Archive | October, 2013

Koyaanisqatsi! I agree with Dave Guzzetti!

8 Oct

I oftentimes find myself wondering – why do I bother to do this?  Here I’ve been complaining about lack of Sunshine Downtown, and I have to ask – would anybody read the minutes of meetings if they were posted? Who besides me and the gals over at Truth Matters Chico are even worried about the minutes? 

Then I found this petition set up online by Jessica Allen, who I assume put up the website “Save Chico Now.” It’s been signed by 50 people, all of whom seem to agree with me that we need to get those minutes posted in a timely fashion.  Good Gawd Maude – I agree with David Guzzetti!  I hope that gives him indigestion.

https://www.change.org/petitions/chico-city-council-please-produce-the-minutes-for-the-past-6-months-of-city-council-meetings-2

The efforts seems to have fizzled a little, but not before Allen got 50 signatures.  That’s more people than I would have believed were interested.

I wrote a letter to the Enterprise Record, sent it yesterday, but I’m running it here below because I don’t know when Editor will post it.  I had to resend my last letter, which is pretty common. If you don’t get a response, resend your letters, and include dlittle@chicoer.com in the ‘to’ bar.  He will usually send a little response – “thankyou, it’s in the cue” – if you don’t get that, resend. As much as we detest each others guts, I still have some modicum of respect for Little’s integrity – the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.  Just because I disagree with the guy doesn’t mean I don’t respect him somewhat – I have yet to catch him in a lie, so I’m hanging in there. I also believe he hates liars, and wouldn’t intentionally lie. You can’t call a person a liar for their beliefs. 

I would say same about Stephanie Taber. I don’t agree with her right now, but I don’t doubt her integrity. Sure, she  can be wrong, and stubborn, and misled – who can’t? I challenge any of you to be right all the time, don’t make a mistake, don’t misstep – cause Macky’s back in town, Dear, and his teeth are shinin’ white.

I have finally come to doubt a couple of other people’s integrity – Brian Nakamura and Debbie Presson. I tried to believe the best about them, but given their actions, I feel like an idiot for trusting them.  I believe these people will tell the public anything to get their way.  Or not tell, as in this case of holding up the minutes for months on end, losing memos and documents, refusing to serve information requests. If you are friendly with her, Presson has all the time in the world to yak face about personal stuff – ask Sean Morgan –  but now suddenly she doesn’t have the time to honor information requests from the public? Doesn’t have time to post minutes for any meeting after April? I think this lady makes too much money to tell us she doesn’t have time to do her job. Maybe she should take some of that $135,000 a year salary (plus benefits and pension) and hire herself a staff? 

Here’s my letter to the Enterprise Record.  I wish some of the people on that petition would write letters too.

Chico City Clerk Debbie Presson says she struggles up to five hours transcribing minutes for one hour’s video tape of a city council meeting, citing a November 2000 council action approving  “‘action-only’ minutes, with staff to provide summary detail when needed.” This is why minutes are six months behind. 

 
 Presson decides when “summary detail” is needed, and which details to include, paraphrasing public comments, or leaving them out entirely.
 
Cities of Redding, Oroville and Willows offer up-to-date, “action only” minutes, a simple description of  motions made and passed, actions taken, etc, available in less than 30 days. They also offer videos, but the important facts are there at a glance for those who don’t have hours to sit through these meetings.
 
It is important to have the videos for better understanding of the council’s motives behind actions.  When I’ve tried to view Chico council videos online, I’ve seen “sorry, video is still processing…” When I asked Staff, I was told I needed to use Internet Explorer.  Google Chrome has over 53% of users, why aren’t our videos viewable on Google Chrome like other cities? 
 
We’re not being served. City management has eliminated positions and cut services to fund their own raises. Do they expect us to believe, if they pay one person four or five salaries, that person will actually be capable of doing the work of four or five people? 
 
Juanita Sumner, Chico

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NEWSFLASH! Juanita Sumner ready to support a bond!

7 Oct

I will admit I had almost lost hope of stopping the proposed Cal Water rate increases when I heard the good news a couple of weeks ago that the state Ratepayers Advocate (DRA) had stepped in. They suggest the increase be cut in half. 

This all due to people in Oroville, Marysville, and Yuba City,  who kicked up a fuss, made a formal complaint, wrote letters, put signs on their lawns, etc.  If you go to the Oroville Mercury Register, or the Marysville Appeal Democrat, you will  find lively chatter regarding such topics as municipally owned water companies, eminent domaining a utility company, etc.

That’s right – in Oroville they’re actually  talking about eminent domaining Cal Water. One council member says this will require a bond to pay for the purchase, but he thinks the time is right to go to the voters . Look at what people are paying, just for household water. In Oroville people are already paying $200 or more to keep their lawns and landscaping alive.

I’ll say it – I’m ready to pay a reasonable bond with limits and a sunset date if it means we could own our own water, instead of a for-profit corporation that enriches itself not only off our rates but government hand-outs as well. We can ask that the bond money be used exclusively for the purchase of the water company holdings. We can pass an ordinance that requires a publicly elected board of directors and manager, and public input regarding employee contracts. I realize, it’s a big conversation – let’s have it!

 Read about Oroville and Marysville’s efforts here:

http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_24119735/council-supports-no-water-rate-increases

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/water-125858-city-sewer.html

 

 

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NO CTA MEETING THIS SUNDAY – regular meeting rescheduled for October 13.

4 Oct

I have other obligations this weekend so I have scheduled the monthly Chico Taxpayer’s Association meeting for October 13 – usual time and place, 9am, Chico Library.

I was happy to see a story about Truth Matters Chico in the Chico News and Review this week:

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/insider-talk/content?oid=11635933

I especially love the expression on finance department staffer Frank Field’s face in the photo – he seems to be saying, “oh oh, the shit’s about to hit the fan…”   Lately I been kind of worried they’re going to lay it all on Fields – remarks have been made to the extent that “Frank’s been here all along…” Ever been left holding the bag? Not me – I was always the one who ran to tell Gramma. 

Well, I’m off this weekend to scatter some TOT and sales tax around the sunny town of Antioch. My Christmas money is burning a hole in my pocket, but I ain’t letting it out until I’m over the Butte County line.   Some of the stuff they’ve been doing over at the County Center has me wondering – who do our supervisors work for? The garbage company? Southern California developers? “You got the money Honey, I got the time!” I’ll be sending them the same message – I will spend my sales tax elsewhere. It’s just another excuse for a road trip. 

 

 

 

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Oroville is an interesting town

3 Oct

Some of you may know my husband and I just bought a new car  – in OROVILLE!  Oroville Ford was really nice. Although I was treated nicely and professionally at Wittmeier, I would say, Oroville Ford was the best car buying experience we’ve ever had. My husband agrees. 

I try to watch other towns around Chico – not just for the price of gas and groceries, but also their political scene. What other town nearby is having the same kind of problems as Chico? I mean, I’m asking, chime in folks.

I remember Oroville having a fuss over their rec district, going through a lot of money, some accusations were made about a district director using their influence inappropriately. But I don’t recall Oroville making any recent announcements about  being on the rocks.

I just casually met their new city manager – Randy Murphy – when he stood up to offer the only constructive suggestions at the recent CARD aquatic center meeting. Murphy suggested an aquatic center should be a regional effort, with other cities and the county helping out. Murphy was not even thanked for that suggestion, CARD staff just waited for him to stop talking so they could go on exhorting the audience to support those amendments that lower the voter threshold for bond measures.

A letter writer in yesterday’s Enterprise Record says Murphy only makes $127,000 salary as manager of Oroville, comparing that to Brian Nakamura’s salary as Chico City Manager.  I wondered what kind of benefits package Murphy gets so I looked at the city of Oroville website:

http://www.cityoforoville.org/index.aspx?page=1

Nice website. You’ll find the labor agreements at the Human Resources page, which you will find under “City Services” at the top of the main page. I didn’t read those yet, you know me – I was immediately distracted by the “Minutes and Agendas” button to the right. I had to look, and sure enough, O-ville has their minutes posted through September 17, 2013. I’m just saying.

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Caper Acres Update: Abigail Lopez reports on latest volunteer meeting

1 Oct


I asked Caper Acres Volunteers leader Abigail Lopez for a report of their meeting held last week, see below.

I wish this group would be more questioning of staff expenses instead of going along with the money raising scheme. Those repairs certainly need to be made, or those fixtures removed – this maintenance should be part of a regular schedule, budgeted in, but all the money goes into Dan Efseaf’s salary, benefits, and pension, as well as those of his slightly lesser paid staff.

Another point – I remember when volunteers paid for and installed those fixtures, and I’m wondering why those groups aren’t being asked to come back in and make the repairs. This is something we all need to think about the next time some group of well-meaning volunteers want to install something on public property.  Like the memorial benches – a month or so ago, I encountered one of those which hadn’t been installed more than a year ago, and the middle board was already unattached. This stuff costs staff time to repair, and I don’t think that’s covered by the fee they charge to install the benches. Our park has been badly mismanaged for some time now, and raising money for bandaid cures does not address the core issue – salaries, benefits and pension. 

I hate to be rude to a well-meaning person like Lopez, but she’s playing Romeo to my Mercutio. I hate that! 

From Abigail Lopez of Caper Acres Volunteers:

As you may know, the sheriff’s department has come up with a plan to 
use people on SWAP, house arrest, community service workers, etc. to go 
into the park and do work to alleviate the strain on staff so that they 
can go in and do what needs to be done in Caper Acres and the rest of 
the park. ServPro has extended their contract to November 1st to allow 
this program to be implemented, but we need to show up to the City 
Council meeting on Tuesday and show our support of it. This would 
alleviate the need for us to find and organize volunteers. Of course we 
still can go and volunteer through Bidwell Park’s volunteer program and 
I and others intend to do so. This just takes the pressure off of us to 
try and rally enough volunteers to keep the park open on a day-to-day 
basis.

By alleviating that pressure, it gives Caper Acres Volunteers the 
chance to focus on other needs in Caper Acres, namely repairing and 
replacing play structures that are rotting and falling apart, posing a 
huge safety issue. It’s been in the work plan to update and replace the 
Crooked House, the Tunnel, and the Castle, but with the budget cuts 
those things have been placed on the back burner. At our meeting last 
Friday, we discussed possible fundraising projects to fix these issues. 
We’re in the process of partnering with the Chico Breakfast Lion’s Club, 
who are a wonderful resource and have lots of fundraising and volunteer 
experience to kind of be our “big brother” and help with managing the 
finances and donations raised for this. We also have been approached by 
Dr. Shane Smith of The Specific Chiropractic Center to do a fundraiser 
where he is donating 1-hour massage coupons for us to raise donations 
with. Each coupon represents a suggested $30 donation and 100% of the 
proceeds will go towards Caper Acres. One of the events we are working 
on is a Fall Festival which we intend to hold in mid-November, we’re 
working on the details of that so I’ll let you know as we get the 
details ironed out.

The Bidwell Park and Playground Commission is exploring a partnership 
between Caper Acres Volunteers and the City to allow us to help with the 
park and see what Caper Acres Volunteers role is and how we can best be 
of service. Comissioner Rich Ober, who is acting as a liason between CAV 
and the BPPC, was at the meeting Friday and gave some good insight and 
direction on what we could do. I’ll be making a statement to the BPPC 
meeting on Monday about our goals and what we would like to do for the 
park.

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