By Steven Greenhut

SACRAMENTO — Several years ago, Fullerton Councilman Dick Jones cornered me at a political event, asked my opinion on the use of eminent domain by city governments, then began to lecture me about the value of giving government officials the power to push private property owners off their land on behalf of economic development projects. Since then, I’ve watched in amusement as Jones pontificated in his Texas drawl on one foolish thing after another.

There was the time he opposed a building project simply because he didn’t like its design, explaining that, as a plastic surgeon, he knows beauty. Here was a man who knew no limits on government power, who for years ruled the council based on personal edicts and his strange take on the world.

As you can imagine, I cheered when he was bounced from office in a historic recall Tuesday. Two other recalled councilmen — pension-spiking former police chief Pat McKinley, who defended abusive cops charged in the death of an unarmed homeless man, and “disabled” police officer Don Bankhead, who went along with virtually every tax-hiking, big-spending scheme on the council — had been in leadership positions so long they acted as if their prerogatives were the same as those of city residents.

The best the establishment Republican backers of this buffoonish trio could come up with was to charge that a local businessman, Tony Bushala, was trying to buy the council because he spent $200,000 to spearhead the recall campaign. But the reason for the defeat of Bankhead, Jones and McKinley, and one that ushers in what other observers have called the most libertarian city council in Orange County, was not the campaign cash, helpful as that was to the cause.

The reason was the clear issue that emerged and that these council members failed to grasp. After the brutal beating of Kelly Thomas — mostly recorded by a city surveillance camera, which forms the heart of the district attorney’s case against two of the police officers — the council majority went on TV, downplaying the incident, supporting the authorities, stating that they had no idea what actually killed Thomas. Jones was true to form, comparing his city’s angered citizens to a lynch mob.

‘Failure to lead’

A campaign-sign slogan captured the essence of the recall: “Failure to lead.” And the final hit mailer against the buffoons focused on the absurd city-worker compensation packages that exploded during their watch, reinforcing that these officials were not leading the city, but following the demands of union workers.

It was time for a change, and the pension-abuse issue, bolstered by these leaders’ duck-and-cover routine after the Thomas killing, was enough to spark the recall. They were bounced by nearly 2-1 margins, so it wasn’t a fluke. And the ground had been plowed by Bushala and his merry band of local-minded libertarians, thanks to their Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog. Granted, the three soon-to-be-ex-council members provided plenty of side-splitting fodder.

But the blog set the stage, using publicly available video to expose and mock what the city’s leaders did every week in council chambers. The bloggers — none of them professional writers — used humor to highlight the not-so-funny way the council majority mismanaged the city.

My favorite story: After Jones went on some tirade in which he misspoke and referred to a nonexistent country of Kharakastan, the Fullerton’s Future bloggers penned an apology to Jones, explaining that he was right, and they were wrong. There really is such a country, they explained, and they linked to a Wikipedia entry they created that listed Kharakastan’s most popular attractions.

I laughed hysterically but sensed that the city’s leaders were none too amused by the satire.

Model for agitators

Just as Jon Stewart’s wonderful “Daily Show” on cable provides useful news presented with a dose of humor, this blog — and other successful ones across the country — did the same thing. Previously, few people paid attention to the goings-on in Fullerton. Now everyone does, and the group has provided a model for other local agitators who want to take matters in their own hands and exert some control in their own cities. Other localities might not have a local businessman willing to fork over that kind of cash to pay for a recall, but blogs and lower-cost political activism can produce real results.

Other elections Tuesday also reflected voters’ moments of clarity. In Wisconsin, like California, another liberal state with a long progressive tradition, a Republican governor became the first in the nation to survive a recall, and the union recall activists appear to have gained only one seat they targeted in the state Senate. The liberal media depicted Walker’s victory as close, but it was closer to a blowout because the issue was framed as a reform-minded governor versus the union special interests that are concerned more about themselves than public service.

In two major California cities, the news was similar. In San Jose, a liberal mayor and a liberal council put a far-reaching pension-reform measure on the ballot and it passed with 70 percent of the vote, because they made the election a clear choice. In San Diego, a reform-minded councilman got top spot in the mayor’s race, and pension reform and an anti-union-only contracting measure also passed with flying colors.

If the choice is clear, the voting public often knows what to do. The bad news: Union ally Todd Spitzer, who helped ignite a bonanza of public-employee pension-spiking in Orange County as a county supervisor about a decade ago, won back a seat on the board, but even he had to profess support for pension reform.

All in all, a great election, and a blueprint for the future.

By Steven Greenhut

SACRAMENTO — Those who don’t understand why Fullerton residents are about to recall three of their city councilmen on June 5 ought to spend 33 minutes watching the videotape that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas released of Fullerton police officers confronting and then beating an unarmed homeless man named Kelly Thomas, who died from the crushing injuries.

The black-and-white surveillance tape caught the horrifying July confrontation in vivid detail, and anyone who can get through it without crying or feeling nauseated is an insensitive person indeed. We see a large officer, Manuel Ramos, responding to reports of someone breaking into cars at the city bus depot, approach the scraggly Thomas. Thomas gives him some lip, but doesn’t act in a threatening way.

Ramos puts on what the district attorney has called a “show,” as he slowly slips on latex gloves, twirls his baton and then says, “[S]ee my fists … these fists are going to f— you up.” Another officer comes in and starts swinging a baton at Thomas, who cries out in pain. As the D.A. explained, a third officer, Jay Cicinelli, uses a Taser to shock Thomas and then hammers him in the face with the blunt end of the Taser, as Thomas’ blood pooled on the ground. Other officers arrive later in the struggle and pile on to Thomas, who repeatedly yells, “I can’t breathe,” and “Daddy.”

A judge watched the tape and listened to three days of testimony this past week before ordering Ramos and Cicinelli to stand trial, the former for second-degree murder and the latter for involuntary manslaughter. As Rackauckas told the judge during the preliminary hearing, the officers “crushed the life out of” Thomas. Ramos, the D.A. said, “turned a routine encounter into a brutal beating death.”

So, what about the recall? Why blame police cruelty on councilmen Dick Jones, Pat McKinley and Don Bankhead? The answer is obvious. After this gruesome event, when many Fullerton residents were consumed by anger and demanded answers, their leaders failed them. The police chief took vacation, then went on disability leave, and then retired.

That left the council to take charge. Two council members, Republican Bruce Whitaker and Democrat Sharon Quirk, called for openness and demanded investigations. But the three others, the majority, denied the obvious, defended the officers and joined in a disinformation campaign.

Insensitive

It was bad enough that the Fullerton Police Department was putting out false information (i.e., claiming that officers suffered broken bones after a supposedly brutal fight with Thomas), but here’s what Mayor Jones said, which is as insensitive as it is idiotic: “I’ve seen far worse injuries that are survivable. I don’t know why he died.” Thomas, 37 and mentally ill, was physically fine, then was beaten to a pulp — something now undeniable, thanks to the video — and these city “leaders” couldn’t figure out what killed him.

Furthermore, the three councilmen opposed releasing the video to the public. They backed the department and ran from questions. McKinley, a former Fullerton police chief who hired the officers involved in the beating, wanted to keep the officers on the street during the death investigation. These three didn’t seriously question the police department, which confiscated the cameras of bystanders who witnessed the altercation, and allowed the officers to watch the video and get their stories straight before giving their testimony to investigators.

Jones referred to the peaceful citizens of his city who were protesting the Thomas death and the way the authorities handled it as the equivalent of a “lynch mob.” Can you understand the frustration?

“The community was crying out in anger,” said Fullerton businessman and blogger Tony Bushala, who is leading the recall movement. “They wanted leadership. Not only did Mayor Jones and councilmen Bankhead and McKinley fail to lead, but they joined with those who downplayed this horror. They tried to cover it up and circle the wagons. Their actions were cowardly.”

Scandals

Prior to the Thomas case, Fullerton’s police department had been beset by recent scandals, including officers accused of theft, illegal drug use and even having sex in a squad car. As someone who has covered police-abuse issues, I’ve seen the same thing play out — officials obfuscate and protect the officers, no matter the circumstances. Their unions protect the officers. The police department releases only that information that supports its side.

District attorneys don’t often prosecute such cases, but kudos to Rackauckas for being a leader in this situation. But it’s crucial to understand the depth of failure provided by those three council members who refused to live up to the responsibility vested in them. A recall — especially given the city’s mismanagement on other issues — is an admirable way for the public to issue a vote of no confidence.

Jones, Bankhead and McKinley have been advocates for eminent-domain-abusing, tax-squandering redevelopment projects throughout downtown Fullerton. They have failed to rein in pension costs. McKinley is a pension-abuse poster child, a double-dipper who receives $215,000 a year. All three men defended a water tax that has been ruled illegal, with McKinley complaining about “knee jerk” efforts to return the money to the public.

These are solid recall rationales. Admirably, the recall effort is remarkably nonpartisan — the replacement candidates come from across the political spectrum.

Unfortunately, the Orange County Register’s Editorial Board didn’t fully support this heart-felt political revolt, as it argued, “The citizens who voted [the three councilmen] in and now are disgruntled should vote them out during a regular election cycle.” The Register had no such qualms about backing the recall in 2003 of Gov. Gray Davis, for similar lack-of-leadership reasons.

The release of the video reinforces the wisdom of the recall. A recent news article explained that “legal experts caution that the footage doesn’t tell the entire story,” but we don’t need experts to tell us the truth, now obvious to anyone who can access YouTube. And we don’t need experts to tell Fullerton voters what to do about three councilmen who acted in a craven and unconscionable way.