The Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce recently hosted a Fountain Valley City Council candidates forum.
The forum featured these candidates: Continue reading
Tag Archives: Steve Nagel
The OC GOP’s Central Committee has endorsed awful City Council candidates Nagel and Kring
The OC GOP is about to get pummeled in the upcoming November General Election, thanks to their party’s horrific Presidential nominee, Donald Trump. But the party machinery is still going through the motions. This week the OC GOP’s Endorsement Committee and Central Committee made a few truly awful endorsements, as detailed by the OC Political Blog, here and here.
Probably the worst of their endorsements was that of Fountain Valley Councilman Steve Nagel, who was a Fountain Valley firefighter from 1977-2005. Continue reading
The Fountain Valley City Council takes action against the will of the voters
Fountain Valley Mayor Steve Nagel (on the right) and Friends
The Fountain Valley City Council passed an ordinance this week banning all cannabis activity and cultivation, according to the O.C. Register.
Only one Fountain Valley City Council Member, Mark McCurdy, voted against the ordinance – and he did so with good reason. As McCurdy pointed out there are cancer patients and others who could benefit from medical marijuana – which should be legal in California because voters passed Prop. 215. Continue reading
Penny Ante in Fountain Valley
Two years ago, the Fountain Valley City Council approved a large commercial and housing development at Brookhurst St. and the 405 freeway interchange that included a new Ayres Hotel. Ayres is well-known in southern California for the success they’ve had, and their new structures always seem welcome wherever they’re built as they’re great hotel tax generators. In FV’s situation, the development also revitalized an area that had been occupied by a ten year-vacant office building and its unused parking lots. Continue reading
Updated: Nine candidates running for Fountain Valley City Council
Thanks to Mayor Vo and Councilmembers Nagel, Collins and Brothers, everyone in Fountain Valley is paying more for trash collection services
There are six challengers and three incumbents running for the Fountain Valley City Council on the Nov. 4, 2014 ballot.
Incumbent Mayor Michael Vo and longtime City Council Member John Collins recently joined with City Council Members Cheryl Brothers and Steve Nagel, in voting to give away a renewal for the city’s trash hauling to Rainbow Disposal WITHOUT a competitive bid. Rates went up. These same four had accepted campaign contributions this cycle from Rainbow as confirmed to us by the City Clerk.
Bidding this opportunity would have cost the city virtually nothing, and likely would have lowered rates instead of increasing them for an elderly population, many on fixed incomes. Clearly, the four voting to foster their political resumes, pump their campaign accounts and not serve their constituents need replacement. Fountain Valley has never bid this “evergreen” contract even tho Orange County has at least five other haulers which could readily compete for it.
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Here’s Why Fountain Valley Rejected Competitive Trash Bidding
All four Council Members voting Aye take money from Rainbow Disposal
Last weekend, we wrote that the Fountain Valley City Council had an opportunity to put the city trash disposal and recycling contract out to bid. All 34 Orange County cities contract out their refuse and recycling services, and per a city staff report, FV would rank 12th highest in per household monthly rate.
Rainbow Environmental Services (aka Rainbow Disposal, based in Huntington Beach) services nine other OC cities, sharing the market with five other companies per the OC Register. Last November, the Reg’s OC Watchdog reported:
Orange County governments have awarded more than 40 exclusive contracts worth some $4.5 billion to private trash haulers – most without ever opening the process to competitive bidding – even though local experience and scholarly studies show that competition can dramatically slash rates. The overwhelming majority of that trash business – some $3 billion worth – is tied up in what’s poetically termed “evergreen” agreements. These agreements never really expire and can renew into perpetuity, guaranteeing haulers a constant flow of dollars and millions in profits, virtually worry-free. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, the highest residential trash rates in Orange County are paid by folks in cities with those long-term evergreen contracts that have never been put to bid, including Placentia ($22.66 per month), Stanton ($21.09), Anaheim ($19.90), Yorba Linda ($19.56) and Huntington Beach ($19.39). Continue reading