Former Fountain Valley Councilman Larry Crandall is not seeking election this November. But that doesn’t mean he is done meddling with Fountain Valley politics.
Crandall called one of this year’s City Council candidates, Tom Nguyen, this week. Crandall wanted to give Nguyen his “personal advice.” Crandall told Nguyen that he sees “too many of our campaign signs” and he suggested that Nguyen in particular shouldn’t put up any more signs.
Crandall didn’t stop there. He went on to say that he was going to call for a “Special City Council” meeting immediately to make a new law ordinance to limit campaign signs right away.
Crandall then jumped the shark. He then told Nguyen that Fountain Valley is “not” like Westminster, where you can put out signs.
Now what do you suppose Crandall meant by that? It is a pretty obvious dig at the growing Vietnamese American community in Fountain Valley.
The trends are not in Crandall’s favor. Here are the latest Fountain Valley demographics:
- White alone – 25,698 (46.2%)
- Asian alone – 19,433 (35.0%)
- Hispanic – 8,128 (14.6%)
- Two or more races – 1,448 (2.6%)
- Black alone – 781 (1.4%)
- Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone – 61 (0.1%)
- American Indian alone – 30 (0.05%)
- Other race alone – 16 (0.03%)
I don’t know what Crandall’s beef is. Vietnamese Americans understand the value of education and hard work. They tend to start businesses and create jobs. They support family values and lean towards the GOP. But apparently Crandall doesn’t like seeing signs with Vietnamese surnames on them in “his” town.
Then again perhaps we do know what Crandall’s motivation is. The last time the Fountain Valley City Council actually negotiated a new contract with their waste hauler, Rainbow, was in 2006. They signed a 12 year contract that requires a three year notice of non-renewal. The FV City Council must request cancellation by 2015 otherwise the trash contract will auto-renew. And of course Rainbow has been giving large campaign donations to the incumbents. So you see the sign issue is a red herring. Crandall is going after Nguyen because Nguyen has promised that he will end Rainbow’s trash monopoly!
There are nine candidates running for Mayor Michael Vo’s seat in November – plus the seats of his colleagues on the City Council: Mark McCurdy, and John Collins.
The candidates include the incumbents plus:
- Kim Constantine, Businesswoman
- Jonathan Bao Huynh, Chiropractor/Restaurant Owner
- Tuan Nguyen, Scientist/Entrepreneur
- Patrick Tucker – Businessman/Executive
- Patrick Harper, CPA
- Tom Nguyen, Businessman
Campaign signs don’t win elections but there is very little time for these candidates to increase their name I.D. and the local Vietnamese community tends to favor candidates with lots of signs – and big signs too.
Crandall’s craven use of the race card is a sorry way for him to close out his political career. He is backing Harper by the way so if you live in Fountain Valley and want to express your displeasure with Crandall, please refrain from voting for Harper.
In addtion to serving as a member of the City Council, Crandall serves as chairman of the Orange County Sanitation District’s Board of directors. Crandall was first elected to the Fountain Valley City Council in 1998, and has also served on the Fountain Valley School District’s Board of Trustees, on which his wife, Sandra, now serves, according to The Patch.
Do you know what all that means? While Crandall is muttering and complaining about his Vietnamese neighbors he will, concurrently, be sticking them with the bill for multiple pension and health benefits he accrued during fourteen years on the Fountain Valley City Council and all those other boards. He also served on the OCTA Board and his Linkedin Page says he was an investigator for the County of Orange. This guy is a career government worker and quadruple-dipper when it comes to pensions and health benefits!
Nguyen, in stark contrast, is a businessman and he devotes countless hours every week to feeding the homeless, in Santa Ana’s Civic Center. Nguyen is in every way superior to Crandall and I for one hope he wins in November.
Voters should note by the way that Nguyen took down his signs from street corners in Fountain Valley and from in front of the local OSH. He is a good guy and I know Crandall’s criticism hurt him. Well now Crandall’s words are going to backfire on him and on his allies.
If Tom Nguyen will actively pursue cancelling the Rainbow contract, he has my support. There’s more here: https://ocpoliticsblog.com/2014/08/16/nine-file-for-fountain-valley-city-council/ and https://ocpoliticsblog.com/2014/07/17/fv-council-rejects-competitive-bid-renews-evergreen-trash-contract/.
By the way, according to city-data.com, Fountain Valley’s Solid Waste budget is $2,761,000.
This is Fountain Valley City Council Candidate 2014 Kim Constantine. YOU GOT IT WRONG! I did not criticize Tom Q. Nguyen on his FB page. He wrote that he removed all signs on street corners. This is what was written:
Kim Constantine Just came back from getting gas at Sam’s Club…still quite a few of your signs, Tom, at the corner of Warner & Brookhurst. Not sure if you knew….
September 10 at 7:18pm · Like · 1
Tom Q. Nguyen You’re right Kim Constantine, I’ll have it removed right away!!
September 10 at 7:49pm · Like
If you are going to report on something and mention me (Kim Constantine), you need to get your facts straight.
I read your comment. You were clearly harping about the signs. Is that going to stop now that we called you out? And where do you stand on the issue of the trash contract?
I request for you to please remove my name from your article. I have a good rapport with all my fellow candidates and don’t appreciate your total disrespect for me….even going so far as attempting to wrongly turn people against me. Disgusting!!! Please read Tom’s original post…then read my post and Tom’s post thanking me. Yes, you got it wrong…now please correct the article. Thank you!
Answer our questions please and we’ll consider this request.
I immediately answered in the FB post where you asked them. If you don’t see them there, please let me know and I will message them to you. Thank you. Also, for facts purposes: Larry Crandall is not a current City Council member. We are not seeking his seat. It’s Mayor Vo, Mark McCurdy, and John Collins seeking re-election. There are 3 seats up…9 of us wanting to get in. Also, Larry Crandall is supporting just the other Patrick…PATRICK HARPER (as I look at the print ad). You named the wrong Patrick. Please, these are very important corrections. Thank you, again.
Lastly, there is no association, connection or endorsement for me or with me from Larry Crandall.
Here are the answers to your questions exactly as posted in my Facebook reply to you……Hi Art, thank you for reaching out to me. I have no problems with Tom or his signs…thought I was doing him a favor in response to what he wrote. As you’ll see, I even wrote that I wasn’t sure if he knew his signs were on that corner. I didn’t accuse him of anything…tried to help. Next time, I will keep out of it all. We all know how to place signs — nothing more, nothing less. Regarding the trash contract, I’m disturbed and upset. We need several other bids and do a very thorough review of it all before making a decision to renew or go with a new company. I’m more than willing to put in the time and effort if I am elected. The campaign contributions are wrong…complete conflict of interest.
Thanks Kim. Corrections made.
A few more corrections (after you made your corrections): In the first sentence “Funtain”. Then….please refrain from voting for Tucker needs to be changed to HARPER. As you see, I am not a lightweight by any means and can stand up for myself very effectively. Thank you, again and enjoy your weekend!
Just when I thought we were done….you need to add FORMER to the article title. Thank you.
I need to hire you as our editor! Thanks.
May I add an important clarification? You mention that the incumbents have accepted campaign donations from Rainbow. My husband, Mark McCurdy has not. Thank you!
We like Mark and will be endorsing him. We know he is one of the good guys. Thanks Michele for chiming in!
The days of Evergreen Waste Contracts must come to an end. We can’t afford it any longer.