Project + Recording = Controversy
Posted by Allen Wilson on May 30, 2013
The cities of Cypress and Los Alamitos are in a cat fight over a 33-acre Prologis Project to construct 725,000 square foot warehousing and light manufacturing center.
Earlier this month a meeting was held at a venue between Cypress Councilman Doug Bailey, Los Alamitos Mayor Warren Kusumoto, Assemblyman Travis Allen and Allen’s Chief of Staff.
The initial purpose was to hammer out differences with regards to the Prologis Project between the two cities, but those differences took a ugly turn of allegations by Councilman Bailey that Mayor Kusumoto illegally recorded a conversation.
The Event News reports of much detailed accounts of the allegations made by Councilman Bailey.
The Controversy does not end there as a glossy flyer was disseminated through out the City of Los Alamitos with an Anti-Kusumoto hit piece from an anonymous group that calls themselves “Concerned Los Alamitos Residents”.
Los Alamitos Mayor Kusumoto disputes the claim of an illegal recording.
The Cypress City Council has sent a letter to the Los Alamitos City Council registering their concerns as they have no confidence in Mayor Kusumoto, which is a serious matter as Kusumoto’s integrity is being questioned by many inside and outside of Los Alamitos.
Though, the question needs to be raised with regards to the controversial project that cause spat between two neighboring cities: Why is Assemblyman Allen in the midst of all of this?
Assemblyman Allen says, “We’re trying to get both sides to come together and talk. I think the two communities need to come together and work together for the betterment of both communities.”
Assemblyman Allen has voiced his support on a project that is NOT even in his district, though he is on a “create jobs” mission.
Ironically, the project is in Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva’s district, which she appears to be MIA.
The recording incident is one thing, but the matter reeks corruption as backroom deals diminishes public trust of their own local government, especially when you have a state legislator sitting at the table that only raises eyebrows.
It is with hope that the controversy to be resolved soon so that the residents of Cypress and Los Alamitos get the answers that they deserve.
OC Political 
met00 said
Actually the whole mess (Measure D [the 1987 one page measure by the citizens that created the need for a vote of the people to change the open space zoning on the LART], Measure L [the 150+ page document written by the developer that changed the zoning and had a one paragraph special amendment to the zone that permitted a use on the zone that is NOT permitted in the same zone anywhere else in the city] and Measure A [the current 160+ page document created by the same developer to change more of the open space zoning that is so flawed that the developer is offering a smoke and mirror “work around” rather than pulling it from the ballot]) is being addressed on a regional website called OC4Us.com.
This specific issue here (the recording) is nothing more than a sideshow to take peoples attention off the current attempt of Council Member Bailey to return a favor to Mr. Bardis (the developer) who’s Quality of Life PAC (funded mostly by Mr. Bardis, his LLCs and his corporations) paid almost all $30,000 that was raised to Mr. Bailey’s first campaign creating his political career (see link http://oc4us.com/?p=199 ).
If you want to discuss corruption, you really do need to have a long conversation with Doug Bailey.
As for Travis. He really has a choice. He can continue to try to “be reasonable” and look for ways for a high thoughput distribution facility could be built in the district next to his, adding thousands of diesel belching trucks into his district and past the three public schools where every student in grades 6-12 from Seal Beach, Rossmoor and Los Alamitos attend, or he can actually consider that after poisoning our kids we, who overwhelmingly voted for Travis over Troy Edgar might just decide that we made a mistake and he could end up spending his next term sharing a pint with Norby and asking what went wrong.
As for Mr. Kusumoto, Amazingly enough, of all the players, he’s the only one who is being actively transparent and attempting to make sure that the residents and voters actually know what is going on ( http://oc4us.com/?p=139 ). Which might explain the glossy four color mailer that was professionally produced and delivered to Los Alamitos residents that was filled with false accusations by a “citizens group” that doesn’t seem to exist.
To keep up with all the goings on in this small corner of Orange County there are two websites that have been following it. http://www.letsfixlosal.com/ and http://www.oc4us.com/ Please feel free to drop by either as both have very open policies on posting and making sure that the conversation continues as transparently as possible.
Cypress Awakened said
We have council man Doug Bailey bragging on tv that Cypress doesn’t have a Planning Commission – so maybe one reason Cypress residents have not been involved in planning our land use, is because the Cypress City Council wants it that way!
It is even worse than that. The council does not want any citizen involvement in their own city government. The council meeting really starts at 5-5:30 with a “Workshop” where all of the dirty work is done. The workshop is not publicized, not televised and takes place in a location other than city council chambers. This part of the city council meeting should be packed with citizens offering their input on the various issues brought before the council. At 7pm the meeting moves to the council chambers where it continues, and is televised. The only thing the public sees at 7pm are the housekeeping items and they are done in 30 minutes with no controversy. Perfectly legal, duly noticed with them knowing that they have the public fooled. Even George Pardon, co-chair of a Cypress Citizen Group bragged that he has attended very council meeting (7pm) for years since he retired, and didn’t know about the workshops and the ballot measure discussions. Interesting that he who was so easily fooled now fancies himself a leader, and is willing to jump in bed with those tricked him by endorsing the new developer written Measure A.
The city streets and medians and everything “that shows” are well maintained so that the public is kept happy and quiet. No need to attend a council meeting to complain. No Planning commission because that would involve citizens with legal authority to approve or disapprove projects ,subject to appeal to the Council and more public scrutiny.
All of the city council members are party to this. The staff aids and abets them; they even get a seat on the dias to show they are equal (visually) to the council. The citizens of Cypress are slowly finding out that ignorance is not always bliss and there is a price to be paid for their apathy and complacencey. Too bad it will also affect their neighbors and other citizens in the region.