Anaheim Mailbox: &@#$%$
Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on October 29, 2012
Really? I cannot believe how much mail rolled in this weekend from the Anaheim City Council race. The one interesting thing that I have been able to deduct is that we are down to 4 serious contenders for the 2 seats. Lucille Kring, John Leos, Jordan Brandman, and Steve Chavez-Lodge.
4 pieces came in this weekend. 1) Kring positive piece, 2) Leos positive piece 3) Leos hit piece 4)Kring hit piece.
Here is the first piece from Lucille Kring that not only will have a positive impact on her campaign but also will hurt the candidacy of OUSD Area 3 candidate Bob Ausmus (Retired Inglewood Policeman).
Here is the Leos puff piece:
Then came the Leos hit piece:
Lastly we have the Kring hit piece:
OC Political 
Leos Floats Into Anaheim Mailboxes On Wings Of Government Union Money « Anaheim Blog said
[…] Chris Emami has posted some of the mailers being put out by the OCEA here, here and here. […]
Cynthia Ward said
Those hit pieces are funded by Disney, the first time they have ever gone negative to my knowledge. Disney pumped bucks into BIZ PAC, where Carrie Nocella also sits on the pac board, then BIZ PAC donated to Citizens for Anaheim’s Future, the Pringle pac he opened back in 2008. So tell me, why is it that Disney is willing to step out of the good guy mold, something they refused to do even in ’08 when Galloway was such a tempting target, and hit two candidates who have presented no threat to Disney? Disney wrote Leos a check in 2010, and the Resort crowd hosted a fundraiser last week for Lucille (While quietly plotting to put a knife in her back? Nice bunch.) So it is not like they object to the candidates, but given the circumstances, how much more funding of taxpayer financed goodies are they expecting? They got the hotel deal (which Disney is still listed as operating in the most recent and amended agreement, including parameters under which they may adopt the deal from the developer) and Tuesday they got a streetcar valued at over $300 million, over the objections of Mayor Tait demanding how we are paying for all of this. Ask yourself, why is Disney stepping outside their comfort zone for the first time and sending dirty mail?
Also, the mailers are full of B.S.
Leos is OCEA, which works with AMEA, but they have a very generous deal through 2014, thanks to the give-away triplets using tax dollars to buy themselves out of the bad press they were getting. Leos negotiating with AMEA does not raise his own pay. And it would take a union deal of unprecedented value to outspend what we are giving away to the Resort crowd (with a percentage to Pringle for his lobbying work)
The items they blame Kring for were under two different Mayors, Tom Daly who the SOAR/Disney crowd is supporting, and Curt Pringle who sent the mailing. But they want the world to believe one Council member answering to two Mayors did this all by herself.
The truth is that Mayor-turned-lobbyist Pringle is getting a cut of these deals that Murray is ramrodding through Council, and unless Pringle can maintain his stranglehold of 3 votes he loses out on the gravy train (among other transportation project dollars.) By the way, Hill International (Lodge’s company) and WillDan (Murray’s company) are bidding for a ton of this stuff, and Natalle Meeks, who recommends these companies, is known to be friendly with this crowd after work, they all live right around each other. So of course she approves deals for her friends companies and they overlook her lying at a City Council meeting when answering the Mayor.
Boy, you lift a rock and look at what comes slithering out.
And I have a bunch of signs that say Support the Tait Slate Vote John Leos and Lucille Kring. If this stuff pisses you off, come get a sign or I will deliver one.
William Tell said
Cynthia, anyone reading one of your comments has to ask themselves: does she have any idea what she is talking about? Does she ave any evidence to back up her claims?
What negative press did the council majority stop by voting for that agreement? In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s been no let up. So what exactly did they get from it?
Willdan isn’t bidding on any Anaheim city business. As for Hill international, Steve Lodge isn’t on the Anaheim City Council, so there is not even remotely a conflict. Funny how that bothers you, but you always minimize Leos’ ties to OCEA. Leos is skin-grafted at the hip to OCEA. He is TOTALLY dependent on public employee union money. OCEA and AMEA are affiluated, connected. Leos is an OCEA shop steward. Don’t you think it is a conflict for him to vote on contracts with AMEA? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why they are spending so much money for him? Or are you afraid of the answer?
What has become obvious is you will say anything, and twist any fact to promote whichever candidate has caught your fickle attention.
Cynthia Ward said
Yes, you can track the donations from Disney (where Carrie Nocella typically would direct donations) to OC BIZ PAC (where Carrie Nocella serves on the PAC Board) to Citizens for Anaheim’s Future, (where Curt Pringle is the officer of record, and Kris Murray has served as Chair for years) and the money is immediately used for those hit pieces. Is that evidence enough?
Yes you can look at the records and blog reports and see that the OCEA sponsored mailings nailing the “giveaway three” stopped cold the minute that contract was approved. You can also look at mailings and see that some truce was likely in place, because OCEA did not go negative on Brandman until after Disney money was traced to Pringle’s PAC,Then they appear to have declared war, as though there was an agreement and when one side stepped out the other struck back. Coincidence?
Not to mention that a Republican majority approved the most generous union deal in recent history on the very Primary Election day that many other communities were standing up to unions. Why would they do that if not to cut a deal?
Watch the public works projects, especially in the Resort, with spending led by Natalie Meeks and supported by Murray, WillDan may work as a sub through Hill, or they may form a Limited partnership for specific projects so that the work is not going to Murray’s employer, but a completely separate entity, that just happens to be made up of the same company people. No? Look at Murray’s vote to approve a WillDan report (which I had no problem with, only using it as an example) but a WillDan employee voted on a WillDan item because, well it was not THAT WillDan so it was OK. It may not materialize tomorrow, but sooner or later that one will bubble to the surface. Wanna put a few bucks into an envelope and have Emami hold it until we see? If I am wrong it is yours, with my blessings, a cheap price to pay in contrast to the contracts I see flying out the door now. Something small but interesting, $25?
No, Lodge is not a Council member, and given his bad press he is not going to be, but that does not stop his connections from trying to put him in office, despite his utter lack of suitability. It is his lack of suitability that tells us the motives for promoting him seem fishy. He has zero background in the community, no history of civic involvement, none of the usual indicators that point to a campaign that grew organically out of a desire to step up and help the community the candidate is involved with. That “put up to it” veneer is upheld with his filings, there are nearly no small Anaheim donations to indicate his friends and neighbors think he would be a great leader and are cheering him on to run. The public works projects that crowd promotes, and a majority approves over the objections of a Mayor begging for reason, demanding staff justify the cost, will bleed us dry faster than any union. That is why the Register backed off their usual stand of OCEA as the Great Satan and endorsed Leos and Kring, calling for an end to the crony capitalism. Shawn Nelson, also not exactly joined at the hip with the union that made his life Hell in 2010, also overcame his caution and recognized there are monsters far scarier than unions, and one has his claws wrapped around 200 S. Anaheim Blvd right now. So if I am fickle and paranoid then I am in good company, with people I am proud to stand with and try extracting those special interests before there is nothing left to give to anyone, union or otherwise.
I only have to watch the AMEA after 2014, and even then they are bound by State law now with Brown’s new pension reform. I have to watch Pringle and his clients at EVERY stinking Council meeting!
Also, if we want to talk about candidates being beholden to outside interests, Brandman and Lodge did not exactly self-fund, they took money and IEs from every developer in the region, their forms look like the membership lists for an OCBC BIA conference. If taking money from unions is condemning, then the Brandman Lodge duo are in hock for the Public Safety unions that represent a LOT more of the city’s General Fund, ( I think just over 60%) and while AMEA workers have absorbed the majority of cuts, the APA, and especially the Fire unions, do not want to play ball at all in sharing the pain of economic reality. So Leos is in the bag with the smaller union but Brandman and Lodge get a pass for Police and Fire? Yeah, that works.
You call me fickle, and claim I will say anything? I can back up everything i say, Pringle and his mailings cannot.
:I looked at the hit piece from Disney/Pringle on Lucille. Just the first item I picked out, claiming she boosted utility rates, says it all. The mailing cites Res. 2007-183 approved on 10/23/2007. With the exception of Harry Sidhu, who felt the average increase of $6 per month was too high, the entire Council, INCLUDING MAYOR PRINGLE, approved that rate adjustment that they are now blaming Lucille for! It was first since 1993, in response to State mandates forcing us to buy more expensive electricity.
AND….the Council was acting on the recommendation of their Public Utilities Commission, which included Commissioners Jordan Brandman and Kris Murray.In fact it looks like Murray voted for this increase on her first day as a Commissioner, despite not having attended the workshop outlining the need for increases at the earlier meeting. But let’s blame Lucille for that.
I am trying to find time to track down some others, it is clear that his is not a side voters can trust to tell the truth.
Pringle and Disney are spending a lot of time and money,risking the squeaky clean reputation of Walt, for what? Disney does not fear Lucille, they have supported her in the past and I think they may have dropped her a check in this cycle, and their buddies have put a little something into the Kring war chest. They do not fear Leos and his union ties, Galloway was far worse, giving away the store to every union deal she could conjure while egging on Disney’s unions to rebel against the master, and she was not hit. They fear something more than the candidates, they fear losing that majority enough to risk the wrath of Burbank for splashing mud on the hallowed Mouse costume.
If standing up to that kind of bald-faced special interest dealing is going to label me “fickle” then it is name I will wear proudly.
William Tell said
“If standing up to that kind of bald-faced special interest dealing is going to label me “fickle” then it is name I will wear proudly.”
Cynthia, public employee unions are, as George Will said, government organized as a special interest. John Leos is part-and-parcel of that special interest, and you are cheeering them on. Dop the Norma Jean act. No one is buying it.
William Tell said
“It is his lack of suitability that tells us the motives for promoting him seem fishy. He has zero background in the community, no history of civic involvement, none of the usual indicators that point to a campaign that grew organically out of a desire to step up and help the community the candidate is involved with.”
Hold the phone! Did I read that trash talk right, Cynthia? This coming from the person hollering to get John Leos elected? Cynthia, you have lost your marbles. What exactly are John Leos’ qualifications to be a councilman of the state’s 10th largest city? That he was Nick Berardino’s yes man on the OCEA Board of Directors for a few years? The guy kills time at the county probation department while waiting out a worker’s comp claim against the county — on our dime! Doesn’t it bother you one iota, Cynthia, that Leos is totally taking advantage of the system, and the taxpayer is picking up the tab? Do you want that ethic on the Ciity Council? Or do you hate Curt Pringle so much that you’ll turn a blind eye to anything Leos does (on in the case of his job, doesn’t do)?
You are such a dishonest crock.
Cynthia Ward said
Trash talk? Because I pointed out that Lodge just recently arrived in Anaheim and became the golden boy of the establishment with zero community involvement? Please, correct me, tell me all about Lodge’s roots in the community, or how he got here and became so invested with making Anaheim a better place that he was urged to run for Council. I will wait here while you dig up those facts. You accuse me of turning a blind eye, what do you know about Lodge? What do you really know about him other than what the establishment has spun?
When other candidates try to step up, they are told to wait their turn, that they need to “pay their dues” and are directed to serve on Boards and Commissions, appointments that are ironically directed by those telling candidates to wait their turn. How does Lodge leapfrog to the front of the line? What makes him so qualified to lead? You spend a lot of time bashing me for backing candidates, and bashing the candidates, but I have yet to hear you give ONE reason for Lodge being the better candidate. So let’s compare, using YOUR parameters.
You say Leos is a union lackey sitting around waiting for a Worker’s Comp deal?
Lodge was a career union guy, serving on his union board and/or pac board, and retired with a Worker’s Comp case against Santa Ana, which is part of the public record. So he very likely has one of those convenient disability pensions.
A review of career records shows a pattern of Lodge being hauled into court for a multitude of complaints, including harassing Latino bar patrons (while not using the Chavez name apparently) falsely imprisoning an innocent man for a year in a zealous effort to close cold cases, and the grand-daddy of them all, beating the Hell out of a jaywalker, with a jury ruling against him to the tune of well over half a million dollars.
A review of Leos’ career records shows no complaints. (Yes I did look, in all the same places where we found Lodge’s info.)
Lodge moved to Anaheim within the last 2 years. Prior to that he lived in Murietta where he was so entrenched in his community he served on a City Commission. Seemingly overnight he appears in Anaheim Hills with a new wife, new career he appears to have no background in, (what does a gang detective know about business development? oh and the new career is working for the new wife, who is reportedly tight with Kris Murray and the Head of Anaheim’s Public Works, who is reported to have an enormous Lodge sign on the lawn-no prejudice there when handing out contracts) and Lodge is suddenly the poster boy for establishment politics.
John Leos was born in Anaheim, to parents who were born in Anaheim.
Lodge is backed by the public employee unions, who represent well OVER HALF of the City’s General Fund, and are the two unions who dig in their heels when it comes time to share the pain in budget cuts.
Leos is backed by the OCEA, affiliated with the AMEA which represents the front line workers, the clerks and librarians and the little guys who have repeatedly taken the brunt of budget cuts year after year. Their pensions are dictated by the State’s new pension reform, it would be pretty hard for Leos to give them much of anything, while the APA and fire get WAY better deals.
Who has the larger stake in those contracts?
And if we have to talk about special interests, I think we need to bring Disney into the discussion, because while they have always thrown money into the pot, this year they are spending big on negative mail for the first time in their history, so something has shifted at the House O Mouse. What does Disney want so desperately that they will risk their squeaky clean reputation for the first time? Anaheim voters have NEVER denied Disney any reasonable request, and often approve requests many think are unreasonable, why the sudden game change?
But by all means, tell me I am turning a blind eye and you have all the facts on your candidate, and the motives behind backing him.
In fact, give me ONE REASON to support Lodge over other candidates, without name calling, without talking trash on me or the other candidates, just take a minute to promote your boy. Give me your elevator speech on why Lodge is the better candidate.
Meanwhile, while you insist I have swallowed the Kool Aid, I have not said Leos is the second coming of the Messiah, in fact I have made it clear I am very likely to disagree with him (and Kring) in the future. What I am saying is that given the parameters of the candidates to choose from, I believe Leos and kring will offer the most independent leadership. I am not looking for someone who votes my way all the time, I am looking for leaders who go in with an open mind, willing to look at all sides and do what is best for Anaheim overall, and I believe Leos and Kring are closer to that type of leadership than the others.
Now, again, tell me why you back Lodge. I am listening.
William Tell said
You didn’t give one reason why Leos is qualified to be an Anaheim City Councilman other than he’s lived in Anaheim a long time. That’s a pretty low bar. He doesn’t even meet your “pay his dues” criteria.
The gloves come off in Anaheim! The Blogosphere salivates. | Orange Juice said
[…] Anyway, are any of the charges on this flyer actually true? Cynthia Ward, with her great institutional memory of Anaheim, tries her hand at answering in OC Political comments: […]
Cynthia Ward said
A fair statement.
In 2010 one of the reasons i opposed Leos was his habit of speaking in generalities. He spoke of cutting waste but could not identify specific examples. Talk to him today and he clearly has a grasp of the budget, he understands where the pork is now, and has some innovative ideas for getting money to stretch in some key areas. I am not an expert on finance, but I have tons of friends who work in public service, at city,county and state levels, (some unionized, some in management) and his numbers match the bitch sessions I hear when sitting around talking shop. John’s identification of extraneous functions lines up with the kvetching I hear behind the scenes about which managers sit around doing nothing, so I think he has a good handle on real life issues at City Hall, far above what he had in 2010.
John Leos took the 2 years between races to educate himself, and I respect that. He is also, frankly, a lot more likable this time around. In 2010 he ran with a monumental chip on his shoulder that was not attractive in a candidate. That chip is gone as far as i can tell. As far as his volunteer involvement, John has been around for youth sports, school support, graffiti clean up, the usual issues that a parent would be involved in, putting him in touch with everyday people who share their hopes, dreams, and fears of what is going on in the city.
In contrast, Steve lodge is running on a platform of having “a plan” to clean up gangs. He is a one-issue candidate,and that is fine, as long as you know your issue. But when asked specifically at the WAND event, how does he plan to pay for the cops he insists he is putting back on the street, he had no answer. I will upload the video if you wish. Now it is one thing to say you support public safety, it is another to have a real grasp of the budget and how we are going to accomplish that. It is especially I hear people talk about his experience as a businessman. But his contract with Hill was submitted as part of his evidence at court (and promptly thrown out by the judge-but it is not private info if he LITERALLY handed it to my attorney for the pubic record) and his contract indicates that unlike most “businessmen” he does not appear to draw a salary and be involved in day to day operations, he does not appear to be “managing” the business. Instead he gets a percentage of all new contracts he brings in. Kind of like a head-hunter…or…a lobbyist? In short he uses his network of contacts to bring in more work, for a company known for doing publicly funded projects. That is not the same as knowing how to run a business, I see no evidence that he understands the City’s budget or operations.
Both candidates get credit (or condemnation) for serving on their union boards, it does teach one how to handle strategic plans, long range vision, budgets, etc. But there they seem equally weighted, resulting in a draw as far as I can tell.
That is may take on the two. Again, i would love to hear yours.
thinkoc said