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STAN!!
Last week, Newport millionaire and Orange Juice friend Stan Tkaczyk received quite an odd e-mail. Mr. Tkaczyk (pron. “Tkaczyk”) is perhaps best known in this county as:
- Republican Fair Board appointee of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown (marking an end to the tradition of these appointments signifying political favors) ;
- the former, and celebrated, president of Huntington Beach’s Rainbow Disposal who stunned the business community by brushing off the blandishments of profiteers and selling the company to its own employees (so now when your Rainbow worker comes to pick up your trash you’re looking at a Company Owner – how Communist!); and
- husband of the irrepressible Register columnist Barbara Venezia.
But anyway, like I was trying to tell you, Stan received a quite curious correspondence last week which he saw fit to share with us: an e-mail from Costa Mesa Planning Commissioner and Righeimer acolyte Jim Fitzpatrick, who is now apparently working for Buck Johns, who in turn is the inseparable crony of Fairgrounds Swindle mastermind and all-around prolific miscreant Dave Ellis.
Referring to Buck as a “Titan of Industry,” the correspondence attempts to solicit investments in a project of Buck’s – namely to become a “limited partner in Inland Energy’s EB-5 Equity Investment Program.”
“But I just had to laugh…
I saw the photograph.”
Buck Johns – Jim Fitzpatrick – Dave Ellis
I’m sorry, that “Titan of Industry” was just too much for those of us who have been following Buck for a while – Buck, the president of Newport-based Inland Energy, which has done all its damage, er, work, in the Inland Empire – mostly poor unfortunate Victorville – because that’s where Buck and Dave can get away with whatever they want, having helped to elect so many of the politicians including the DA. “Titan?”
Titan, perhaps, of the First Failed EB-5 Project in the EB-5’s 13-year history – the first project of its sort that had to be terminated by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) due to all the misrepresentations given to the 19 hopeful Chinese investors who had to have their $9.5 million returned by the broke city.
Titan, perhaps, of Failed Plants – a failed $1.2 billion “Victorville II” power plant; a failed $25 million wastewater treatment facility; a $120 million “Dr. Pepper / Snapple” bottling facility that didn’t happen; a solar plant that got nixed by a wising-up Victorville council once they discovered Buck was secretly involved, and more (in the literature Fitzy sent, it was necessary to go back ten years to 2003 to find a Buck Johns success.)
Titan, perhaps, of Nearly Bankrtupting Victorville, the desert town that was already suffering a severely depressed economy before being convinced to go hog wild with “Uncle Buck’s” grandiose schemes (while rewarding him with tens of millions.)
Wait – wasn’t all this failure at least as much the fault of corrupt and incompetent Victorville politicians? Well, yes and no, and mostly NO – these politicians were put into power and given their instructions by Buck and Dave.
Snarks one wag, “Yep, that Buck Johns really puts the TIT back in TITAN.”
***
All of this unpleasantness about what Buck and Dave (and their pal Brett Granlund) did in the Inland Empire ‘way back … well, a couple years ago … would be less to the point if it weren’t for the fact that what they’re trying to get investments in now is essentially the same old thing which Buck has been doing so disastrously for at least a decade – trying to finance huge new power plants with investments from wealthy Chinamen hoping for US residency. (Here’s the PDF that came attached to the e-mail; if you have bundles of idle cash and find this convincing, then Go For It! Tell ’em Vern sent you.)
So…but why is this idea being shopped to good old Stan Tkaczyk? Some see the evil genius mind of Dave Ellis at work – it’s got to have SOMETHING to do with the old bad blood between Dave and Stan as well as Stan’s current efforts to get to the bottom of Dave’s failed Fairgrounds Swindle; after all, we now know that Dave has been waging clandestine war against his other Fair Board nemesis Nick Berardino (for which he is just BEGINNING to get apocalyptic blowback.) This has GOT to be another patented Ellis dirty trick on Stan, if only we could figure it out! Hmmm….
Babs and Brooke – what’ll THEY come up with together?
But I don’t really see how it could be; there was never any danger of Stan doing anything with this invite but laughing and passing it on to his blogger friends and his wife. I really think Fitzpatrick just sent this e-mail off to every Republican Newport millionaire he could think of. And why not, with any luck Jim’ll get a few commissions out of it.
Meanwhile, Stan’s famous “irrepressible” wife has befriended Brooke Edwards, the journalist who broke many of these Inland Empire / Buck Johns / Victorville / EB5 stories and has now joined Babs at the Register. I bet you they’ll come up with some interesting new take on this subject! ALSO meanwhile, I better stop screwing off and get back to issues that actually affect you and me in the big OC.
Vern, signing off…
Oh, this is going to be fun! Ellis, the major manipulator and Fitzy, the willing dupe. You couldn’t make this stuff up!
This might explain why Righeimer and other cohorts went to China last year…or was it the year before?
I was thinking the same thing! I wouldn’t put it past Righeimer to sell Costa Mesa out to China! That was the most absurd trip to Ordos!
Once Righeimer got back he wanted Costa Mesa to become her sister city! Traitor I say!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0brcZTVde-I
You have to bored as shit to follow the lifestyles of crusty Republican moneybags. Vern you need a vacation in T.J. or Santa Ana this weekend. Art Walk Baby! I’ll buy you a drink.
That sounds great Matt – either Tijuana or Santijuana. And I’d love to come to the Art Walk this Friday, but if I’m able to, you WILL have to buy me something because that’ll mean that I don’t have work this Friday night which I HOPE to.
Still, it was pretty cool that the crusty Republican moneybag Stan sold Rainbow Disposal to his employees like a Commie, isn’t it? That’s one reason he’s our friend.
And the only reason I pay so much attention to Dave Ellis and Buck Johns is cuz they tried to steal our Fairgrounds a couple years ago, which this blog was instrumental in stopping! Fun times…
It’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it……
Jerry Brown pulled the needle out of these Republicans’ arms when he derailed the Redevelopment Money train…they need new revenue streams and scams to keep feeding at the public trough.
Buck Johns uses the EB-5, “pay to play and cut to the front of the immigration line”. It’s a fancy way to use other peoples (republic of china) money to curry political paybacks through public works projects which are paid by the taxpayers but he gets all the profit.
In Victorville this has led to bankruptcies, SEC investigations, Grand Jury depositions and the usual round of finger pointing . Of course the DA is silent upon the issue because the first thing they ALWAYS do is get a DA elected.
So now while studying the life cycle of these “dung beetles”….we start to see patterns emerge.
What we are seeing right now is the larvae stage of a new scheme.
The “Parasite” is Buck Johns and the new emerging “Host” is the City of Costa Mesa. Where you have Mayor Jim Righeimer (who wet dreams of one day being “Buck Johns”), setting up a Finance Advisory Committee….. bunch of leeches. Shawn Duane Pres. of CalDesal, Fisler, Hull, Mensinger…the usual cast of bottom dwellers.
Now you have your new Costa Mesa Planning Commission Chairman, Jim Fitzpatrick, who has never done ANYTHING of note, getting a job selling Buck Johns Bond schemes. Fitzpatrick’s previous day job was as a Mobile Car Washer.
Nice step up for him selling Buck Johns international investment schemes…..Coincidental?….yeah, right.
So in order to see where this cancer will metastasize, you just have to look where Righeimer is setting up the next move……and he’s got more than one.
Opening up the master plan, and use code harassment, eminent domain, and “nodule” zoning designations to pluck choice real estate parcels which are then fed to his parasites. Motels will be bought by the city taxpayers and then sold at a loss to “Developers”, who will then “Sell” them to “Non-profits”, who will then get “Federal Grants”, to “administrate” them as Homeless shelters. Lots of fat little leeches at the end of that boondoggle.
The other tumor growing is selling “bonds” to work on flood improvements….It’s all tied to the millions being held by the special districts. Water and Sanitation. Trust me, if there are tax dollars out there……these guys will find a way to feed on them. Righeimer has discovered you can outsource services to these agencies and he’s trying an end run around the failed lawsuit.
Also CalPERs,…Righeimer was just on the John and Ken show yesterday with fellow (p)sychophants Will Swaim and Steven Greenhut. He is publicly stating that he will never pay another dime into the retirement obligations. I’m sure he’s got his merry band of finance thieves working furiously on how to leverage all those retirement millions into City Bonds that we will be investing ourselves through friends and cronies. I have two words of caution here…..”Bob Citron”.
Yeah..there is always something happening in Costa Mesa….and like Gus Ayer used to say “and it’s usually ridiculous”.
I’m sure there will be more to come.
Oh!, in regards to the China Trip…..Jim Righeimer was on record numerous times stating that “he paid his own way”. Lobdell was on record stating that they used Visitor and Conference Bureau Funds, Joe Serna at the Daily Pilot stated that the trip was paid for out of campaign funds, and sources told me Buck Johns paid for it through Righeimers campaign account.
Like I said…….you have to follow the “bouncin’ ball”….
And there are a lot of bouncing balls ….http://www.voiceofoc.org/oc_coast/article_0c0e8582-9ba4-11e2-8758-0019bb2963f4.html#.UVsNIzRT4x4.facebook
That China Trip – Righeimer and Public Affairs Manager Dan Joyce – was theoretically to drum up business for Costa Mesa. They went to a brand spanking new ghost town – a city where nobody lives – on this boondoggle. I think Gericault may be on the right track with his comment(s) above. Just don’t blink!!!
So character assassin Gericault is back with his usual dimwitted drivel. He claims Fitzpatrick has done nothing of note and that Fitzpatricks’s last job was as a mobile car washer. Nice. Actually Fitzpatrick OWNED the mobile car wash business but what are details to Gericault the FURNITURE REFINISHER and local clown? Those fumes from the product apparently cause damage to thinking ability. Accomplishments? Fitzpatrick is Chair of the planning commission in Costa Mesa. Was a Sanitary District director. I know this pales in Gericault’s accomplishment of refinishing two chairs once every now and then.
Oh, and Righeimer set up a “finance advisory committee”? Wow, must be a scandal ! Well, it was renamed that from the longstanding name of investment oversight committee, not a new committee at all. And most cities have them. But those kind of details escape Gericault.
And to call the committee members, most successful people and community volunteers, “bottom feeders” is in the typical Gericault fashion due to jealousy and obsession for attacking those who may not see the world the way he does. He also calls them leeches though they don’t get paid. He has absolutely no tolerance for a difference of opinion and no facts so he needs to call derogatory names from afar. Pathetic.
Actually, owning a mobile car wash business consists of a compressor and a hose. Give me a break. He was on the San Dist until he got kicked off with the threat lawsuit. And, he is only the Planning Commissioner Chair because he was appointed (merely for 2 years) by his buddy Righeimer. He wouldn’t appoint him for 4 years. I suspect it has a lot to do with Fitzpatrick’s problems.
You may not like Gericault, but he is working and does have an income. That’s more than can be said for….well, you know.
Where did you ever get the idea that Fisler and Dewayne don’t get paid? Uh, you’d better go back and get your records together.
Heh… looking back at this 9 years later… this is before we figured out that “deadwhitemale” WAS Jim Fisler. Claiming to not be paid…
What am I doing here? Working on another story with Buck Johns in it.
I think I did that. But there are so many…
I remember you, Greg Diamond and John Earl ganging up on him and scaring him away. It was very tri-partisan. I almost felt sorry for the creep.
By the way, I believe that Adam Ereth has some news for us about the fall election. Shall I point him your way?
Um…okay.
I forget who Adam Ereth is?
Ran for Costa Mesa Water District a time our two, with our strong endorsement.
Fisler and Duane don’t get paid, that’s a joke. Last time I checked Shawn DUane was making some clams being the paid shill miester for Mesa Waters alter ego CalDesal. Lobbying Sacramento for a project Costa Mesa residents don’t even need doesn’t come free. Hull sells Bonds. Aside from his council salary , what does Mensinger do? Fisler occasionally sells real estate when he’s not getting all of his water meeting stipends padded. Fitzpatricks failed business was basically his own personal car with stickers on it. The reason he is no longer an elected San board member is that he was forced to relinquish his seat when he got “appointed” to planning. Even then, the question still lingers, what accomplishments has he ever done to make him qualified for that position? Keep attacking the messenger though. Whenever I see comments like yours, it lets me know I’m hitting close to the nerve.
[Ed. note: silly conversation stemming from now-corrected typo deleted.]
*Wonderful article Chairman Vern…..excellent.
Isn’t the term “Chinamen” racially insensitive?
Umm…. ummmm…..
Nah.
How quaint. You are probably one of those old guys who call Asians Orientals and Blacks Colored.
“Don’t worry about grandpa. That’s just the way he was raised,” we said embarrassed.
Oh yeah, such a terrible offensive word, “Chinaman,” Walter Sobchak.
I’m a middle-aged liberal with more Asian friends than I can count on my fingers and toes, and I’ll listen to them about what’s offensive, thank you.
And I have little patience for the fashionable “political correct” pretensions of scammers who exploit Chinamen.
Ellis is beyond impotent, he screwed up the pro El Toro campaign big time and got a bunch of gullible doops in Newport Beach to pay him for the honor. They better not count on him to help with the upcoming JWA settlement agreement as he knows zero about how airports really work.