COMMUNITY ullerto♥ n bsCeALErNDAvR Peage 1r 4-15 FULLERTON’S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS • Est.1978 (Oprinted on 20% recycled paper) • YEAR 38 #5 •MID MARCH 2016 Submissions: [email protected] • Contact: (714) 525-6402 • Read Online at : www.fullertonobserver.com WHAT DISTRICT ARE YOU IN? by Sinh Dang Round 2 of community meetings took place in four areas of the city in late February and early March to collect resi - dent input on the current district voting map samples that were created by partici - pants in the first round. Mr. Ely and his staff at Compass Demographics will finalize the informa - tion collected and present the results to the city council for review along with his recommendation. The city council will hold a public hearing on April 19 and will render a final decision on June 7. On the November ballot this year, vot - ers will be asked: “Do you support a five district voting system in the city of Fullerton as shown on this map?” If voters don’t pass the measure, the lit - igation will start again and the matter will be decided by the courts. Some partici - pants, including myself, felt a little uncomfortable with that as it seems to be a deviation from our democratic process. Mr. Ely explained that if the majority of residents vote down the measure, it would confirm the fact that minority votes have been diluted by the citywide system, and that would make a strong case for the court to decide in favor of district voting. PEACE A Peace March was held in downtown Fullerton on Sat., March 5 led by the IWPG to support the United Nation’s Continued on page 13 International Women’s Day held March 8. A huge peace sign made of spring flowers and other signs were held by the participants. More information on the group at http://internationalwomenspeacegroup.org PHOTO BY MIKE RITTO More on page 6 7 . A Looking 4 7 S D . RIENDS OF OYOTE ILLS ILES AWSUIT 5 C F C H F L I D 1 U A E . Funny Stuff N P T D O O E R R TO PHOLD THE EASURE UBLIC OTE N U M W P V T Lots of serious things hap - G A O R T A S D I E pen in life and keeping a sense T E by Angela Chen Lindstrom With that as the assumption for acquisition, L N S M R L A of humor can sometimes help O P R they agreed to appraise the property at the high - T U P E S On February 9, 2016, The Friends of Coyote F you cope. We all need to take P est possible price. Worse yet, they agreed to only Hills filed a lawsuit against the City of Fullerton one year to raise the money. the time to laugh. If you have challenging the legality of the West Coyote Hills Why would a government agency agree to such a funny photo, short fake news Vesting Tentative Tract Map (VTTM) which was a lousy deal to be funded with public monies? item (or real one), or some approved in November 2015. Wrapped in that It should come as no surprise that the Friends other humorous idea to share decision was the City’s surprising, first filed a lawsuit to stop this insan - send it in for the Observer ’s ever announcement that it was ignor - ity. We rallied the public to annual All Funny April First ing the results of Measure W, the peo - The merits of show up and we voiced our Back Page. We will print all ple’s referendum which should have West Coyote Hills objection to the plan at the that we can squeeze onto the T overturned development approvals. as a habitat and October 2015 public meeting page. Submission deadline is N In 2012, 61% of Fullerton voters and at the Planning March 28. Send items to E L rejected the City Council’s approval of nature park are L Commission Hearing. When [email protected] D A I the Development Agreement with absolute, but the or by mail to: Fullerton C the Planning Commission S 2 E S Chevron-Pacific Coast Homes. The E price to the public 0 Observer, PO Box 7051, R I ignored us, we appealed the E 4 R T City ignored the public vote. should be fair. Fullerton CA 92834. V Continued on page 2 6 R - R T E E 5 V S N 2 D B E 5 A - R O 4 Fullerton Infrastructure Topic of NUFF Forum O R E 1 T 7 U H On Monday, March 28th, Neighbors facility upgrades to meet compliance with new safety T C ...the condition United for Fullerton (NUFF) will be hold - evolving needs. and ADA standards; major N I R ing a forum on “Fullerton’s Infrastructure Noteworthy among these of Fullerton’s repairs at Independence Park. O and You”. The forum, which will be free projects are the 2002 streets is one of In 2005, faced with the and open to the public, will be held in the redesign of the City Council the city’s most prospect of being in violation of a recently adopted state Fullerton Public Library Osborne Chamber and administrative obvious current Auditorium from 6:45-8:30pm. City offices which also upgraded Waste Discharge Rule that Manager Joe Felz and members of his staff disabled access, as well as challenges. required local governments to will provide a presentation on how capabilities for the capture reduce the number of sewer Fullerton plans, prioritizes, and funds the and streaming of city meet - overflows, the City created a capital improvement projects dealing with ings. In 2011, the Fullerton Main Library dedicated program for regular mainte - the city’s infrastructure. underwent a significant expansion, adding nance and repair of its aging sewer system, The quality and condition of a city’s a new shelving system, additional space for leading to the replacement and upgrade of 4 3 lines and sewer mains throughout 8 infrastructure has a fundamental impact on the Launer History Room, a new commu - N 2 R Fullerton. More recently, the City has 9 1 its quality of life in ways that are both stark nity meeting room and teen lounge, as well O 5 E A made significant decisions regarding our 0 T V and subtle. Over the past several years, the as rooftop solar panels to defray electrical 7 C R water system, leading to a water rate R X N city has developed a comprehensive and power needs. Some other recent projects E E O O increase to fund a long-term repair and L S B multi-faceted plan for future needs while funded by the City’s Facility Capital Care T R L B replacement program for water mains and O E also making needed repairs to the city’s cur - Repair program include the replacement of P U L related assets. O L rent aging infrastructure. Since the early the City Hall roof; upgrades to elevators at F U F 2000’s, the city has completed several major City Hall and the Police Department in Continued on page 5 Page 2FULLERTON OBSERVER LOCAL NEWS & COMMUNITY STORIES MID MARCH 2016 For some reason, the City issued a pub - Friends of Coyote Hills Files Lawsuit to Uphold lic statement at its 2/29/16 City Council ullerton the Measure W Public Vote Continued from frontpage meeting that they were in negotiations F with the Friends to extend the “tolling decision to the City Council. They The window for our legal challenge is agreement” to 4/8/16. Nope. The lawsuit Observer ignored our appeal. limited. We met with City officials on has been filed and is in motion because In January 2016, the Friends agreed to 2/16/16 to discuss our VTTM concerns they declined our 2/22/16 offer to put it The Fullerton Observer Community delay the filing (“Tolling Agreement”) (the same ones we appealed to the on hold. Are they trying to ignore our Newspaper, founded by Ralph and Natalie until 2/15/16 to allow the City and Planning Commission in October and Kennedy and a group of friends in 1978, is lawsuit? Chevron to complete their appraisals as then the City Council in November) to staffed by local citizen volunteers who create, The irony is that the City is finally they missed their 11/30/15 milestone. As see if an alternative to a lawsuit could be publish, and distribute the paper throughout applying for grants that the Friends have our community. 2/15/16 approached, the City and reached. Instead they demanded that the long said are available for acquisition. We This venture is a not-for-profit one with Chevron had still not completed the Friends dismiss our lawsuit. The Friends turned over all of our prior grant applica - all ad and subscription revenues plowed back appraisals and price “reconciliation”. It instead offered to “stay” the lawsuit (put it into maintaining and improving our inde - tions and contact information to the City was apparent the City Council would also on hold for a limited time, as the city has pendent, non-partisan, non-sectarian com - last year because we wanted to collaborate miss the March deadline to declare how done with Chevron’s 2010 lawsuit) to munity newspaper. on acquisition. We’ve been building rela - Our purpose is to inform Fullerton resi - much, if any of West Coyote Hills they allow the City to complete its price dis - tionships and promoting a West Coyote dents about the institutions and other socie - would purchase.