About 40 residents turned out to protest a proposed “gift” of public land by former Supervisor Michelle Steel to her political donor, Buck Johns.
Protesters gather at the site of the fence.
Gathering on the adjacent public tidelands trail on Thursday, September 8, an orderly group of individuals posted signs on the fence erected by Johns on the land that Steel sought to sell at a bargain rate.
If not for the timely intervention of Supervisor Katrina Foley, who held up the sale as she took office succeeding Steel, this would have been a done deal. After more investigation, the Board of Supervisors, at Foley’s instigation, voted to vacate the sale and ask Johns to take down the fence.
This questionable process of public land sale and the intervention of a politician to pressure county staff was criticized in a blistering OC Grand Jury Report, “Public Land Transactions: Will The Public Notice?”
To date, Buck Johns has not taken down the fence and Michelle Steel has moved on to run for Congress representing parts of the City of Fullerton.
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When Michelle Steel was a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, she and other members of this board voted to remove Sharon Kennedy’s brother , Rusty Kennedy, from his position as executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission (OCHRC). It was revealed in various media platforms that Rusty Kennedy used his position to protect police departments located in Orange County from complaints of human rights abuses. He did this to curry favor from these police departments and to gain their recommending to the OC Board of Supervisors continued funding of this commission. Also, Michelle Steel along with the other members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors dismissed Rusty Kennedy from his position as executive director of OCHRC because he created a non-profit that paid him a salary called the Orange County Human Relations Council which is not connected to the county funded Orange County Human Relations Commission. Rusty Kenendy did not make this distinction to those who donated big bucks to his non-profit believing it was a part of the county funded human relations commission. Maybe the Fullerton Observer’s news story about a very small “orderly” protest at a chain link fence is about tossing crumbs of dirt on Michelle Steel. I wonder if the loss of a six figure county salary supplemented with his salary from his non-profit hurts? What do you think, Sharon Kennedy who is sister of Rusty and recently retired as “editor” of the Fullerton Observer? An aside, if Rusty Kennedy cop bootlicker googled, it takes the reader to articles about Rusty Kennedy’s contributions to society. Blood money brew aint no angel.
why can public property be private right to determine? let’s control and fight until this case is over.
Certainly, Michelle Steel deserves to be called out for helping Johns attempt to appropriate public land. However, her actions here pale in comparison to her extreme anti-abortion views. This includes being a “Co-sponsor of the Life at Conception Act, the federal personhood bill that would ban all abortions, even in the instances of rape or when the life of the mother is at risk, and certain types of birth control such as IUDs” (DCCC press release). Michelle Steel does not represent her constituency and should not be elected to represent CA-45!