Dave Howell looks into the “Paycheck Protection Program” at Chico Taxes:
Joe Azzarito: 3 strikes and you’re out
8 JulCouncilor Karl Ory is Chico’s latest “Chicken Little.” Maybe insolvency is the only recourse to bring expenses in line with the community’s reality. Fear tactics are the left’s weapon of choice. I listened and watched the June 23 council meeting as best I could, without closed captions for hearing impaired.
Frozen hiring and layoffs, for the left, is letting the lowest paid “true workers” go or eliminating “make believe” positions budgeted but not yet filled. That way, for the best effect on the public. For government, it’s cost plus all the way; reductions are really lessened increases – double speak.
You use “sunsetted in eight years” and “a permanent $18 million tax for police and roads” in the same letter. Which is it? Don’t threaten voters with an insolvency caused by your own actions – exorbitant salaries, excessive benefits and obedience to an immoral “California Rule.” Management must be the first to feel the pain, not the peons.
Lastly, I can prove yours and Mr. Orme and Constantin’s $18 million revenue stream is bogus, intended to feed outsized debt using roads and public safety as carrots. If the tax goes up, so should tips at restaurants go down! Accountability rests on your shoulders not ours. You gave away the store, we didn’t. You people tried three times on Tuesday – that’s a strike out in my book.
Joe Azzarito, Chico CA
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances
4 JulWow, hit a nerve! Stats for the blog have been steadily up, people are thinking about issues like transient problems, crime, and Kamala Harris (?), but I haven’t seen a jump in visitors like the one I got for “Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.”
I’m shocked people don’t care more about what’s going on Downtown right now, and I think city management is really happy about it. I just got another agenda for a “special” meeting next Tuesday, and I’ll say – nothing on that agenda is “essential” business. They’re trying to shove ballot measures by under cover of COVID.
This is the second most important Independence Day in my lifetime. The first was during 9-11, when we saw an unprecedented attack on our civil liberties. Forgot that already? Because a lot of the stuff we were freaked about in the days following September 11, 2001 are still with us, like TSA. The last time I saw TSA in the news was reports they were stealing laptops and other expensive gadgets out of people’s luggage. People who want to travel by air have just accepted this intrusion on our rights, that’s what’s alarming to me. And now, too many people are accepting masking and the cancellation of public events. They not only accept this intrusion in their own lives, like some kind of sci-fi novel, they turn on others around them and demand they also accept it.
Happy Independence Day, and don’t forget what it means. It means VIGILANCE. It means being ready to push back against attack on our freedom.
Practice FREEDOM today, leave your mask at home. Stay out of others’ body space, wash your hands, and repeat after me:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Learn it. Know it. Live it.
Candace Grubbs tells council “No way” on ranked choice voting
30 JunNine hours on the road to Portland – want to know how I entertained myself? Watched a city council meeting on my laptop.
The meetings are hard to watch all in one shot, the feed cuts out constantly. So, I watch them an item at a time. It took me almost a week to watch last Tuesday’s meeting.
The item I watched on the road was the discussion about “ranked choice voting”. I’ve heard of ranked choice – it seems stupid. Instead of voting for one candidate, you rank the candidates as to your first, second, third choice, etc. That way everybody feels like they win? I’m not sure there’s any benefit to this system, but I knew right away, it would be difficult for the county clerk. I had heard the city clerk asked her about it and she said NO! So I was surprised when they brought this item forward. They just masturbate away our staff time, it’s frustrating, especially when we’re talking about two county staffers, one of them a department head making almost $200,000/year.
You could tell Candy wasn’t thrilled about it – I know, I’ve had my go-arounds with this woman, but she’s fun to watch when she’s on a righteous tirade. And she was right. I know I’ve insulted her, but I’ll say now, I love Candy!
She informed council, first off, the state doesn’t allow ranked choice in local elections. She had already told City Clerk Debbie Presson this and Presson had passed it along to council. But they decided to drag Grubbs in anyway, with her second in line following her like a baby duck. I was glad – she really laid it down. This measure would cost a shit ton of money – starting with $350,000 to update the equipment before the November election. And then another $80,000/year after that (to keep it updated? not sure).
And then she really laid down the gobstopper that the council had never considered – there’s a census going on right now, you ignoramuses. The districts you spent almost $100,000 drawing up are going to be MOOOT! Idiots! So she’s going to have all that right up the ass – and have to educate the public as to a ranked choice ballot? All by November?
Here’s a good point she brought up – people don’t even know what district they’re in. How we gonna educate all these people by November? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ !!!!!!!
All Alex Brown, who proposed ranked choice, had to say was that she had not researched the idea (!), that it had been suggested to her “by a friend”, and that she was glad to “get clarification” from staff. Candace Grubbs had made it clear to city clerk Presson, before this item was agendized, that it was illegal and “no way” would she do it. Brown ignored that and asked for the item to be agendize, and council voted to discuss it at a previous meeting.
Council, but especially Brown, use staff time like somebody elses’ credit card. And, they’ve called “special meeting” after “special meeting” since COVID shutdown, items that are NOT essential. They all went along with the districts, without talking to Grubbs. And now they hand her the whole mess like an abandoned baby.
I know which district I live in, but it’s hard to see the lines. One line I know is the line that runs down my back fence, and along my neighbors’ fences, and then, wow, it suddenly jogs over to take in one house in the next neighborhood, then jogs back. Just takes in that one house – Kasey Reynold’s house.
Sometimes the “cure” is worse than the disease
30 JunI made a trip to the Portland area this weekend. Yes, Oregon is very different. The geography is different, the people are different, and the politics are different. At times, as I clutched my little dog, I found myself murmuring, “there’s no place like home.” And meaning it!
Like California, Oregon has a mask mandate. But they are way too happy about it, as far as I’m concerned. Along the street outside the hotel, two mask stores. Yes, mask stores. They were tiny storefronts, in old, shabby buildings, surrounded by sketchy bars, and BBQ joints, “Be safe, MASKS!” painted across window fronts. Elsewhere, on street corners, E-Z Up’s with signs, one set up next to a taco truck, another in a gas station, “MASKS!”
I don’t like to complain to my husband, he tries to keep a positive outlook. But he’s the first one to say so when something seems really wrong. “These people are way too obedient...” he observed as we approached the food truck court one evening. Yes, all around us, young couples, singles, retirees, whole families – masked up like an outlaw gang waiting for a stage coach to happen by.
To tell the truth, I have an old flour sack, and I’ve thought many times of punching eye holes in that thing and wearing it, Black Bart being one of my heroes, but I’ve thought better of it. I don’t like to offend people, and I heard the first masks the KKK wore were flour sacks. So, I’ll keep that one to myself.
Instead I carried a set of brightly colored hankies to wrap my face – face diapers – because I feel like I’m a guest, and if my host wants me to wear a mask, oh well, I’ll do it to be polite. Cause you know what – Oregon has no sales tax. I’m glad to oblige in a city full of outlet malls and huge Walmarts, etc, to shop tax-free, so I wrapped up my mug and threw down my money like a sailor on a Saturday night binge.
But the masks bug me – for one thing, I do feel difficulty breathing through them, especially the N-95’s, which also get really hot. But the real thing I don’t like about masks, is that it is tough to feel like a member of a community when everybody is hiding their face. Their eyes are dead, and they’re just staring right through you like you aren’t there. That is creepy. The cloth masks do look like diapers, it’s distracting to a real conversation, especially when people can’t speak clearly.
And here I’ll say, I’ve read study after study, and they all agree – masks are not that effective, especially the silly homemade cloth masks. The Chinese “K-95” masks Newsom spent a billion dollars on are criticized because the straps don’t hold the mask tightly enough to keep things in or out. The cloth masks, like my bandanas, only make you about 4% safer than no mask? And then everywhere, I see people wearing their masks incorrectly – nose hanging out being the most common mistake – and I see filthy masks, and I see people constantly touching their masks. Don’t expect me to take the mask thing too seriously.
So, here in Chico, I carry them, but I’ll only wear them in the grocery store, just to be polite to others. As far as retail is concerned, if you have a sign requiring masks on your door, you just said GOOD BYE JUANITA, WE DON’T NEED YOUR MONEY!
Sometimes the “cure” is worse than the disease.
Somebody call Chico Fire Department – the city manager’s pants have just burst into flames
24 JunWow, what a meeting that was. I thought for sure somebody was going to get stuffed into a teapot.
It all started with the usual staff report. After Chris Constantin gave a brief rundown on the recent history of the measure and council direction, he presented two sample measures – one a simple half-cent measure, one a simple full cent measure, and then explained that if neither of those were satisfactory to council, he had staffers set up with word documents so they could edit either or both into a new measure. He told council he was willing to work with them on a 2/3’s measure, but again warned them how restrictive such a measure would be.
Alex Brown remarked that the language in the sample ballot measures was “interesting,” and asked Constantin how he wrote them. Constantin explained simply that he had used the survey results from the city’s consultant, EMC Research. I told you this is how it works – “the language was premised on the polling results… including priorities the public felt were highest…”
Even though staff wrote these as simple measures, they included the “priorities the public felt were highest…” That is misleading, and they know it. That was the whole purpose of the survey, to find out what people wanted, in their own words, so they would think this measure was their idea in the first place, and that it would be dedicated to those uses.
At this point Karl Ory went into hyperdrive – this guy is a loose cannon, I think he could be censured for his behavior but you’d have to ask the guy who plays an attorney on TV. Ory became agitated over Constantin’s inclusion of a proposal for a full-cent measure. Ory was the one who brought forward the motion to dump the full-cent measure in favor of a half-cent measure, believing the voters would not pass a full-cent measure.
“By whose authority,” he demanded, had Constantin brought forward another proposal for a full-cent measure? Ory then related the votes from the previous meeting, attacking Constantin in a mocking tone for being a “rogue staffer“, saying, “How do you do that, call the mayor and say, ‘we’re going to bring something different?'”
I felt Ory’s little tirade was unprofessional, and Constantin stood glowering like a schoolboy at the insult. He managed to pull himself together and reply, “There is no restriction on staff from providing as much information as possible,” and left the podium in a huff. Ory again taunted him off microphone – “Rogue Staffer!” and other disparaging remarks.
While I could see Ory was completely out of line in his behavior, I have to agree with his charge – Constantin is trying to push a full-cent measure on council. I don’t think it was appropriate for him to bring this to council after they’d said they wanted a half-cent measure. Constantin’s desperate to get a full-cent measure, because even THAT will never be enough to mitigate years of deferred maintenance and a out-of-control pension liability.
Constantin admitted as much at board and commission meetings all last Summer. He told assembled city policy makers even a full-cent sales tax would never generate the billions required to bring our streets back up to par, but that it would be enough to secure a bond. He needs at least half the money to secure the bond.
At the June 9 special meeting, Orme introduced the concept of the bond to council. He told them a full cent measure would provide about $18 million. He then said he wanted to use half the proceeds for “bonded debt for capital,” adding, “the City may safely use almost $9,000,000 for capital debt. ”
This is all in the report for the meeting, available here, page 7 (use Cont+F and key in “bonded” and “capital”):
I have always wondered if council members really read reports – Ory acted as though he’d never read that June 9 report. But, luckily Dave Howell had mentioned the bond in his comment on Chico Engaged – thanks Dave! Ory saw the comment and asked Orme, “will proceeds be committed to a bond, I see a comment here complaining about the expense of a bond…”
At first Orme just denied they’d made any “committment,” but went further, lying through his teeth, “at no point in time right now do we have anything in line to look at bonding…”
Here’s my dilemma – how do I reconcile Orme’s report from June 9 and his denial from June 23?
I hope to finish recapping this meeting later, it was a hum-dinger.
Interesting comments from readers
21 JunI get comments from people that deserve another look sometimes.
Yvonne asked me what I think about Newsom’s mask order and “other dirty deeds.” Thanks Yvonne, a quick search led me to some answers to questions I already had, and then more questions.
The question it answered for me is how California went from a $5.6 billion budget surplus to a $54 billion deficit just over the span of about three months of shut-down. Remember folks, we’re talking BILLIONS here. I don’t think most people could count to a billion in three months, but here Gavin Newsom went through $60 billion plus faster than prune juice through the guts of an 80 year old man. A billion off to China for substandard COVID masks, sheesh, I’d hate to see the governor’s credit card bill.
Legislators are asking Newsom’s staff for the details of the deal, but they won’t tell. Furthermore, the KN95 masks manufactured by the Chinese are not exactly top rated. In April the FDA updated their recommendations, “limiting the use of certain KN95 masks as suitable NIOSH alternatives in a healthcare setting…” The reason is that these masks have the over the ear straps instead of the tighter fitting around the head straps.
So, Newsom spent a billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) on masks that are not the first choice of the FDA, and then won’t tell us the details of the deal.
I’m not sure how to feel about that. I’m still processing the new order that we all have to wear masks. I’ve read all the recommendations, and the N95’s are the only ones I would trust if I were truly afraid of this disease or thought I was in danger of spreading it. In fact, if I believed that, I would stay home. But I don’t believe it. I think this order is more about controlling people than controlling any disease. I will wear a bandana around my face when required to get into a food store, but I can shop online without a mask and that’s going to stick.
I got a comment from Robyn, who took offense to my use of the phrase “bum camp” to describe a place where people who do not contribute anything to society sleep, defecate, urinate, and accumulate large piles of trash, despite laws to the contrary.
“I was appreciating this page until I read your term ‘bum camps.’ That’s horrendously insensitive towards human beings. Poverty is not a crime. Stigmatizing our most impoverished only fuels crimes against them. “
I think it’s horrendously insensitive to trash the park and other public spaces that are supposed to be for all of us. Transients stigmatize themselves – their stigmata is their absolute refusal to comply with norms the rest of us have agreed to live by. Like, don’t shit and leave garbage on the ground next to a water way. Don’t leave needles on children’s playgrounds. Don’t set up camp in my neighborhood and then creep up to my house in the middle of the night to steal my catalytic converter or rout out my recycling bins.
Crimes against them? The only crimes I hear about against the transient population are assaults and robberies perpetrated by other transients.
Somehow she relates all this to racial injustice and police brutality.
By the way, a 1 or .5 percent sales tax, which is a highly contentious issue for so many people of privilege, is not the issue at hand nationally or globally. Racial justice and police brutality is. It would’ve been nice to see something about that here. Absence is silence, which is complicity with racism and white supremacy. But your “bum camp” comment already indicated your stance.
Here this nice lady is telling me what I’m supposed to talk about on my blog. Do I go to her house and tell her what to write in her diary? She tells me I’m racist because I want to discuss what’s on my mind. I’m a white supremist, because I don’t like people shitting on the ground in the park? Where does she get that?
It’s not okay for me to talk about a tax on “Chico Taxpayers Association” but it’s okay for her to tell me my concerns are not important because my skin’s not the right color – okay Robyn, I get it. When will these people learn how NOT to start a conversation?
Joe sent me some good comments related to the current unrest.
Is defunding police how streets are repaved? Don’t think so.
Good question. From what I understand, these people are not calling for the elimination of police services, but want a portion of the public safety budget to go to other agencies, unspecified. I don’t think the protesters understand how public agencies budget money. They don’t see how much money is poured into these public agencies – the Butte County Behavioral Health Department, for example, gets almost $100 million a year, but we still have old, mentally ill people and drug addicts dying on the streets, and we have a problem with police who don’t know how to handle either. The protesters need to come up with more creative answers than “throw money at it!”
Like Joe says, these agencies just use this angst as the basis for tax measure after tax measure, threatening to cut services if they don’t get more money, more money, more money. “Council’s dog/pony show, sales tax 101, promotes an immoral, unfeasible and regressive grab for people’s money, regardless of timing. “ Yeah, people are hurting right now, including local businesses – hardly a time to encourage people to shop less or shop online.
Here Joe suggests a harsher course than I’ve suggested so far, but I agree when he says, “California Rule be damned.”
“Best course of action: ALL city workers take a 50% pay cut and totally fund their retirement. California Rule be damned. Money would then be there to REPAVE the streets and address homelessness, lighting and crime.“
The California Rule is a blatant taking. It’s like having some bum walk right in your front door and stuff his mangy fist in your cookie jar, take all your cookies, and then declare you have to buy more. The CA Rule says, point blank – the pension deficit will be paid before anything else. That’s what’s happened to our public programs, our streets, our park, The California Rule.
According to Joe Matthews in Zoccalo, “The California Rule is the misleading moniker we’ve given to our most troublesome legal precedent: public employees are entitled to whatever pension benefits were in place when they started work.” Matthews adds, “By requiring ever-escalating retirement benefits that force cuts in public services, the California Rule has effectively made a lie out of every significant guarantee in the state constitution, from balanced budgets to speedy trials.“
In other states, Matthews says, “only pension benefits already earned by actual work are protected. California is one of only 12 states that have protected the right to earn future pension benefits for work not yet performed.”
Joe expresses the frustration I feel, especially when I talk to a person like Robyn. “What’s a citizen like me to do? I don’t protest, pillage, rape, burn or kill!“
Robyn, I wonder if you have an answer for Joe? Let him eat chocolate, you say?
City sales tax measure in June 23 agenda – speak up, we might still be able to keep this measure off the ballot
20 JunThe agenda is out for this Tuesday, June 23, so-called “special” and most certainly CLOSED city council meeting. You can look at it here, on the Chico Engaged site.
I hate the report they’ve presented for 3.1 on the Consent Agenda – the mysterious Supplemental Allocation/Budget Modification. That’s a holdover from a cancelled meeting in April. Remember, they had a rainbow list of stuff to spend that projected money on, until Orme pulled the plug with dire predictions of COVID tanking our finances.
Now, look at the report in Tuesday’s agenda, Item 3.1, it’s nothing like the straight forward report in that April agenda. Can anybody tell me exactly where the money comes from, whether it exists or is still only a projection, and what exactly they intend to spend it on? They wrote the report “not for dummies,” so I don’t get it.
When will council get it? This is exactly the kind of stuff that leaves the public with a taste of mistrust.
Then there’s the ballot measures – wow, these all merit more serious discussion in OPEN meetings, but see how these guys are shoveling through this stuff just as fast as they can while they have the cover of COVID.
Again, this is what fosters mistrust in these people. Just keep it comin’!
Here’s my favorite ballot measure:
Shall an ordinance to fund essential city services such as preserving the number of on-duty police officers and fire fighters, protecting 911 emergency response times, maintaining and repairing streets, sidewalks and Bidwell Park, and funding other general services and essential activity, by establishing a 0.5 percent sales tax, providing approximately $9,000,000 annually until June 30, 2029, subject to annual audits, with all funds staying local, be adopted?
I’ve been waiting for this measure for years. They’ve been talking about it since at least 2012, when Tom Lando ran a survey. He reported a “negative” response, but the idea stuck. Since then both the city of Chico and Chico Area Recreation District have hired various consultants, all on taxpayer money, to run surveys trying to convince us that we do want to pay more taxes.
Here’s how that works. The consultant asked respondents to “rank” various arguments. “I’d like to read you statements from people who SUPPORT the Chico City Services Measure. After each one, please tell me how convincing [very convincing or somewhat convincing] that statement is as a reason to vote FOR the measure.”
That’s the Band Wagon Effect – telling you that other people support this measure. And then they begin campaigning for the measure by reading you reasons to support it.
They hold out a stick in one hand – implying cuts to fire and police – “We need to pass this measure to make sure city services can keep up with the increase in population, keeping us all safe and protecting our quality of
life...” – and a carrot in the other – “much needed revenue for road upgrades and repairs“.
As you can see, looking at the proposed measure above, they use the most popular responses to write the measure.
I always wonder – am I the only one who is offended that they use my own money to manipulate me in this way? Using a survey of 400 people in a town of over 90,000? Really think I’m that dumb? Really?
When I looked at Chico Engaged I didn’t see any comments posted. I hope more people will tune in and chime in – we still might have a chance to stop this measure before it gets to the ballot.
Is Orme’s bond proposal too risky? Let council know what you think before June 23 meeting
18 JunCity council has scheduled ANOTHER CLOSED MEETING for June 23. I usually have an agenda sitting in my mailbox by this time (usually by Wednesday evening) so when it didn’t arrive I asked city clerk Debbie Presson if I should be expecting one. She said yes, but it’s held up right now because one of the ballot issues up for discussion is Alex Brown’s proposal for “ranked voting”.
That is the stupidest shit I ever heard – oh yeah, let’s make the voting process MORE CONVOLUTED Alex, just like your personal life. Presson already told Brown that the county clerk will not agree to this ridiculous format, and we’ll need to run our own election. But Brown seems to have selective hearing. She is one of the worst wasters of $taff time since Mary Flynn Goloff.
I’ll take time out here to express my gratitude to city clerk Debbie Presson and Asst City Clerk Dani Rogers for not throwing up their tablets and running for the parking lot. What they’ve had to do to insure public participation in these closed meetings is an abuse of their contracts. It doesn’t matter how much money you get when your boss is a 7-headed shit-for-brains.
The ballot issue I’ve been following, as you know, is the tax measure. Ory made changes to Orme’s proposal and you saw it – Orme got so mad I though he would stamp his foot and disappear. Let me rephrase that, “I hoped he would disappear.” No such luck.
Orme proposes using the tax proceeds to secure a general bond, meaning, a bond that can be spent for whatever council approves, using the proceeds of the tax to pay the debt service (interest and fees on these things can be as high as 50%) . Ory’s motion came as a shock to Orme, cause I think he’s pretty desperate for the full cent – even there, he’s not looking at a lot of money. The costs Constantin has predicted for fixing our roads go into the hundreds of millions. Orme’s projected $18 million/year is going to disappear, as I like to say, faster than spit on a griddle.
So, start writing those emails to council now, the meeting is next Tuesday. I sent the following to the newspaper. One other thing I could tell was really eating both Orme and the newly single Constantin was the biting disapproval they were getting from public comments. Sheesh, think we can make ’em cry?
At the June 9 Chico City Council meeting, city manager Mark Orme introduced a simple majority ballot measure for a permanent one cent sales tax increase.
Orme suggests the city use half the proceeds of the sales tax increase to “incur bonded debt for capital “. Projecting an average return of $18,000,000/year, he says, “the City may safely use almost $9,000,000 for capital debt. ”
This is a risky proposition. For years now council has discussed retail “leakage” – other small towns getting their own retail sector, no longer dependent on Chico. And then there’s the growing trend toward online shopping. I started shopping online when Tom Lando proposed this tax in 2012, and I like it. What if sales tax revenues fall short of Orme’s projections?
Furthermore, sensing a lack of support among the voters, Karl Ory received majority approval for his half cent tax with sunset date. With half as much tax, will there be enough money for roads, public safety, AND bond service? Not to mention $130,000,000 in Unfunded Pension Liablity .
I would prefer to see staff get their house in order, start paying more toward their own generous benefits packages, instead of putting their hand out to the taxpayers. Orme, for example, only pays $24,000 a year toward a pension of over $140,000/year, with COLA. The rest is left to the taxpayers, the average living on less than a quarter of Orme’s salary.
Email your council now, they will take this issue up again June 23.
Juanita Sumner, Chico CA
