you. Would it be racist of me to point out the irony that Harry hails from our outsourcing nemesis India, a country that races us to the bottom of everything and wins? Maybe. So I won’t point that out.
Gail “no shots fired” Eastman teleconferenced the meeting from Michigan – the first guess of most was that she was too mortified to show her face after her impolitic outburst of July 24, but apparently she was burying her father-in-law, and the trip had been planned for months. (Wait – can those both be true? Never mind, moving on…) But she refused to let herself be outdone in the arrogance sweepstakes with her two corporatist colleagues, snapping at one point that she “understands all these issues better” than any of us dumb plebes sweating our asses off in Anaheim.
The Work that Lies Ahead.
Termed-out Sidhu, and must-go Eastman and Murray.
To me, it’s clear what needs to be done in Anaheim, and it’s a long list. Of course I’m only an outside agitator, but … MAYBE I’LL MOVE THERE!
First, this November, we need two new Councilpeople that are NOT Pringle/Disney puppets – that quite specifically means not Jordan Brandman and not Steve Lodge.
The community needs to insist on serious investigations into the police shootings, and a Citizens Oversight Committee.
But the important grassroots work will come early next year, when Take Back Anaheim, Save Anaheim, and all our other allies need to get enough signatures to put all of this on a Spring 2013 special election ballot:
- Districting with EIGHT districts and an at-large Mayor;
- “Let the Peope Vote” on future hotel subsidies of a certain size;
- And RECALL Kris Murray and Gail Eastman.
La luta continua…
“If you are afraid of your own people, you shouldn’t be in public service.” – Joanne Sosa’s advice to the Council.
*Chairman Vern, yes…we sense your concerns. The problem always is: You never have twice to make a first impression! When the gangsters came out, broke windows and beat on police cars after the supposed killing of a gang leader….that was your first impression.
The Mayor, (in spite of his frailties) accounted for himself and the city…very professionally. You can well argue that the Mayor is a Disney supporter. Doubtful you going find anyone but – elected to Mayor now or in the future. Adttionally, the Police Chief accounted well for himself and the City …to this point. Allowing a Independent State Investigation without objection – is very attractive. Feet to the fire – or not!
The District Representation scheme – is worthy of putting on a citizen initiative. That one “the people” can vote up or down on. This may take some time and all the various issues should be fully vetted by the Council – (each taking a position) and by the people.
Hotel Developments are probably not worthy of Citizen Voting – unless prior agreements have to be abrogated. Height, Footprint, Design and like – all of which
should have prior approval by the Planning Commission. In the end, it is still the venue of the City Council Members to make that call. If you don’t like how they vote
….vote them out NEXT TIME!
Finally, saying you should Recall three Council Members requires “probable cause”.
You need to make viable arguments that the “Public Trust” has been violated. The case in Fullerton was fairly obvious. We have a tough time claiming such in the case of Anaheim …..when all the issues have not completely played out just yet.
Meanwhile, keep pushing Chairman Vern….we stand by your right to state your case…always – even though we may disagree!
We voted down district voting here in Huntington Beach by a landslide some years back because even in this conservative right-wing community the people released it was nothing more than a gerrymandering power-grab by Scott Baugh, Dana Rhorabacher and friends.
I’m glad that Vern is making new friends, we all need friends, but next time he meets with Mr. Altman (formed UNITE/HERE top official) maybe he could ask him why the hotel union (corrupt to the bone) couldn’t organize a single new hotel contract in the past 12 years (asked and answered).
The key to reform is the hotel workers, many of whom live in the Anaheim area. Citizens or not, they have the right to vote with the strike–a massive city wide strike; no, make that a county wide strike. The problem is, however, the hotel union, the one that is corrupt to the bone, is their most formidable obstacle. Why? Because that union is, yes, corrupt to the bone; more specifically, it is a FB with the Democratic Party (usually playing the bottom role, which might be great for sex but is a very bad place to be in politics), which is also corrupt to the bone. OCCORD is a baby of OC’s corrupt mainstream unions and is also part of the problem. Just as the unions
Solution?
Ignore UNITE/HERE, OCCORD (which doesn’t represent the people anyway) and all other co-opters, Form a new union that spans across workplace borders and is built, owned, and run from the bottom up, IWW style.
Pipe dream? Maybe, but it’s the only thing that really has a chance to change the balance of power in Anaheim or anywhere. Districts, might help a bit, but its mostly bullshit to fool people into falling into the grip of the same corrupt power structure only by another name.
Shorter John Earl — “the good is the enemy of the best; the best is when people like me can dictate from the vanguard seat; so let’s call for something impractical (or practically impossible) so that we can continue to kvetch.”
You think that the hotel union and the Democratic Party need reform? Then fight to reform them. That’s what I do. All you do is say “corrupt, corrupt, corrupt to the bone” where a more honest writer would have put in an actual argument.
As for “why the hotel union (corrupt to the bone) couldn’t organize a single new hotel contract in the past 12 years” — let me guess: is it in part formidable and well-heeled opposition? It usually is, not that people who blithely say “let them join the IWW” (and then eat another grape) would ever acknowledge it.
*Most Unions are “Thuggie”……meaning that the leadership has been bought out by
Corporations way early in the game. They usually have those lovely Mitt Romney Swiss Bank Accounts (now Caymans and other Carribean Island Banks.) Meanwhile,
the workers always take gas!
A random nitpick: As a resident of downtown Anaheim — the dreaded “Mother Colony” — can we please quit with the scapegoating of my neighborhood?
Every time I hear a blogger alluding to the “hivemind of the Mother Colony”, they remind me of nothing more than someone from LA smugly remarking on life “behind the Orange Curtain”, as if every community in Orange County was Irvine. Both analyses-from-30,000-feet have an equal amount of truth and insightfulness.
Yeah I know, I almost put something like “with apologies to Cynthia, Jason, [Kevin] and any other colonists this shoe doesn’t fit” … but the story AND all my sentences are already so damn long.
It’s obviously a stereotype. But like all stereotypes you know there’s some truth to it, no? The groupthink and hothouse rumor-mongering among your neighbors? I’ve heard it from colonists myself or I wouldn’t have written it.
I’ve just come into possession of an e-mail bulletin from earlier in the week from the Anaheim Neighborhood Association (ANA.) ANA is a political action committee, FPPC#870629. I n 2010 they backed Tait, Eastman, and Murray (they’ve presumably dropped their support for the unexpectedly independent Tait.) This year they’re have already backing Jordan Brandman. Check out their absurd fearmongering in the Colonies neighborhood, in the context of my first few paragraphs:
from: Anaheim Neighborhood Association
There will be a special meeting of the Anaheim City Council on Wednesday, Aug. 8th at 4:00 p.m. in Cook Auditorium at Anaheim High School, 811 W. Lincoln Ave.
In light of the protests at City Hall and at the Anaheim Police Department over recent police shootings, we know a lot of residents and businesses around Anaheim High School are concerned about the upcoming meeting and the potential for some protesters to turn violent.
We contacted the Anaheim Police Department for some suggestions for what to do in the event things get unruly:
If you do not have business to attend to in the area, stay away from the area. Do not show up and be a “lookie loo.”
If you are a business owner in the area and are concerned about the potential of your windows being broken, board them up. If you are concerned about possible looting, you may want to consider hiring private security as an added deterrent.
Sign up for Anaheim Alert for email or mobile device emergency notifications. You can register on this page at the City’s website: http://www.anaheimalert.net/register.php
If you want an update of what’s happening in the area at any time, call the Anaheim Police Department’s main number (714) 765-1900. Don’t be shy; they are anticipating a lot of calls and have staff available to answer your questions.
If someone is damaging your property, do not attempt to stop them yourselves. Call 9-1-1 for emergency assistance.
The Anaheim Neighborhood Association encourages all residents to be informed on these very important matters and to participate at any and all City Council meetings. We will never discourage anyone from participating in City government. However, for those who do not plan on attending and/or speaking at the meeting but still want to watch, it is available online via live simulcast here: http://anaheim.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
The corporate sash from SaveAnaheim on Murray is hilarious and clever, but the image of Sidhu on the site with his head superimposed on the racist Indian stereotype from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is no bueno!
GSR, that’s Bozo the Clown up there. He preceded Indiana Jones.
It was the go-to Sidhu image for the Fullerton Fringers back when he was running for Supe against their boy Shawn Nelson. They took pains – Sipowicz did – to explain that this was a representation of Sidhu as an “assclown,” and I have continued in that vein.
Course they were mean to everyone who ran against their boy Shawn, including my girl LoGal. But that’s another story..
Ain’t nothing wrong with the Sidhu assclown image. Obviously talking about saveanaheim’s site, not this one. It doesn’t help the cause. Acknowledge it. Neither does calling Murray a bitch here. #BitchBad If Anaheimer women wanna do it, they can. We can’t.
And going for the trifecta: It’s possible that Eastman was returning the remains (be they ashes or whatever) back to her Father-in-law’s hometown.
:/
The photo has been removed from the site, thankfully. Sidhu is odious and to be lampooned, but not in ways that perpetuate ‘orientalist’ stereotypes.
I haven’t seen the photo you reference, but it should go without saying (and without my viewing) that I agree with you about such imagery.
Sidhu is indeed an assclown of the highest order. And Gail Eastman is returning the ashes of her mother-in-law to their hometown in Michigan, which was planned to coincide with the summer schedule when the Council customarily goes dark for a vacation gap. Ruth Eastman was a good woman, who deserved to have her family gather together to say goodbye (despite a delay to accommodate the schedules of many, many family members that had to coordinate) and we need to respect that. Councilmember Eastman’s voting record is fair game and open to critique, but the focus on the passing of Ruth is not kosher. I loved that woman. Thank you.
Din-nt do it, Cindy. Neither did Gabo!
This is the first time I access your website and it is quite refreshing. After attending the council meeting, for the first time, I was hungry for an explanation of what is going on in my city, and what to do. I tried the OCWeekly, good background but no specific information on how to engage in practical actions. Arellano’s main point is to blame the “vendidos” latinos leaders for their connection to Pringle. As a newcomer, I do not know the history of this connection, neither the legacy of Pringle in this mess.
I was outraged at councilwoman Murray, who marched in the same silent march as I did. As an act of good faith and in the spirit of the community reconciliation, she should have supported the Major ‘s proposal on how to elect the council. Shame on her. Please count me in to unseat this callous politician. Thanks for your very informative and accurate article.
Thanks Ricardo and welcome to being involved!
Gustavo knows a lot of Anaheim history – history of the past century, and history of the last couple decades. And sure it’s important to know your history. But I think he demonstrates that you can get too tied up in history and miss what’s going on under your nose. He was kneejerk against districting just because some of the people who were pushing for it had done some things in the past that he disagreed with.
I think I’ve got him rethinking that. We don’t need our prominent progressives going all contrarian on us all the time…
Welcome! Visit often! ¡Nuestro blog es su blog!
Though our meeting was brief, it was nice meeting you Vern. Wish we would have had more time to talk. Nothing better than civil communication between two people with (mostly) opposing views.
I think – no, I don’t think, I know – that eventually Anaheim will convert to districts; and rightly so. It’s just a question of time.
*The mega bust last night and the take down of a bunch (40 or more) gang members in Anaheim seems timely.
As we said from the beginning: Wait for all the info to come out before running for the exists.
Hey, look at this! Brandon Ferguson gets a leak of the 43-page Anaheim Police Department plan for July 29 (the Day of the Kettling on Cambridge Street) — and publishes some truly essential reading in the Weekly!
Of course, at the end Brandon applauds the Anaheim Police — but not the protesters — for the lack of violence that day. He still needs some work, but at least that’s progress!
I went back to look at this story, for a Facebook / Recall Sidhu post that I’ll post just below this comment. But, damn, what a historic story of a historic meeting, if I say so myself! The description of Kris Murray’s endless monotonous babble. The very misplaced superiority of the untalented Gail Eastman. The first glimmers of Jordan’s usefulness. AND HARRY’S SMIRK!
And the first comment ever from Ricardo Toro (whom Gustavo and Gabriel thought was a “sock puppet” until I actually introduced him to Gabriel.) And me saying “I don’t live in Anaheim … BUT MAYBE I’LL MOVE THERE!”
Next comment is what I put up on the Recall Sidhu Facebook page today:
We Anaheim voters love our District Elections. When we were finally allowed to vote on the question, District Elections passed by 70%. In fact, several politicians who opposed District Elections back before 2016 pretend now that they always supported them.
But we should never forget that it was HARRY SIDHU, when he was still on council in 2012, who voted to fight against District Elections in court, and NOT let us vote on it. This fight took four years, Harry’s side lost, and the whole thing cost us taxpayers $3 million. (He was joined in this fight against democracy by Kris Murray and Gail Eastman, and later by Lucille Kring.)
We are not accusing Mayor Sidhu of having any original thoughts – his gang of politicians just follows the instructions of the special interests that elect them, and those special interests wanted to put off District Elections as long as possible, to make it easier for them to keep control of Anaheim.
But we should always be reminded what side Harry Sidhu was always on – AGAINST democracy, and against the people of Anaheim. https://www.facebook.com/RecallSidhu2020/