Amante Builds Warchest to Fight Recall

 

 

 

Tustin Mayor Jerry Amante, the target of a recall effort, has stated publicly that if a recall does become a reality, he’ll fight it. But in a sign that those behind the RecallAmante effort are progressing well on the signature gathering front, the Mayor is hosting a fundraising BBQ in Old Town Tustin — an ironic site given Amante’s documented distain for Old Town residents.

The BBQ will be held on August 25 fropm 5:30 to 7:30 PM at Quinn’s Old Town Grill; Jerry’s consultants are looking for a minimum of $99 per person up to $1,000 to be a sponsor.  Checks payable to “Friends of Jerry Amante” (a club of about six people, right?).  Nice of Jerry to hire consultants from Temecula.

Now that the Amante crowd has identified some of the Tustin residents associated with the recall effort, some of Amante’s “associates” are contacting civic organizations these Tustin residents are members of to criticize individual member roles in the recall effort.  We’ve been sent the emails.  It’s a nasty guilt-by-association play that Amante would certain cry foul if, for example, we were to suggest that Il Duce of Tustin was, as State Rep. Don Wagner once put it, any Italian who isn’t a member of the Mafia or commits insurance fraud offended by suggestions they might be in the Mafia or committing insurance fraud .  Now clearly, being Italian does gain Amante entry into “the Family,” but Amante’s friends need to do a better job of being more…. subtle.

 Back to the Old Town BBQ fundraiser for a moment.  Amate has a troubled history with Old Town.  From Sherri Loveland’s blog post on the Recall Amante website, there is this post:

Property owners in Old Town Tustin are up in arms over Jerry Amante’s ongoing battle to sabotage property rights that were established six decades ago.

Instead of honoring the commitments that were made by previous Tustin officials, Mayor Amante wants to give further power to City bureaucrats to enter your home, declare it a nuisance, and force you to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to modernize a home that is in a Historic District.
In the process, Amante has wasted hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars on staff and attorneys to fight his own petty battles.
 
Don’t believe it?
 
Look at the case of the Fairbanks family. The Fairbanks family, with growing girls, outgrew their Old Town Tustin home and wanted to sell their home that included two apartments that had been rented for almost a hundred years. As part of the sale process, they asked for a letter from the City of Tustin that would indicate that a new owner would have the right to rebuild these units if they were damaged in a fire, earthquake, or other disaster. Letters like this had routinely been granted, as long as the units were built to modern standards for safety.
 
When the Fairbanks family fought this, Jerry fought back, appealing a decision of the planning commission all the way to the City Council, where cooler council member heads prevailed, and the property owner, after eleven months of fighting, were guaranteed their rights under the law. All the other City Council members voted against Jerry’s vendetta (an extremely rare 4-1 vote).
 
Now Red-tape Jerry has City Staff trying to develop a new policy. (Link to notice) Residents are fighting back, but none of us will be safe until we can get JerryAmante out of office.

And since we’ve including information on suporting Amante, let’s show some equal time to the Pro-Recall Group.  They don’t need nearly has much money as Amante does. From the Recall Amante website:

In order to carry out the effort to Recall Amante and get him out of our City Hall, we need funds. We need to purchase yard signs, postcards, and door hangers. We cannot succeed without funding.

Please send a donation today and forward this letter to all of your friends who support our efforts. To make a donation, please click on the red tab on the right side of any page of this website, or send your check, made payable to “Tustin Supporters for the Recall of Amante” and mail to: 345 W. Sixth Street, Unit A, Tustin, 92780.

Every little bit helps. Only you and your friends can make this work. Remember, this is a volunteer effort and we are depending on you. Any donation of $99 is recorded as an anonymous donation and your name will not go on the campaign report. You and your spouse may each donate $99.

In addition to financial contributions, we need volunteers to walk their neighborhoods to collect signatures. There is a great deal of interest in the Recall effort, creating long conversations with residents. We are spending, on average, 10 minutes with each person who signs the petition. With 7,100 signatures to gather, this takes quite a bit of time. Please call (714) 582-5115 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (714) 582-5115 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email recall@recallamante.org if you would like to gather signatures in your neighborhood.

 

2 Comments

  1. I’d like to thank that member of the Tustin PD who stayed across the street from the meeting in a commerical parking lot for the duration of the meeting. PLease contact me if you need my license plate number and the contact information of those who attended. My camera phone takes great photos.

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