Do you wonder if the Right Hand knows what the Left Hand is doing at the City of Chico?
Our Chamber of Commerce shill, Katie Simmons, says we’re broke and need money – but at the same time the city is spending $350,000 on a makeover for city chambers?
http://krcrtv.com/station/chico-council-chamber-upgrade-will-improve
New seats? There was nothing wrong with the old seats, Folks. New carpet? And claims that we couldn’t see the meetings adequately from our computers? That’s all melarkey as far as I’m concerned – I’ve attended meetings recently in that chamber, I’ve watched on my computer, even with my poor computer service, the meetings are perfectly watchable on the computer.
The story says the grant was for $350,000, but the job will cost $175 – 225,000? And it comes from an “public education grant”. So I e-mailed staff and asked them, how much total money was received and exactly where it came from. We’ll see what response I get.
I’m guessing there was plenty of money in that grant for greasing a few palms.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
It’s no surprise Katie is shilling for tax increases when her salary and other Chamber of Commerce expenses are paid for by grants from the city government. Let’s face it, the Chamber is just an extension of the city government.
This being the case, it seems to me the people the Chamber represents are not the average Chico business person, but in fact the special interests the city government represents, such as the public employee unions. Why do you think Katie wants a tax increase for police and mentions nothing about reining in out of control city pensions or unnecessary expenses like what you mention in this post?
We need to get rid of all city (and any other taxpayer funding) of the Chico Chamber of Commerce so the Chamber will represent the average Chico business person and not the special interests. And besides, why should taxpayers be funding an organization that is supposed to represent businesses? Why can’t businesses fund their own organizations?
I would say the answer to the question below is a definite yes.
Does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Equal Crony Capitalism?
https://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/sectors/item/18890-does-the-u-s-chamber-of-commerce-equal-crony-capitalism
On a related note, at the State of the City speech, one of the powerpoint slides the mayor showed indicated that in the last year the city has repaved “74,000 sqft of city streets” 74,000 sqft is less than half a mile. Chico has 260 miles of streets. At that rate it will take them over 500 years to repair the streets.
I wonder what the street I live on would look like if they spent $343,287.67 on it.
Will you be covering the upcoming City Council elections at all? Maybe a Chico Taxpayers voting guide? I would love to hear your thoughts on the candidates. Thanks!
I’m not sure who all is running, haven’t heard much yet. I would advise the voters – go to meetings, read the minutes posted from past meetings, read the staff reports. This way you see how the incumbents have performed and you have questions for the newbies to answer.