On the Agenda - City Council - 2023-01-17

A rundown of what City Council is about to be up to

I read the nonsense happening during this coming week's Fullerton City Council meeting so you don't have to and it's as tedious as ever. This week's agenda features the following items:

Closed Session

1. CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATOR Per Government Code Section 54957.6

Labor negotiations. Fire Heroes Want more everything. Same as always.

2. CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - EXISTING LITIGATION Per Government Code Section 54956.9(d)(1)

FPD screwed up and we’re involved in another lawsuit because of it, specifically Lourdes Toman, et al. v. Jerry Glomboske, et al. (Case Number: USDC Case No.:SACV20-00046-DIC(KESx)).

The gist is that a man called in a welfare check on his 92 year old father, Mr. Toman. When Fullerton PD officers, Corporals David Macshane & Davis Crabtree, arrived on the scene they were told they needed a warrant to enter the residence and to call the attorney of the woman inside.

The Officers refused to call the attorney and 31 minutes later kicked in the door of the apartment and arrested the inhabitants, in doing so they broke Mrs. Toman’s elbow.

The reason for arrests was California Penal Code § 148(a)(1) which is willful resisting, delaying or obstructing. Here’s the pertinent quote from Corporal Crabtree at the time;

And if we can warn them that they're going to get arrested if they don't allow us in to check to make sure he's okay or they can have him come out. But either way, we need to check to make sure he's okay. And otherwise, they're in violation of 148 and they're gonna go to jail.

The Courts have denied qualified immunity to the Officers for the unlawful arrest and excessive force claims, using body-camera footage as their evidence. It was “obvious” to the 9th Circuit that the force used was “excessive”.

However the Courts have so-far gone back and forth on granting qualified immunity for the illegal entry. Most recently the same 3-Judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court stated that while the Offices were “erroneous” in their belief that there was an emergency - owing to zero evidence of such an emergency - essentially kicking in somebody’s door because they won’t open it isn’t “unreasonable”.

This is Thin Blue Line horseshit.

I’ve read several of the briefs and while there was certainly an “elder abuse case” open in relation to this family (by Brea PD mind you) it was financial in nature and FPD didn’t bother to sort this out and outright refused to talk to the lady’s lawyer.

Again quoting from one of the briefs;

Crabtree then told Mrs. Toman, “Ma'am, you either open the door or we're going to break this door in.” Mrs. Toman continued to recite her lawyer's phone number, but Crabtree responded, “We're not calling your lawyer.”

5 minutes after they kicked the door in, the lawyer arrived.

I haven’t seen it addressed anywhere yet but I’m curious if FPD has done anything about the falsification of the Officer’s reports.

The Courts have so-far established that the Officers used excessive force to illegally arrest somebody and somehow I don’t think the reports reflect those facts - which means they had to have been falsified in a similar fashion to the report of former FPD Officer “Sonny” Siliceo several years ago.

The Officers, of course, will run out the clock on any discipline and it will likely be years before we know what happens to them - probably being allowed to retire the same as Siliceo was - even if they’re found to be guilty.

Appointments

Two at-large appointments each are being made to the Infrastructure and Natural Resources Committee( INRAC) and Investment Advisory Committee.

Consent Calendar (Items 1-14)

1. JANUARY 3, 2023 MEETING MINUTES

Approval of the minutes for the prior meeting.

2. THE PINES AT SUNRISE VILLAGE REDEVELOPMENT - SECOND READING OF ORDINANCES

There were two Ordinances created for “The Pines at Sunrise Village”, 3318 & 3119, and they’re both getting their second readings tonight before going into effect.

This is related to the Shopoff development off of Euclid & Rosecrans.

3. COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2022

The CAFR. Oh goodie.

This is an exhausting document that the City is required by law to compile and it gives a more honest insight into how the City collects and spends money than just about anything else we see all year long.

If you care about the budget this is usually the place to start looking for the semblance of reality. Council just receives & files it until it’s time to pass the budget in a few months.

4. MONTHLY COMMITTEE ACTIVITY AND ATTENDANCE REPORT

Committee attendance and activity report saying what meetings are happening and which appointees showed up.

5. DECEMBER 2022 CHECK REGISTER

December 2022 Check Register. The log of what checks the City wrote and to whom.

6. FISCAL YEAR 2023-24 BUDGET PROCESS OVERVIEW

Receiving & filing the FY 2023-24 Budget Process Overview report. Think of this as the rules and principles behind the reindeer games of how the budget will be tackled. It’s mostly nonsense.

7. RECOGNIZED OBLIGATION PAYMENT SCHEDULE AND ADMINISTRATIVE BUDGET ALLOWANCE FY 2023-24 AND ADMINISTRATIVE BUDGET ALLOWANCE PER ASSEMBLY BILLX 1X26 AND 1484 AND SENATE BILL 107

We have to file a report for how we’re going to deal with and pay for the obligations still related to the “winding down” of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency (now the Successor Agency). If we don’t file this report we’re subject to a $10k/day fine.

8. FRIENDSHIP CITY WITH SEONGNAM, REPUBLIC OF KOREA

We’re discussing a “Friendship City” with the City of Seongnam, Republic of Korea. I don’t understand this nonsense. Friendship Cities. Sister Cities. It’s all theater.

9. LOCUST DRIVE EARLY MORNING PARKING RESTRICTION REPEAL

Some people want to allow parking on Locust Drive (between Valencia Drive and Oak Avenue) from 2-5am and have petitioned City Council to make the change. I’m a little surprised this is on the Consent Calendar as these items tend to get the most flak and pushback during meetings.

People want to park on the street because there are more cars than places to park them where they live. Same as it ever was.

10. FLASHING BEACON PEDESTRIAN SYSTEM

We’re spending $367,316 (largely “grant” money which is just taxes collected by a different agency) to install 16 glorified LED signs, add some other road signs and paint some crosswalks.

I’m not kidding. This is all about a “rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB”) system which, according to the staff report;

“RRFB systems include rectangular LED light fixtures that flash with high frequency and high visibility when activated by a pedestrian”.

So closing in on $400k for 16 fancy LED lights that work when somebody pushes a button and the paint and signs around them. And we wonder why our government is always broke.

I wonder if our newest Councilmember, Dr. NPC, will pull this item to discuss how it isn’t inclusive for people who are light sensitive, such as those with epilepsy.

11. PEDESTRIAN SIGNAL COUNTDOWN HEAD INSTALLATION

Similar to item #10, we’re spending $96,390 to install “Pedestrian Signal Countdown” LEDs. These are LED versions of the clocks that count down to let pedestrians know how long they have left to cross the street.

Interestingly we’re getting 501 of these at 84 intersections. I dunno, the math doesn’t seem to check out. We can get 501 of these at 84 intersections for $96k;

But we need to spend damn near four times (4X!) as much to set up this nonsense at 16 intersections;

Seems suss. Too bad Council just delegates this stuff and then plops it onto the Consent Calendar.

12. CATCH BASIN CONNECTOR PIPE SCREEN INSTALLATION PROJECT FY 2022-23

This is another partial “grant” item. This time it’s $195,481 to comply with the “Statewide Trash Amendments to the Water Quality Control Plan for Ocean Waters of California” which requires us to collect all the trash in “catch basins”.

OCTA is funding 80% of the costs associated with construction and administration with us on the hook for the remaining 20% of those costs as well as any “additional” project costs.

This sounds fancy but these are simply stainless steel grates that go above drains and have an “expected” life expectancy of 10 years (but a warranty of 5 years) so this is going to be an ongoing cost issue.

Some of these screens go on grates, some on pipes. Here’s the map;

So $194k to install 24 “Connector Pipe Screens” & 48 “Grated Inlet Trash Screens”.

Seeing as there’s no discussion we aren’t being told if there are any other budgetary changes related to this item.

These are screens. Let me clarify this point. We’re installing these things (this one is on Fern Drive);

Can you see the issue?

We are going to need to get people to clean these screens on an ongoing basis considering that they’re designed to catch trash where water flows (items larger than 5mm according to G2).

At 5mm these screens will catch anything smaller than 1/3 the size of a dime (dimes being about 18mm).

This type of stuff annoys me to no end because there’s little thought or effort put into the practical application of what’s being done or how it will be maintained.

So, again, how are these grates going to be cleaned, by whom, how often and how do we plan to pay for that going forward?

In the good news department, I was told by an insider that Fern Drive flooded for the 1st time in several decades a few years after grates like the one in the above photo were installed (and not cleaned).

Well, okay, it’s good news if you happen to own a jet ski.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who remembers the epicness that was Mark Gomez in 2017.

13. HERMOSA AREA WATER MAIN REPLACEMENT

Council is approving a $2,960,000 budget transfer for a $2,381,200 contract to replace 1.54 miles of water main around Hermosa Drive. This project should take place between April-October of this year so residents in that neighborhood are going to be quite annoyed for 6+ months.

There’s a paragraph in the agenda item that stood out to me;

Typically, the City performs road rehabilitation along with water main replacements. The City has a future water main replacement project planned for the adjacent area. Staff decided to recommend this entire area for paving following completion of both water main replacement projects since an active construction project could damage newly paved streets. The City will include the full paving project in future road prioritization discussions for potential funding.

Notice the lack of a timeline or solution. “The City has a future water main replacement project planned”. Ok. When? If you’re not going to pave the area until That Project is done - when do you plan to do that project? How long will it take? Then how long will it take to fix the road that both of these projects are bound to make worse?

Then we have the pesky “potential funding” line at the end. So we “plan” to repair another section of water main and then plan to repair the road that gets completely torn up in the process of both of these projects… with potential funding. This does not sound promising.

I can buy the argument and rationale - why pave road if you’re just going to tear it up again - but not without the important qualifiers. If we’re talking a few months between projects then so be it, but if we’re talking a few years that changes the math.

But, again, we don’t get to know these things because solid questions on multi-million dollar projects might make a meeting last a few more minutes and Council can’t have that happen.

This week’s Consent Calendar totals $3,619,187 bringing the year’s total to $6,635,604.19.

Public Hearings (Item 14)

14. FREEWAY-ORIENTED ELECTRONIC BILLBOARD AT 1604 SOUTH HARBOR BOULEVARD CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT AND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

Somebody wants to put a digital billboard on top of the Shoe City sign off of Harbor Boulevard and the 91 Freeway. It’s stated to generate about $75k in revenue for the City every year for 30 years. I couldn’t care less about this if I tried.

Regular Business (Items 15-16)

15. PARTNERSHIP WITH COUNTY OF ORANGE TO ESTABLISH A TEMPORARY COLD WEATHER HOMELESS SHELTER AT INDEPENDENCE PARK GYMNASIUM

This item is a clusterfuck of uselessness and bad staff reporting. There is more context missing than given and Council should demand better from the City Manager.

What we do have is that the County of Orange wants to open a “Temporary” homeless shelter at the Independence Park Gym from February through March or April (depending on the need). We used to use the Fullerton Armory for such things and switched to the Independence Park Gym when the Covid Lockdowns negated that option in 2020.

But those lockdowns are gone so why aren’t we using the armory? No context or info is given.

We typically run a “cold weather” shelter starting in October so why was this put off until it started to rain in January? No context or info is given.

How many beds will there be? No context or info is given.

While the agenda report does say that the County will pay the City approximately $7,500/month to rent the facility - it doesn’t say if we’re losing any other rent or uses during the time it’ll be used or what impacts might happen.

Keep in mind that the last time we did something like this at this location the State had been shut down so nobody could use the gym at that time anyways. This isn’t the case today.

We also have this nonsense thrown in for good measure (emphasis added);

Based on discussions with the County of Orange the shelter will primarily be for individuals in the City of Fullerton as well as individuals experiencing homelessness in our immediate North Orange County region.

What constitutes “our immediate North Orange County region”? Are we being expected to pick up the slack for Anaheim? Brea? La Habra? Yorba Linda? All of the above and more? No context or info is given.

How many people will this shelter be serving? Are there any qualifiers for admittance? Were there any impacts related to the shelter that was open here during the lockdowns such as increased police calls for service? No context or info is given.

Like I said there is more missing from this agenda item than there is information present in it.

If people show up for any item on the agenda it’ll be this one - both for and against and for good reason.

16. MAPLE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER OPERATIONS

The Maple Community Center is back.

This is a followup from the last time this item was in front of Council. At that meeting (20 December 2022) the City Council directed staff to hold a community meeting. That meeting has been held and… we’re back to the same discussion we had in front of us before that meeting.

Welcome to government.

The logical choice between the proposed options remains to be letting the YMCA take it over as they’re willing to keep the after-hours rentals without the cost to the City as well as running local programs.

The people who showed up to the meeting agreed (according to the staff report).

And that's all there is on the agenda this week. If you want me to keep doing these, share it and let me know on social media. Subscriptions are always appreciated.