Each councilmember makes one appointment to the Planning Commission, which, until the recent past has always been honored by fellow councilmembers.  But, at the  March 4th meeting, Councilmember Zahra’s appointment to the Planning Commission of Kitty Jaramillo was rejected by the council majority (Jung,  Dunlap, Valencia) without explanation. (Jaramillo, a retired city code enforcement officer and lifelong Fullertonian, came in a close second in the recent District 4 election, losing to newcomer Valencia by 23 votes.)

Santa Ana Water Board representative: Jung

Municipal Water Advisory Board: Jung

Fullerton Museum Board: Valencia/Dunlap

OCPA Board: Jung/Charles

All other regional appointees were reaffirmed.

HR Director Manfro said that the position of Director of Administrative Services becomes vacant on March 8, 2025. He acknowledged the work of Ellis Chang who is moving on to other opportunities and wished her the best in her future endeavors.  The search for a permanent candidate underway. In the meantime “Kingsley Okereke will serve as interim until the position is filled.  Mr. Okereke,  with 35+ years of experience in public finance, has the specialized skills, training and background necessary to oversee functions, programs, and operations of the department,”  he said. Okereke served as Finance Director and Assistant City Manager of Garden Grove, retiring in 2018. He has continued providing consulting services to municipal governments and the US Department of Treasury. Retirement law permits the appointment of a CalPERS retiree to vacant positions for no more than 960 hours per fiscal year. Mr. Okereke will be compensated at $104.51 per hour and the funding is available in the 2024/25 budget. Per retirement law he will not receive any other benefits.

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Public Comments were moved from the customary spot at the top of the meeting to the end of the meeting though listed on the 3/4/2025 Agenda in its regular position. Many commenters were unhappy with that move. Rather than wait many hours to the end of the meeting to make their comments one group, who had come to mark the one-year anniversary of the killing of Alejandro Campos Rios, by police using “less than lethal projectiles last March, interrupted the Short Term Rental item by standing and speaking from the audience. The Mayor called three 5-minute recesses as the commentators were told to leave chambers – with one escorted out by police, arrested, and later released. (Read more about this in the “Short Term Rental & Protestor Arested” article.)

•Todd Harrison  complained that moving the Public Comments to the end of the meeting discourages resident participation. He said if the comments had remained at the beginning of the meeting, as was published in the agenda, the outbursts from the frustrated audience members might have been avoided.  He said of the protestors “They won’t go to jail – of course – because America has a long history of protesting loudly. Whether I agree with them or not, whether. You agree with them or not – they get to do that.  It could have all been avoided.  Public Comments at the start of meeting is a chance for all five of you to hear what residents are concerned with that they feel. Is not being heard in any other way. We all have other commitments, jobs, families and pushing people late into the evening for a chance to to speak with you is flat out wrong.” (The protest he was talking about took place during the Item 11 Short-Term Rental Appeal early in the evening.)

•Diane Vena  agreed.  She said “You knew it was going to be a long meeting – why didn’t you list the change of public comments on the agenda?  I’m wearing a shirt that says “Have Courage &. Be Kind” –  it’s a reminder to me to have courage because I really don’t like to get up here and speak but I do it because otherwise I can’t live with myself – and to be kind – so I am trying to do that.  I want to thank Councilman Zahra for constantly having educated, thought-out compassionate comments. And to you on the council who attack him – it’s not kind, it’s not pretty – we shouldn’t have to put up with that. It shows against you not him. The next thing – I would like clarity on reports that show the changes made so we can see what has been changed. If we really want to change things – how about having campaign finance reform. Money buys these elections. Most people do not have $5500 or. more to donate – so my little $25 does not buy me much, does not help my campaign person much. I think that is more important than having a charter city.” Speaking to Mayor Jung she said she remembered that in the past there was going to be a visitor to the Library Trustees meeting who was involved with privatizing libraries. When people got wind of that the visit was canceled. ‘We were told the visitor was just coming to talk – I don’t think so.  We are just fooled by a lot of stuff. I ask you to be transparent and honest with us. That’s why we don’t trust the council – because of those things in the past and present.”

•Matt Leslie suggested council establish a hybrid commenting system with up to a half hour at the beginning of the meeting and, if there are more, to have the remainder at the end of the meeting. He also called for “greater civility, respect and decorum on the council” saying, “It can be quite ugly to watch these meetings sometimes and I don’t think there is any reason for that. Everyone on the council is bigger than that.”   He said he would like to see that respect extended to appointments made by councilmembers. “Tonight I saw something – I don’t know if I’ve ever seen before – which was three councilmembers voting against another member’s choice for the Planning Commission… Unless there is an extraordinary reason or they are manifestly unqualified I would ask councilmembers to respect the choices of their fellow councilmembers” – or plainly state why they aren’t accepting the appointee, he said.

•A resident congratulated Jung on his election to chair the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency (a 351-mile rail corridor that connects LA, San Diego and San Luis Obispo) and said,  “When it comes to the BNSF rail line that goes through our city there is a problem with what, in the LOSAN agency reports, are called trespasser strikes and Fullerton is one of the top places for that along the line.  There should be more fencing – particularly on the east side of the train station by the parking lot where I have seen people just walk right off the parking lot onto the BNSF tracks. There are too many areas where people can just walk in and have an encampment or get hit.” He said fences could help quite a bit and he thought the city should study that.

•Karen Enling said she was with a group of her neighbors to discuss an item that was pulled from the consent calendar which was then moved from the start of the meeting to the end of the meeting. “I’m a little disappointed we had to sit through the whole meeting. But it has been pretty interesting. None of us are particularly involved at the council level for politics so it was fascinating to watch things unfold here tonight.” She said she was also “disappointed by the lack of focus of the council on the thoughts of the constituents. Ms. Valencia you asked a really good question about the school districts. I would encourage everyone to come to a school district board meeting.”  She said “there’s dissension, they don’t always agree on everything but at the center of every conversation for every person is the student. There is a lot to be learned by how functional they are. And if you can’t make the elementary one go to the high school one – they have an even bigger district with bigger issues and they function well. I think there is a lesson for all of us in that.”  Addressing Mayor Jung she said “our neighborhood has been trying desperately to talk to you about the agenda item that was pulled. You’re our guy – we are in your district. We would like that opportunity but we haven’t been able to connect. So as your constituents, as the people who helped elect you we would like to talk to you about why it is important to us. We are living in a world where we are not having conversations – not taking a step back and processing those things important to the people we live with. Right now our city needs to be a safe place for those conversations.

•Tanya, a woman who said she was homeless but back living at the Illumination Foundation shelter and that things were improving but that they need more money to run things smoothly.

•Eric Wehn, a Parks & Rec commissioner, said Mr. Huffman -who got tired and left- was going to speak about the area where Hiltscher Trail ties into Juanita Cooke Trail where a lot of bicycle traffic gets thrown together onto a narrow area and it would be great to have a second part of the trail there. He said, “We brought that up at Commission and Dave Bishop was there and looked at it. And I was kind of surprised when I later went there and saw it has already been put in and it looks great. So bike riders that like to use the trails – that section between Richman Knoll and Juanita Cooke has a really cool little back trail now. It will also improve safety between walkers and bikers. Just want to say great job to Parks and Landscaping for getting that in so quickly.”

•Josh Ferguson said “calling city hall doesn’t matter much” so he came to ask council to direct code enforcement staff to do something about noise in the downtown area. He said he lives 0.2 miles (3.5 football fields) away from downtown. He said every weekend night there is so much noise he gets up. “On Friday my children were woken up at 2:30 in the morning so I got up and dressed and went around downtown trying to find the noise and discovered it was coming from a car parked behind Madero. Usually it’s the bars playing loud music with doors open. I go there and ask them to close the doors – they do – and then a minute later open them again. That’s against the municipal code. I’m doing code enforcement’s job.”

•Zee thanked  Firefighters for coming to his house and saving him – very well-trained and brought up the lack of sidewalks for kids walking to Orangethorpe School which he says is more important than painting stripes on a street for bicycles.  He asked Councilmember Valencia to explain why she ran for office in his district since he doesn’t feel she is representing him at all. He said he thought Mayor Jung made a good point about treating people with respect awhile back but said “You don’t practice it for yourself. It is so unbecoming. Come out here and be professional. Have some respect for each other.”

•Dominik Moonhart said “the way the city council members flat out disrespect other council members live on television is just absurd.” He agreed with Zee that Councilmember Valencia’s comment to Zahra about winning an academy award was way out of line. “Disrespectful – and if I was on that council I would not let that slide at all.” He said she should resign.  He said people are looking at Fullerton City Council as an example of how not to operate. “We should all be ashamed as a community,” he said.

•Maureen Milton said she was disappointed with the video feed that cut off from the public as things were happening in the chambers after the protest outburst. “I like to see how things are handled by the dais and police. It is not transparent to cut off the video and audio. The public should see what’s happening.”