Dave sent me his email to Chico City Council, asking why they don’t tape the daytime committee meetings and post the video on the website. This is the kind of action we need to take on a regular basis if we want accountability out of Council and Staff.
Yes, it looks a little suspicious when they have these conversations at meetings held during the work day, without any recording, and insufficient notes taken by Staff. Here’s another weird thing a lot of people don’t know – before the minutes are even posted for the public, the committee members are allowed to pick and choose what comments are put in the minutes. So, these meetings most certainly need to be recorded for the public.
Thanks Dave!
Hello City Council Members,
Currently the finance meetings are conducted via Zoom on a weekday
during working hours and as a result most working people are unable to
attend. With Zoom these meetings can be recorded and made available to
the public on-line. Yet staff refuses to record the meetings and make
them available on-line, stating there is no policy requiring them to do so.
Since taxpayers are already paying for Zoom and Zoom has the ability to
easily record and make the meetings available to the public can you tell
me why this is not being done? Is there no policy and if so why?
Why would you limit transparency of government finances, especially at a
time you want a tax increase and a pension obligation bond?
If you need a formal request from the public for a policy requiring
staff to record the meetings and make them available to the public
online then I formally make that request with this email. Please
agendize an item on the next council meeting to create this policy.
Thank you.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
Regarding that email, I have had no response from any of the council members. I also raised the issue in a prior email to Morgan, Reynolds and Coolidge. They also didn’t bother responding to that email. I even left voice mail for Reynolds and never heard back.
So they plan to raise our taxes and get us even deeper in debt and keep the finance meetings as opaque as possible. People really should be disgusted. Isn’t democracy great? And the colonists thought taxation without representation was bad.
Isn’t it obvious no one on this council represents (and never will) the hard working taxpayers who have to pay their bills? Their only concern is for the special interests.
And where is the media? I sent Mike Wolcott, editor of the Chico ER, an email regarding this. I asked him what the public can do about this and asked if his paper will cover any of this. No response from him either. What ever happened to the so-called “media watch dogs?”
Thanks Dave, I believe it’s important to let these people know they are under scrutiny. I don’t think we’re the only people who are unhappy with the closed meetings, the taxes, and the general state of the city.