North-County District 4
It’s no secret I never thought much of District 4 incumbent Supervisor Doug Chaffee, going back to his days on Fullerton Council. I could go on, but I already have.
On the Board he has formed a close alliance with Republican Andrew Do. The two have a lot in common – the first things that come to mind is their ARROGANCE, and their rudeness to the public, which has gotten even worse as Doug has become Chair. They are constantly finding ways to sideline their colleague Katrina Foley, an actual progressive Democrat. They both jump over themselves to give Don Barnes‘ Sheriffs Dept anything it wants, money being no object. And they are both hellbent on expanding the closed Musick Facility into a mental-health jail and putting the Sheriff in charge. All my friends in the homeless advocacy movement share my view of Doug, as well as most people from Fullerton who’ve dealt with him for a decade.
I gotta add though, that some folks whose opinions I respect, and whom I usually agree with, think that he’s been a great Supervisor and are enthusiastically supporting his re-election – notably Anaheim Councilman Dr. Jose Moreno. One thing Jose says is that Doug was an invaluable help to Anaheim residents during the pandemic. Maybe he was. And maybe that was partly due to the influence of Al Jabbar, a school board member whom Doug hired as an aide, and who I hope will be taking Jose’s place on Council this December. (On this subject, see below, “A New Law from Josh Newman.”)
So, POSSIBLY Doug’s not quite as bad as I think. But still my ears perked up when I learned last week, from both Dan’s and Matt’s blogs, that he had a Democrat challenger – Buena Park Mayor Sunny Youngsun Park. I’d met her a couple of times, I think when she was first running 4 years ago or so. She came to a SQS talk and introduced herself to everybody, and later she came to ONE of our People’s Homeless Task Force meetings with her little posse, left early and we never heard from her again.
So I had to ask my Buena Park friends what she’s like, what they think about her as Supervisor. The first one told me, “Ah, HELL no! Sunny is only about Sunny, she doesn’t care about anything or anyone else. I don’t know why she’s even a Democrat, her role models are Michelle Steel and Young Kim!” “Really? Are you just saying that because they’re all Korean-American? I’m-a find out if that’s true.”
Another bad sign was that the folks who’ve worked the closest with her – EVERY OTHER PROMINENT BUENA PARK DEMOCRAT – immediately reacted to her announcement by strongly endorsing Chaffee, and releasing a three-page fact sheet of all the reactionary and fucked-up things Sunny has done in Buena Park (which I’m allowed to summarize but not upload.)
Dan, typically, only reprinted Sunny’s press release with his name on it; but Matt actually wrote a good, thorough, informative piece which you should read. Lotsa good info on the district and its demographics – it includes most of Anaheim – and he also noted the striking coincidence that both Sunny and Chaffee’s wife Paulette got in trouble in 2018 for stealing campaign signs calling them carpetbaggers.
But one headscratcher was Matt’s remark that “Park’s politics are on the progressive side.” I wonder what Matt thinks “progressive” means. I guess when someone throws around words like “equity” and “inclusion,” that makes them a progressive in Matt’s book. But going by her colleagues’ fact sheet about Sunny, not so much. According to her Democrat colleagues, Sunny is:
- bad and awkward on LGBTQ issues
- bad on the pandemic and public health
- bad on cannabis
- bad on the environment
- bad on labor
- bad on social justice (e.g. Black Lives Matter, etc.)
- unsupportive of her fellow Buena Park Democrats – HEY! Something else she has in common with Chaffee, who never lifted a finger to help the Quirk Silvas when he could have.
But, I’m nothing if not fair, so I resolved to call Sunny myself and ask her a few questions…
The Sunny Park Interview
First, aware of her colleagues’ criticisms, she tells me that she does the best she can, while representing a VERY CONSERVATIVE district of Buena Park. And that “the people of Buena Park know me” and there’s a lot she’s proud of from her four years in office.
Sunny takes credit for Buena Park having a much higher response to the census than most of the OC. During the pandemic she says she helped get small business grants to 51 BP businesses; it was months later before she saw Chaffee doing the same. She claims to have cracked down on flavored tobacco, unhealthy food carts, and price-gouging – at one point a dozen eggs were going for 20 bucks in BP!
What are her criticisms of Chaffee and the current BoS? Largely, a lack of transparency, on the recent redistricting and the administration of Covid funds; also she feels his leadership was especially lacking on homelessness and mask mandates.
The experience of the pandemic has changed her appreciation of the importance of local government – checks out. She’d like to extend and take better advantage of “Project Roomkey,” where homeless folks are housed in local motels, on the state dime. She has no opinion on Poseidon and is not aware of the planned Musick expansion. I ran out of time to ask about her relationship to Michelle Steel and Young Kim.
********************
A New Law from Senator Josh Newman
(an interlude apropos of the Chaffee-Jabbar connection.)
I was talking to our favorite OC Senator Wednesday, and he told me about a new bill he’s writing that he thought I’d be real enthusiastic about. It would “prohibit elected officials from employing other elected officials whose constituencies coincide or overlap.”
Josh said, “I know of at least three examples of that in Orange County, you could probably think of more – Supervisor Don Wagner employing Yorba Linda Mayor Tara Campbell as Chief of Staff; Assemblyman Tom Daly continuing to employ Anaheim Councilman Avelino Valencia as senior field representative; and Supervisor Doug Chaffee hiring School Board trustee Al Jabbar as deputy chief of staff. You see, it crosses party lines. And there are so many other qualified people that could be hired instead of another elected! I think you can see the possibility for conflict here?”
I considered for a minute. “This is a problem I haven’t really thought of before.” “Jeez, Vern,” responded our favorite Senator, “of all people, I didn’t think I’d have to convince YOU that this is a problem!”
And after a day of thought, I can see how this can create a problem of divided loyalty. The employed politician can be torn between doing what he thinks is right for his constituents and doing what his boss wants him/her to do. Maybe that even happens, a lot more than we know. It’s sort of like what they call “a conflict.” Maybe it’s EXACTLY what they call “a conflict.” It would take Josh Newman to notice this.
What do Orange Juice readers think??
********************
Anyway I’m glad to look at the new maps and see that I don’t HAVE to choose between Chaffee and Park, since I have been drawn into…
Central-County District 2, the Latino District.
The first candidate to throw their hat in the ring for OC’s first majority-Latino Supervisorial District was Garden Grove Councilwoman Kim Bernice Nguyen. And the first me and Donna saw of HER was at a 2018 Supervisor debate put on by the Voice of OC. Incumbent Republican Andrew Do didn’t bother showing up (he didn’t need to and he HATES the “Noise of OC”) … so it was a debate between the three Democratic candidates – Santa Ana’s Small Dark Lord Miguel Pulido, union favorite Westminster Councilman Sergio Contreras, and Kim.
And Donna and I were SO impressed with Kim! Smart as a whip, articulate, knowledgeable, passionate, trilingual, with a background in health care. She sounded like a progressive firebrand, and she ripped several new ones into Poseidon. (Actually so did Pulido, which surprised me, and left Sergio stammering his support for “jobs and water.”)
We saw her on our way to the car, told her how great she did and asked how we could help her win, and if I could interview her for the blog. She didn’t respond but glared at me like she already knew I was the enemy.
Later I learned that she’s actually a very close acolyte of conservative Congressman Lou Correa (who was real mad at me that year.) Not only that, but she was only in that race, at Lou’s urging, for one reason – to take votes away from Sergio so that Lou’s old buddy Miguel Pulido could win. Ha – the plan made sense – Sergio’s base being Westminster and Kim being Viet – but it didn’t work – Sergio still beat Miguel in the primary, and then went on to lose to Do. D’oh!
More recently I’ve noticed that she is extremely close to Anaheim Councilman Avelino Valencia – always defending him on line, and whatever she does in Garden Grove he does in Anaheim, and always together signing letters of outrage over something or other. She took it on herself during Avelino’s campaign to call ME vile, racist and disgusting for creating my song “Avelino Vendido.” Really? THIS harmless little ditty which makes very clear and valid points?
Well, the point isn’t that she doesn’t like me, but that it’s hard to trust her. She couldn’t possibly be as progressive as she pretended to be that night and still be a protégé of Lou Correa, who loathes progressives and loves Poseidon. She was just reading the room. And she knew she was just a spoiler candidate. An unsuccessful one at that.
(I still should really find out Kim’s record in Garden Grove before judging if she’d be a good Supervisor or not. But my GG rolodex is slim.)
But then, what comes across my transom Wednesday morning but an announcement from a Democrat I know I can trust (at least 80% anyway) – Santa Ana Mayor Vicente Sarmiento!
During his short time as Mayor (he served many previous years on Council, under the Small Dark Lord) Vince brought rent control to Santa Ana, which was vital and historic. Actually that was a big mass movement but Vince supported it and signed off on it. He’s been promoting affordable housing and putting the brakes on gentrification as much as possible. He was a good Mayor to have during the time of Covid, working hard to protect Santa Ana’s health, make sure everyone got their stimulus, and nobody got evicted – he tells me he directed $12 million to 20,000 households. He’s working now, in his time left, on helping create a police oversight committee, much stronger that what Anaheim has.
He collaborates a lot with my comrades at Chicanos Unidos, and they worked hard to get him elected. They sound a little disappointed that he stayed as Mayor for such a short time. But he will be able to do even more for Santa Ana (and east Anaheim) on the BoS; and they will be having a meeting soon to determine the best candidate to succeed this very progressive Mayor.
I spoke to Vince over the phone over the weekend, and he added more things that he’s proud of accomplishing this past year. Not only did he pass rent control, but a just cause eviction ordinance. He increased a fund for legal defense of immigrants, and reduced Santa Ana’s SWAT team or “Strike Force,” redirecting that money to youth investment and programs. He feels the current BoS tries to saddle Santa Ana unfairly with the county’s homelessness problem; and he would put more emphasis on public health and green spaces.
Someone had told me he wants to build a Santa Ana Medical Facility. He clarifies: “As a result of the County’s failed policies and practices for equitable health care delivery to low income families, the city council has commissioned a feasibility study to consider creating our own local municipal public health agency. Study findings are pending but are expected soon.“
He opposes Poseidon because it’s a waste of money (though I wish he would have done more to stop it when he was on the OCWD.) Soon the council will be agendizing a clear resolution against the boondoggle, which should be helpful when it comes to the Coastal Commission soon.
In short, Sarmiento is the only one of these four Democrats I feel I can support, and I’m glad I can vote for him this year! Here’s his campaign announcement:
First: Vicente (I’m really going to try to stop calling him “Vince,” but old habits die hard) needs to talk to a coach who can help him derive a better set of hand gestures. The “moving a box from one side of the frame to the other” motion is not going to fly.
I get the sense that Vicente is still pissed at me from the time that I let someone purporting to be from the Santa Ana government (or something) accuse him of some sort of wrongdoing here at great length (but without great detail.) I still think it was the right move to let the anonymous critics shoot their wad on the topic and see if it petered out, which it did, but I can see why the target of attack would feel differently.
If it’s to be Vicente vs. a Correa crony — Lou wouldn’t be so bad if he would just stop trying to pollute so much of OC politics to protect and promote the flock that protects him, but he shows no signs of ever stopping — you barely have to interview him to know which is the right choice, but I’m glad you’re doing it.
As for District 2 — who were the Buena Park Democrats you spoke to? If it’s Art Brown, the more he criticizes Park the better I’d like her. But if was Conner Traut — well, I like Conner more than I did when he was the Boy Wonder or Brandman’s Mini-Me — but I’m note sure that I’d trust his views about a colleague (and, let’s face it, competitor) on progressive issues. And “Anti-LGBTQ+”, by his standards, might not reflect anything like that degree of animus I’d find offensive. She sounds like she’s not in the bag for Traut, Brown, etc. — but exactly why should she be? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she’s the Katrina Foley of the Council. (Nor would I be susprised to learn that she ain’t.) She’s right about the ideology of BP’s First District, though.
First I talked to a homeless advocate friend, not that they would probably want to go on record. Then I heard from, as I said, “every prominent Buena Park Democrat,” which means Traut, Brown, Sonne, “Triny,” and a buncha school board folks I don’t know. I can send you that document but they don’t want me to publish it.
If they’re supporting Chaffee instead, I think that that speaks for itself. I vaguely remember her being accused of being “abrasive” — but that’s true of many lawyers turned politicians.
Yeah, I’d like to see the document — and you can expunge whatever pf it I shouldn’t see, such as its provenance.
At some point I might interview her myself, going issue by issue. But not being part of the BP Dem “Club” — that perhaps being the real offense? — hardly seems damning to me. (And unless I’m forgetting something Trini Castenada is not yet an elected officeholder, and he could not prudently buck those who are even if he wanted to.)
FYI Buena Park Council District 1 is only 27.6% Republican. Far from “VERY CONSERVATIVE.”
“Conservative” is not the same as “Republican.” Heavily immigrant communities (as is my understanding about northern Buena Park) are often negative towards the sort of civil libertarian and socially inclusive issues that OC Democratic culture — myself included — cherishes. Remember, Sunny won by just a handful of votes, so maybe party identification isn’t the place to look, eh?
I think you may have underestimated Chaffee’s venality, desire for “respect” and almost complete lack of principle. During the COVID thing last year he teamed up with Do to help stifle information and promote opacity. Which makes it very disappointing to hear Moreno is lined up. But as I recall he supported the sign thief Mrs. Chaffee for BoE, so he must think these people will help him somehow (they won’t).
Democrats should remember that Chaffee also supported that Republican cipher-stooge the loathsome Jennifer Fitzgerald dug up to run against Fred Jung, who’s turned out to be a pretty good councilmember in Fullerton.
I have little doubt that Sunny is just in it for Sunny, just about the only flavor there is in politics. OTOH, the fact that her colleagues don’t support her is neither here nor there for a variety of reasons.
Anyhoo, I’m pretty sure I’m in the new 2nd, so…
I couldn’t have screamed it any louder.
But hey, Vern and Greg just couldn’t vote for Tim.
Let’s not forget the fundraiser Fitzgerald’s former employer threw for Doug, either. Gonna be real sad to see names on endorsement list enabling clearly bad behavior.
I did vote for Tim! And endorsed him on this blog too.
It was a tough choice as I disagree with a lot of his positions, but I had to go with the integrity.
I stand corrected.
I forget what Tim did that pushed me over the edge against him, but I’ll defend my former self on that choice. There was no good option there. As I recall, I left my ballot blank, but if I said otherwise back then then I defer to former self.
So what do you all think about Josh’s proposed bill?
It’s a good idea. There was Matt Harper – a do nothing slug who worked for Janet Nguyen, got and then lost a low-level job at OC Waste. Typical. The Dems have caught up and that’s a bad thing.
I gave Newman my idea for legislation: make it a requirement that ALL employees of lobbyists reveal the clients of their company on form 700s – not just the principals.
Love it. Good work, Josh.
Add lobbyists.
I lean in favor of it, but only lean. It seems a shame to bar people with expertise in local areas from working for representatives — but it also seems a shame to allow those representatives the power to influences votes by their employees. The latter seems a little more of a problem. But one problem I see is that much the same “undue influence” effect might be gained by hiring the spouses, children, and other friends and relatives of said employed officeholders — and at some point I doubt you could legislate against all of that.
re conflicts:
(1) Josh is completely correct, it is a moral/political conflict. It may look cynical as well – hearkening back to an age of machine politics.
HOWEVER
(2) which of these politicians would earn enough from their day jobs to live in the jurisdictions they represent if they were not employed by another elected official? Do we need to limit public service posts to independently wealthy, or those lucky enough to have a family carrying them, or those with the ridiculously impressive physical and mental faculties required to work full time in something unrelated to their leadership post, then lead effectively, and then raise a family as well? Such figures…are not so common amd merit respect.
Politically, and morally, Josh is right. Pragmatically, this is tricky.
First, your presumption that these political hacks need appointed gov’t jobs so they can do their night job as an elected is absurd. Most of them don’t make very much as professional sycophants.
However, you inadvertently point out the real issue: most of these people have no discernable profession skills with which to make a living. Either that ot they would rather not work at a job that demands results.
This is a pragmatic approach. That FINALLY demonstrates Sen. Newman’s acumen. It’s gonna piss of some insiders and cost him. If sincere, good. But, I smell a RAT.
Al Jabbar, Dr. Moreno, Kim Ngyuen all are products of this “insider” club.
Josh has been riding the SWA gravy train (do a DEEP DIVE into his management of his Office).
With that being said. This is a good idea. Hopefully it flushes out the grifters.
Why does covert operative Luis Aleman work for “crooked Katrina” Foley????
Good legislation that will cost him.
But, like his silly hypocrisy with the pool fence. His puppetmaster wrote this. Not Sen. Newman
SWA?
Is this Mardahl in a good mood? About half of what you wrote made sense.
Yeah what’s SWA?
Luis Aleman works for Katrina Foley? That’s sad, if true.
I don’t know about Luis but the OCYD slugs populate her orb: Nick Anna’s. George and the other Melehut soldiers.
IMO, Jabbar is another upward mobile insider, trying to stake a claim in the self serving political lottery.
Maybe they can start a GO FUND ME.
Interesting – same IP as some moron calling themselves Brandon Kimond who taunted Zenger over money last month.
Are you people’s scramblers failing?
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/12/jay-chen-to-face-off-against-michelle-steel-in-new-45th-district/comment-page-1/#comment-1466272
Plus the thing that none of you trolls can spell, or punctuate, or make sense.
Are you saying that someone is pretending to be an Asian woman? For shame!
Spelling errors seem deliberate. “Hut” as a misspelling for Melahat is a giveaway.
Do you know who “George” is supposed to be?
My guess is that this was all a setup for the final attack on Jabbar.
Addendum: word out of Fullerton is that their gay Arab-American councilman (don’t blame me for saying it, it’s his calling card), Ahmad Zahra has ben calling around, trying to get some backing to run against Chaffee. This is funny to Fullerton watchers since the man doesn’t seem to have a source of income.
Speculation is it’s just a ploy to drum up name recognition for his re-election effort in the fall. He’s gong to need it!
Egads: Your link led me to Chez Chumley for the first time in a long while, where I came upon this: https://theliberaloc.com/2022/01/19/an-early-endorsement-for-bos-district-2-kim-nguyen/. Kim Berenice sounds like a horror show.
Zenger – your concept of absurdity defies logic, and dismisses a fairly lengthy debate on this topic going back to the beginning of this Republic. A flippant rhetorical shrug is such an elite gesture, dismissing points made by Ben Franklin and most of the Founders when they argued the related point.
Either these people are professionals who live by their work, or whoever pays their mortgage will influence their choices. I cannot say whether it is better for them to have won an inheritance or marriage lottery, or to win an appointment from some other politician that at least keeps them in their district working with their constituents.
I do not know the right balance to strike, but the notion that political leaders should be able to live among their constituents doesn’t seem absurd to me. The absurdity is assuming that working for a political office creates a greater risk of conflict than, say, working for a ‘private’ consulting firm.
Your concept of reality defies reality. Typical of preconceived ideas driving the bus.
These local electeds have to file Form 700 to reveal economic interests and employment, and are expected to recuse themselves from conflicts. Working for the County or the State isn’t reportable – nor are the myriad little overlaps a local elected might encounter. I saw these people in (in)action in their low requirement appointed EA jobs at the County of Orange. Denis Bilodeau didn’t do a lick of work for the County taxpayers, but managed to spend his time glad handing for himself and Shawn Nelson. Of course he had plenty of time to study up on City of orange matters, but I doubt if he did. He was in the building 20 hours a week.
We’re not talking about Congressmen and Senators. We’re talking about the Jordan Brandmans of the world – and City Councils who are supported by highly paid municipal bureaucrats to do almost all the work.
This is a useful discussion (vitriol aside), so let me try to channel it:
Is there any way to limit political representatives acting at the behest of their also-political bosses short of not allowing them to work for their also-political bosses?
I’ll note the points where I think each of you is right:
I think that Donovan is right that this is not easy and straightforward and that it has been debated in the various colonies even since before the Declaration of Independence.
I think that Zenger is right that one’s boss being a fellow politician in an overlapping district creates a greater risk of conflict than if they were flipping burgers, working for most in-district businesses (which would allow for recusal in specific instances), or working for most out-of-district employers. For a politician to be able to say “I can get the following other politicians to introduce legislation you want and to vote your way because they work for me” is one way that politicians concentrate power — and we’ve seen hellish examples of it.
That it could bounce a good guy like Al Jabbar from his job is highly regrettable, but another Supervisor — or the County itself — would hopefully snap him up.
The “County” would only snap him up if a Supervisor so ordered it.
It’s not at all regrettable that Jabbar use his manifest talents to acquire employment in the private sector. That’s the whole problem – political appointees who are supposed to be overseeing complicated contracts, vast bureaucracies, etc., but who no experience and are, in essence political hacklings. Employing these people is a waste of public funds. I would hire Brandman, Harper, Bilodeau, to walk my dog.
Sorry. On second thought I wouldn’t hire them to walk my dog, either. They’re too lazy too pick up the crap on my neighbors grass.
I’ve been too busy to write this month, but I will put up an open thread tomorrow, at which time we can discuss this, from our sidebar:
https://voiceofoc.org/2022/01/fullerton-begins-looking-at-bonds-to-pay-pension-debt/
Hold your comments until the WOT opens up, he said in vain.