Archive | October, 2020

Voting is FUN-damental! Here are some thoughts on our local, state and national ballot

12 Oct

With the election just weeks away, I’ve already received, filled out, and mailed in my ballot. I believe mail in voting is at least as reliable as going to the polls on election day after the weird experiences I’ve had and heard about at polling stations.

But it looks like a lot of people are still scratching their heads – every day, I see searches here for “recommendations.” After my attempt at endorsing council candidates, I’m not telling anybody how to vote, but sure, I’ll tell you how I voted, and why.

My district council member is not up in this election, but I think Stone, Schwab and Morgan are the best bets in their districts. Stone has stood up twice to push back on bad tax measures intended to pay down our staggering CalPERS liability. While Schwab and Morgan want the bond measure, I don’t believe their challengers would not want same. Especially Kami Denlay, whose husband is a cop in another county. And I believe Stone’s challenger, Andrew Coolidge would also support the bond measure. So, I hope those three prevail in their districts. I don’t have any opinion in Dist 7, except good luck to all of you!

I tried to make an intelligent vote in the school board race. I think the incumbents need to be turned out, having approved too many raises for the teachers union. I voted for Matt Tennis – primarily because he is not a school district employee, and he has some political background, so, hopefully he won’t be a dupe for the unions. I voted for Michael Johnson, also because he is not a school district employee. The main difference between the two is that Tennis wants the schools open but Johnson has leaned toward remote learning.

For the CARD board, I feel Lando needs to go, so went with Worley, an incumbent, and John Merz, who at least attended those “informational” meetings that Ann Willmann ran to promote Measure A (parcel tax). Merz has had his dick in the local political scene for as long as I remember, and I wouldn’t trust him not to vote for another attempt at some sort of tax. Worley either. So, I’d say, we need to keep an eye on this board over the next few months. I can’t believe they’ve given up on a revenue measure. Judging from what I just found out about the city’s UAL (they weren’t telling us about the interest…) I bet CARD’s UAL is a lot bigger than it was last time I checked.

As for the state propositions, Prop 15 is sufficient reason to vote. A blatant snatch at Prop 13, this measure attempts to raises taxes on commercial properties, including apartment complexes – even family farms. This would raise the price of everything, starting with food and rent. And, I believe the proponents of this measure ultimately want Prop 13 completely gone, so the state can go about reassessing private homes.

If you don’t get it, you need to watch “Happy Gilmore”. Yes, they would put Grandma out of her house. And Newsom would tell her she’s better off in assisted living!

I voted a big NO on most of the propositions, with two exceptions – I voted YES on Prop 20, which undoes some of the damage of AB109, and Prop 22, which exempts “app-based drivers” from union membership. I hope Prop 20 passes, and that it will have some trickle down effect on our local courts and police policy. And, I think Prop 22 would beat back a strong-arm union tactic to bolster their membership and bring in more dues for their political machine.

The other important issue for me was the Presidency. A question you have to ask yourself is, have I/my family/my friends prospered under this incumbent? For me that’s a resounding YES. Obama was horrible for my family. The thing I remember most clearly is that the price of insurance and health care went through the roof. The cost of everything went up, up, up. Obama declared war not only on Republican politicians, he declared his hatred for the people who voted them in.

Biden also seems to hate America. And he says he will put even more restrictions on our behavior if he is elected. The Democrats are determined to use COVID to kill President Trump. That blew up in their faces – he looks healthy as a bull. I think it’s great that Trump got COVID, showing us what’s really going on here – this shut down is all about taking Trump out. Well, that didn’t work. What the Democrats have instead accomplished is massive unemployment and businesses going under in cities across the country.

I thought Donald Trump was a jackass as a private citizen, but I like the job he’s done as president, and I voted to give him four more years.

I also voted for LaMalfa and Gallagher, simply because of the work they did to make sure Paradise got money to rebuild. Governor Gavin Newsom cried crocodile tears, and then tried to deny state money to help Paradise Irrigation District restore their system.

I’m glad I voted. I do worry about fraud – I think “ballot harvesting” is a real phenomenon. I believe there is an active push to register non-citizens. I believe the Democrats have operatives at places like the college – watch the news, and ask yourself – what is Democratic operative Michael Worley doing at the college on Election Day? Ballot harvesting. It’s illegal to campaign at the polls, but it can be very subtle, and there’s nobody to stop it.

Something to remember when you look at your ballot and think of turning away in disgust is that lower voter turnout lowers the threshold for getting measures on the ballot – the number of signatures required is based on how many voted in the last election.

Enjoy!

Here’s the video from that Sept 23 Finance Comm meeting – ever wonder what people are saying about your money behind your back?

9 Oct

Oh yeah, I’m still talking about the September 23 Finance Committee meeting.

After I went to so much trouble to get the video on flash drive, I asked the clerk why it isn’t just posted on the website, like council meetings, her response:

“I can provide it on an USB but we can’t post it to the website. If we started it with this one meeting we couldn’t sustain it because the video only exists because we used WebEx.  Once we go back to in person meetings, those meetings won’t be recorded. Does that make sense?  “

I’m not sure how to respond. I’ve been asking them to record and post the morning meetings for years, and now that they’ve got Chico Engaged I really don’t understand why they don’t record and post all the meetings. They just created a new, management level, position – “Public Information Officer” at over $100,000/year in salary, just to create a new city website, and I assume, manage it. But they still can’t record and post videos of the meetings?

Well, Dave sent me a link to a website where you can load just about any file you want and make it public – FOR FREE. It’s called “Go File”

https://gofile.io

So, I copied the USB the clerk gave me onto my laptop, and I uploaded it at Go File. Wham, bam, thanks for nothin’, Ma’am. Here’s the link they created for me.

https://gofile.io/d/zqp5BI

Hit the link and there it is, the meeting. It’s a must watch, because they are talking about YOU, and YOUR MONEY, as if you weren’t there.

Oh yeah, there’s going to be a quiz.

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Chico taxpayers are guaranteeing the stock and bond market returns of the well heeled, well paid city officials.

8 Oct

I got a great comment from BC today, I didn’t want it buried in the comments section. Thanks BC, for this spot-on analysis of what they’re trying to pull Downtown.

From BC:

As a general rule, I don’t spend much time worrying about how the failures of municipal government affect rich people. If you are rich, you are far less effected by the bad decisions of a ineffective and thoughtless municipal governing structure,

If you hit a pot hole, you simply go out and lease a new $125,000 BMW or Mercedes, or at least have your $1200 dollar alloy wheel straightened. ( And detail the car while you are at it) If they raise a use tax or add a bond interest, you just write the check-electronic bill pay is painless. It doesn’t matter that the One-Mile is a poorly maintained, unsafe, drug infested crime area, because you avoid it by taking your family to a private swim and tennis club. And why worry about the homeless camping in the park, when you vacation in Italy/Florida/Hawaii/Colorado/etc.

The folks I worry about are the population most effected by expensive municipal decisions. While municipal rule making predominately serves the civic employees who write the rules, the most significant negative impacts of poor municipal government are felt by minorities, people of color, the poor and disabled, and those who depend on City Services. Its not a stretch to say that in Chico (as in Sacramento and Washington) the political class makes decisions that impoverish the most vulnerable while insulating themselves from the impact of their decisions.

Which brings us to the inequity of municipal pensions.

One of the most important benefits of a municipal pension, is that the taxpayers insulate the pensioner from CalPers Investment loss. Start with the assumption that the city makes a “full” pension contribution to CalPers each year. (They don’t) A full contribution would be defined as that contribution, which if it earns the CalPers projected rate of return, would grow into a large enough sum to pay the retirement benefits earned by the employees for that initial year of contribution. And CalPers says that they will earn 7% per year, net to the fund, after fees and charges. And if they fall short, who pays? The taxpayers, that’s who! Chico taxpayers are guaranteeing the stock and bond market returns of the well heeled, well paid city officials. Chico taxpayers with an average income of $24,900, who dont own a stock or a bond and live paycheck to paycheck, are guaranteeing pensions for the city’s privileged employees.

If that makes your eyes glaze over, try this: Im going to take $100 million dollars ($100,000,000) go over to the local Indian Casino. Im going to gamble it in the hopes of making a $7 million dollar profit. If Im lucky, I get to keep the $7 million. If I lose, the taxpayers in the City of Chico will borrow that money, give it to me, and pay off their indebtedness over the next 30 years.

To use a credit card example: The City has run up so much credit card debt, that they cant even make the minimum payment. So while they keep spending at the same or greater rate, they mortgage the house to pay down the credit cards. It ends when you lose the house-Bankruptcy. Along the way the can’t pay to keep the house up (deteriorating municipal facilities), cant fix the driveway (potholes and streets), cant afford a security system (fire and police), and eventually can not afford to put food on the table for the family (homeless).

And the folks who will suffer are the people who depend the most on city cervices which can never be adequately funded because the spending on entitlements for the rich folks just never stop.

The Elephant in Election 2020: The pension deficit and staff’s efforts to shift the burden fully onto the taxpayers

7 Oct

Yes, I am still pissed off about being locked out of the Finance Committee meeting two weeks ago. But, I got a flash drive from staff, and having loaded it onto my laptop, I will post that video asap, with my usual snappy narrative. 

I wish I had waited until I saw the  meeting. I had endorsed all three members of that committee – frankly, on a “lesser of evils” strategy. After I watched the meeting, I found myself even more in support of Randall Stone, while my feelings for Morgan and Schwab have cooled considerably. 

I still say those latter two are the best bet (mind you, we’re talking about gambling) in their respective races, but I can’t endorse them. If they were horses I’d turn them out to pasture. Both of them voted to take this Pension Obligation/Lease Revenue Bond scam to the full council. But I don’t expect their challengers would have done any different. They all have a vested interest in funding the pensions. 

Finance Committee Chair Stone was the one who reminded everybody at the meeting that the consultant’s proposal was assuming CalPERS would achieve their full investment target of 7%. The consultant acknowledged this fact, adding,  I quote, “but we know that’s not going to happen…”  He repeated almost those exact words several times in the subsequent conversation.

Even though Morgan acknowledged same – “we’re certainly not going to fix CalPERS, I don’t expect they’re ever going to do any better on returns…” – he also said “we owe it to staff...” to continue the conversation with full council. Schwab agreed. Admitting that the conversation “raised a lot of questions,” she predicted the consultant would have a “much better, more prepared presentation for council.” Yes, I’m sure he will, having heard the criticisms of the plan, he will downplay the risks and play up the supposed benefits. 

Stone was the only committee member to speak plainly about the risks of these schemes – namely, the CalPERS debt and the bond debt will be paid ahead of any other expenses, including staffing and services – including law enforcement and fire personnel. The consultant spelled that out very clearly under the power point heading “Eyes Wide Open to Risks” .  If these proposals were ski runs they would be labeled “Black Diamond”.

Stone was the only one to openly discuss the truth behind these bonds. ” I’m uncomfortable shifting the burden from the beneficiaries to the rest of the city.” Meaning, not only does this proposal shift the burden of payment from the employees to the taxpayers, it shifts our resources away from services to paying the pensions. Period. Both the consultant and Chris Constantin made it clear this was a risky proposal that could bottom out our General Fund and cause layoffs. The consultant specifically mentioned public safety. So, this proposal to guarantee the pensioners their pensions would come at the cost of future employees, and that means, city services.  

The pension deficit and staff’s efforts to shift the burden fully onto the taxpayers is the Elephant in the upcoming election, but nobody cares? Chair Stone announced that no other members of the public had signed in, having acknowledged that I couldn’t get in. So, I’m pretty sure the only candidates who “attended” the meeting were the committee members. I wonder where the challengers stand on any of this? You might want to ask your candidate about that, if your district is on the ballot. 

The consultant set a timeline for this bond – including the discussion period – staff hopes to be signing off on this deal by next spring. So the public needs to weigh in. Now, because, the “upside” to these bonds, as pointed out by the consultant, is there’s no “validation process,” meaning, no voter approval. Is that really okay with you? 

It’s not okay with me, so I wrote a letter about it:

The city Finance Committee discussed restructuring the pension debt – now at over $280,000,000, including $140,000,000 interest. Two schemes presented: 1) Pension Obligation Bond, 2) Lease Revenue Bonds, using our city streets as collateral. The borrowed money would be invested. Ideally, the investments would pay off, and staff would make bigger UAL payments, eventually achieving a lower interest rate from CalPERS.

There is a razor’s edge to this proposal. Worst case and very likely scenario: both CalPERS and the city fail to meet their investment goals, the taxpayers end up owing both the bond investors and CalPERS.

Committee member Randall Stone commented that the consultant’s recommendation assumes a CalPERS investment return of 7%. The consultant acknowledged this fact, admitting, “but we all know this isn’t going to happen.”

Staffer Chris Constantin added, if the city’s not able to pay, “they could forcibly take the money from the General Fund… “ without regard to direct impacts on staffing and services. The consultant reported that a large Southern California county may soon lay off public safety personnel “so they don’t violate their bond covenants.”

Stone voted NO, commenting, ”I’m uncomfortable shifting the burden from the beneficiaries to the rest of the city.” Members Schwab and Morgan voted YES. Morgan admitted he doesn’t expect CalPERS “will ever do any better on their returns…” Schwab concurred.

The Government Finance Officers Association does not recommend these bonds, their first objection being CalPERS’ history of poor returns. What are Schwab and Morgan thinking?

 

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Staff pushing for a “revenue measure” with “no validation process” (election!) – Wake up Chico, you are being had

2 Oct

I like to quote long time Chico Enterprise letter write Doug Hammett, above is the line he used to end his frequent letters to the editor. He wrote extensively about the Redevelopment Agency – a scam by which the city of Chico and other agencies borrowed money based on the annual 1% tax increment that is added to our property taxes – at an interest rate of $3 for every $1 spent. Hammett was right, we were taking on way too much debt, and that agency finally tanked. The city still gets some funding from the property tax scam, but is not allowed to go as into debt as they were in past.

So, as bad as things can get, if the voters and taxpayers would only stand up and push back, we can change things. That’s why I keep doing this – it’s better than laying there for a total screwing. You have to watch these people, or they will take the first opportunity to lie, cheat and steal. (Eddie Guerrero)

On September 23 I tried to “participate” in a City of Chico Finance Committee meeting. It was being held “remotely”, with members of the committee ZOOMing in. The public was supposed to be able to participate via “Webex.”

This isn’t the first meeting I’ve tried to “attend” using Webex. When I tried to get into a Finance Committee meeting earlier this year, I was unable to log in. So, on Sept 23, I started trying to log in a full half hour before the meeting, and ended up working with Staff for about 45 minutes before the IT guy tells me my internet service is not adequate to carry the meeting.

So, the meeting was held anyway, and I’ll tell you what – that’s ILLEGAL.

Years ago, when Ruben Martinez was our Public Works director, I attended a morning committee meeting in one of those same little rooms. After the meeting had started, a woman came to the door and tried to get in. The door was locked. She started banging on the door, yelling loudly that it is illegal to lock the public out of a public meeting.

Well, yes, it is. The clerk got very flustered, the meeting came to a halt. The door knob was actually broken. Luckily Martinez was there with his trusty Leatherman tool. He took the doorknob apart and let the woman in. I seriously doubt our current PW director Eric Gustafson could have done same, I very sincerely doubt he carries a Leatherman. His hands are too soft and his fingernails are almost effeminate.

But I don’t have a lawyer, so I won’t sue the city. Instead I got back to the clerk’s office and asked if the meeting was recorded. Yes, they said, and I could get that on a DVD for an overnight use, or I could lay down $15 and buy myself a copy. I opted for the loan. I got on my 60 year old bike Tuesday morning and I pedaled down to the city building, Standing in the parking lot I masked up and pulled out my cell phone to call the clerk’s office. The building is closed, you have to make an appointment, and then you have to call up to have somebody come down.

I was really excited, I have a DVD player, I had chores to do in the house – I visualized my productive day of cooking and watching the meeting. No such luck – it wasn’t a DVD, it was a CD, and I don’t have a desk top size computer to play it on.

I won’t blame Staff here, I know they do what they’re told. But I got a comment from a friend of mine – Webex includes a feature by which these meetings can be recorded and loaded onto the city website for everybody to watch. I asked about that, but instead Staff came back to me offering a flash drive that I could play in my laptop.

So I saddled up Old Myrt and I pedaled back down to the city building the next morning. I don’t mind saying, the streets are a mess, and Bidwell Park looks like shit. No, I don’t feel particularly safe. As I approached City Hall a old man with a shopping cart loaded to the sky mosied across the street, right in front of me – luckily my husband just installed new brake cables.

The clerk was really nice, those gals are just doing their jobs. She handed me the flash drive and I got back on my bike to beat it home. I used to enjoy riding my bike around town, now I find it onerous due to horrible streets, speeding cars, and garbage, bums and illegal tents all over the park.

I work for a living, and my days are busy. I had already spent at least 5 hours trying to view this meeting. Why? Because, having failed to get council to come together to put a tax measure on the ballot, Staff is now talking about an option that will exclude the voters, a bond that does not require the “validation process.” AKA, “an election”.

The consultant who announced “the upside”. We’ll get back to the “downside” later.

Hey, did you know the Cozy is open for DINE IN? I had coffee with some friends of mine there recently, NO MASK!

So, I have to ask – why are we still putting up with these closed meetings? It’s as obvious as that wart on the end of your nose that they are using this bullshit COVID “mandate” to keep us out of the meetings, for the very obvious reason that they are trying to pull some shit. Duh! DOUBLE DUH!

Wake up ‘Merica, I think we are about to be had.

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