Have you seen the new CPOA proposal?

Tonight is the last meeting of the current city council. The next meeting will begin the new “conservative” SUPER MAJORITY. I just like writing that in all caps, because I don’t know if people realize what it means.

Simply put, it means the five “conservatives” can do whatever they agree to among themselves, and the new “infinitesimal minority” of Brown and Huber will have to sit on their thumbs the next couple of years.

Of course I expect Huber to ingratiate himself with the conservatives.

But tonight, the last “elected at large” council will be discussing new contracts for Chico Police Officers Association, the old contract set to expire in December. I’ve been trying to look over the proposals since last week when I got the agenda, but they are onerously huge files that I can’t open with my dinky little internet connection. Why they aren’t displayed at the Human Resources page alongside the expired agreement is beyond me – well, no it’s not, they obviously don’t want us to see it. So, I have not seen the new proposal that will be discussed, in closed session, at tonight’s closed council meeting. 

Have you?  Cause if you go to the city website and direct yourself to the “minutes and agendas” page, look at tonight’s agenda, and then scroll down and open the reports and hit the links, here are some specific items I wish you would look for:

1. Mandatory overtime
2. STO
3. CTO

And then go to this link, below, and re-read this post, because I don’t have time to go over all this again.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2020/07/10/take-a-cup-of-ot-and-add-a-cup-and-a-half-of-cto-pour-in-some-sto-and-you-get-an-iou/

I tried to have this conversation with my district rep, Kasey Reynolds, but she played dumb. I just wrote the following note to the city clerk and asked her to forward it to the full council:

Dani, I know how hard you work, but I can’t download or even preview these documents. 

This is a problem – the public obviously isn’t let in on this conversation. Most people in town don’t have time to look at this stuff – I got it late Thursday, and staff was out of office by Friday noon.  Most people probably wouldn’t understand it if they did read it – they are purposely written in onerous language. I always wonder how many council members really read or understand these contracts. I’m a landlady, I know people just sign stuff without reading it, I often wonder how many council members do that. 

But council continues to agree to stuff like “CTO”, and “STO”, and all the other perks and benies that make these people outrageously over paid. According to Scott Dowell, public safety, especially CPOA, make up over half our UAL. And only pay 12 – 15% toward pensions of 90% of salaries over $100,000, plus perks like getting paid for not working (CTO, STO).

I’m including Mike Wolcott in this email because I’d like to see more about the contracts in the newspaper. This is why our town is tanking. And Staff’s only solution is to put our town over our heads in debt with a Pension Obligation Bond.

Other towns are talking about switching to 401K’s – Chico has already given Orme a 457 Plan in addition to his pension, an extra $20,000 year, while Orme claims no employees have had raises? Orme also got a raise when he agreed to pay his own “employee share,” previously paid in full by the taxpayers. 

Meanwhile, our park is a wreck, our streets are shredded, and crime is outrageous. This is on the “conversative” majority. You guys can’t blame this wreck on the liberals anymore. If you approve the CPOA contracts without any concessions from the union you are putting another nail in our town coffin. 

Tags: City of Chico conservative Super Majority