Thursday evening Art Pedroza over at Orange Juice Blog posted about his conversation with Supervisor Norby about Janet Nguyens’s inability to live within her means as a Supervisor and his stupid personal attack on Norby while he defended Nguyen.
Norby also had a few interesting comments about Supervisor Nguyen and her staffer dilemma. He agreed with me that this was more to do with how the County CEO, Tom Mauk, set up the budgeting for this employee. Apparently this has caused some concern in the other Supervisor’s offices as their employees are questioning why Janet gets to have one more staffer than they do. It is a good question, but Norby said, and I agree, that this is something Mauk needs to work out, since he came up with the scheme in the first place.
Gosh, what a gentleman Supervisor Norby is; giving the new girl a break like that. Why should Nguyen have to learn what her budget is and how to follow it? She did what she was told, “like any young woman should do.”
It is really unfair for anyone to expect that Janet, or maybe her Chief of Staff, would know how to read a budget or add up staffing costs; it’s not like Janet ran as a conservative Republican or anything.
My favorite part of Pedroza’a post at the Orange Juice was where he placed his theory of fault in Norby’s mouth. Art, as usual you were played. If this was a Mauk problem he would not have mentioned it during the Board meeting.
Clearly the announcement by Supervisor Norby was designed and planned to put public pressure on Nguyen to live within her means. This was probably motivated by her stubborn refusal to budge on the issue and desire to continue using HCA funds for her staffing needs.
My guess is that the matter will be resolved by the next meeting, and Mauk like a good soldier will accept responsibility.
It is sad that while Pedroza posted Norby’s responses to his baseless personal attack he did not apologize at all for his remarks.
Here is a link to all of the Janet Nguyen coverage on TheLiberalOC.com.
Wow, so Janet f***s up again… And Janet can’t take ANY responsibility for her own f***-ups. So why again is she our County Supervisor? And why should any one trust her (in)ability to supervise anything?
It just amazes me how Janet won’t stand up and defend the services that her constituents need against budget cuts, but she keeps misusing county funds for her own wants. First, she had the county pay for a
reelection campaign“constituent service office” in Westminster. And now, she wants the health care agency to pay for a staffer just for her… Even when the agency itself may face staff cuts??!! This is just ludicrous.With every f***-up Janet does, and with every f***-up Janet won’t admit to, she only proves to us why we can’t give her 4 more years to put us through any more of this crap.
Chris:
I spoke to Chris yesterday as well. What he told me is he didn’t fault Janet for wanting the extra staffer.
Maybe he said something different to Art. Maybe Art heard the way he wanted to.
I don’t recall this much angst when the Rancho Santiago Community College Board announced that the Carona Sheriff Training Center was so over-budget that Santa Ana College would not get a new math/science building.
Nor do I recall this much consternation when the Santa Ana City Council raised the water rates so high that we now pay more than folks in Irvine do for their water.
Both the RSCCD board and the City of Santa Ana are run by Democrats. So of course they got free passes.
What about the current fiscal crisis in CA? Schwarzenegger just announced a fiscal state of emergency. Are you going to ask Perata and Nunez to resign? I doubt it. They’re Democrats too. You know what that means…free passes for them too!
Did you let Irvine Mayor Pro Tem Larry Agran have it when SCAG announced that Irvine needs to build at least 30,000 more affordable homes? No. Or when he hired an embezzling coke fiend to run the Great Park? Or when he was discovered this week trying to give the new executive director job to one of his friends?
Did you write about former Anaheim Councilman Richard Chavez when he was busted for tax evasion a few weeks ago? He is a Democrat too as far as I recall.
Let’s face it. If Tom Daly were accused of doing what Janet supposedly did, he too would get a FREE PASS from you guys. I guarantee it.
Chris,
I agree with you, Art should have apologized to Norby for the unneccesary vicious attack on Norby’s private life. We all know that Art is an apologist for Janet and has a different set of rules for her and Michele Martinez than he does others elected’s. That being said, Art does Janet a disservice by attacking Norby’s personal life as a means to deflect attention from Janet’s missteps. This looks like a shameful attack by Janet via proxy. That won’t bode well for Janet when it comes to dealing with her colleagues.
“Nor do I recall this much consternation when the Santa Ana City Council raised the water rates so high that we now pay more than folks in Irvine do for their water. ”
Art,
Michele Martinez also voted to increase the water rates. Why is it that I never saw any criticism of her by you or your cronies when it comes to that? Is it that just as Janet gets a pass from you, Michele receives none of the criticism that you heap on the others for the same votes?
Just asking.
The Rancho board never made the announcement that Art suggests, ergo, no angst by the Liberal OC blogpen.
I’ve had Liberal OC bloggers call or talk to me about questions they had on Rancho matters and did my best to give them accurate information. Although Thomas Gordon and Claudio at OJ have called or talked to me about Rancho issues Art blogs without doing so.
I’d also note that the charge that the Liberal OC gives free passes to Dems would come as a real shock to Miguel Pulido, Bruce Broadwater and Lou Correa, to name a few.
But it should come as no surprise that the focus of most of the blue barbs will be Republicans just as most of the red barbs from Matt and his Red County blogpen are aimed at Democrats. That’s life. What is healthy about both of these Blogs is that there is cross-pollination; lots of intellectual forays by Matt and a few other Reds over here and Dan and some others parachute behind Red lines on occasion to raise the Donkey point of view. While there are the occasional rants, most hot air is challenged as just that and facts rather then invective carry the day. No need to create sensational headlines or below the belt charges such as those directed against Chris Norby. And when someone steps over the line and is called on it, they usually do the adult thing: they apologize.
Sean and John,
If you go back and read the post in question, carefully, you will note the use of words like “allegedly.” I made no assertions. And most of the information was confirmed by Norby, with some changes, such as being tired and not inebriated. So why do I need to apologize?
As for SAC, the same President who ignored the fire alarms now is in trouble for building herself a private shower. When is she going to be fired? When is ANYONE going to be fired? If this happened at Santiago College, I suspect heads would already have rolled. Nothing like a double standard.
Sean – I did take Michele to task when she voted for the water increase. Go back and read my post about that vote. She was however the only Council member who asked any questions about the issue. At the time she followed bad advice from some who told her to try to work with Pulido and company. I think if she could have this vote over again she would vote no.
And I have taken Janet to task – most recently for that freeway sign issue. It’s just that most of the red and blue county attacks on her have been for stupid minor things. When she actually does screw up royally I will write about it. But I suspect she is too smart to do that. Face it, she is a lot more politically astute than any of you figured she would be. Joe Dunn would be well advised to NOT run against her. Better for him to take on the Space Commander.
Art,
It is more likely that I will vote for a Republican for President, than you will take Janet to task for anything. Freeway signs? Get real Art!
She is making mistakes that a grade school kid would make. She is simply not up to the job at hand.
I have confirmed that Norby made his announcement about the staffing issue because Janet wouldn’t budge. The problem had been brought to her attention and she refused to address it. Norby sent her a message that she needed to take responsibility, fix the problem, and live within her budget. I think she got that message.
And Art, please get over your obsession with Joe Dunn running for Santa Ana City Council. It simply will not happen. And should Joe Dunn decide to run for Supervisor, I think he’ll win.
You were joking about the politically astute comment right? Her First act as Supervisor, even before hiring her staff, was to start redecorating. She then cannot live within her budget, and to top it off she sets as her next priority, seaking money to open a quasi-political district office in Little Saigon.
Yes, she’s really politically astute. That is, if the definition of astute is handing Trung Nguyen and her other potential opponents ammunition.
Chris,
Did you think Umberg was going to win too? I can’t recall your stance, but I thought Janet was going to. And she did. Don’t underestimate her.
As for Photoshop Trung, don’t worry much about him. His fifteen minutes of fame are well over. He is done. In fact, so are Umberg and Bustamante. Most of Janet’s opponents from last year are FINISHED. What does that tell you?
What I think Art is that 24.1% of the vote does not a winner make in a Primary Election.
The Viet turnout was a fluke. Yes that community will turn out in the primary, but their percentage will not be as great and their votes will not break 100% for Janet.
Anyone running against an incumbent has an uphill battle, but Janet’s negatives are high enough to snk her.
And yes Art, I did think Umberg would win. Andyd you thought that Dunn was actually considering running for Santa Ana City Council. I ‘m going to call us even.
Chris,
RE the Dunn story, I got that tip from one of your liberal friends. So I ran with it. The way the story ran, Dunn himself wanted to gauge the reaction.
I wish he would run against the Space Commander. Then I could support him. If he runs against Janet, I will definitely oppose him.
As for the Vietnamese voters, they tend to go with incumbents. The last thing they want to do is lose the seat to a non-Vietnamese. And they don’t look at Trung as a winner. He is seen as a Gore-like sore loser.
“As for the Vietnamese voters, they tend to go with incumbents. The last thing they want to do is lose the seat to a non-Vietnamese. And they don’t look at Trung as a winner. He is seen as a Gore-like sore loser.”
I’m glad Art has chosen to enlighten us with his extensive knowledge on the voting patterns of the Vietnamese American community in Central Orange County. I’m surprised he hasn’t been picked up as a consultant, with his deep understanding of the community and all.
Pffft.
Well Art, using words like purportedly or allegedly may make you feel better but the fact remains that you threw out unsubstantiated personal attacks against Norby simply because he had challenged Janet on using an agency budget to pay for one of her staff members. The decent thing to have done was just respond to Norby’s comments with a justification for Janet doing what she did. The first part of your post did just that. But if you were compelled to NOT do the decent thing and instead send out the slime, then you should have called Norby BEFORE you posted and find out if the tall tales from your pajarito loco were correct. If you don’t understand why it is still necessary for you to apologize for what you did to Norby then I am not going to play Mr. Manners for you.
As for any employees at Santa Ana College being disciplined, as a former(or is it current?)public employee yourself you know full well that public employees have due process rights and it would be inappropriate for me at this time to discuss the details of personnel matters on a public blog. Writing for myself only, I am waiting for the results of an investigation by a law firm and Chancellor Hernandez’s recommendations on both policy and personnel before I make up my mind on what is appropriate. I know it may be a novel idea to you but getting all the facts before one makes a decision is the preferred method of human resources in both the public and private sectors.
“If you go back and read the post in question, carefully, you will note the use of words like “allegedly.†I made no assertions. So why do I need to apologize?”
That is the most ridiculous standard I have ever heard of. Assuming you’re a Catholic, Art, you should know that forgiveness is only given to those who truly repent.
What am I saying? You never even asked for forgiveness.
“Blogging for me is not a right. It is a privilege.”
From Art’s own mouth. Good lord that man has got to step down from the high caballo, wait, burro, he rides on.
I’m sure his fellow bloggers love to hear that they’re just HIS tools, in HIS blog, doing HIS bidding.
The worst part is he tries to criticize other bloggers/blogs. LOL