Archive | December, 2015

Council, CARD board up to no good – Lie Cheat and Steal!

14 Dec

Tomorrow night Chico city council will discuss applying for “Intervenor” status in the Cal Water rate increase application filed last July (CPUC rate case A.15-07-015). I’ve already let them know how I feel, time for you all to do same. 

You can reach them via the clerk, debbie.presson@chicoca.gov

You probably read, the city is under fire in a few directions. According to a study, our employees are among the highest paid in the state. Our desk clerk’s salary compares with cop salaries in the Bay Area, which is an item of concern to more people than just me. If I were a cop in Oakland, and I knew some ditzy bitch who sat on her ass in an office all day was making more in salary than I got paid in total compensation, that would piss me off.

Not to say, cops don’t get paid plenty nice. This whole salary thing is completely WHACKED.

Council is denying Jessica Allen’s claims that they violated the Brown Act, which I think stems mostly from behind doors contract talks. Allen complains the agendas aren’t clear, and she’s right. I get so tired of asking these self-satisfying $taffers to explain stuff – the explanation is usually even more confusing. Like the time Chris Constantin came to one of my Sunday CTA meetings at the library, brought the wife and everything. I thought it was cute the way they got into their rag bag trying to dress down for the common folks. Constantin was very uncomfortable. He was trying to tell me that they needed to wave the two-week sunshine period for the new police contract, saying they needed to get that signed asap to start saving all this money! It was a total load of bullshit, the police budget is bigger than ever now. Of course you might not be able to check on that, because they don’t save the old budgets or contracts on the website. Good luck finding those anywhere. 

We are dealing with liars and cheats,  who steal. Reminds me of the great days of WWE!  I miss Eddie Gurerrero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lPA050q-GY

Lie Cheat and Steal! Like CPOA!

Tomorrow they will be putting the screw to landlords and tenants when they pass two ordinances that throw out landlord rights and curtail renters’ rights. They will be tweaking the Disorderly Events and Noise ordinances to cut the notice time for property owners. Meaning, by the time you get your mailed notice – and that’s if the county has your correct mailing address on their tax rolls – your tenants could have had a second “event” and you will be summarily charged with any “costs” the police and fire departments decide to rack up in trashing your house. 

You don’t think that happens to good landlords and tenants? How about the time my tenant had less than a dozen friends over to watch a sporting event on tv. When they went back to their cars out on the street at about 11 pm, talking and joshing I’d imagine, the neighbors called the police. Chico PD came over and broke it up, then told the neighbors it was a “gang bang.” Yeah, my tenant was Mexican, and I imagine so were some of his friends. The cops told him his friends couldn’t mill around on the street like that. Well, okay, they’d said. And the following weekend he invited them back over to watch  tv again – you should have seen this tv, it was HUGE. When you put out the bucks for a tv like that, you want to be able to invite your friends.

My asshole neighbor, Pat Brown, who had better have his left on the ready if he ever shows his face to me again, called the cops a second  time. At this time, a week later, neither Mr. Asshole Brown, who had our phone number, nor the cops had bothered to notify us of the first incident. The party was broken up again – again, a bunch of guys yakking at their cars on a public street at 10:30 or 11 pm. This time we got an angry phone call at 7am that next day, from Asshole Brown. He was so loud at the other end of the phone I could hear him in the next room. Then he backed down, he actually apologized, cause you know, he’s the kind of neighbor who acts in anger, because he’s an asshole,  and then wakes up the next day grovelling for forgiveness. 

Maybe he realized, if we went asshole on him, he would be at the asshole end of a lawsuit. So would Chico PD, they already have enough claims of racism against them. 

My husband tells me, don’t worry about this ordinance, we have so restricted our tenants’  in our leases – in fact, today I’m writing up a new addendum. According to this new party ordinance, a “gathering” is 20 or more people. I will have to add a legal addendum restricting my tenants from having gatherings of more than 15 people. Hey, if the cops can do it, I  can do it and will.

Right now I got an Avon Lady. Wow, you know those Avon parties can get swinging out of control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RcXH4nq2PY

This is an attack on renters’ rights, but I’m with my husband – let the renters come out and fight it for a change. Old Juanita has other irons on the fire right now. 

Wednesday (Dec 16 7pm) brings another public meeting at the CARD center to discuss plans for the aquatic center. CARD director Ann Willmann tells me they will not be including any discussion of Shapiro Pool or the cost estimates to fix it, which are not posted anywhere on their website either. I’ve had it with Willmann, she needs to goooooo. 

Aquatic center proponent Jan Sneed was re-elected to the CARD board with 9,000 votes.  If every one of those voters wrote a check for $1,000, we’d have almost enough money to build the least expensive design that’s been discussed so far. Those estimates go up to $28 million, but wow, wouldn’t $9 million be a start? 

 Willmann has a son on Aquajets, maybe she should open her purse. She could easily spare some money out of her $120,000/year salary, especially since she pays nothing toward her benefits or pension. CARD currently sits under a pension deficit of more than $1.2 million. None of their management pay anything toward their pensions, but expect to receive 70 percent of their salary in retirement. 

And they bitch about the street people with their hands out! 

Hold your purse strings tight, there are scum bags on every corner here.

 

 

 

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City of Chico and County of Butte have applied for “party” status in Cal Water rate increase case – doesn’t “being a party” to something imply you helped pull it off?

9 Dec

I finally got around to writing a letter about the city and the county filing for “Party” status in the Cal Water rate hike. I don’t want to be mean, but you probably feel same – when somebody is a “party” to something, that usually means they helped pull it off. If Chico city council and Butte board of supervisors want any respect out of me (especially after that juvenile remark Doug Teeter made about the protests of his raising his own salary), they need to get off the pot and fight this rate increase.

Here’s what Kern County supervisors were up to while Butte County supes were mulling over their own pay raises:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2015/09/23/kern-county-supervisors-vote-to-formally-oppose-cal-water-rate-hike-what-are-our-local-elected-officials-doing-about-it/

I post my letters to the editor here in hopes some of you will do same:

Cal Water has applied for another rate increase, as well as consolidation of Chico District with Oroville, Willows and Marysville (CPUC Rate Case A.15-07-015). This consolidation means Chicoans will pay for long-needed repairs in those other districts because the CPUC determined that previous rate hikes proposed for those districts were too onerous. 

These rate hikes are really related to Cal Water’s pension liability, which they will not discuss without a court order.  Cal Water management employees receive “defined benefits” plans for which they pay nothing out of salaries exceeding $100,000/year. 

Both the city of Chico and county of Butte have applied for “Party” status in this proceeding.  “Party” means, they will receive e-mail updates on this case. “Intervenor” status means a formal protest. 

When I looked into applying for Intervenor status, I found this is an onerous process that requires legal counseling.  You have to write your application in legal format, and the smallest error will send it to the round file.  They even expect you to appear at hearings in San Francisco, at your own expense. 

 I’m not a lawyer and don’t have money for the expense related to this process. City and county staff are qualified and more than adequately compensated for this kind of work. 

If you think your water bills are already high, wait til this rate increase kicks in. Write to your city council and board of supervisors now and ask them to stand up to this rip-off.

Enterprise Record trying to push a new aquatic center on us? Get some real reporters down there, will ya Dave?

8 Dec

I wrote a note to Chico Area Rec District Director Ann Willmann complaining she doesn’t notice the “public” meetings far enough ahead – wow, lookee see – here’s the notice for a December 16 public meeting:

Second comment meeting over proposed aquatic center planned

Enterprise Record, Staff Reports

CHICO >> A second public meeting about a proposed aquatic center will be hosted by the Chico Area Recreation and Park District.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Chico Community Center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave.

Members of the public who would like to speak about an aquatic center in Chico are invited.

The first meeting was conducted in October by the consultants hired by CARD. Comments were made about the physical layout, possible programs and uses, as well as other CARD programs.

T he t wo me e t i n g s are part of the feasibility study process for the proposed aquatic center. CARD has hired Aquatics Design Group of Carlsbad to perform the feasibility study for about $50,000.

After this second meeting, the consultant will make a presentation to the CARD board about the feasibility of the project, although the issues of cost or how the district will pay for the facility have not been broached.

CARD’s master plan has included the suggestion of an aquatic center for years. Last year, the recreation district determined it would close its swim program at Shapiro Pool, next to Chico Junior High School, because of the poor shape of the pool, which is owned by Chico Unified School District but operated by CARD. CARD owns the other public pool, Pleasant Valley by Bidwell Junior High.

In September, CARD decided to explore how much it would cost to continue operating Shapiro, and hired a pool expert to examine the property. Basically the expert told CARD that the way the facility stands now, it would be a very expensive repair or remodeling project.

Comments regarding the aquatic idea can also be made to CARD General Manager Ann Willmann at annw@chicorec. com or dropped off at the CARD office, 545 Vallombrosa Ave. in Chico

Here’s the problem:

  1. the issue of cost and the issue of how the district will pay for the facility have so been broached. Tom Lando has come right out and mentioned a sales tax increase, and a past consultant raised the issue of placing a bond on district homeowners. Lando ran a survey regarding the sales tax increase and claims people support it, but the survey CARD ran regarding an aquatic center tax came back negative.
  2. the reporter opines that “ that the way the facility stands now, it would be a very expensive repair or remodeling project.” That’s not journalism, and that’s not what the consultant said – he put a price tag of less than $600,000 on the Shapiro remodel. How would you compare that to $10 – 28 million for an aquatic center?  

Who wrote this crap story? I think Laura Urseny wrote it, I’ve been in the ladies room after her, and I know what her crap smells like.  Urseny can’t take criticism, cause she knows it’s true. I’ve criticized her efforts at foisting this pool on the taxpayers, and she can’t take it, so she won’t sign her name to another crap story. As far as I’m concerned, Urseny has become entirely too friendly with agencies like CARD, city of Chico, Chico Chamber – she is so bedded down with these people, she has no objectivity anymore, and has no business calling herself a news reporter.

This is the kind of “campaign” CARD puts up for their aquatic center – nobody really wants to get behind this puppy, cause they know it’s all a bunch of lies. They don’t really intend to build anything folks – they can’t even afford to do the rot work on the Cal Park Pavilion. They need this money to pay the CalPERS deficit, and they need it now. Jerry Hughes isn’t going anywhere, and he still gets a check. Ann Willmann will need a big check to cover her bottom line – $120,000/year in salary, her package costs about $25,000/year, toward which she pays nothing. None of these people have paid anything toward their own pensions, but expect to collect 70 percent of their highest year’s salary, regardless of the shape the economy is in.

I hope you will send your comments to Willmann, and furthermore – ask her how you can view comments made by other members of the public – this is public information and she is supposed to show it to anybody who asks. 

Please write letters to the papers as well. This conversation has been held from the public too long, we need to get it out into the light so people can see what a booger CARD is trying to smear us with. 

Willmann has still not got back to me with the notes from the last public meeting. That is also public information, but see how she drags her feet like a 10 year old when she doesn’t want to do something. 

 

 

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If the city is sincere in helping us fight this Cal Water rate hike (A.15-07-015) , they need to apply for “Intervenor” status

7 Dec

I didn’t watch the last council meeting on tv, but the newspaper mentioned they’d voted to apply for “party” status on the Cal Water Rate increase case (Rate Case A.15-07-015). That’s really not much effort on their part, I’m very disappointed. A “party” can very well be supporting the rate increase. In order to formally protest, you have to get “Intervenor” status. The news story said they might be considering that, but it was pretty lackluster. We need to put a shine on their behinds with some letters/e-mails, get on that will you People.

It’s like watching your child learn to walk. You don’t want to praise or criticize too freely, but it’s hard not to be impatient with these people who expect to get the kind of salaries they get.

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

Would you look at those salaries and comp packages – Mark Orme gets an $82,000 package, in addition to his $225,000/year salary? How can a person who takes that kind of compensation be sincere in helping us out of our financial problems? Mark Orme doesn’t care about our water bill. 

But, according to the $taff report for last week’s meeting, he does care about this bill

 

DSC08174

 

 

 

 

 

This is a summary of the city's Cal Water charges for July 2014 - yeah, that's $29,000 for a month of Cal Water.

This is a summary of the city’s Cal Water charges for July 2014 – yeah, that’s $29,080 and some odd cents for a month of Cal Water. The total check was almost $35,000.

This bill is what I'd call a "pant loader".

This bill is what I’d call a “pant loader”.  There’s Chris Constantin, spending our money.

How does the city use so much water?

 

Each address where the city uses water has separate billing. Here's a $440 bill for irrigating medians out at Cal Park. For one month!

Each address where the city uses water has separate billing. Here’s a $440 bill for irrigating medians out at Cal Park. For one month!

 

Here's the bill for the lawns along one side of Lower Bidwell Park.

Here’s the bill for the lawns along one side of Lower Bidwell Park.

 

DSC08186

Here's the bill for irrigating the medians at Forrest and Springfield. A few months earlier I had called in to report those sprinklers were running all over Forrest Avenue and $taff acted like they didn't even know they had sprinklers on Springfield Drive.

Here are two bills for irrigating the medians near Forrest Ave and  Springfield Drive. A few months earlier I had called in to report those sprinklers were running all over Forrest Avenue and $taff acted like they didn’t even know they had sprinklers there.

 

Hutchinson Greenway?

Hutchinson Greenway?

 

Here's the water bill for all those showers at the Taj Majal fire station on Manzanita. One year the gas bill from showers at the cop shop put the police overbudget.

Here’s the water bill for all those showers at the Taj Majal fire station on Manzanita. I once listened to ex-finance manager Jennifer Hennessy report that the gas bill from showers at the cop shop put the police over budget. 

 

Wait a minute - here's the other half of that bill - over $1200/month to shower a bunch of guys who might put out a fire once a week?

Wait a minute – here’s the other half of that bill – over $1200/month to shower a bunch of guys who might put out a fire once a week?

 

I have other bills for this period. Last year I asked to view the city’s PG&E and Cal Water bills for this period, and took pictures with my little digi-cam. They would have charged me per page to have copies – don’t go for that, they include stuff you don’t need, blank pages, and charge you for it. This digi-cam was one of the best investments I’ve ever made. 

These bills are for 2014, when we already knew we were in a drought and Cal Water was making dire warnings of rate increases, water rationing, punitive fines, etc.  I’ve seen the city waste water on landscaping for years – look at the beds at City hall on a dry day, you will see water run-off. I saw stains from water run-off all around the flower beds when I went to a meeting last week. I’ve turned off my sprinklers over a month ago, the city is still running sprinklers on their flower beds, what, every day? 

To see this kind of waste on the part of our city leaders  when Cal Water is threatening and fining homeowners for watering a postage stamp lawn is very discouraging.

I would like to go down and get the bills for the same period this past July/August, but I don’t know when I will have time. I’ll try to do it soon, before they throw them out. They’re throwing stuff out hand-over-fist down there these days, nothing like a paper trail to get you in the rear end later.

 

 

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Sewer fund in trouble because of developer fee deferrals, transfers to salaries/benefits/pensions – Constantin says we have to raise fees now to avoid big fee increase in future?

3 Dec

Chico Assistant City Manager Chris Constantin assured a group of $taff, council members, and a few members of the public that our sewer treatment plant is in great shape – in the same breath he mentioned a sewage spill at Chico airport. What?  

Constantin was walking a fine line at yesterday’s Finance Committee meeting, trying to assure us that there was no imminent danger, but we better make a plan anyway, so we don’t have any more situations like the above (very quickly mentioned) spill. Not only do we need to maintain our sewer plant, but we need to plan for future hook-ups. He says 20 percent of incorporated Chico is not on sewer, and we need to plan to accommodate those households. I don’t know whether he expects people to hook up voluntarily, or if he is urging some sort of mandate, but he does not seem to think our gazillion dollar poopy ponds will be able to handle it.

He says we need some sort of regular fee increase schedule to avoid big increases in future. 

Yeah, I know – he says this was a concern before we even discussed hooking Paradise to our system. But the council went ahead and told Paradise to “look into it.”  “Look into it” meaning tens of thousands in consulting fees, but whatever, it’s not their money.

Constantin mentioned “nitrates”, as if that is the main concern in getting people to hook up to Chico sewer.

My mom gave me these. She used to go to a lot of these meeting too.

My mom gave me these. She used to go to a lot of these meetings too.

Constantin’s daddy must have been a glass maker, cause I can see right through that guy. It is NOT about the nitrates. That’s the excuse they used to get that grant to run all those lines into certain neighborhoods in town, higher density neighborhoods where they SPECULATE nitrates would be high. They have no proof, no report, nothing that says nitrates are polluting our drinking water. They do have plenty of paperwork involving the old dry cleaning establishments and gas stations around town, but those lawsuits ended up in the turnip patch.

Again people, it’s the Pension Deficit.

I have a stack of financial reports next to me – I’m not an accountant, these spread sheets look like something you’d find in the bathroom after a KISS! concert. I’ll tell you one thing I know – parentheses around numbers mean “shortfall”, “deficit”, – FUND EMPTY and still being used. There are parentheses all over our budget reports, enclosing figures in the hundred thousands and even millions. Millions of dollar of deficit in these funds, and where did it go?

You got to follow those walnut shells People, you’re getting kinda slack. $taff has learned to spin the wheel on us, move money from one pile to another so fast we can’t keep track. In fact, I think council can barely hold on themselves.

Yes, we’re in trouble. Chico is going to become a very expensive town to live in – I know, that’s already happened with the price of homes, which carries up the price of everything else with it. We need to start thinking, not only about all the tax campaigns that are rolling at us, but who we will support for council in 2016. We’ve got a mess on that dais. We have four spend-thrift “fiscal conservatives“, and then we have three liberals who don’t seem to have a clue either. They all spend other people’s money like it grows on trees.

Sheesh! 

The other thing we need to think about is, do we want to go all the way and make Chico Taxpayers a PAC? Right now it’s a registered  website, a discussion  site, but we can go all the way and  register it a PAC – that is what we need to get any respect out of the county recorder so she’ll give us the registered  voters’ list. She says only PAC’s can have the list, that’s her rule. This whole thing is pretty stacked against “grass roots” involvement. If we want to make an impact in 2016, we might want to think about it.

 

 

 

 

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