Council Takes Another Shot in Attempt to Kill $15 Million for Coyote Hills
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COMMUNITY Fullerton bsCeALErNDAvR Peage 1r 3-15 O EAR FULLERTON’S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS • Est.1978 (printed on 20% recycled paper) • Y 40 #3 • MID FEBRUARY 2018 Submissions: [email protected] • Contact: (714) 525-6402 • Read Online at : www.fullertonobserver.com Officers Fired After Kelly Thomas Death - Sue City to Get Jobs Back by Jesse La Tour Two former Fullerton police officers who were fired over the beating/death of local homeless man Kelly Thomas have sued the city of Fullerton to get their jobs back, plus retroactive lost pay. The officers are Jay Cicinelli and Joseph Wolfe, both of whom were charged by the Orange County District Attorney with excessive force and involuntary manslaughter in 2012 over the much- publicized beating and death of Kelly Thomas. Both officers were fired over the incident. Cicinelli, along with officer Manuel Ramos, went to trial in 2014. Both were acquitted of all charges, including exces - sive force, prompting one of the largest protests in Fullerton history. For most Fullertonians, this was the end of the tragic saga of Kelly Thomas. HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR : The Fullerton Chinese Cultural Association hosted a Chinese New Year celebration But for Cicinelli and Wolfe (whose at Sunny Hills High School with dancing, food, calligraphy, and more on February 10th. PHOTO BY JESSE LA TOUR charges were dropped), the acquittal pro - vided grounds for suing the city. If, Union Pacific Park according to the jury, they had done noth - Council Takes Another Shot ing wrong, by that logic, they should not Mixed Use? have been fired. in Attempt to Kill $15 Million A Request for Qualifications inviting continued on page 5 development in the Truslow, Walnut, for Coyote Hills Valencia area, including Union Pacific 7 Park, will come before the city council at . A 7 S D . 5 C I by Angela Lindstrom SB-714 does not seek to codify the City’s its Feb. 20 meeting at 6:30pm. D 1 U A E . N P Union Pacific Park on Truslow opened approval of the Chevron-PCH housing T D O O E R R The Fullerton City Council is making N T and closed in 2003 after toxins were dis - development on West Coyote Hills. It is G A O R T A S D another attempt to derail Senator Josh I E covered in the soil due to dumping by the T simply dedicated to fund the acquisition E L N S M R Newman’s proposed Senate Bill 714 (SB- L A of West Coyote Hills for open space. Sempra/SoCal Gas owned manufactured O P R T U P E S 714) which would provide $15 million of F While 61% of Fullerton voters rejected gas plant which once operated just north P state funding towards the acquisition of that development approval in 2012, the of the park, Union Pacific train opera - West Coyote Hills for open space. This majority of the City Council continue to tions, and a roofing business. The toxins was discussed at its February 6, 2018 City push the development of more than 700 were discovered after SoCal Gas was Council meeting under the cover of its houses and a shopping center on the site. required by the Department of Toxic 2018 Legislative Platform. Hence the Friends of Coyote Hills is pur - Substances Control to test the park site as The City defines 3 guiding principles suing a lawsuit to uphold the people’s part of its ongoing gas plant clean up. for its Platform: 1) Preserve local control, Measure W vote in the court of appeals. The DTSC ordered the park closed, 2) Promote fiscal stability, and 3) Support If you support saving Coyote Hills as a fenced, and the contamination removed. T funding opportunities. park and preserve for now and future gen - The city sued SoCal Gas in 2005 in N The City Council opposes SB-714 even erations, please send Senator Josh order to get the company to clean up the E L in the face of the principle to support L Newman a letter of support for SB-714 as park to residential levels and to pay for the D A I funding opportunities in the detailed pol - costs which the company wanted Union C the State Senate Rules Committee pre - S 2 E S icy statements of its Legislative Platform: E 0 R pares for a vote ( Pacific, other businesses, and the city of I E 4 R T V http://sd29.senate.ca.gov/contact). Don’t Fullerton to share in. SoCal Gas settled 6 R 37. Oppose efforts that erode funding - R T E let the City’s opposition letter speak for for $1 million in 2008 agreeing to cleanup E 5 for vital regional and community services V S N 2 D us. to DTSC standards. The soil remediation B E that negatively impact Californian’s access 5 See related item on page 3 & 5 A - R O to parks, open space … facilities that pro - process was completed in 2012. 4 O R E 1 mote physical activity, protect natural T 7 U H T resources. C JUDGE ORDERS COUNTY TO OFFER SHELTER N 38. Support funding for the City of I R Fullerton to acquire additional land in TO THOSE EVICTED FROM RIVERBED O West Coyote Hills. In the last issue of the Observer , we On January 29th, attorney Brooke 39. Promote local agency control over reported that on January 22nd, the Weitzman, representing the nonprofit policies that recognize the benefits of County of Orange began the group Orange County Catholic parks and recreation[al] facilities. process of evicting hundreds of Worker and seven homeless Furthermore, the City’s own legal analy - homeless people encamped The Judge people, sued the County to stop sis of SB-714 concedes that “the City is along the Santa Ana Riverbed. the evictions, citing the fact Since that time, much has suggested that, without shelter space, still short of the total funding amount setting up needed” for even a partial acquisition of happened regarding the homeless people are essentially West Coyote Hills. In the last two years, riverbed encampment. During Tuff-Sheds criminalized with anti-camping 4 the first week (January 22nd- and anti-loitering laws. 3 they have raised about $3.05M compared on vacant 8 N 2 29th) the county was asking On February 2nd, OC R to the $34M price tag set by Chevron- 9 1 county O 5 E people to voluntarily move, Sheriffs, who up until this point A 0 Pacific Coast Homes (PCH) for just 3 T V 7 C property. while providing them with had taken a fairly "hands off" R R parcels. SB-714 can provide $15M of X N E E O access to various homeless serv - approach, increased their pres - O funding for Coyote Hills without the L S B T ices. ence at the riverbed, and began R L B need to go through an application process! O E P U L If the City wants funding, needs fund - However, with county shelters full, checking homeless individuals for out - O L F many of those who'd been living along the standing war - U ing, why is it opposed to funding? Because F riverbed had nowhere to go. rants. continued on page 10 Page 2OBSERVER COMMUNITY OPINIONS CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 MID FEBRUARY 2018 PASSION FOR JUSTICE Homeless Before Fox Fullerton by Synthia Tran © 2018 I’m reading your year 40 #2 edition, I feel compelled to remark that reading the Observer news of 2.5 million in funding for Fox Life & Education in My Village theatre in Fullerton was deplorable! Yes The Fullerton Observer Community its an old historic building. But having Newspaper, founded by Ralph and Natalie It was the 1960’s in Vietnam. At the the neighboring home go up in smoke over 4,700 homeless in the county is trag - Kennedy and a group of friends in 1978, is time, all the good students were in public and the woman living in there trying to ic, and that 2.5 million could be better staffed by local citizen volunteers who create, school and private schools were mostly for salvage what was left. Fortunately, her publish, and distribute the paper throughout spent to building low income housing! our community. the ones who failed the public school brothers and sisters lived in the city, so Many homeless have money, just not This venture is a not-for-profit one with all entrance exam. The exceptions were pri - they helped rebuild the house quickly. enough to get into market rate rentals. ad and subscription revenues plowed back into vate schools established by Catholic nuns Soon after I stopped going to school, The homeless need that funding more! maintaining and improving our independent, and priests, which had strict academic and mother and I both realized that I was not non-partisan, non-sectarian community news - religious curriculums. There were also born to be a farmer. When summer came, Coni Thompson paper. Visiting from Indiana Our purpose is to inform Fullerton residents private school established by Buddhist my older brother came home for a visit. about the institutions and other societal forces monks. In addition, in Saigon, the capi - Seeing me not doing anything in particu - which most impact their lives, so that they may tal of South Vietnam, there were private lar with my life, he suggested that I should be empowered to participate in constructive schools that modeled France’s education go to the city and study to be a nurse.