The survey mentioned was done by a conservative “think tank” (my description) owned and run by a guy named Wendell Cox. Looking into Cox’s background, what I see is, this guy was an early proponent of the stuff we now know as “new urban” and “smart growth,” where you shove all the people into densely packed inner cities, served by public transportation. Now, he has turned 180 degrees, saying that none of this stuff has helped, our cities and roadways are still a giant mess.
Well, duh. I tried to tell people that a long time ago. Why do you have to have a bunch of money and some initials after your name to get people to listen? Back in the early 2000’s, I saw this happening in Chico. A building boom that necessitated the import of labor! We must provide starter housing for new families!, they said. “They” being our city council and staff. They spoke in panic – painting a picture of whole families sitting on their suitcases out on the curb, unable to find a house to live in. I knew it was bullshit then, and I tried to say as much.
Wow, the laugh was on me – little did I know, at just about that time, city council was approving that MOU that linked city salaries “to revenue increases but not decreases“. Wow, if you don’t get that, unscrew your head and put it in a bucket of pine tar. That’s how they simultaneously drove up the cost of living and their salaries. By the time we figured that one out, City Manager Tom Lando’s salary had gone from around $65,000/year to about $190,000 a year. Just salary. At that time we didn’t know about the pensions scam. And, when they dumped the MOU that tied salaries to revenue increases, they agreed to pay the lion’s share of pension premiums, and here we are today, well, you read the story in the paper.
Mark Sorensen went on his little swing about how it’s not his fault, he wasn’t on council when they did that stuff. Well, he sure as hell hired Brian Nakamura at $212,000/year plus 96 percent paid retirement and benefits, and tried to tell us it was for our own good. Yeah, that’s what they tell the victim – lay back and think of Mother England.
Our housing market, after a boom that increased the size of our town by roughly a quarter, actually raised the price of housing. How does that happen?
Read here, read it good. And then come back so I can say, “I told you so!”
CARD is still promoting the idea of a gazillion dollar aquatic center, and they’ve got “news” reporter Laura Urseny running their propaganda.
I get a kick out of Urseny – when I don’t attend the meetings, it takes her a couple of days to get the story in the paper, but when she sees me there, she posts that story the night of! If I accomplish nothing more that putting a match to the seat of her oversize drawers, that’s enough for me.
Too bad I can’t make a real news reporter out of her. She’s a propaganda hag, at best. The story she popped into the paper might as well have been dictated to her by aquatic center committee chair Jan Sneed. Urseny posted two stories last week about what rotten shape Shapiro Pool is in, without once telling us why. As if, rust just happens, things just fall apart, there’s no stopping expensive equipment from deteriorating. For at least 20 years the staff at CARD has neglected the equipment at the two public swimming pools in town, and now it’s rusted and falling apart, leaking like a sieve. In fact, the pool at Pleasant Valley (next to Bidwell Junior High) has been leaking for about 20 years. I sat listening to a pool company rep telling a life guard it would cost about $2500 to fix it, but the CARD board rejected his bid and watched Aqua Jets go to In Motion Fitness as a result.
For the last 20 years CARD has been nothing more than a salary trough. The Board of Directors is nothing but a “look at me!” position, these people don’t really run the agency. The director runs the agency, along with the Finance Director, and they’ve both managed to shovel themselves some pretty good bling – salaries in excess of $90,000 and $110,000 plus fully paid benefits packages. CARD employees do not pay ANYTHING toward their own pensions, but still collect 70 percent at age 55 like other public employees. Steve Visconti will retire soon, on 70 percent of $112,000/year, having paid NOTHING toward his own retirement or benefits.
Urseny saw me at the meeting, so she tells her readers “[Maintenance Director Jake] Preston added that CARD doesn’t have the money to fix Shapiro or build an aquatics facility, although it looked at a tax measure but backed off the idea.” Preston whined a lot about the Americans with Disabilities act, but it became clear, they’ve used that as an excuse not to update the pools at all. The showers at Shapiro are not only not ADA compliant, they’re disgusting, get in there with some Comet and a scrub brush Jake. The bathroom at PV only had one toilet stall for all those kids, and they’d use it to change their clothes. The line would back up to the front gate.
CARD gets over $2.5 million a year, just from the county, our property taxes. Where does that money go? Well, last year they took $400,000 out of their General Fund and made a back-payment on their own pensions because CalPERS was threatening them with higher fees. That’s where the money has gone.
And let’s not forget – both pools are owned by the school district, which has allowed CARD to run them into the ground. Here they’ve built all kinds of junk on the campuses with that Measure A money (promised to build a third high school), but not one word about the swimming pools they’ve allowed to rot.
Laura Urseny is not interested in the truth, she’s just interested in keeping her byline. According to the aquatic center committee spokesman, they have not got any sponsors yet, all these months and they’re still “identifying partners.” And, according to Preston, Shapiro Pool has been operating at a loss for years. It’s been a mess since my kids were little, we went once and never went back. 20 years ago it looked like they’d abandoned it. It was a popular target for vandalism. Most of the kids in both pools were there as participants in CARD daycare programs. Maybe they should realize – the public doesn’t support the pools we have now, CARD does not maintain them – what will change if we invest millions into a fancy new aquatic center that will be dedicated to the use of a private club?
I’ll try to keep an eye on this, I can’t believe they’ve given up on floating a bond or assessment. The survey they floated last year should prove they are willing to lie and distort to get our money.
This speaker series has been satisfying, every candidate has been cooperative and talkative, and the voters who’ve come in have had good questions. Our last session with Larry Wahl was friendly but provocative, I’d say.
I met our next speaker, Assembly candidate Ryan Schohr, when he came in to hear our first speaker, Assessor candidate Al Petersen. Schohr lives in Chico, so he’s attended almost every gathering, even helping to set up and put away chairs. I have not had much chance to talk to him, although we had an e-mail discussion about his support for water storage, and I’ve read over his website. The water storage issue has been pushed to the front of the conversation by everybody from Logue to LaMalfa. I don’t support water storage, water transfers have to stop. They all look at water as a commodity they can sell to get us out of our pension disaster.
We really should ask Assembly candidates Schohr and Gallagher (May 11, noon) more about the pension time bomb. I’ll try to remember to bring that up. Assemblymen get pensions. Here’s an article that says our refusal to deal head-on with these teat suckers is going to ruin our state’s credit rating:
As it should. If I were Moody’s, I’d pick Jerry Brown up by the feet and shake him until all his credit cards fell out of his pockets, and then I’d cut them up into confetti and put them in his underwear. We can’t survive another term under Brown. Remember that old legend about the earthquake that will drop California into the ocean? That story was figurative – they meant, Jerry Brown.
So, I hope you will come over to the library next Sunday, and help us get a constructive conversation going, covering the issues that affect our quality of life. We’ll have Schohr’s opponent, James Gallagher of Sutter County, May 11.
I got the agendas for next week’s back-to-back Finance and Economic Development Committee meetings. These committees have not been combined, but Nakamura said it would save money to have them on the same afternoon, with about a short recess in between. For me, that’s like some kind of all afternoon jail sentence, I am so sick of these meetings, I can’t even spit.
But, I did notice, they’re kicking around the idea of cutting library funding, again, along with Community Organizations (like the Blue Room and the Cat Coalition) and Economic Development/Tourism (like Artoberfest and the “Chico Open Boards Art” ). “In light of the City’s budgetary constraints, and the impacts that staffing reductions are having on the city organization...” they will “restructure“.
NOTE: Staff is recommending that library funding remain at it’s current $100,000/year. But I’ll also say, we should be worried anyway, they’ve gone against staff recommendations before. I’d also expect the other groups to be coming in to bitch, that is, if they were notified. When I called the library the manager told me she didn’t get a copy of the agenda, although she’d been told about a month ago that this discussion would be coming around. If they noticed her about it at all, should they notice her about this meeting? I don’t like to tell her how to run our library, but maybe I should have suggested she sign up for notifications. She asked me how I got it, I should have scolded her there, for cripessake.
So, I’d say write a letter. It’s not worth your time or mine to attend these meetings anymore, they’ve restricted the public to speaker cards and three minutes, on subject. No more discussion, just an audience like a king gives. In fact, I’d say, DON’T attend these meetings, you are just providing your tacit consent, they need to be able to say, “we told people!”. And your remarks will be put into the public record if and as the clerk or her staff see fit. Those gals have attributed comments to me I never even said, while leaving out whole conversations about questions I’d asked. But if you write an e-mail or letter and ask that it be put into the record, there it is, for anybody who wants to see it.
After the Finance Committee meeting the Economic Develoment Committee will discuss dissolving itself. Again, “In light of the city’s budgetary constraints…” I’m tired of hearing that. The budget is constrained because our council hired a bunch of overpaid junk and pays for it by laying off staffers hand over fist. They haven’t reduced our debt, we’re in as much trouble as ever, but we’re receiving little or no service for what we’re paying. They’re serving themselves, is what’s happening.
If this committee is dissolved, the business they conduct will go completely behind closed doors. My biggest concern is that they are giving away city staff time to private businesses. That’s what TEAM is all about. While I hate these meetings, at least they are on the record. If this committee is dissolved, we’ll never know what’s going on in Nakamura’s office.
A week from this coming Sunday we will have Ryan Schohr, Chico candidate for Third District Assembly, speaking to voters at Chico library. That’s March 30, noon to 1 pm, bring your questions and concerns. This seat currently belongs to Dan Logue, but Logue is termed out. Schohr’s opponent, James Gallagher, will be our guest on May 11. June 3 is the primary, and this race may well be decided then and there. So get yourself down to the library and get informed.
So far, the only outrageous difference between these candidates is that Schohr is from Chico and Gallagher is from Sutter County. They are both from rice farm families and they both favor the plans for the Sites Reservoir, storage for water transfers to urban areas. It’s frustrating, all the state legislators are supporting this idea, which I find to be completely bonkers. Like Ice Cube says, everythang’s corrupt. I will have to listen hard to these guys to see if I can slip a piece of tissue paper between their philosophies. At least Schohr is from Chico, and these guys always seem to favor their home over the rest of the district.
I sent the letter below to the Enterprise Record a few days ago. I had sent them a letter over a week previous to Larry Wahl’s presentation, but David Little apologized to me that he’s just had soooo many letters he was unable to print it. He promised to print this one, omigod, sometime over the next two weeks.
Such an ebullient outpouring of letters from the community – how about making the letters section bigger, duh? It’s one of the most popular sections of the paper, I know people who admit they only read that section, and maybe the comics, or the classifieds.
News? What news? Oh yeah, that building project on Salem is such a community success! Oh sure Heather Hacking, cheerleader in charge. I rode my bike over to that project Saturday afternoon, there were less than a dozen people there, all college students getting credit. And those houses look like toothpick crappers. The ER isn’t a newspaper, it’s a propaganda rag for the city of Chico. They should probably get ceebeegeebee money.
Meanwhile, I did have an interesting conversation with David Little over my campaign to get that pulp mailer, Market Value Place, out of my mailbox. I was successful, and I told people how I did it – I e-mailed him and bitched about it. He was the one who had my name removed from the list, because I bitched his pants off. Only when I took the issue to the Sustainability Task Force and sic’ed commissioner BT Chapman on them did we get an opt-out contact for an ER staffer named Jenny Jurdana (jjurdana@chicoer.com). Jurdana also told Chapman, according to him, that the opt-out information would be printed on the front of the MVP, but this has never been done.
So now I get an e-mail from Little, a year or so later, wondering why I would give his e-mail out to people who don’t want MVP, as if he is not connected with this mailer in any way. He even acted as though Jurdana is not employed by the newspaper. I tried to explain to him, when those posts were written, there was no contact for Jenny Jurdana. I reminded him that when I called the number on the mailer, the woman who answered repeatedly hung up on me, even laughing out loud at my request. He acted completely ignorant of all that, as if it never happened.
I have since given out Jenny Jurdana’s information again and again – I even recently contacted her to make sure the contact was still good, and received her cheerful reply, which I posted at worldofjuanita. I wrote a post saying, “leave Dave Little alone” less than a week ago, again posting Jurdana’s contact info. But, like I told David Little, who feels he should not have to be bothered with these people and their petty complaints of mailbox stuffing – if he would print that opt-out info on the front of his ad-rag, that would be the end of it. People would no longer google “how to opt-out of Market Value Place,” and land on my year old blogs with his contact info. In fact, I googled it myself, and I landed on the recent posts with the up-to-date info.
But he won’t do the right thing, the legal thing, and I know he’s in a snit about it. The whole concept of “total saturation advertising,” is to reach everybody in your town. If he prints that opt-out info where his advertisers can see it, that’s probably a breach of contract. So, he will continue to break the law that says he has to put it on there, because the postmaster won’t enforce it. When I contacted the postmaster, he told me I could just bring them to the post office and put them in the recycling bins. Yeah, our postmaster is out to lunch too, I guess you knew that.
So, I figured, since I’ve pissed off Mr. Editor, I might as well run my own letters to the editor from now on. If I had more time I’d have my own newspaper, but I do have a life, sorry.
Now, back to the real subject at hand – write to the CPUC and tell them you’re sick of being a cash cow! By the way, I cc’d commissioner Michael Peevey, be sure to write to him at the address provided below. In fact, you could do like I did – write your letter to the ER, and cc commissioner Michael Peevey at the address listed below. I also cc’d the board of supervisors and County Administrative Officer Paul Hahn.
(thanks, at your convenience, for running this letter sometime by March 30)
Chico Taxpayers Association has been hosting a candidate speaker series at Chico library. We’ve scheduled two candidates for State Assembly District 3 – Ryan Schohr on March 30, and James Gallagher for May 11, both from noon to 1 pm. This is an opportunity to discuss policies before the assembly, including policies that affect the quality and affordability of our water supply. The public is encouraged to attend.
Both candidates favor a reservoir at Sites, that would draw water from the Sacramento River near Red Bluff. According to the Department of Water Resources the first priority of a reservoir is, “Enhanced water supply reliability for urban uses…” Water storage is for transfers, and transfers only benefit developers in Southern California.
Instead I wish these candidates would focus their efforts on investigating the private water companies that are gouging us for our own water. In 2011, Golden State Water Company was not only denied a rate increase but ordered to lower their rates and pay refunds to their Sacramento area customers because of discrepancies in their books. They were also ordered to do further audits. This is what we should be demanding of Cal Water, and we need to ask these two candidates how they will help us.
Cal Water customers who are unhappy with the 38 percent increase currently sought by Cal Water to pay employee pensions can write to California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey at michael.peevey@cpuc.ca.gov
Returning from Oregon on a recent road trip, here we are in the heart of what some hopefuls call The State of Jefferson. Every time I see Mt. Shasta it’s like I’ve never seen it before.
Sorry for the last minute notice, but I will try to keep up on these meetings in future. I think they are held third Sunday of every month, same time – 3:30. I will probably not be able to attend today, but I’ve been getting plenty of inquiries about the SOJ movement, here’s your opportunity to find out more.
Hot on the trail of Sasquatch – we wanted to get his opinion on this state separation business, but he wasn’t available for an interview.
There is a lot of confusion. One thing I found out recently – it’s not a secession – that means, you want out of the USA. We are talking here about State Separation, a split between North and South.
The first dumb comment I have, and this is pretty central to the conversation for me – why Jefferson? Have you read “John Adams” by David McCullough? Wow, he paints Jefferson, through the personal diaries and letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail, as a complete idiot savant. Look at the details of his life – constant money problems due to a major spending habit – he didn’t know how to stop!
And I’m not even going to touch his marital life. Not with a 10 foot pole – that whole sitch was really freaking weird.
So, there’s my first criticism – needs a new name. How about, something that has a rat’s ass to do with California, maybe? Thomas Jefferson never even made it past the Mississippi.
How about, Northern California? I know, lacks imagination, like most solid plans. If you want imaginative, I’d say, choose from the myriad of names we have from the old people – the Yana and the Modoc often being described as the biggest badasses. I guess it might be nice to have some sort of badass name, show those Surenos a thing or two. Nya nya!
I’d suggest “Sasquatch,” but that word comes from British Columbia. I don’t know what the local people called the creature we know as Bigfoot. The state of Bigfoot? Naaaaaah!
This is definitely something we should mull over. Along with all the really important details, like how to pay the bills, state song, state color, state bird, etc. I hope to get to a meeting, will keep you posted.
I e-mailed Brian Nakamura, Mark Sorensen, and Scott Gruendl about their new garbage tax. I forwarded to Chris Constantin to get his take on it. I’ll post any responses I get.
Howdee,
I’ve included the news editors because I haven’t seen anything about this in either paper.
I don’t know where you’re at with the garbage tax ordinance, but I thought I would remind you – if you are going to impose mandatory garbage service, you need to provide a subsidy for low-income. A rebate won’t cut it either, you need to subsidize at the time of service.
Of course, as in the case of PG&E and Cal Water subsidy programs, you will have to notify all those not included in the low-income program that they are paying for it.
You can’t just raise the cost of a utility without thinking of the low income families. Sincerely, Juanita Sumner
And now folks, it is Cowabunga Time.
If I never see you again, let me tell you what, it’s been swell!
Larry Wahl came in to act as guest chair of today’s Chico Taxpayers’ Association meeting.
A sturdy crowd came out on a dreary day to greet Larry Wahl, second district Butte County supervisor, at the Chico library. I love the rain, but it does seem to make folks want to stay inside, at home, where they feel comfortable and secure. I can’t knock that, but I’m grateful to the hardy souls who joined us today with some good questions and banter.
Larry was eager to hear what everybody was thinking, starting out with a brief statement about some of his priorities, and a general statement about the fiscal health of Butte County. Two of his priorities, he said, have been public safety and job creation. He also pointed out that the county is in good shape, “we have spent less than we have brought in, we have a surplus.”
Wahl supports the principles of the Tea Party, he said – limited government, and individual and economic freedom. Two rules for fiscal health:
don’t spend more than you have
if you think you need to spend more than you have, refer back to Rule #1
Al Petersen pointed out the problems the city of Chico has had with spending, and asked Larry what he thinks the county has done differently. Here Wahl praised Butte County finance officer Greg Iturria for keeping the supervisors abreast of the county’s finances, explaining the bookkeeping in everyday language, and giving regular, up-to-date reports. As all of you probably remember, we had to scream for that from the city of Chico, and it wasn’t just Jennifer Hennessey who dragged her feet about it.
As for salaries and benefits, Wahl said there’s been improvements, with employees paying more of “their share,” although he wasn’t sure of the actual percentages. They pay more than city employees, I believe. He says this has not come about without “some turmoil,” and that negotiations are constant. But, things are working out, and the county is slowly paying down their pension obligation while maintaining an $18 million surplus.
Jim asked what was the county’s biggest problem, and the supervisor immediately answered “the marijuana thing.” He pointed out environmental impacts, as well as complaints from neighbors, some of whom have reported harassment from growers. There are over 3,000 parcels in Butte County with more than 40 plants, Wahl says, and he believes most of them are operated by the cartels, “guarded by non-English speakers who are told to shoot on sight.” This is much of his concern over public safety, and he’d like to see more sheriff’s officers and code enforcement officers, he says.
There are currently a referendum and an initiative being prepared for submission to the county clerk by a group opposed to the marijuana ordinance recently passed by the board of supervisors. I’m confused on these terms, and there was confusion in our conversation yesterday. I don’t think a solid 30 percent of the American voters understand anything, frankly. So, I googled it.
From dictionary.com: referendum – the principle or practice of referring measures proposed or passed by a legislative body to the vote of the electorate for approval or rejection.
From the National Congress of State Legislators: initiative – the process that enables citizens to bypass their state legislature [and, in this case, the County Supervisors] by placing proposed statutes and, in some states, constitutional amendments on the ballot.
These terms are similar in that they require a certain percentage of the voters to sign a petition, which would enable the voters to bypass the lawmakers.
Wahl reports the proponents of these measures must gather a minimum of 7500 signatures, on each petition. The referendum, if passed by the voters, would cancel the ordinance passed in January, and the initiative, if passed, would adopt “reasonable restrictions on the cultivation of medical marijuana…” and that’s all I got because little Miss Candy Grubbs does not load the documents so that they are cut and pastable. You can see the rest of that initiative here:
I must say, it took some guts for those people to sign, but I’m not surprised. I been noticing, more people are ready to come out in support of marijuana as the board of supervisors just keeps making their claims and the restrictions they want to put on private property. Alot of non-smokers I know are looking at it like an assault on private property rights, and they believe it’s just another excuse to get code enforcement on your property. They also wonder how much $taff time = $$$$ has gone into this windmill tilt? I can guess the answer to that – at least, 10’s of thousands, probably over $100,000.
The county admin officer, Paul Hahn, makes over $200,000, in salary alone. His time alone probably racks up to alot more than $17. Larry complained that we need more sheriff and code enforcement employees – so why spend money continuously tweaking this ordinance when you could hire more code officers to enforce it? The things Wahl complained about – environmental degradation, a woman being threatened at her mail box – those things are already against the law, and having more officers to take complaints would certainly be the way to better serve the public, than sitting in meetings masturbating money out the door.
We’ll see what happens. I notice the signature gatherers were out in force for a couple of weeks, now I don’t see them anymore, so I’m guessing they have more than enough signatures to qualify. These people are professionals, I’ve talked to them – they were definitely checking for voter registration, correct addresses, etc, because they don’t get paid for slugs. A friend of mine told me a couple of weeks ago he saw a gatherer at Butte College being swarmed with people wanting to sign – “you couldn’t even get near the guy.” There was a signature gatherer set up at the library for the last month, whenever I was there I’d see him get at least one signature – every time I was there, somebody would walk up to the guy and say, “I’ve been looking for you…” And these were older people, entrenched voters, library patrons. I watched one 35-ish woman sign right in front of her junior high age kids. No, she did not look like the “potheads” we been hearing about on the news, nor was she carrying a piece, ready to “shoot on sight.” She seemed like a perfectly nice lady to me, but, Larry Wahl seems like a perfectly nice man to me, so who am I to judge?
Helen Harberts does not come off to me as a very nice lady. It really got me when she called local gadfly Stephanie Taber a “flatliner,” which implies to me, a flat line on a hospital monitor. I thought that was pretty nasty, but par for her tactics of trying to bully people with different opinions. The idea that she thinks she is allowed to stalk and harass people who are practicing Democracy is very troubling to me, and I just hope I don’t find out that Larry Wahl has been financing her efforts or encouraging her in any way.
It’s bad enough he admits, he’s encouraging Butte County clerk-in-disgrace Candy Grubbs to check every single signature instead of the usual sampling method used to save staff time. I guess that’s his right, and I will remember to do so in future when there’s a petition I don’t like worming it’s way around town. But, she’s only got 30 days to check the petitions, and the usual process is to do a sampling. That’s how the city of Chico does it, but Wahl says he wants Grubbs to check all 7500 signatures – or check until she certifies 7500 signatures out of the 14,000 or so expected to be turned in. I guess that sounds right and all, but we’ll see if she can pull that off in 30 days (250 a day including weekends?), with her complaints of being short on staff, and assuming the other little chores she has for staff to do don’t get in the way.
Speaking of staffing, Michael Jones asked Larry, as a former Chico city council member, what he thought of the idea of Cal Fire taking over the duties for the Chico Fire Department. Larry said he thought Cal Fire does a great job, but would have to see more information as to reorganization. Of course, he predicted, Cal Fire would need to hire more people. I think that would take care of a lot of the fire department employees, that is, those who are willing to work for a lower salary and pay more of their own pension and benefits. He also answered Jones’ question about the city contracting with Butte County sheriff to eliminate Chico Police department – yes, this is possible, and plenty of towns around the state are doing it.
NOTE: Mike posted a great proposal for Cal Fire to take over services for city of Chico here –
As for the city’s financial problems, which started with contracts signed back in the early 2000’s, Larry cited “check kiting” and “a shell game” as how Chico had run it’s finances over the past few years. Nobody had the nerve to ask Larry what he thought he’d done to contribute to that downward spiral over his tenure on council, but I heard him telling Kelly Skelton (thanks Kelly!) after the meeting that he was regularly voted down “6-1” on financial issues. I know he admitted to me he’d approved the MOU that attached city salaries to “revenue increases but not decreases,” but he also voted to throw that out when it became apparent just how that mechanism was working to drain city finances into the pockets of city management. The salaries that resulted were never turned around, and that’s where we are today. And, unfortunately, when they dumped the revenue-attached salaries, they agreed to pay almost all the pensions and benefits, especially for management. That sleigh ride is going to land us in bankruptcy, you just watch. But, I don’t know the details, so I certainly can’t lay it all on Larry. Maureen Kirk, current District 3 super, also approved those agreements. So did Scott Gruendl. Mark Sorensen has approved his share of bum deals as well.
At least, given his claims about county finance officer Greg Itturia, it seems like Wahl has learned alot from the city of Chico’s problems.
At this point I launched into my diatribe about how we got to fight the water rate increase. Larry asked me to forward the information to Paul Hahn, and he’d try to interest the board in writing another letter before the CPUC makes their decision – I’ll get on that today, even though I got a thousand things to do, my husband is poking me right now to get off the computer and go out to do some errands, check our rentals for storm damage, etc. I think I will clone myself, I heard they can do that now.
Toward the end of the meeting we talked about The State of Jefferson proposal, and why proponents think it will benefit the state. Ruth reminded us of all the commissions, including the Air Resources Board, that not only cost millions in salaries and benefits, but place onerous restrictions on our lives and livelihoods, like the new requirements for trucks to be retrofitted with a smog filter. I’ve read some pretty bad reports on those filters – they don’t work, they interfere with the efficiency of the vehicle, and in one story, the bus drivers in Vacaville have to drive on the freeway just to get their filters properly working – these filters don’t work for slow-moving vehicles like busses, the vehicle has to achieve a certain speed in order to heat the filter enough to burn off the particulates. That’s really how this dumb filter works – it just burns the stuff so hot, it’s supposed to vaporize it. That is so stupid I can’t believe it.
CARB and it’s requirements have been a big problem for Butte County, all three of our county supervisor speakers, candidate Bob Evans, and supers Maureen Kirk and Larry Wahl have all agreed, these onerous restrictions are hurting business in Butte county. Larry went so far as to say, the bigger corporate companies are profiting because the restrictions are putting the mom and pops out of business. I agree.
Ruth and her husband Tom have been working hard to get information out about the State of Jefferson proposal, they’ve got some good answers for your questions. Here’s a youtube video of proponent Mark Baird, speaking to a Chico audience.
Supervisor Wahl wants a discussion of supporting the SOJ proposal, but says the other four board members are dead set against any kind of discussion? I’m with Larry, and also agree with Bob Evans – we need to discuss this separation of the state, one way or the other, and we need to show the South we are fucking serious about dumping their lousy asses.
Just as we were getting into some serious details, our time was up, we had to vacate the room for the next group. Our next date is March 30, we have Ryan Schohr, who Larry has endorsed for Third District Assembly. We’ll pick it up there.
I been busy with my own business lately – and I know how EVERYBODY would love me to pay more attention to that. Unfortunately, city business becomes my business when the ordinances they pass Downtown affect my livelihood. That’s why me and a gaggle of other landlords, small and large, came down to the last Internal Affairs committee meeting to have a conversation over this new “Social Host Ordinance.”
The city attorney had written a clause into the ordinance that said the police chief could decide to assess a property owner/landlord for “response time” of cops and fire where underage drinkers were present. In other words, hold landlords responsible for the actions of their tenants.
When we hashed this all out over the Disorderly Events ordinance, they dropped the landlord clause because it was found that they could not possibly notice a landlord quickly enough to prevent a second incident, and how could the landlord be responsible for a second or even third incident if they were unaware there’d been a first incident? But now, they want to use proof of mailer, which just means, they sent a notice, to somebody. They expect to use the assessor’s roles to get the contact info. According to Butte County Assessor candidate Al Petersen, the rolls are full of mistakes – some 10,000, last year alone. Those mistakes include contact information, and I’ve had that problem – they got the wrong address for my prop tax bill, and it took me almost two years to get it corrected. At one point, it was so screwed up, they let my neighbor’s mortgage holder pay my taxes, and sent my check back, even thought the other check was in the wrong amount. So, we’re supposed to trust these idiots to get us a notice that the cops have been called to our rental?
The angry crowd that showed up at the Internal Affairs meeting had already had a private meeting with the city attorney that I was not made aware of. City attorney Roger Wilson said after meeting with those folks, who included the management for Webb apartments and other big dick swingers, he recommended dropping the “landlord responsibility clause”. Don’t you get sick of the special favors Downtown? I mean, I wanted that dropped, but I don’t like any of the ordinance. These fuckers sold out because it suited their bottom line. Thanks Randy, you egg sucker!
And speaking of errors, get a load of this draft ordinance I had to get from Debbie Presson, because she hadn’t loaded the agenda properly, and it wouldn’t cut and paste. There are so many typos in this thing – like I’ve said before, get off your dildo Debbie, and do your job. I’ve seen items pulled from agendas for less mistakes than this:
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
A. The fees set forth herein shall be used to calculate the costs to be recovered by the City in connection with the following incidents:
l. The apprehension and arrest or citation of persons convicted of an offense involving the driving of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or any drug;
2. Response to accidents caused by persons who are convicted of anotTense involving the driving of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or any drug;ef
3.LiabilityJorthe City’s emergencyresoonsecost~ underJhe Social Host Ordinan~~ (Chico Municipal CodeChailter 9.31Lor
‘L Participationin a second response to a loud or unruly event as defined in Section
9.70.030 of the Chico Municipal Code.
B. Payment is due and payable at the City’s Finance Office within thirty days of the date the bill is mailed or payment shall be considered delinquent and subject to the collection
measures set forth in Administrative Procedure and Policy No. 15-14.
II. COST RECOVERY FEES
A. Police and Fire Department fees as set forth below shall have a one-half hour (30 minute) minimum fee.
B. Fees shall be based on the amount of time spent by each police officer and/or fire suppression personnel responding to the incident, plus administrative processing costs,
and shall be calculated using the following fees:
Minimum Fee For Each Administrative
(for first y, hour)Additional Minute Processing Fee
PoliceDepmiment$46.50 per officer $!.55/minute/officer $34.50 per incident (this line does not make sense, what do they mean – $46.50 per officer $!.55/minute/officer $34.50 per incident? That doesn’t make sense even without the typo)
Fire Department $22.00 per fire fighter $0.73/minute/fire fighter $34.50 per incident (again, this line does not make sense)
Ill. AUTHORIZA TlON TO ANNUALLY ADJUST FEES
The City Manager is authorized to annually adjust the fees set forth above to reflect personnel compensation adjustments previously authorized and approved by the City Council without further City Council action (BP E.5.).
While the typos make it difficult to read, I think most people would see plenty to be alarmed about here. First of all, it’s up to the police chief and the city manager to decide when there’s been an offense, and how much to assess, and then turn around and put it right in their own pocket. That’s completely inappropriate conflict of interest. And second, there you see the “AUTHORIZATION TO ANNUALLY ADJUST FEES,” administratively, with no public oversight.
Wow, look at that, I just spelled administratively, twice! I wonder if they could use somebody who can spell and type down at the City of Chico?
Chico Taxpayers Association 