City manager Brian Nakamura cancels for tomorrow’s meeting – but there’s plenty on the agenda, come on in anyway

I got a last minute cancellation from Brian Nakamura, saying he will not be able to attend our meeting tomorrow.

But, he says, “Please know that I very much want to speak to your group very soon given our fiscal situation.”

I told him we have regular meetings, and he’s welcome, along with Chico in general, to attend any one. 

I also asked him, “what can the Chico Taxpayers Association do to help you/the city right now? ” 

I will keep you posted if he gives me an answer.

We will have our regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow, as usual, Chico Library, Sherman and First, 9am. Last meeting we decided to talk over the employee contracts, try to come up with a list of things we would like to press for in the next round of negotiations. Stephanie and I have read the contracts, and while I don’t know them by heart, I do remember stupid stuff like, the $300 a month that is put into a “health insurance savings account” for each and every police officer, to pay for expenses not covered by the health insurance policy we buy for them. There’s a lot of weird little perks and benies like that, stuff people in the private sector would not believe. We realize, not many people ever read these contracts – former city council member Jim Walker admitted in the four years he sat in on employee contract negotiations he’d never actually read one of the contracts he’d signed, giving employees written in salary increases and paying all their health and pension premiums. Of course, Walker wasn’t spending his own money, so why would he give a rat’s ass what he’s signing? 

We should also discuss the city’s layoffs and closures – these actions are intended to squeeze us into agreeing to a tax increase of one sort or another. They’re already bringing the ACE ordinance – a fee levied on any business that has anything to do with the sale of alcohol – around the back door. And, you may have heard Mary Goloff question speakers at a recent meeting – would they be willing to pay a sales tax increase? 

Today I was at Wells Fargo Bank, and my teller, trained to make light chatter while transacting my business, brought up the closure of Caper Acres. She surmised that the city closed that popular playground just to “get the conversation going…” I don’t know why, but I got the creepiest feeling off this 20-something mother – she could be convinced that WE all NEED  to pay more sales tax!

People are ignorant, and I mean that in the dictionary sense of the word – from Dictionary.com – “lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact…uninformed; unaware.”

According to glassdoor.com, the average bank teller makes about $11 an hour. At full time, that’s about $22,000/year. And she’s lucky to get any health insurance policy at all, forget pension. Do people like my teller know what they’re making Downtown, just to open the gate at Caper Acres every morning and take the trash bag out of the can? 

We need to get going on an education campaign of some sort, to let people know – IT’S NOT A REVENUE PROBLEM, IT’S A SPENDING PROBLEM. 

I hope to see a happy group around the table tomorrow!