Archive | January, 2015

“without admitting any violation…” city responds to accusations of violating the Brown Act, promises to “cease” discussing salary and compensation in closed session

16 Jan

From next Tuesday’s council agenda, available here:

http://chico-ca.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=96

CITY of CHICO
January 20,2014
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
411 Main Street (530) 896-7250
PO Box3420 Fax:(530) 895-4825
Chico. CA 95927-3420 http://www.c, chico ca 

Jessica Allen
Citizens of the City of Chico

Re: Brown Act Cease and Desist Letter – August 5,2014

Dear Ms. Allen,

The Chico City Council has received your cease and desist letter dated August 5, 2014, alleging
that the following described past action of the legislative body violates the Ralph M. Brown Act:

– Discussion of employee compensation during closed session;
– Calling a special meeting to discuss or take action on the salary or compensation of a
local agency executive;
– Failing to report action taken by the City Council in closed session
– Failing to report the votes of each council member on action taken in closed session;
– Discussing or taking action on matters not specifically exempted from the open meeting
rules detailed in the Brown Act; and
– Discussing or taking action in closed session on items not posted on the agenda.

In order to avoid unnecessary litigation and without admitting any violation of the Ralph M.
Brown Act, the Chico City Council hereby unconditionally commits that it will cease, desist
from, and not repeat the challenged past action described above.

The Chico City Council may rescind this commitment only by a majority vote of its membership
taken in open session at a regular meeting and noticed on its posted agenda as “Rescission of
Brown Act Commitment.” You will be provided written notice, sent by any means or media you
provide in response to this message, to whatever address or addresses you specific, of any
intention to consider rescinding this commitment at least thirty (30) days before any such regular
meeting. In the event that this commitment is rescinded, you will have the right to commence
legal action pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 54960 of the Government Code. That noticewill be delivered to you by the same means as this commitment, or may be mailed to an address
that you have designated in writing.

Very truly yours,
Mark Sorensen
Mayor

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Debbie Bacigalupi to speak on Agenda 21 at Nevada County Fairgrounds, January 28 – admission is free

15 Jan

Debbie Bacigalupi will be addressing “Agenda 21” at a meeting of the Nevada County Tea Party on January 28 (2015).  The meeting takes place at Ponderosa Hall on the Nevada County Fairgrounds, admission is free, gate opens at 6pm for the 6:30 event.  

Bacigalupi is a Siskiyou County native who has attended Notre Dame de Namur, California, achieving her BS and MS in Business. She attended the 2012 United Nations Rio Earth Summit +20. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit produced the now very controversial document “Agenda 21”. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21

Read more about this event at the Territorial Dispatch, January 14 issue, page 12:

http://territorialdispatch.biz/2015/jan/Jan14-2015WEB.pdf

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California bag ban referendum winds it way through the process – could be on November 2016 ballot

13 Jan

Here is the Ballotpedia entry for the proposed plastic bag ban referendum.  

http://ballotpedia.org/California_Plastic_Bag_Ban_Referendum_(2016)

If the required number of signatures are ratified, the ban will have to be placed on the November 2016 ballot for the voters to make the call. The ban, SB 270. was originally passed by the California legislature and ratified by The Moonbeam, but sufficient signatures and a majority of California voters could overturn this legislation. 

Of course this will not overturn county of city ordinances. I don’t know how we can overturn our local ordinance – the clock is ticking, I don’t think we have much time if any for our own referendum drive. That doesn’t mean we can’t get petition council to overturn it.

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Compare Chico and Redding by public pay and crime statistics

13 Jan

I’ve got a few links here I found interesting. The first are public pay reports from the State Controller’s Office. These charts are made with figures reported by the various cities and counties in California. I’ve posted the links for Chico and Redding. What I found is that salaries are similar, sometimes higher in Redding, but that Chico taxpayers pay more for benefits and pensions.

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?entityid=79&fiscalyear=2013 – chico

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?entityid=473&fiscalyear=2013 – redding

Below I have the latest crime statistics for Chico and Redding, also 2013. I was shocked to find,  Redding has a lot of violent crime. They also have a bigger population spread out over a larger geographic area, including a lot of riverfront and wild grasslands, but, according to the chart above, pay their cops and fire about the same as Chico.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-8/table-8-state-cuts/table_8_offenses_known_to_law_enforcement_california_by_city_2013.xls

Chico population – 88,226; Redding – 91,035

violent crime – 299;   585

murder/non-negligent manslaughter – 2;  2

rape – 41;  49

robbery – 95;  146

aggravated assault – 161;  388

property crime – 2,572;  3,774

burglary – 622;   742

larceny/theft – 1,568;  2,483

motor vehicle theft – 382;  549

arson – 37;  5  (NOTE: in 2013 we had a rash of couch fires in Chico)

 

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Lou Binninger: CPUC and utility companies “sleep together” – “there is no protection for the consumer”

7 Jan

I enjoy reading the Territorial Dispatch out of Marysville, a very good local weekly with a local staff. Writer Lou Binninger is always worth a read. Here he takes on the California Public Utilities Commission over inappropriate favoritism toward Cal Water and other for-profit water companies.

You can also catch Lou on 1410 am, KMYC, Saturday mornings from 9am to noon:

http://kmycradio.com/

by Lou Binninger, for the Territorial Dispatch

Obamacare shaman Jonathan Gruber said he purposely disguised the intent and impact of the national health insurance scam to ‘deceive stupid voters.’ He was right and wrong. Citizens trusted the word of an institution they once considered trustworthy, but now defrauds them. Since Gruber knew he was a liar he despised his victims as weak. Their stupidity was in trusting those who rule over them.

Gruber’s technique was neither novel nor original. In 2014, Marysville resident Connie Walczak found this out the hard way.

She filed a ratepayer complaint against California Water Service with the CPUC (California Public Utility Commission). Cal Water had raised rates 121% in 10 years. The last increase in 2011 was 55.3% and now they were requesting the CPUC grant another 47% hike.

Prior to resorting to a formal complaint, in 2013 Walczak called and wrote the CPUC multiple times with no response. It was clear that the state commission created a complaint process that would forbid most citizens to survive its legal gauntlet. Complaints could not be submitted on line but had to be handwritten. The procedures were akin to filing a 1040 long form in a foreign language. It gets worse.

Cal Water attorney Natalie Wales violated legal procedures by serving notices and documents to listed Marysville complainants late or not at all. The judge excused the attorney’s miscues by email but would not return Walczak’s emails protesting his double standard.

The CPUC mission statement says it “serves the public interest by protecting consumers and ensuring the provision of safe, reliable utility service and infrastructure at reasonable rates, with a commitment to environmental enhancement and a healthy California economy.” Walczak found this statement absurd and the utility-oversight system a mirage.

Recently, PG and E emails surfaced between the company and former CPUC President Michael Peevey’s office revealing CPUC’s collusion with PG and E to obstruct the investigation / lawsuit involving the 2010 San Bruno gas line explosion. The disaster killed 8, injured 58 and destroyed 38 homes. Federal investigators found fault with PG&E for the incident but blamed the CPUC for not holding the utility accountable to replace gas lines that they requested rate increases to fund. Investigators said the CPUC “placed blind trust in operators.”

PG&E fired Vice President Brian Cherry, his boss Tom Bottorff and another vice president after e-mails showed Cherry had lobbied Peevey’s chief of staff Carol Brown to help appoint a preferred administrative law judge to a rate case. Cherry’s choice was eventually given the $1.3 billion case, but it was reassigned after PG&E released the judge-shopping emails.

 

CPUC’s Carol Brown, who told PG&E’s Cherry she would try to help him, resigned. Federal prosecutors are investigating the e-mails.

 

Emails also showed CPUC’s Peevey soliciting contributions from PG&E. Peevey leaned on PG&E to contribute at least $1 million to oppose a ballot measure that would put a hold on a California law limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Peevey asked PG&E to contribute $100,000 to help fund a Centennial Anniversary celebration for the CPUC, and Peevey appeared to link the request to a PG&E rate-setting case before the commission.

 

Consumer-oriented Loretta Lynch, whom Gov. Gray Davis replaced with Peevey as President in 2002, says that the state regulators no longer regulate. The real business of resolving rates unofficially takes place on cruises, on junkets to Hong Kong, over cocktails and at industry sponsored seminars. Lynch claims utilities regularly ‘doctor’ their documents to support rate increases. Testimony under oath about costs etc. is a thing of the past according to Ms. Lynch.

 

Walczak’s rate complaint was rejected, but she was right about the CPUC and the Cal Waters of the world. They sleep together. Walczak now refers to the state agency as the California Utility Commission (CUC). It exists to benefit monopolies. There is no consumer protection.

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Thanks Paul – reader reminds me to wake up and smell the deficit!

5 Jan

A reader sent me  a note today, telling me to read the Enterprise Record, “another deficit of $2 million…”

Thank you for the head’s up, kind reader – I had quit reading the ER, except for an occasional foray to the letters section. I’ve sat through so many meetings, seen so many “power point” presentations and read so many slanted news stories about our local finances, it’s all starting to run together in my head. When I was forcing myself out to meetings, I’d hear something, and then bitch about it, and then get distracted with the next annoying thing, and then about a month or two later, the ER might do  a story about the thing I was pissed about but already forgot. I’m always asking myself, “have I been pissed off about this already?”

Then I remembered, I already read this report in the agenda I got last week! I did already get pissed about this, I’m not senile!  And, I’m saved from having to read the ER! Thank goodness!

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2015/01/01/2015-will-be-the-year-of-living-dangerously-2016-will-be-the-year-of-the-tax/

If you don’t believe me, read the financial reports in Item 4.1. Read it! Written so flat and boring – pay attention – this is the story of our bankruptcy – the emergency fund is empty, and there’s no money in the General Fund to pump it back up. The General Fund has been put on life support, having bottomed out the Development Fund. They’re hooking people up to an inadequate sewer system so they can steal more money from the Sewer Fund – before he was Mayor, Mark Sorensen used to complain that Ann Schwab was stealing from the Sewer Fund, but we don’t hear anything about that from him anymore.  We’re broke, but we’re still raising salaries, and hiring more people to “manage” stuff. It doesn’t seem to me that anybody is managing anything but their own bank accounts.

It’s January, I got drunk with liberals last night, and my youngest is getting in his car today to go back to school, six hours away. Me and Bob have been rubbing salt in our bag ban wound.  The fee increases and tax proposals are coming at us from every direction lately. Pardon me for being distracted. This stuff gets circular after a while. 

I been talking to my friend Connie in Marysville – she sent me an article about Cal Water yesterday that I am having to read a paragraph at a time, and then go walk around the yard a couple of times before I get so mad my head turns into macaroni and cheese.

PG&E is rolling in a rate hike of 6 percent this month, but this isn’t the “adjustment” we just protested – that doesn’t kick in until 2016.  The one we’ll be feeling next was wheedled through the system a couple of years  ago, to address infrastructural inadequacies in the wake of the San Bruno disaster – yep, we will pay the fines that were levied on PG&E for killing eight people and leveling almost an entire neighborhood. 

Don’t you wish your head really was made out of macaroni and cheese?  Then this stuff wouldn’t matter, all we’d care about would be keeping the birds from eating our heads.

But, we are rational  creatures, and we must stand up to this kind of irrational bullshit. Write to your mayor and vice mayor now, and tell them they have to rein in public safety costs and stop deferring developer fees. 

Mayor Mark Sorensen – mark.sorensen@chicoca.gov

Vice Mayor Sean Morgan – sean.morgan@chicoca.gov

And, write to Debbie Presson at debbie.presson@chicoca.gov and ask her to put you on the council agenda notifications list – you will receive the agendas via e-mail by Friday of the week previous, so you don’t have to wait for the ER to run a story the day before, sometimes the day of the meeting. And they don’t usually tell everything, they slant it,especially now that Dave Little’s buddy is mayor. 

Don’t be a fed pig, be a mad pig.

 

California “single-use” bag ban opponents gather enough signatures to qualify a “bag ban ban” for 2016 ballot

2 Jan

Here’s the latest on the effort to overturn the statewide bag ban:

http://patch.com/california/northridge/bag-ban-opponents-submit-petition-overturn-law

Here’s an interesting website with more information:

http://fighttheplasticbagban.com/tag/initiative/

Here’s my prediction – wait til they find out, people don’t re-use the new bags, they accumulate them, forget to take them to the store again, and then when the space under  their kitchen sink is full to overflowing they will dump them in their garbage cans – they aren’t recyclable! 

This bag ban is a bigger scam  than The Interview!

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2015 will be the year of living dangerously, 2016 will be the year of the tax

1 Jan

You know what they say – No Rest for the Wicked! Bright and early this morning I received the agenda for the next Chico City Council meeting, available here:

http://chico-ca.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=95

Here we have the first session of our new “fiscally responsible” council, interesting. The feature that caught my interest is at the bottom – they’re “sunshining” the proposal for the Management Employees Group. From what I can tell, this group includes “mid-level management”. This agreement does not cover the City Manager or any of the department heads, who make over $180,000 in salary and still only pay 9 percent toward their benefits.

Mid-level management employees enjoy salaries running from about $80,000 to $100,000 a year. Why they need this extra layer of fat, is beyond me. The actual “workers” get paid anywhere from $35,000 – $70,000. Why two layers of management that get paid so excessively?

And I’ll tell you what I really don’t like about these contracts – instead of reining in the salaries, they guarantee the salaries through “steps.” Just stay in that chair, don’t steal from your boss or screw  his or her spouse, and you will get a raise upon raise upon raise, within 5 years you will be making at least $100,000/year. And all your problems, healthcare and old age planning, will be taken care of by the taxpayers, who will fit you with 70 percent of that salary into perpetuity. 

If  Mark Sorensen and his fist puppets sign this contract, they’re selling us into bankruptcy. 

If you don’t believe me, read the financial reports in Item 4.1. Read it! Written so flat and boring – pay attention – this is the story of our bankruptcy – the emergency fund is empty, and there’s no money in the General Fund to pump it back up. The General Fund has been put on life support, having bottomed out the Development Fund. They’re hooking people up to an inadequate sewer system so they can steal more money from the Sewer Fund – before he was Mayor, Mark Sorensen used to complain that Ann Schwab was stealing from the Sewer Fund, but we don’t hear anything about that from him anymore.  We’re broke, but we’re still raising salaries, and hiring more people to “manage” stuff. It doesn’t seem to me that anybody is managing anything but their own bank accounts.

Happy New Year folks – hang on tight! 

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