Archive | August, 2013

Brian Nakamura finally moving to push the public out of public meetings

20 Aug

Tonight Brian Nakamura will make drastic changes to the committee meeting schedule, eliminating most meetings, and scheduling any remaining committee meetings to run with council meetings.

I don’t expect a lot of you to understand why this is a bad move because you don’t bother to show up so you don’t know what will be missed if Nakamura eliminates these morning meetings. We all know issues are decided by the time they get to council. We also know how it is to attend and try to speak at a council meeting – wait all night, and then get three minutes and no response to bullshit they spout after you sit down. Or, you can wait til  the end of the meeting to talk while they’re putting on their coats, gathering up their junk, and chattering among themselves.

They want to have the committee meetings quarterly, and one suggestion has them scheduled right before city council meetings. Why? Staff is down there from 8 – 5, talking about stuff we should know about – how would it save money to cut the public out of the meetings?

One councilor I talked to about this tried to act sympathetic, but admitted to me, he thinks they can get more stuff done without the public.  Oh great, that’s what we want! These guys being allowed to swing all kinds of deals behind our back, like:

  • the sale of Downtown parking lots to a high density developer – when they tried to have this conversation in a meeting, Nakamura tried to keep the public from talking about the real reason behind “surplussing parking lots” by claiming it was a Brown Act violation
  • the franchise agreement with the garbage haulers – they finally admitted, they’re not doing this to please the customers, so why do they need the customers in the conversation?
  • alcohol zoning – I also got a councilor to admit to me, this effort is being limited to Downtown, just like I suspected. Downtown bar and restaurant owners should be mad because they’re being singled out for punishment, and establishments across town should be mad because they aren’t getting as much service from Chico PD as Downtown
  • the fund deficits – why are the maintenance districts that homeowners pay into EMPTY? This I found out at a morning meeting last January. The maintenance districts that homeowners pay into for stuff like keeping medians mowed and shrubberies watered and trimmed have been sucked dry – these districts have been funded out of the general fund for over a year now. Where did that money go? Are the homeowners not paying enough, or was that money inappropriately shifted to pay salaries and benefits, like the Gas Tax and so many other funds have been pilfered?

These are all issues I have found out about during those morning meetings, and that’s why Nakamura wants to cut off the committee meetings. He wants the public out, we ask too many questions.

The councilor I talked to also stupidly admitted to being able to yak at staff whenever he feels like it. He asked me if he should have recorded a recent conversation with Debbie Presson.

Well, yes. Debbie Presson is our city clerk, she gets paid about $135,000 a year, and complains that her staff has been cut! She says she doesn’t have enough staff to cover these meetings but I don’t really get that – there’s only one meeting at a time, that’s easy enough to make sure of – there are only three committees, and they meeting only once a month at different times. I’m clueless as to why Ms. Presson is allowed to enjoy 10 minutes of casual shit-shooting with a council member, or anybody, but can’t just sashay downstairs to a meeting and take the notes herself. The meetings have been recorded in past, I really don’t understand how NOT recording meetings saves money, but  that’s the kind of doublespeak we get from Nakamura, and Presson as well.

Presson should have to account for her time, who she talks to, and what they discuss in some kind of log, available for review by the public. She should also have to sit at a public desk, where I can sit there and listen to her conversations from the visitor’s area if I feel like it. E-mails going in and out of that office should be available on the city website for viewing by the public.

This councilor I talked to says he is all for sunshine, “moreso than most”. I’m sorry, but if he votes for this move, he’s not for sunshine, he’s for cutting the public out.

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California is the fattest little piggy in the land, but Momma sow is about to make a run for it!

17 Aug

Thanks to CTA co-founder Casey Aplanalp, who sent me an article from Reason.org – “Taxpayers, Pensioners Riding a Wave of Bankruptcies in Detroit and California,” by Adam Summers.

Here’s the link: http://reason.org/news/show/wave-of-city-bankruptcies-pensions

Summers observes, “One might say that California has been the ‘leader’ in municipal bankruptcies. Other than Detroit and Jefferson County, Alabama, which is looking to shave $1.2 billion off its $4.2 billion debt and emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year, the largest municipal bankruptcies have been in California,” Hearkening back to the $2 billion Orange County bankruptcy of 1994, he lists a string of California cities that have since declared or are in pending bankruptcy.  

And then, “While not all municipal bankruptcies and financial emergencies are due to overly generous pension promises that can no longer be kept, pensions remain a common theme among many of the bankruptcies. A Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research report noted that between 1999 and 2010, pension spending grew an average of 11.4 percent a year in California’s largest cities and counties – more than any other spending category and more than twice as much as spending on education, public safety, welfare, health and recreation.”

One example of a California city that is in deficit not due to pensions is Mammoth Lakes. Mammoth Lakes is a resort town, with a spendy ski resort that caters to the LA crowd. They got into trouble when, after several dry winters with low tourism rates, they got hit with a lawsuit from a developer. Over the development of their airport. Wow, sounds familiar,

But  in Chico, it’s the pensions and benefits in general – look at the budget. There’s a chart that shows how $taff and council bargained those contracts – with the public shoved completely out –  with council agreeing to pay more and more of the “employee share”, until most employees pay 4 percent to nothing for 70 – 90 percent of their salaries, available at age 50.  I don’t know how any intelligent person would think that’s sustainable, I can’t believe the kicking and screaming that’s come out of trying to get these leaches to let go and stand up like human beings to their own responsibilities. 

Governor Brown and the California legislature passed some pretty pissant  “pension reform,” requiring NEW HIRES to pay 50 percent of their pension premium. I would have thrown that deal right back in their limousines if I’d had the chance, what a joke.  First of all, “new hires” means, they’ve never worked for any public entity in any city, county or state. Almost every retirement system in the US has a deal with CalPERS – once you’re in the system, you can go anywhere, and your package is protected, you get the same deal everywhere.  Second, 50 percent is not enough. The whole deal needs to change. Instead of the taxpayers paying most or all and the employees contributing whatever they feel like, it needs to be exactly the opposite – employees pay their own way, and taxpayers contribute for long term loyal service as a bonus to hardworking employees.

Summers seems to agree. He says we not only need to increase the part employee’s pay, and make them pay it, but, “the experience of California shows that it will not be enough. It is simply too easy under existing defined-benefit pension plans to fudge the numbers and pass along unaffordable costs to taxpayers that will not be known for many years. Switching to 401(k)-style retirement plans, as the private sector has done for several decades, would make government pension contributions much more transparent and stable.”

And not just new hires, but current employees. New rules for only certain new hires “would only stop the bleeding, as it would still take years to accumulate significant savings. If state and local governments are to really achieve savings quickly, they must broach the “third rail” of pension politics: decreasing the unaccrued future pension benefits of current employees.” 

Here in Chico, we have a $48 million “unfunded pension liability”.  I believe the employees should pay most of that, especially given their salaries, drastically in excess of the average family’s means. I’m not making a moral statement here, I’m talking Common Sense. I’m tired of hysteria. I’m tired of the guilt trip I’ve been getting lately about people’s feelings. I’m tired of the bullshit  that has passed for a conversation on this issue, and I’m ready to take it to another level.

 

 

 

Latest from Hemet – cash strapped disaster area now shaking down landlords

16 Aug

Landlords wishing to rent out their properties in Hemet will now be required to register with the city.

The City Council voted 4-1 in favor of the registry program Tuesday, Aug. 13. Shellie Milne, who cast the no vote, said she is in favor of the ordinance, but not the idea that property owners will have to pay for both a business license and to register for the program.

“I certainly don’t want to punish the many, many, many good landlords we have,” Milne said.

The ordinance seeks to address substandard housing, maintenance and living conditions at rental properties that affect residents and neighborhoods, and lower property values, according to a report from Community Development Director Deanna Elliano.

It would hold absentee or poor landlords accountable for their properties and tenants, she added.

The idea came out of the Restoring Our Community Strategy citizens’ advisory committee, the 15th ordinance borne from ROCS, which was started to improve the quality of life in Hemet.

“This is what ROCS is about,” committee member Frank Gorman said.

The ordinance is aimed primarily at apartment complexes and single-family homes or duplexes not occupied by the owner. Most senior mobile home parks are not part of the program.

“It’s a shift from a reactive to proactive code-enforcement program,” Elliano said.

Under the ordinance, a property owner seeking to rent out a residence must first complete a registration form and pay registration and inspection fees.

Properties would be inspected each year to identify substandard or unsafe conditions or lack of maintenance.

In addition, property owners or their managers must complete a Crime-Free Housing seminar.

Registration must be renewed annually unless the property has a “Good Landlord” designation, which allows for renewal every three years. That designation would go to properties that are in compliance with city codes and that do not produce a lot of police activity.

“Ideally we’d like to have all the properties in the ‘Good Landlord’ standing,” Elliano said.

The fee will be set at a future council meeting. Elliano said other cities average about $88 for similar programs.

That money would cover the costs of getting the property’s information and for inspections. Additional fees would be charged if inspectors have to return to a property.

The fees are not intended to make a profit, but cover the costs of the program, Elliano said.

Owners of rental properties are supposed to pay $40, plus $1 per unit, for a license to operate in the city. But many don’t Elliano said, and finding those properties, especially single-family homes, could prove difficult.

Elliano said the city could compare names on water bills to tax rolls and also rely on business licenses and title companies.

Refusal to register a property could result in an administrative citation, and continued non-registration could lead to the landlord not being authorized to rent the unit, Elliano said.

The city could potentially place a lien on a property if the owner does not maintain it or correct the sub-standard housing conditions, and the city has to fix the nuisance. Properties that continue to have a history of code violations that go uncorrected could be subject to court action.

The registry will be phased in, with apartment complexes expected to comply by Dec. 31 and single-family homes and duplexes by July 1.

Follow Craig Shultz on Twitter @PE_CraigShultz and online at blog.pe.com/author/cshultz

Facing the enemy

16 Aug

I’ve tried to get up earlier lately – 4:30 – 5 am, the stars are just outrageous. Orion rises from the East, in all his glory, ready for the Autumn hunt. It’s Dog Days folks – that time of year when dogs and old ladies go crazy.

Speaking of things that drive you crazy, yesterday I was invited to have breakfast with some folks who wanted to know more about the unfunded pension liability that currently hangs over our heads like the sword of Damocles.  Here, we think we live in a nice little town, but our city $taff is constantly pointing to perils and mishaps that might befall us if we don’t wise up and shake down some more tax monies. 

To make a long story short, I was invited by one man who already seemed to get it, to speak to a group that largely wasn’t going to get it.  Maybe not ever.  

I sat through their meeting, during which various members gave thoughts on the 20-something city employee pensions over $100,000. Many of them admitted they were public employees themselves. Most of them admitted, right off the bat – they knew members of the 21, played golf with them, did business with them – “some of these people are our clients…”  

Others opined that it’s not the employees’ fault that they were tempted by Satan and gave in.  Where’s Aunt Esther when you need her? People have lost their sense of shame, maybe it needs to follow them around in the form of a mean old lady with a handbag. 

One gentleman summed it up – “just because I didn’t opt for a public sector job doesn’t mean I am going to sit around and whine about the salaries…”  For a minute I thought, “I’ve wasted my time down here…”

But a few, including the fellow who invited me, seemed to be genuinely concerned about the course our city is taking. One man actually used the word, “unsustainable.” 

And, I realized, I have spent the last year and a half preaching to my little choir at the library, people who have already pledged their dedication to watch dogging the city and wrestling with our spending problem.  Facing a hostile audience is far more productive. Frankly, I hope I got up some asses yesterday. Maybe I should have been a proctologist! That’s where I do my best work! 

Speaking of hostile audience, get a load of this exchange I had with David Little over my letter run this morning. For one thing, I had to resend – I noticed, I’d sent my letter before John Salyer sent his letter, but my letter had not run. This happens about 30 percent of the time, especially when Little is away from the desk for whatever reason. But when I saw it this morning, I saw that for no reason they had edited my letter. Read on.

On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 1:48 PM, juanita sumner  wrote:

Hi,

 
I haven’t seen this letter run, and I know John Salyer sent his letter after mine, so I’m wondering if mine was lost in transit, and I’m resending. Sorry for any inconvenience – JS
From: juanita sumner
Subject: letter to editor
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 15:14:05 -0700

What was ex-mayor Dan Herbert thinking when he approved the “memo of understanding” that linked city salaries to “increases in revenues but not decreases”?   That MOU resulted in raises as high as 22 percent.  

 

That deal was outed to the public by journalist Richard Ek. Maybe Herbert thinks Ek was “throwing stones” (Letters, 8/11/13), but Ek’s scrutiny led to the end of that provision in the public contracts. Unfortunately, management was quick to replace it with another provision that the taxpayers pay most or all of city employee’s benefits and pension premiums. With the salaries already inflated, the resulting benefits and pensions packages have just about broken our collective back. 

 

Can Dan Herbert explain how the pay raises that new city manager Brian Nakamura immediately secured for himself and other department heads, over $500,000 in “supplemental budget appropriations,” will solve our fiscal crisis? I am focusing on the budget, even though city management continues to throw up distractions like the closure of our public park and threats to roads and public safety unless we taxpayers are willing to put up more money – now a garbage tax? 

 

The city already enjoys a $43,000,000 budget, despite the slight of hand called “reorganization.” Too many city employees still enjoy salaries three, four, five times the median income, paying little or nothing toward obscenely generous benefits packages. 

 

Questioning the actions of elected officials and staff is every citizen’s right and responsibility.  

 

Juanita Sumner, Chico Ca

Little answered:

From: dlittle@chicoer.com
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 19:54:04 -0700
Subject: Re: FW: letter to editor
To: juanita sumner

I’m away on business, but I know we received. Thanks for your patience. It will run.

David Little
Editor, Chico Enterprise-Record/Oroville Mercury-Register
DFM NorCal cluster editor
400 E. Park Ave., Chico, CA 95927
Telephone: 530-896-7793
Twitter: @ER_DavidLittle
I wrote back
On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 5:28 AM, juanita sumner  wrote:

I see it this morning – I’ll tell you what’s weird – it’s been edited. Why? 

 
I put the date of Herbert’s letter, somebody inserted “to quote Herbert’s letter” – ? 
 
This is going to sound silly, but I don’t like my letters edited unless there’s a good reason. A little mix-up in wording can change the meaning of a sentence, or make a letter sound  confusing and stupid. If there’s a problem with a letter, please send it back.   I don’t think it’s appropriate to edit a letter to the editor.
 
Sorry to be a nuisance, but that never happened before, so I thought I’d better say something  – Juanita

Watch the change in tone

From: dlittle@chicoer.com
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 06:08:37 -0700
Subject: Re: letter to editor
To: juanita sumner

We edit all letters for clarity and content. If you look in the “letters policy” in the newspaper every day, it says words to that effect.

So I just had to ask

What does that have to do with the edit to my letter? My letter was clear and the content was correct. And within the word limit – whoever edited actually added words. 

 
 The problem being, people don’t know where to look for Herbert’s letter now, but I guess they can figure it out.  I spend a lot of my personal time on these letters, just to have some jackamoe edit my thoughts? 
 
This will go on my blog, so people know what to expect when they send in a letter – thanks, Juanita
UPDATE: here’s the response I got from Little – Big Brother Speaks!
From: dlittle@chicoer.com
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 08:03:48 -0700
Subject: Re: letter to editor
To: juanita sumnerSomebody here who’s a copy editor thought your letter was clearer the way it ran. When you meet the writer who doesn’t need editing, please introduce me. I haven’t met such a writer yet. Everyone (even editors) need editors.

This man thinks he knows better than the letter writers what their letters should say? 

But when a guy sent in a letter saying I’d had Chico PD called to my house, Little wouldn’t retract it, or even call the police to check into it. I had to call the man myself, he admitted he’d made the story up, and wrote a retraction the next day.  I guess I was lucky Little bothered to print the  retraction. 

Somebody needs to start a newspaper in this town. Don’t look at me, I ain’t no Daddy Big Bucks. 

UPDATE UPDATE: I’d like to respond once more to Little, and tell him, his paper needs PROOF readers – another stupid mistake in Laura Urseny’s CARD board meeting story – she spells Ed Seagle’s name “Segale”. This kind of stupid error, which could be caught with a quick read through,  abounds in the ER, I just never say anything.   It does bother me – a newspaper that is more concerned about spinning the news than spelling it right?

What’s the REAL story on trash zones? First Nakamura says it’s to get trucks off the streets, then admits city needs revenues. County manager says the DUMP needs the revenues. Solution? Pick the tax/ratepayers clean!

12 Aug

Brian Nakamura is a classic bullshitter. When he wants something, he tries to get it by telling the public what he thinks they want to hear, and when that doesn’t work, he tweaks the story around to please the audience.

When he first broached the garbage issue, Nakamura cited the Climate Action Plan, and claimed he’d had complaints from citizens about too many garbage trucks trolling around our streets. “One of the things we hear all the time from our citizens is, ‘Why do we have so many trucks running all over our streets and what are the impacts?'” I asked him right away for the e-mails or names of folks who’d contacted the city – how about even just a solid number of complaints? That’s all  public information – but he never even answered me.  I quickly realized, there weren’t any complaints, that’s just something he made up as an excuse. I’ll call him a liar right here and now, and if he doesn’t like it, we can settle it down at The Plaza. Winner pays the use fee for the Plaza!

The county was already discussing franchise zones for garbage companies anyway. It had nothing to do with getting excess trucks off the streets, or repairing the damage these oversize trucks are doing to our streets and roads, or even making them clean up the spray of trash they leave along the roads leading to the dump. At least county CAO Paul Hahn was honest – he revealed that the dump is starving because the haulers are looking for cheaper tipping fees in Yuba City. He said the franchise agreement would guarantee haulers would use Neal Road Landfill, and the haulers would get a promise of no further competition! How nice for the county and the haulers. Of course there’s a franchise fee involved, and this will be passed along to the ratepayers. In other words, the county charges too much for tipping fees compared to surrounding dumps, isn’t able to support itself, and needs the government to regulate a solution forcing us to pay more. Problem solved!

Read the articles below. Back in May, Nakamura was chumming his “too many trucks” story.  But as of this last meeting, he’s changed his story – they want the franchise fees to fix the streets! Oh BULLSHIT Brian!

The city is supposed to use the gas tax receipts to fix the streets. As of Jennifer Hennessy’s last report before she left, gas prices and gas taxes continued to go up up up. But, she reported, the entire gas tax had been used to pay salaries!   And that’s exactly what will be done with any new revenues they get. The city of Chico is like a lot of people I’ve known – more money just gets them deeper into the hole. 

I’m going to call this “franchise fee” what it really is – GARBAGE TAX.

===================================================================================================================================================================================================

Righting the ship

Council adopts new budget policies
By 
tomg@newsreview.com

This article was published on 08.08.13.

Nancy Henry (left) and Mary Kennedy bring their Tea Party messages to City Hall.

PHOTO BY TOM GASCOYNE
Related stories:
Budget blues
City staff explains the workings of the budget in the face of proposed sweeping cuts. CN&R, 06.13.13.

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After hearing an invocation delivered by an insurance salesman, a tribute to a local auto body shop, and the mayor’s emotional resignation (see “Musical chairs,” page 10), the Chico City Council unanimously adopted three budget policies Tuesday (Aug. 6) that will alter the city’s process of making decisions regarding revenue and spending.

In front of a packed house that included a couple dozen city employees wearing red T-shirts and harboring concerns about job stability and union contracts, the council voted to approve budget policies for the 2013-14 fiscal year, hire a consultant to look into generating temporary cash flow—called a tax revenue anticipation note—to help cover city costs between November and next April, and hire two police officers and retain two community-service officers who were slated for layoffs.

The new team of managers—Administrative Services Director Chris Constantin, City Manager Brian Nakamura and Assistant City Manager Mark Orme—has dramatically changed the structure of city government, reducing departments from 11 to five, laying off employees, and telling the council the city is broke after years of spending money like the proverbial drunken sailor.

The dramatic alterations have drawn the ire of both city employees and the general public, suspicious of their true motives and devotion to Chico, and their concerns were voiced throughout the meeting.

The first budget-related item of the evening was actually adopted during consideration of the consent agenda—those items, as the council agenda states, “considered routine and [usually] enacted by one motion.” In this case, the council pulled, considered and approved a motion to hire a consultant to look into creating a franchise agreement with the city’s two waste haulers—Waste Management Inc. and Recology.

Currently, the city of Chico has what is called a “fee agreement,” which generates $160,000 annually in revenue for the city. A franchise agreement could increase that revenue to as much as $1.5 million or more, said Nakamura. It would also set up specific routes for the two companies to lessen the number of repeat trips the heavy garbage trucks travel on the city’s streets.

“Most cities do have franchise agreements with their haulers, and it is more and more common,” Nakamura said.

But some members of the public questioned the move, noting Nakamura had dealt with the same consultant—R3 Consulting Group Inc.—when he was working for the city of Hemet.

“Consultants are hired to tell us what we want to hear,” said Mark Herrera, a member of the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission. “Why bother when our city manager has already gone through this?” Audience member Randy Coy added that, while the franchise will be a source of revenue for the city, waste-hauling rates will increase.

Nakamura explained that a franchise agreement is needed as a potential source of revenue for a city that may not be able to meet payroll in December.

Local activist Jessica Allen questioned the need for the franchise agreement as well.

“People in Hemet are very unhappy,” she said. “Why would we follow the same path?”

The council then voted unanimously to contract with R3 for $14,500 to explore the possible franchise.

Constantin then advised the council that the city has $3 million less in “spendable” cash than last year, and that the Chico Police Department payroll is 2 percent over where it should be at this time. Meanwhile, the Fire Department payroll is 11 percent over what it should be, in spite of some savings from the reduction of staff at Fire Station 3 at the Chico Municipal Airport.

The two new police officers, who will attend six months of training before hitting the streets, will be paid for in part by cutting 270 hours in current overtime pay, a hit Police Chief Kirk Trostle accepted as part of the city’s economic reality.

“We’ll work with what we get,” he said.

Constantin told the council that budget changes made in June hold staff more accountable to the council and the public. “This puts you in the driver’s seat as far as where spending actually goes,” he said. “This isn’t the last time we’ll see policy changes. This is an ongoing project.”

Progress continues in pursuit of waste franchise agreements for city of Chico, Butte County

By ASHLEY GEBB-Staff Writer Chico Enterprise Record
Posted:   05/03/2013 12:04:09 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

A Waste Management truck unloads trash at the Neal Road landfill on March 30, 2011.(Jason…

CHICO — The city of Chico and Butte County are both inching closer to forming waste franchise agreements to regulate regional waste haulers.During a Local Government Committee meeting Wednesday, county and city officials discussed their progress and potential timelines for moving forward. While the county wants to consider a contract by late summer, the city of Chico hopes to have something in place in the next few years.

“There’s still a lot of unanswered questions,” said Linda Herman of the city’s General Services Department, as she noted things are moving forward more so now than ever.

While franchise agreements have been discussed in all of Herman’s 15 years with the city, it was during the most recent permit renewal in 2011 that the discussion intensified and it’s been building ever since.

The county and city are working with the same consultant, which has identified zone options and exclusive operational agreements. Both residential and commercial hauling are considerations.

In a zone option, hauling companies would be given specific areas in which they could operate and residents would no longer have a choice in service providers. Another option is an exclusive agreement in which one hauler would have rights to an entire area.

The driving force behind the desire to find an alternative method is to reduce truck volume, both from an infrastructure and environmental perspective as dictated by the Climate Action Plan.

“One of the things we hear all the time from our citizens is, ‘Why do we have so many trucks running all over our streets and what are the impacts?'” Chico City Manager Brian Nakamura said Wednesday.Waste haulers are supportive of a change because they recognize increased efficiency with zones or exclusive agreements, Herman said. Other benefits include guaranteed revenue and longer-term security.

For citizens, franchise agreements can offer increased services, regulated rates, less congestion and consistency, she said.

No changes will be coming to the city until after a lengthy public process with public input, a bid process and contractual agreements, Herman said. Any number of options are available, including sticking with the current permit system.

Two waste haulers — Recology and Waste Management — currently operate in the city of Chico through permits, which are approved every five years. The existing permits will expire in June 2016, and the goal is to have a change in place by then, Herman said.

Butte County is farther along in the process and looking more toward zoning, said Chief Administrative Officer Paul Hahn. The county has been broken down into equal areas so no haulers lose clients, and negotiations are underway regarding customer service standards and other operational points.

“It’s not just conceptual,” he said. “We have approved ideas and approved zones.”

The hope is to bring the actual contract to the Board of Supervisors by late summer, he said.

“The county’s main goal in this is to make sure the haulers bring their trash to the Neal Road landfill,” Hahn said. “We want that measurable solid waste for a variety of reasons.”

Not only does the landfill need a certain amount of waste to be fiscally sound, but it also allows it to pursue more waste-to-energy opportunities, he said.

What the county would like to see is for the city’s haulers to agree to bring their waste to the landfill.

A difference of opinion

9 Aug

Earlier this month, the News and Review ran the following Letter to the Editor from Linda Hathorn:

‘City manager sing-a-long

(Sung to the tune of “That’s Amore”)

When the moon hits your eye

Like a big piece of pie …

Nak-a-mura

When your city’s in the red

And you can’t get ahead …

Nak-a-mura

When the parks all get closed

If they’ll open no one knows …

Nak-a-mura

When you’re taxed to the max

And the workers get the ax …

Nak-a-mura

When the assets all get sold

And Chico’s out of gold …

Nak-a-mura

When the jobs all get cut

You’ll find one that is not …

Nak-a-mura

Please feel free to add a verse

It won’t even hurt your purse…

That’s amore

Linda Hathorn
Chico

 

To which Stephanie Taber responded:

Ditty wasn’t amusing

Re “City manager sing-along” (Letters, by Linda Hathorn, Aug. 1):

How insensitive and cruel. The ditty shows the ignorance and lack of information demonstrated by a member of the general public.

Brian Nakamura was hired to bring the city of Chico back from the brink of insolvency. How many City Council meetings, Finance Committee meetings, and Economic Development Committee meetings did she attend over the last six years? How did she arrive at her nasty little ditty—have help from the likes of Bob Mulholland or perhaps Ann Schwab or perhaps former City Manager David Burkland, or our tell-the-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth former finance director, Jennifer Hennessy?

What’s being done must be done if the city is to survive the financial devastation that has been brought upon us by the current and former liberal councils. If you have better solutions, pay attention, attend meetings and speak up.

Stephanie L. Taber
Chico

I know nothing about Linda Hathorn other than she’s an employee of CUSD.  For all I know she’s part of Ann Schwab and Dave Guzzetti’s smear campaign on Nakamura. Unfortunately, this smear campaign seems to have some merit – I’ve found the same stories when I’ve searched Nakamura’s past.  He’s a carpet bagger, that’s for certain, and he’s left a steaming pile of doo-doo wherever he’s gone.

I bet a lot of people don’t realize how many issues Stephanie Taber and I do not agree on. This for example. I find this a very amusing little ditty. I could have written it myself, and I may write a few more verses. 

Stephanie has a lot of faith in Brian Nakamura, I don’t. I’ve read up on what he did in Oregon City and other towns. Get a load of this article from 2004 – can of worms, read it all.

http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_ed5fb0ba-75a7-5b19-ba63-518549aacceb.html

First of all, as of 2004, all the Nak wanted to do was get back to his hometown of Lodi! Just dreamed of it! What the hell is he doing here?

Second of all, he’s accused of a $600,000+ deal that benefited his friends – wow, that seems to be a pattern with this guy. We really should check out this consultant he hired to gloss over the garbage franchise scam he’s trying to pull. A deal like that puts a man in a position to take a bribe, and we wouldn’t want that to happen to The Nak!

In Hemet, a lot of people blame their current crime problems on the slash job Nakamura did on their police department. Instead of bringing in new hires at lower salaries, he just cut, cut, cut, raised administrative salaries like he did here, and left. 

Another pattern in Nakamura’s behavior, is when he gets accused of something, he runs. When he was accused of something in that $600,000 consulting deal, he left. When Hemet found out he was trolling around for jobs in other cities (including Chico) behind their back, HE DENIED IT! That’s lying. I just can’t abide with a liar. 

So, while I admire her drive in digging into public affairs, I don’t let Stephanie Taber pick my friends. We can work together without agreeing on everything. 

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Proposed liquor restrictions – a case of force over reason

6 Aug

As usual, the authorities gravitate towards the force of law, rather than reason, to solve a problem. It always exacerbates the problem rather than quell it.

Consider the proposed alcohol restrictions, such as closing downtown establishments early and denying new establishments a license to serve alcohol. Not only does it hurt business, it totally dodges the actual problem: heavy drinking by young adults mixed with violence. If people can’t go out to restaurants and bars (where there is security) then there will be more house parties and underground raves. If police want to control the abuses of alcohol and make sure the scene is safe, I’d think they’d want to steer the party scene to all the downtown establishments where they know what and where everything’s going on. But it seems they want the opposite. Maybe they’re itching to put on the riot gear and roll a tank.

And the question of liquor licenses for retail markets? If you close one drinking fountain but leave the other on, it makes the line twice as long. Please, council, use reason.

Casey Aplanalp, 

(Thanks Casey!))

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“Super Troopers” starring Chico Police Chief Kirk Trostle

5 Aug

I attended the first Internal Affairs discussion a couple of weeks ago regarding Kirk Trostle’s request to fabricate a city licensing procedure for bars and restaurants, based on land use regulation, or “zoning.”   This is one of those conversations where almost nobody is saying what they really mean.

As I reported earlier, various people in the discussion have different motivations. The bar owners are all pretty afraid to express themselves. They seemed to be mouthing a line for the city’s satisfaction – don’t bite the hand, and all that.  The committee members, Sean Morgan, Ann Schwab and Tammi Ritter, were all in their separate corners on this, with Schwab doing her best Annie Bidwell impersonation, Ritter seeming to be dragging her feet against over-regulation, and Morgan acting like the moderator of this debate, trying to make sure everybody gets in on the conversation, even if the conversation goes on in perpetuity.

Chico Police Chief Kirk Trostle started this conversation, originally wanting an ordinance to go before the public, requiring bars, restaurants, and “any business having to do with liquor”, to pay a fee, based on square footage of the establishment, that would go to the police department.  When Lori Barker  popped his ACE ordinance balloon, telling him it would be an illegal tax on alcohol, Scott Gruendl came to the rescue with an order that staff come up with some kind of zoning regulation that could be applied with no input from the public. 

Yes, this would also generate fees – Mark Wolfe from the planning department said such an ordinance would add “$5,000 – $6,000” to the licensing procedure for each business. I asked where that money would go, but nobody answered. I noticed, Kirk Trostle stiffened up and his face turned red. I didn’t make any friends at the cop shop that day. 

Mark Wolfe also reported that when council ordered him to come up with some kind of marijuana ordinance, he kept track of his time and that of his limited staff. He said they used at least $30,000 worth of staff time on that sinker. I asked him to repeat that figure. Ann Schwab later made fun of me, saying, essentially, that $30,000 is nothing. I hate to tell her, but most of the families in this town live on very little more than $30,000, and many live on less. She makes $80,000+ in a fluff position at the college, a salary that is stapled onto your college kid’s butt. Then she has the nerve to take a salary of around $7,000 from the city of Chico, plus a $21,000 insurance package.  

Ann, you need to step down, you are completely out of touch. Or, at least, please stop wearing shorts to meetings with open front tables. Don’t make me take a picture of what those ham hocks of yours look like under that table. 

But, I digress. 

I told the council I thought they were simply duplicating the duties of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. This really got Trostle’s back up, sheesh he was pissed off. He said, the ABC “has staffing levels from the 1950’s,” claiming they have only two agents for sixteen counties. I’m sure that’s what he said, I wrote it in my notebook right then and there. 

I sensed a case of “Super Troopers.” “Super Troopers” is a very off-color and tasteless comedy movie about a medium sized New England town in which the local police compete with the state highway cops for revenues. Yes, there’s sex, drugs, and inappropriate stuff all the way through, I do not recommend this movie to stodgy buttheads with no sense of humor (“who’s up for mustache rides!”).  But the plot line is still good: the police lie, cheat and steal to get rid of the state troopers all together so they can get their hands on all the law enforcement budget. 

So, I wrote to the ABC office in Redding, where Trostle claimed there’s only two guys sitting around a phone. I just told the guy what I’d heard at the meeting, and he came back with this:

Dear Ms. Sumner,

I apologize for the delay in returning your email.  The Redding District Office covers nine counties (Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Shasta, Lassen, Siskiyou, Trinity, Plumas, and Modoc).  The Redding Office staffing levels in July of 2013 were 3 Agents, 1 Licensing Representative, and 2 front office staff.  The Redding District Office is a satellite Office of the Sacramento District Office.  In July of 2013 the Redding District Office was overseen by a Supervising Agent from the Sacramento District Office.  That Supervising Agent was overseen by a Supervising Agent in Charge who was based out of the Sacramento District Office.  Additionally, ABC has two Special Operation Units, one for Northern California and one for Southern California.  These units are available to assist District Offices with enforcement efforts, whether problematic locations, special events, or assisting district offices with handling complaints of ABC licensed locations. 

 If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

 Paul 

530-224-4830  

I thought about forwarding this to the council, Trostle, etc, asking for some explanation. What do you think? I think it’s “Super Troopers.” 

 

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Did you know – firefighters are pigs too? Ever try to pull a shoat off a teat? Good luck. Might have to get rid of the sow too.

2 Aug

I went to the Airport Commission meeting the other night, but I been so busy since then I have not had a chance to sit down and post about it. As usual, I went to the meeting for one thing and ended up learning all about stuff I thought I didn’t care about.

I’m like a dog sometimes, when I am after something, I don’t always notice other stuff. I wanted to hear about the airport budget, the other agenda items didn’t interest me. I thought the first item – the closing of the airport fire station, #3, had already been hashed out, beaten to death, stuck a fork in and turned over twice. I forgot – the Airport Commission didn’t even get asked for their two cents during that entire conversation. Boy, hell hath no fury like a bunch of old guys who get passed over on an important decision.

It sure doesn’t seem like anybody puts any importance on this commission. They only have quarterly meetings. The council meeting at which this whole thing was set in motion was back in June, when council told all the department heads, including the fire department, that they needed to take 10 percent off the top of their budgets. The Airport Commission met in April, and wasn’t even noticed, apparently, for the council meeting in June.  It was left to the department heads to decide what to cut, snip snip. There really is no “Airport Department.” Chief Beery brought the airport into the fracas when he made a tactical decision to tie it to the railroad  tracks by closing Station 3, loudly insinuating that we would lose commercial air service because of the closure. Later, under intense criticism,  he reneged on that threat, suddenly remembering that the Federal Air Administration would be satisfied with one guy and a utility truck.

From the reaction the commission had last night, they don’t even read the newspaper. In fact, one commissioner complained loudly that “you can’t believe what you read in the newspaper.” Well, at least you could read it, and then check it out for yourself. These guys all spoke as though they’d been out of town the last few months.  Commissioners Gosling and Sanger just kept going on about how upset they were to be passed over, BT Chapman complained aloud that there is no real airport manager.  They all agreed they should write a letter to council about their feelings – well, look out for the Airport Commission, these guys are a pack of pistols! They be bad!

$taffer Debbie Collins and Ass City Mangler Mark Orme informed them that the decision had been made, they were just being “kept in the loop.” Orme and Chief Keith Carter, sent as a substitute pinata for Chief Beery, kept telling the commission it was a budgetary decision, as if that was supposed to be comforting in some way. 

Carter informed us that this decision did not even meet the 10 percent cut asked for by city management. When Commissioner Sanger asked him, childlike – “what if the city orders you to keep Station 3 open?” Without a pause, Carter replied, “We’d close Station 5.” “Where’s that?” responded Sanger. I wanted to throw my notebook at the old fart. Get the hell out of the kitchen Old Man!

Sorry to be rude. People think it’s such a lofty ideal to serve on one of these commissions, that they expect to be served like royalty at a table. These old gasbags just sit and wait for Debbie Collins to send them stuff – they don’t even attend meetings, read agendas?  This commission just serves as a badge of mismanagement at the airport. 

The commission spent an hour flapping it’s wings over this, even though Collins and airport facilities manager Kim Parks reassured them repeatedly that the station would remain open with one staffer and a utility truck and that is all the FAA requires for commercial flights. The commission just wouldn’t be satisfied.   At one point they demanded to see the e-mail correspondence between Collins and the FAA.  I frankly don’t blame them – Collins handles them like a bunch of escapees from a rest home. She was bitchy with me when I asked her about complaints about Northgate Aviation – said she has had plenty but wouldn’t show them  to me or tell me how many, of what nature, from who.  This woman is effectively our airport manager, the head of the stinking fish.  Nakamura didn’t even show up, sending Orme in his place. 

Laura Urseny’s story this morning reports that the firefighters’ union had something to do with keeping the station open at all , as if they are responsible for saving the station!  No, they made the decision to cut Station 3, from three firefighters and two trucks to one guy with a truck.   Now, from what Collins told us the other night, it will really mean no difference in service. None of the three that were there had medical training. They have special training in putting out airplane crash fires, but would still have to call for help from surrounding stations. So, nothing’s really changed – they still have a guy out there who can call for help, and that’s about all they would have done before anyway.  But the union was trying to play us, having Beery announce that this would threaten commercial air service. I will not forget what happened last year when council asked the fire department to cut their budget and Beery immediately closed Station 5  – union president Ken Campbell went door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhoods, lying to the neighbors and telling them to write to council. Bob Evans called Campbell on the carpet at the next council meeting, and Campbell admitted to telling people that council had ordered the station closed when it had been Beery’s decision. 

What got left out of this whole conversation is the pensions. We pay about $10 million a year in pension payments for our employees, over half goes for the cops, and almost that amount goes for fire. Paying their own pensions out of their outrageous salaries would solve the problem without closing any station or cutting any positions. But our fire department are greedy little shoats, who won’t let go of the teat.

I had gone to that meeting to hear about the airport budget, but  this ridiculous little howl took the entire first hour of the meeting. I don’t know if Orme was ever able to give the report, I had to leave to go to my kid’s hockey game.  But I got it from him the next day and will share that later. 

 

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Hit me, beat me, make me read the employee contracts.

1 Aug

We have our regular Sunday meeting coming up this weekend, and I’m trying to get some stuff together for a good conversation about the employee contracts. The contracts are all up in December, so we need to start talking about them now. Council will be discussing the following contracts at next Tuesday’s meeting:

2.3.

CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATOR (Gov. Code Sec. 54957.6.) Negotiator:  Brian Nakamura, City Manager Employee Organizations:  Management Employees, Confidentials, Public Safety Management Employees, Chico Police Officers’ Association, Chico Public Safety Association, International Association of Firefighters, Service Employees International Union (Trades and Crafts Unit), Chico Employee Association, WPEA/Local 39

They should be posting information for us as the talks continue, but I’ll bet we’ll have to bitch for it.  The current contracts are available on the city website, on the Human Resources and Risk page, under “Labor Contracts”, here’s the link:

http://www.chico.ca.us/human_resources_and_risk_management/labor_agreements_home.asp

I’ll tell you right off the top – they’re HORRIBLE to read. No lie, they really suck. “Whereas City and CPOA have memorialized their agreement regarding matters within the scope of their representation…” 60 pages, the first 10 of which include title pages, table of contents, and definitions. Then stuff like The CPOA Time Bank – “The CPOA Time Bank is established for use by CPOA employees for the sole purpose of performing or conducting CPOA business without loss of pay…” Wait a minute – what? 

Here’s what’s worse from my standpoint – $taff loads documents in such a way that I cannot cut and paste.  Instead of giving a link and hoping people wade through all that SHIT, I want to take out bits and snatches of interest to discuss here and at our meeting Sunday, but that means, I have to open both screens and go back and forth and type it. That just makes me so mad – my time is worth something, and I just get so frustrated sitting at the computer doing stupid stuff like that. But, I can’t think of any other way to get people to pay attention than to put the outrageous words right in front of their  faces.

I’ve always wrestled with the concept of  “CTO” and “STO”. CTO is “Compensatory Time Off in Lieu of Overtime Payment“, STO is “Selective Time Off in Lieu of Overtime Payment“.  This is an exercise in accounting.  “CTO shall be accrued at a rate of one and a half hours for every hour of overtime worked.” So, they can choose to take an hour and a half of time off for every hour of overtime worked.  Sounds fair, and good for the city, right? But something sounds weird about “Payment for unused CTO …Employees may request payment for a maximum of forty (40) hours of unused CTO…The maximum amount of CTO that may be accrued and utilized at any time shall be limited to 200 hours. Employees may choose to leave CTO in place into the following calendar year. Payment for such hours will be made at the Regular Pay in effect at the time.”  

Then, “Selective Time Off” – Employees who work overtime “may accrue Selective Time Off in lieu of overtime or CTO…STO will be accrued at the rate of two hours for every hour of overtime worked.”  When an employee doesn’t use that STO? They can have it converted to CTO and get paid for it. But here’s what’s changed – they used to get paid for TWO HOURS when they’d only worked one. Even though they were paid at the regular rate instead of overtime, they still ended up with an extra half hour of pay. That sounds petty, but it really adds up. Now the formula says, “Number of STO hours divided by 2, multiplied by 1.5, equals CTO hours”. In other words, they’re getting paid for the hour they actually logged, at overtime, which seems fair to me if indeed it was an overtime hour in the first place. 

My concern is, they can roll these hours over, year after year, through pay increases, and end up getting paid a higher salary for hours worked years previous. I don’t know if it actually works that way, you read it and let me know. All I know is, these guys as much as double their base salaries with overtime, “other pay” and “special pay” and it’s all here in these contracts for any dummass who wants to read it.

Me, I fell asleep while typing and accidentally closed the contract page at least twice. My family has gone out to clean the garage because I kept reading snippets aloud and asking “does that make sense to you?” or “is this crazy or what?”

I’m going out to clean the garage. 

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