Emily Martin: “A 200% [sewer rate ] increase in five years is not responsible governance; it is the result of long-delayed decisions, now shifted abruptly onto residents.”

15 Apr

Well, Wolcott finally printed my response to Bill Smith, regarding public salaries and where to find out more info. The more people who know the truth, the closer we are to a real conversation about public employee salaries and benefits, and the consequences of “kicking the can down the road“.

Speaking of the can being kicked down the road, Smith also mentioned the sewer rate increase. A can, a stinking can, that has been kicked around for probably 50 years or more. They’ve known the pipes were old, and leaking, leaking POOP, but they just kept kicking.

Anybody remember Chico City Council member Colleen Jarvis? Before she died of cancer in 2004, I sat in on a meeting in which she and other former council members Dan Nguyen-Tan, and Scott Gruendl discussed the last sewer rate hike – from around $25 a month to $45 a month. Jarvis wanted to be straight with the public, do the whole thing up front, tell everybody the truth. DN-T and SG both wanted to phase it in – they were a couple of total pussies, they were afraid of the public reaction. Council voted for the phase-in, meaning the sewer fund, already in trouble, would fall farther and farther behind. Fast forward today – there are still 100+ year old pipes running under Downtown and the older parts of the city, and I’ll guess they don’t even have the money to hire a consultant.

This can has been kicked around for years, without much public scrutiny. Now this sewer rate increase has finally wakened the mob – I’ll tell you what, you don’t mess with people’s toilets. When I picked up Sunday’s paper, I noticed a letter that echoed my thoughts, from a lady named Emily Martin.

“A 200% increase in five years is not responsible governance; it is the result of long-delayed decisions, now shifted abruptly onto residents.” Yup, can kicking. And then, the handing of the bag, to the taxpayers, who get left holding it.

What about Measure H? Council member Addison Winslow says that money can’t be used, because it’s General Fund money. He says not everybody uses the sewer, so the city can’t use GF money to fix the sewer. What an idiot – or does he think we’re all idiots? Martin puts him right. “That argument falls apart, even under basic scrutiny,” she responds. “We all fund services we don’t directly use…” including schools, roads, and emergency services.

Council also makes the rules for the spending of city money, without any scrutiny from the public.

She concludes, “Chico deserves a more transparent approach that reflects shared benefits and shared responsibility.” Yes, that would be nice – instead we got a mailed ballot that was deceptively printed to look like JUNK MAIL (thanks for looking out for us City Clerk Debbie Presson!), and failure to submit a written letter of protest was marked as a YES vote. Winslow sat in on that decision, a sham ballot that resulted in a FOREVER change to the rate mechanism. Without any future public vote, they can raise the sewer rate whenever they want, for whatever reason they want.

Martin echoes a letter I sent weeks ago – families and businesses are already struggling, this is just another nail in the coffin of our local economy. “This kind of increase will force real cuts to essentials and to the local businesses that keep Chico thriving.” On that note, I’m about to head for Oregon, to buy my taxable essentials. My family does little to no taxable shopping in Chico, although we did have our tires that we bought in Oregon rotated at a Chico shop and then treated ourselves to an oil change for the trip. But I realize, I’m retired, and my kid lives in Oregon – this isn’t feasible for working families. It would suck to be a family with kids in this town, unless you’re one of the privileged teat suckers known as “public servants“.

Emily, the only way to turn this decision back is to vote out the bad actors. Reynolds, Winslow and Van Overbeek are up, and they need to be turned out, like that carton of milk on the back shelf of your fridge.

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City to discuss the procedures for the conduct of public hearings and majority protest proceedings relating to proposed rate increases and assessments – they want to make it harder for us to protest rate increases

1 Apr
https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1191&meta_id=102016

Remember the frustrating process by which the city changed the rate mechanism on sewer charges? So they could raise the rates anytime they wanted?

Sewer rate increase hearing set for Tuesday (1/17/23) – if you haven’t mailed your protest get it in soon or attend the hearing

Well next week Council will discuss a change that will further restrict your right to have any voice in these rate increases – they are changing the procedure to eliminate your right to sue if you were left out of the rate protest. Meaning, if you threw that ballot out thinking it was junk mail, or didn’t get around to sending it in time, didn’t understand it, didn’t hear about it, etc, you lose your right to protest further rate increases.

Read the staff report, these people want you out of this process.

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Bill Smith: Before I start paying three times my current sewer bill, I would like to take a look at current city employees’ salaries… Thanks for asking, Bill!

26 Mar

NOTE: As of today (4/5) this letter (sent 3/25) has not been printed in the ER. Nobody has answered Bill Smith, including Wolcott/ER staff. I guess I’ll wait a full two weeks (this Thursday 4/9) and send it again!

I was laying the Sunday ER (3/15) under my cat dishes when I noticed a letter from Bill Smith, asking about the sewer bill and the pensions. Short and to the point!

Before I start paying three times my current sewer bill, I would like to take a look at the current city employees’ salaries, what their anticipated retirement will be, and what already retired city employees are drawing in retirement. Where can I see this? — Bill Smith, Chico 

Thanks Bill, good questions. I’ll answer here. It took Wolcott 10 days to print my last letter, sent on the 14th, even though I saw letters that had obviously been written AFTER mine, and printed within a day or two. Neither Wolcott or his usual pile of dipshits bothered to answer Bill Smith. The paper is in trouble, but I’m going to continue to send letters, please do same.

Bill Smith (3/15) asked about city salaries, anticipated pensions, and what retirees are already drawing in retirement. He asked where he could get this information.

There are two sites that provide this information. The secretary of state has “public pay,” at https://gcc.sco.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/Cities.aspx Transparent California is provided by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, in a joint venture with the California Policy Center, available at https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2024/chico/

Both sites depend on public agencies, like the city of Chico, to provide this information. Because of delays in compliance, the figures are two years out of date, but accurate. You will find records dating back years, with annual salary increases, as well as benefits packages and total compensation.

Transparent California also figures the employee’s personal pension deficit, using pay and years of service. Employees pay between 5 and 11% toward their own pensions (70 – 90% of their highest year’s pay), the rest rides on the market and ends up on the backs of the taxpayers.

Please come to chicotaxpayers.com to join the conversation.

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

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City of Chico talking out of both sides of it’s mouth again – telling us they will make housing “more affordable”, they continue to raise the cost of utilities with taxes and fees

15 Mar

I was looking into the proposed sewer rate increase for Chico and I found a discussion on Redditt that indicated people are pretty pissed off. I had read about a proposed 65% increase, but at last week’s meeting, they were saying like a 400% increase. We’re looking at the average customer paying almost $100 a month for sewer service. I knew that sewer “rate mechanism change” would be bad. This is what the real cost of living is about – you can’t just build more housing, you have to consider all the other costs.

I have believed for a long time that city leaders just want working class people out of town. One council and staff after another have tried to turn Chico – starting with Downtown – into a Destination! High-end restaurants, outdoor dining, now alcohol allowed outside – that’s not a family atmosphere, and the only working people they want Downtown are table waiters, bartenders, and cashiers.

Shop owners are leaving in droves, citing the parking kiosks, but I think that was just the last nail in the coffin. For years downtown businesses have been paying higher rent for less services, even while paying into a protection racket known as the Downtown Business Association. Remember when “Community Development Director” Leo DePaola was sticking Downtown businesses with rapacious fines for vandalism caused by transients?

Wait until they gut the streets for the sewer job. And if you have a minute, read the reports – there really are “secret tunnels” under Downtown, only not for opium dens, but for utilities, and for those old delivery elevators that used to open up down into the basements of various businesses. I’ve actually seen those used. These “tunnels” don’t all connect, and some of them are flooded. Last I heard the city isn’t even sure where they all are.

City of Chico officials and employees think of the rest of us as cash cows. They want us to pay for a mess they’ve been massaging for years, demanding more money from the taxpayers, just to feather their own nests, while they kick the poop can down the road.

So I wrote a letter about it!

After I sent my last letter, I received an agenda for the March 5 Finance Committee meeting. I was unable to attend, but heard later they are discussing a much higher sewer rate increase than I had read in a previous report.

City leaders like to talk about making housing more affordable, whether it’s rentals or private homes, but they fail to discuss the reality – just because a person can get a house, doesn’t mean they will be able to afford all of the associated costs. We’ve all watched PG&E and Cal Water rates rise steadily over the past 20 years, and now the city is sticking their thumb in the pie with their sewer rate increases.

Not to mention, a 5% tax on Cal Water and PG&E bills, as well as franchise taxes on PG&E and Comcast. They also have a franchise deal with the garbage companies.

These costs directly affect the cost of housing.

Where will the money go? Think you’ll see any work in your neighborhood? The Pension Stabilization Trust takes a percentage from every city fund to make the CalPERS deficit payment – will the sewer fund be exempt from the “catch-up” payments?

Election time is the best time to ask questions.

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Oh shit! The sewer rate hike is worse than I thought!

8 Mar

Well, since I wrote that last post and sent my letter off to the Enterprise Record, I received a Finance Committee agenda regarding the sewer rate hike discussion, scheduled for last Wednesday. The agenda report said they were trying to decide between phasing the rate hike in over 5 years, or just sticking it to us all at once. I was not able to attend the meeting. Judging from a letter I saw in the ER (which ran prior to mine, which is odd because it was sent after the meeting, but whatever…), they decided to stick it to us – the writer claimed they will be raising the monthly fee to $98, not the $38 I had read in an earlier report.

Yup. Remember the Great Sewer Tax Heist of 2023?

Sewer rate increase hearing set for Tuesday (1/17/23) – if you haven’t mailed your protest get it in soon or attend the hearing

I hope you learned your lesson to check your mail carefully, because a lot of people threw those away as junk mail, and now here we are. Yup,  this is a permanent tax, allowing for an annual increase without any further notice or hearings. Where do you think that money goes? Don’t expect improvements in your neighborhood anytime soon – right now, the city is busy hooking Paradise up to our sewer plant, and getting ready to tear up Downtown streets for a completely new sewer system.

Spend much time in Paradise? Been Downtown lately? Be sure to use the toilet, cause you’re paying for it.

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Letter to the Editor – according to city finance staff, salaries and the pension deficit are the “chief budget concerns at this time…” So council approves another round of salary increases! Horses pulling a burning wagon…

3 Mar

Gotta go to Oroville this week. Property taxes are due next month, and no, I don’t trust USPS anymore. And, my husband needs to fix his voter registration – when he renewed his driver’s license recently, carefully checking the box indicating he did not wish to fill out the voter registration section, the DMV changed his voter registration address to our neighbor’s house. Thankyouverymuch!

Similar thing happened two years ago when I renewed my license. And we both got the same response from the county clerk, asking us to verify the information. I went to the clerk’s office to make sure it was fixed and my husband wants to do same. No, we don’t trust these people, and if you do, you should sleep on your stomach.

I like a trip to Oroville, really good coffee/pastry shop, good thrift shops and – Holy Crap Bat Mom – FREE PARKING! But this time we’re going to spend some time over at Surplus City, my husband will probably have to drag me out of there, they have so much cool stuff. And no worries about feeding the meter.

Ray Schimmel reminded me how stupid is the concept of paying for parking, on public streets, to shop at businesses that already pay taxes on that property. Meanwhile, you park free in every other retail district in Chico, oftentimes in private parking lots on which the owner pays substantial property tax.

Kick that around in the old noggin a minute – you should have seen the look on a Raley’s manager’s face when I asked him if that was true, that slow realization, like an egg spreading across his forehead. Yes, the big “box” stores, as well as the malls, pay property taxes on those “free” parking lots, and they make them available for you, AT NO CHARGE, so you can shop in their stores. Collective head slap folks – DUH!

So, why in the hell should we have to pay to park Downtown, and furthermore, put up with the inconvenience and several pointy questions regarding the kiosks? More jedi mind tricks from Chico City Council. So I wrote a letter about it!

Thanks Ray Schimmel, for your letter (2/22/26). The kiosks are a mistake that has caused unfortunate consequences for an entire business sector, with ramifications for the whole town.

It should not be surprising that citywide sales tax revenues are falling below projections. It’s pretty obvious that all of Chico is leaking retail. Whatever the reason, that’s a real problem – fifty-two percent of city funding comes from sales tax.

Staff also reports that salaries and the pension deficit are the chief budget concerns at this time. Nevertheless, city council just approved another round of salary increases, without asking more rational contributions from employees. They’re driving up the pension deficit, like horses pulling a burning wagon.

Meanwhile, Council ponders total replacement of Downtown sewer lines. – how do they plan to pay for that? With a 65% increase in EVERYBODY’S sewer rates, effective this year. They already spent the millions received in Camp Fire relief and American Rescue Funding, on who knows what.

Councilmembers Van Overbeek, Reynolds and Winslow are up for reelection. Van Overbeek has asked how the pension deficit keeps cycling up, but defends raising salaries. All three have signed the contracts without questioning the employee contributions. None of them seem to understand our fiscal situation. The pension deficit needs to be brought into the conversation in this election. Ask your candidate about it, and wait for their answer.  It would take guts to stand up to the employee unions, since they make the biggest contributions in every city election. 

Juanita Sumner, Chico ca

UPDATE: From the agenda report for tomorrow’s Finance Committee meeting – sewer rate increase!

Click to access 03-05-26%20FC%20Agenda%20Packet%20-%20Special.pdf

The City’s Sewer Enterprise faces significant financial challenges. Two primary financing approaches have been presented to the Finance Committee to support long-term Sewer Enterprise sustainability. Both approaches relied on cash-funded rate adjustments.
Option 1: Large Year 1 Increase – Collects more revenue early, reducing total five-year impact
Option 2: Incremental Increases – Smooths customer impact but results in higher rates by Year 5

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Corrupt Little City 101: defined benefits vs defined contributions

25 Feb

I was glad to see Ray Schimmel’s letter in Sunday’s paper (2/22/26) – “No, everything is not OK with Chico’s Downtown.” Yes, the kiosks are just another nail in Downtown’s coffin. And just another obvious shake down by city management, desperate for revenue to pay their own salaries and benefits, including the pension deficit.

Pension deficit is created when employees do not pay a rational share of their pension expense. Most cities in California allow employees to pay a small share, while the cities pay a trifle more, and trusts CalPERS to make up the rest with investments on the stock market. When the market doesn’t pay, the debt accrues with interest – and there’s the deficit.

Of course the deficit also goes up with every new hire and salary increase.

So, even though most cities, including Chico, have created pension payment plans, with increasing “catch-up” contributions every year, cities all over California, including Chico, are watching their deficit go up very drastically every year.

The problem is, Chico employees, like employees in other cities, are given “defined benefit plans”, aka, “traditional benefits” in their contracts. The terms – such as salary, and the percentage of the employee share of benefits – are negotiated by council and the city manager.

What is a “defined benefits plan”? From Investopedia – Defined-benefit plans provide eligible employees with guaranteed income for life when they retire. Employers guarantee a specific retirement benefit amount for each participant based on factors such as the employee’s salary and years of service.

Wow, guaranteed for life, that’s a promise! The AI summary adds a very important point –

Defined benefit (DB) plans, or traditional pensions, guarantee a specific, formula-based monthly income in retirement, with employers bearing all investment risks.

Yep, the employers – the taxpayers – bear all the risks. Including CalPERS poor returns. While CalPERS has had some excellent years, they’ve had a lot more bad years, and remain at only 70% solvency. Meaning, the taxpayers have to come up with the rest of that money. Plus interest.

I feel the answer is to switch to “defined contribution plans”. Really Pollyanna? What’s defined contributions? Well thanks for asking!

Defined contribution (DC) plans, such as 401(k)s, are employee-funded accounts where final benefits depend on contributions and market performance, shifting investment risks to the employee.

Defined-contribution plans are funded primarily by the employee. The most common type of defined-contribution plan is a 401(k). Participants can elect to defer a portion of their gross salary via a pre-tax payroll deduction. The company may match the contribution if it chooses, up to a limit it sets.“

While that’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned, here’s a point I had not considered – defined benefits plans are more expensive to administer, the cost of which, is of course passed onto the taxpayers.

From investopedia – https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032415/how-does-defined-benefit-pension-plan-differ-defined-contribution-plan.asp#citation-2

“These key differences determine which party—the employer or employee—bears the investment risks and affect the cost of administration for each plan.

With defined benefits plans, “Employees have little control over the funds until they are received in retirement. The company [CalPERS] takes responsibility for the investment and distribution to the retiree. That means the employer [taxpayers] bears the risk that the returns on the investment will not cover the defined-benefit amount due to a retired employee.

Here’s the whammy – “Because of this risk, defined-benefit plans require complex actuarial projections and insurance for guarantees, making administration costs very high.”

Since defined contributions plans shift the risk to the employee, “As the employer has no obligation toward the account’s performance after the funds are deposited, these plans require little work, are low risk to the employer, and cost less to administer.

The city will tell you this is not possible, that there’s no way we can get out of CalPERs, blah blah. We will probably have to continue to pay what we owe on past, retired employees, but we need to put pressure on council to switch whenever there is a contract negotiation or new hire. Starting with whomever they plan to hire for City Manager.

And stop giving raises and hiring new positions.

And we need to discuss the conflict of interest created here, with council members receiving huge campaign contributions from the employee unions. That is as obvious as the stinking heads of a fish that smells so rotten… oh yeah, that’s the sewer boiling up under Downtown Chico…

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As the City Tanks: Council giving out more raises tomorrow night, when will they ever learn?

16 Feb

Tonight Chico City Council will most likely approve more salary increases for Chico PD and Fire. Trying to follow up on suggestions of outsourcing other positions to pay for these raises, I just happened to find a November article in the Chico News and Review. The author paraphrased a blog I posted regarding the effect these raises are having on the deficit, of which CouncilmemberTom Van Overbeek only recently seems to have become aware of.

From Chico CN&R, 11/20/25, https://chico.newsreview.com/2025/11/20/underfunded-chico-city-worker-pensions-addressed/

“The Chico Taxpayer Association maintains that contracts with city workers should have obligated them to pay for more of their own retirement costs, and that Van Overbeek’s motion is irresponsible from a conservative point of view. On its website it asks the councilmember: “You have signed onto contracts offering guaranteed raises and abysmally low shares of benefits costs without wondering where the money would come from to pay for these raises, or what effect the raises and underpayments would do to our CalPERS obligation. Why didn’t you ask these questions during the Measure H campaign?”

Wow, he included a response from VOB, but it’s not exactly an answer.

Van Overbeek answered that 2022’s Measure H sales tax increase primarily funded a police force “that was literally melting down,” and not intended for the UAL. “We said we were going to spend the money on cops and roads,” he said.

In this response, he does not engage the question about making employees pay more, he doesn’t even touch it. He refuses to engage the question about more employees and more raises without requiring higher shares is increasing the deficit. He also insinuates that the measure promised Measure A revenues would be used to fund “cops and roads” – it’s not legal to list specific uses for a “simple” 50+1 ballot measure. He also insists that Measure A funds are not being used to pay down the deficit – how can he promise that? Simple measures go into the General Fund.

Sacramento CN&R Author Ken Magri misstates the deficit payments at $7 million a year. That is way off, I’m pretty sure he got that figure from Artificial Intelligence. The city paid $18 million in 2023, I haven’t checked lately, but I know they go up every year. By millions. I get my figures from staffer Barbara Martin’s reports, available in the minutes from the Finance Committee Meetings.

Yes Mr. VOB, the cops are still melting down. The over-generous salaries are not getting “better” people, as evidenced in the recent revelations about police department inappropriate behavior. These salaries are tanking our town. When will they learn? When they get their ass handed to them at election time, that’s when.

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Letter to the Editor: It’s the contracts, Stupid!

9 Feb

BC asked, Why is it only the taxpayers are on the hook for the unfunded pension liability?

Good question, I wrote a letter about it!

After my last letter a friend asked, “Why is it only the taxpayers are on the hook for the unfunded pension liability?”

It’s in the contracts. Council agrees to the terms regarding salary and benefits. Council also approves the inadequate shares employees are paying toward their benefits, which has left the city wandering deeper and deeper into pension debt with CalPERS.

Year after year, Council approves the increasing annual payments toward the resulting pension deficit – $18 million in 2023 alone. Despite millions in “catch-up” payments, the deficit continues to rise, at last report, over $180 million.

And that’s how the taxpayers get left on the hook. How can we get off?

Elect council members who will negotiate taxpayer-friendly contracts. Employees should shoulder their own pensions. Instead of allowing the pension deficit to “ride the market” down the road to Perdition, set up realistic defined contributions from employees, based on the true cost of their pensions instead of Pollyanna market projections. The taxpayer (“employer”) contribution should be based on merit and length of service. Employees should be responsible for the losses as well as the gains.

Outsource jobs? The city culled positions in 2013, but here we are again. It’s the contracts.

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

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BC: Why is it only the taxpayers are on the hook for the unfunded pension liability?

2 Feb

Thanks BC for coming over to the last post

We’re about to hire a new city manager – it’s past time to discuss the effect these outrageous salaries and benefits are having on the city budget

You brought up a lot of important points about public employee compensation. The lush salaries and benefits are not conducive to good work ethic. Instead of promising sky’s-the-limit salary and benefits off the top, Council needs to offer a reasonable starting salary and set specific metrics for performance, future salary increases and long-term benefits. And other stuff, thanks for keeping the conversation going!

You observed and I agree, “The lack of accountability and the lack of responsibility in jobs where a fixed salary is present generates a much different work ethic than incentive based compensation plans in the private sector . ” I’ll add, defined benefits plans – employer-sponsored retirement plans that promise a specific, predetermined monthly income for life after retirement, regardless of performance, and regardless of our town’s financial well being. This type of employee compensation is not only tanking our town financially, but like you said, it’s not an efficient way of guaranteeing quality performance.

A better system would be defined contributions plans. Meaning, essentially, the employees pay more for their benefits, and they shoulder the responsibility when CalTRANS tanks. I don’t pertend to be a expert in these affairs but I been studying up on it. I really don’t trust city management to give me straight answers, I look it up on The Wikipedia.

BC echoed a sentiment I’ve had for years, “Why is it only the taxpayers are on the hook for the unfunded pension liability? I believe it’s because the biggest contributors in the city council elections are the employee unions. That’s another conversation, but it has to be had before we will get any changes in the compensation scam.

I’ll say, if we had good employees, they wouldn’t be feathering their nests with all of our future. Why do we put up with it? Because we have our jobs, and our kids, and our bills to pay. We need to take some time to think about these issues so we can make informed contributions to the conversation Downtown. Especially at Election Time.

Next time, on “This Old Lady Gets the Bill… and so do YOU!”

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