We are a week away from the November 17th Special Election Primary to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of disgraced Republican Assemblyman Mike Duvall. It seems to be a forgone conclusion among Orange County’s political pundits that Chris Norby is the front runner in this race. Whether or not he garners the 50% plus 1 vote needed to avoid an election runoff in January remains to be seen.
What is clear is that the attacks on Chris Norby about his failed marriages, misuse of campaign funds, sexual harassment charges, and alleged racist comments about Latinos have failed to gain traction with the voters. What I don’t get is why the people backing Linda Ackerman, and who funded all of those attacks, missed the opportunity to challenge Norby’s claims of being a fighter against government pension spikes.
Norby has stumped on his record in opposition to a paid for pension benefit negotiated with County workers in 2004, and his strong support of the frivolous lawsuit to repeal the retroactive pension spike that Supervisors negotiated with Sheriffs Deputies in 2002. What Supervisor Norby has conveniently forgotten to tell people, and the Ackerman campaign simply missed, is the position Norby took when he was a member of the Fullerton City Council regarding the same pension spike awarded to Fullerton police and fire fighters.
Back on January 15, 2002, Councilman Chris Norby seconded the motion to retroactively increase the pension benefits of Fullerton police and fire to the same level awarded to Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies. Yes that’s right, Norby supported what he now calls an unconstitutional pension benefit increase and has voted to spend more than $2 million to overturn the similar decision made by the Board of Supervisors in 2002.
For those who doubt that this is the case, here is the link to the Minutes of the January 15, 2002 meeting. The action is recorded on page 16.
So I’ve got one simple question. Does Norby still think he was right in 2002, or is he right now when the political opportunity is different?
I’ve also got a question for all those Norby supporters out there who see him as some sort of second coming of Howard Jarvis. Do you really want to hang your hopes on a career politician who has spent 18 years on the Fullerton City Council and 7 years on the Board of Supervisors and whose positions change direction with the political winds? From what I can tell, Chris Norby is far more the political opportunist than the revolutionary people are trying to make him out to be.
The only true change will come if you elect a new voice for the 72nd Assembly District. That voice is not Chris Norby, and not the carpetbagger Linda Ackerman. That voice is Democrat John MacMurray. Check out his campaign website HERE and find out how you can help restore integrity to the 72nd Assembly District seat.
He was a good man. Very sad.
I’m not defending the vote, Chris, but where in the minutes does it indicate the increase was retroactive?
That is the problem with meeting minutes, they are rarely specific in all details. It is my understanding the the agreement changed the pension plans for all fire and police officers to 3% @ 50. As this was the standard for other agencies and the decision was based upon the desire the maintain parity, I believe the change moved all existing members of the plan to 3% @ 50 for all prior years of service. If I am wrong, I welcome correction.
That’s a reasonable assumption; in the minutes one of the councilmembers — the late, unlamented Mike Clesceri, I believe — mentioned Fullerton was then the only municipality that hadn’t granted 3-at-50 for public safety employees.
Still, that’s a big detail.