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The Giveaway Three, this year’s model.
Save Anaheim’s Jason broke the news yesterday, but when is a blogger ever given credit? [Answer: never.] In short order, our three mainstream outlets were trumpeting the story, Art Pedroza was holding forth, and Matt Cunningham was out with his corporate-shill spin (which we won’t link to here, but we’ll quote from below.) Unsurprisingly, the piece to read if you read only one is Cynthia Ward‘s “Activists Win One For the Public in GardenWalk Lawsuit.”
In short, California Superior Court Justice Steven Perk yesterday knocked down January’s hugely controversial Anaheim City Council giveaway of $158 million in bed-tax money to developer Bill O’Connell for his GardenWalk Project. BUT. It wasn’t knocked down for its substance, but on Brown Act grounds, for the sneaky, hasty, secretive way it was snuck past Anaheim citizens. (As I see my colleague Greg Diamond has just explained. Damn, am I LAST?)
So now the County’s wide-awake citizens move on to speculation: Will the corporatist Council majority bring the scheme back soon, properly notify the public this time, allow debate on it, and then once again ram it down Anaheim’s throat, but this time legally? Or, once bitten twice shy of the public backlash they faced earlier this year, will they let it go? (A question complicated, Cynthia reminds us, by the question of whether or not O’Connell still has his deep-pocketed mystery investor, or whether said investor has since buggered off to less tempestuous climes?)
Perhaps I can be of some assistance here.
What we DO know about the Giveaway Three (Kris Murray and Gail Eastman, with new member Jordan Brandman now replacing termed-out Harry Sidhu) is their boundless arrogance, and their true belief that their brand of mercantilism is what’s right for Anaheim. We know that their Alpha Dog Kris Murray exuberantly refers to the clique as “Masters of the Universe.” Jordan Brandman, in contrast to his confused ambiguity about district elections (a confusion caused by the intentional ambiguity of his master Curt Pringle) has been very clear in his support for this giveaway and suchlike “public-private partnerships” … and he’s fully aware that he was the top vote-getter last month, no doubt leading him to conclude that a vote for the giveaway would be not only safe but popular.
Rounding out the beneficent troika is zealot Gail Eastman, who at some point convinced herself that such corporate welfare is God’s work – to such a degree that He will rain down riots and police shootings simply to help deals like this go down more smoothly. (Don’t remember what I’m talking about? Read with amazement.) No doubt she feels Judge Perk is a witting or unwitting accomplice of Satan. Oh, these three will be bringing this back and re-ramming it, is my bet.
I can tell you one thing though: One way or another, Take Back Anaheim will be returning early in the year, having learned from last year’s mistakes, with a renewed drive to qualify their “Let The People Vote” initiative. And, while Judge Perk’s ruling could take some wind out of our sails, a return of the GardenWalk Giveaway with all the attendant public furor that is sure to accompany it – bad as it’ll be for Anaheim’s treasury – would be just the kick start we need! Think on that, corporatists.
And they probably will think on it. How will their clever master Pringle, who does care about public opinion, split this difference? Will he water the agreement down a bit, make it just a LITTLE less objectionable? Get O’Connell to agree to SOMETHING for the city this time? Would the shamelessly greedy and self-pitying developer play ball? Would his secret investor skedaddle, or has he already? You can see that I can’t be 100% on my prediction.
But one weather vane has to be the sleazy blog of Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham, who keeps an office near Pringle’s and is probably paid indirectly by him, although we haven’t yet been able to prove that – hence when he says this gang is gonna do something, I tend to think he knows what he’s talking about. So I reproduce what HE wrote yesterday … fair use, yada yada… my emphases…
BREAKING: GardenWalk Project Coming Back to the City Council for a Vote
A tentative Superior Court ruling handed down today means the controversial TOT-split agreement with the GardenWalk project is going to be coming back to the Anaheim City Council for what is essentially a re-vote.
Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD) had been suing the project in court on various grounds, and it’s my understanding the court had been ruling against OCCORD…until now….
The ruling is essentially a technical and procedural one, rather than a judicial decision on the GardenWalk agreement itself.
The upshot: the agreement will have to be brought back before the Anaheim City Council, and the matter voted on all over again. At least this way, the anti-GardenWalk crowd won’t be able to complain they didn’t know a vote was going to take place. And they’ll have another chance to reiterate the phony claim it is a “$158 million giveaway” — which is quite a feat given that the project, and the revenues it would generate, doesn’t happen without the TOT split. Perhaps the Take Back Anaheim crowd will, at the same time, explain how to transform lead into gold — something equally impossible as the “giveaway” claim.
It’s difficult to imagine a different outcome from the vote taken in early 2012. Two of the three pro-GardenWalk agreement votes are still on the council — Gail Eastman and Kris Murray — and they have been joined by another pro-GardenWalk vote, Jordan Brandman. Given that Brandman was on the receiving end of several hit pieces attacking him for that support and still emerged as the top-vote getter, there is every reason to believe he will continue to be a strong supporter….
Or maybe I’ll just see what I can get out of Kris or Jordan today at the swearing-in ceremony. I’ll let you-all know what I hear!
In short, as I wrote, Brandman will be the key vote in restoring the hotel tax ripoff. Which will of course backfire and make Loretta Sanchez look stupid for backing him.
Good bet. Let’s see if he at least keeps the promises Loretta wrung out of him, on video, at Los Amigos – settling the ACLU districting suit, and fighting for living wage. I’ll be pleasantly astonished if he does – that is, if Pringle lets him, or if God forbid he distinguishes himself from Pringle!
The “key vote,” you say? Why — that might be so! Let me grab my abacus. Five votes on council … move two beads to represent Murray and Eastman … now if we move a third bead to represent Brandman … MY GOD, YOU’RE RIGHT!!!
Loretta won’t look stupid; Loretta will look like she favored the sole Democrat with any shot of winning a seat on Council (after doing her best to Democrify him), on the basis that he would be good on balance. This will not create trouble for her.
The Irvine Company has long term LEASES on the land that others develop projects on. (I remember this being news years back when homeowners there got a sudden reminder THEIRS was up for renewal!) If memory serves, Anaheim has yet to consider this, using only discount SALES of its land for project incentives.
Anaheim would be providing partial project financing via tax rebates, just as if it put in cash up front, only on a variable timeframe. Perhaps it should fund the project in return for, if not a proportional ownership share, then a share in a long – term low rate Ground Lease. If the city gets NOTHING without the project, then SO does McConnell – and HE presumably has carrying costs for the property, the city DOESN’T. While McConnell threatens to ‘play off’ neighboring cities, what stops that ANYWAY, even WITH the project? As pointed out elsewhere, there is NO precedent for this degree of city participation. The pain of ‘lost opportunity’ sells Lotto tickets, and you know THOSE odds (and WHO has CONSISTENT profit!) And neither side in Lotto has to wait 20yrs to see the first DIME in payoff!
I applaud the court’s upholding of the intent of the Brown Act to bring openness and transparency to the work of legislative bodies such as the Anaheim City Council. From the Brown Act:
“The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the
agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do
not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for
the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people
insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the
instruments they have created.”
“But one weather vane has to be the sleazy blog of Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham, who keeps an office near Pringle’s and is probably paid indirectly by him, although we haven’t yet been able to prove that – hence when he says this gang is gonna do something, I tend to think he knows what he’s talking about.”
Gosh, vern — still using invective as a crutch? I guess I could, henceforth, refer to OJ as “the half-ass, consistently inaccurate blog of Vern “4 DUIs” Nelson.
I am not paid by Curt, directly or indirectly. In fact, he is not involved with Anaheim Blog. Sorry to disapppoint you — I know you cherish that particular conspiracy tidbit. And at least you’re admitting to claiming as fact things for which you have no proof — explicitly impeaching your own credibility saves others the trouble of having to do it.
I didn’t say the “gang” are going to do anything. I haven’t discussed the ruling or its consequences with any councilmember. I simply pointed out the obvious – the ruling means the GardenWalk agreement will have to go back to the Anaheim Cty Council.
I think it looks more like using he’s a crutch as a bludgeon.
Skipping over the copy editor routine I was tempted to begin, the ruling does NOT mean “the ruling means the GardenWalk agreement will have to go back to the Anaheim Cty Council.” It could also be abandoned or transformed in a way that would leave it unrecognizable as “the” GardenWalk “agreement.”
It’s been so long I don’t recall — what was your cover story for why you started the Anaheim blog, with the focus it has, when you did? Was it because someone else had already done Costa Mesa, Fullerton, and Los Alamitos and you didn’t want to drive out to Rancho Santa Margarita?
(You might want to abbreviate your invective as “1/2ACIBoV4DUIN.”)
Yeah, Greg. I’m just amazed you were able to express a thought with fewer than a thousand words.
Matt, you’re probably amazed that water is wet. (Eight words.)
Quit while you’re behind, Greg.
Hire new writers, Matt.
I have good reason to call Matt’s blog sleazy, which I won’t get into. And of course I used the word “probably” in reference to Pringle, so Matt’s raving about “claiming as fact” is his usual hysterical nonsense. Of course he’s being paid by someone, which he hasn’t denied – if it’s not Pringle then it’s a close ally like SOAR, or Disney themselves who have recently taken to laundering their political money.
And Matthew DID write, just as I copied and pasted: “BREAKING: GardenWalk Project Coming Back to the City Council for a Vote… the GardenWalk project is going to be coming back to the Anaheim City Council for what is essentially a re-vote.” That sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, doesn’t it? So was he full of shit when he wrote that, or full of shit when he wrote this comment, or just always full of shit?
By the way, nipsey is right below, that Matt Cunningham DID reveal the identities of sex abuse victims – something I don’t usually remind people of, but somehow it seems appropriate today!
“I have good reason to call Matt’s blog sleazy, which I won’t get into.”
Oh, well – that’s different. If you have a “good reason” which you keep to yourself, then it must be true! Pathetic, Vern.
“And of course I used the word “probably” in reference to Pringle, so Matt’s raving about “claiming as fact” is his usual hysterical nonsense.”
You’re kidding, right? It’s OK for you to mislead readers because you hid behind a weasel word like “probably”? Again, Vern: pathetic.
“And Matthew DID write, just as I copied and pasted: “BREAKING: GardenWalk Project Coming Back to the City Council for a Vote… the GardenWalk project is going to be coming back to the Anaheim City Council for what is essentially a re-vote.” That sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, doesn’t it? So was he full of @#!*% when he wrote that, or full of @#!*% when he wrote this comment, or just always full of @#!*% ?”
Vern’s rigorous intellect at work. There’s no contradiction between my headline and my comment. The obvious consequence of the court ruling is for the GardenWalk to come back to the council for another vote. One doesn’t need any special knowledge to figure that out, Vern (except in your case, apparently).
“By the way, nipsey is right below, that Matt Cunningham DID reveal the identities of sex abuse victims – something I don’t usually remind people of, but somehow it seems appropriate today!”
Vern, you are now joining Nipsey in a misrepresentation of what happened. You are misleading your readers – again. What’s worse, you know that is a misrepresentation. You’re doing the same thing that Moxley does to Greg Diamond. And as your colleague has correctly remarked about Moxley’s rants, it takes much more time to refute a lie than to tell the lie.
And I don’t usually mention in comments that you have four DUIs, which led to jail time and no driver’s license. But since your habit is to personally attack me as a first resort, it seems appropriate today to remind your readers of that fact.
You could always try civilly disagreeing with me like a normal person, Vern, instead of always diving into the gutter.
That first part’s easy – I call your blog sleazy because you started out by printing scurrilous and INACCURATE stories about a friend of mine, which I’m not going to bring attention to by discussing it or linking, but you probably know what I’m talking about. That’s good enough.
Everything else you’re babbling about, I’ll let the readers decide who’s making sense and who’s flailing.
But for the record, I do have a driver’s license, have for a long time, my last (2008) DUI was a sub-Mike Schroeder 0.10%, the other ones were all ten years ago or more, and I’ve been driving up and down your street really fast. Yep, that’s me.
Now hurry up and get the last word in, this is getting tedious.
No one has misrepresented anything about how Matt Cunningham outed sex abuse victims. Perhaps you’re upset there’s not more detail about how Matt Cunningham outed sex abuse victims?
No problem, we could give a quick rundown of how Matt Cunningham outed sex abuse victims if you like, about how (Father) John Urell’s deposition was posted online by Matt Cunningham with the names of a half dozen sex-abuse victims intact for everyone to see, a misdeed so stupid and craven that even the brain trust at the Orange County Register managed not to do it.
I hope this adequately fleshes out the story of how Matt Cunningham outed sex abuse victims.
You are correct about how Matt Cunningham outed sex abuse victims. Matt Cunningham has admitted to outing sex abuse victims and has repeatedly apologized for it, and claims it was an accident. Of course it was an accident caused by his hasty zeal to defend pedophile priests, so it’s not exactly a sympathetic accident.
And then … when people apologize, but then start to pretend the thing never happened, as he does above, one questions the value of the apology.
Nipsey: that comment is just a little less of a misrepresentation than your first comment, which was closer to an outright lie.
There were about half a dozen names on the last page of a 60-some odd page deposition (it was a transcript of the victim’s attorney bringing up their names). I forgot the names were there. It was up on the Msgr. Urell suport group website for several hours, and I took it down as soon as it was pointed out to me the names weren’t redacted.
You and others like you present it as if I posted a list of name and did so deliberately. That’s why you use the loaded term “outed” — which is a deliberate act. I had no such intention.
“Matt Cunningham has admitted to outing sex abuse victims…”
Vern, I have never “admitted to outing” clergy abuse victims. “Outing” has a specific meaning: to deliberately expose something. You are perfectly aware that is not the case here, and yet you (and “Nipsey,” for that matter) persist in propagating a falsehood. Given that you are here engaging in deliberate, knowing misrepresentation, it calls into question the accuracy of your blogging in general.
It’s a shame you are unable to put your spite on a leash, and instead allow it to rule you and call into queston the integrity of your blogging.
I described the situation quite accurately as I understand it. Can’t do any better than what I wrote above, and that’s giving you benefit of the doubt.
“I described the situation quite accurately as I understand it. Can’t do any better than what I wrote above, and that’s giving you benefit of the doubt.”
That’s disingenuous, weasely B.S., Vern, given that I’ve relayed the truth of the matter many times.
The only reason weve wound up having this discussion is your inability to engage me, directly or indirectly, without resorting to personal insults and attacks.
Your weaseliness is semantic. You outed those names. You say it was an innocent accident, and most of us are charitable enough to believe you. But still you outed them accidentally or not.
In case anyone forgot, Matt Cunningham outed sex abuse victims.
Welcome to Orange Juice, the original fever swamp of the OC blogosphere. This place is still a sewer.
“This place is still a sewer”……….. Hmmmmmm
I thought that they did clean it up since they got rid of me.
It was always fun to rip your ass jubal.
Ah’ these good old days when sex was dirty and air was clean.
Did we get rid of you, Stanley? Shouldn’t we refer to you as “the Ghost of,” then?
*Calling something pestilence does not make you closer to God….Coming up with true and correct solutions to problems for others……is closer to Godliness …in our opinion.
The reality is that the Garden Walk had fallen into deep and abiding unsustainabiltiy…..shortly after the 2008 Financial Crisis. No renters, high
rents, no foot traffic, no correct coordination of lease prospects…..other than that…..it got more and more dangerous with no occupied stores.
*Stanley has mellowed….and it is very attractive…
The view from the cheap seats is still pretty good.
I watch with amusement as normally sensible individuals like Cynthia Ward, start calling people goons and snapping pictures of their dining experience.
The ANUS that is the OC blogesphere has a way or sucking people in, I suppose.
Now that Matt “Jubal” Cunningham is in full force defending his fine city, we can be sure things are headed in the right direction!
Love it!
When did I snap pics of someone’s dining experience?
If it makes you feel any better, I’m following this story and I have no idea what he’s talking about or why it would be a problem if true.
I believe “Nameless” has Cynthia confused with Jason’s “Save Anaheim” blog – easy mistake, I was partyin’ with them both last night after the swearing-in. Jason put up a photo of the Gardenwalk developer Bill O’Connell eating out in perfect rich man bliss on the night of the judgment against his deal – an interesting sight that has some minor news value.
http://saveanaheim.com/blog/2012/12/11/bill-oconnell-celebrates-158-million-loss
That’s what I figured. Everyone thinks I write for Jason, I get blamed for anything he says-like I don’t piss off enough people on my own I get to take the heat for Jason too. Sheesh.
Could be worse. You could be blamed for what I write!
Vern is absolutely right.
I recieve the link and mistakenly jumped to the conclusion.
Go get em Matt!
Now that Matt “Jubal” Cunningham is in full force defending his fine city, we can be sure things are headed in the right direction!
Uh, Matt lives in Orange. He’s been evasive as to exactly why he decided to start a blog about Anaheim, but one can suspect it’s for his u$ual rea$on$.
Matt’s notion of defending his own city – Orange – has been to try and help developers there get away with paving over some of the town’s last remaining open space (for pay, of course.) BIG defeat he suffered last month with Measure FF slaughtered by my friends in “Orange Needs Parks” Sorry dude!
Vern, one of these days I will have to introduce your left-wing brain to the concept of property rights.
The Yes fight was always an uphil battle, what with voter confusion and a “No” side that was willing to say absolutely anything. Quite a few of my fellow Orange residents voted “no” because they were under the false impression — courtesy of the No on FF faction and the Orange firefighters union — that a “no” vote would stop the development of the OUSD’s Peralta property.
Property rights above all, right? Ah…. I don’t think I’ll argue with you about Orange’s Measure FF, it all turned out well, and why hijack this Anaheim thread.
Understandable, Vern, since your position on FF is hardly defensible. And you’re the one who started the hijacking by interjecting FF.
Matt, did you ever give a straight answer as to whether anyone is paying you (directly, through Pacific Strategies, or through another means) to produce the blog you’re writing about Anaheim? Maybe you’be answered that, but it’s been a while if so. (There, that’s not hijacking.)
Matt – please reveal who is paying you to write your Anaheim Blog. No more dodging the question. I know for a fact SOAR is behind it to some degree thru my source Bill Taormina.
He’s getting paid back door. Just like unemployable wife got paid to be Bill Campbell’s Chief of Staff and now, according to Norberto Santana, is getting a no-competition job in the County bureaucracy courtesy of Campbell.
Of course Cunningham himself got a boat load of cash doing joke work for Campbell’s Kiddie Commission so there’s a lot of history there.
Corruption reigns supreme and seems to be ubiquitous. Good on ya for shining some light here!