Archive | May, 2022

City’s new budget, as usual, puts the pensions ahead of everything else

20 May

The word for the day is “stagflation”. There will be a quiz later.

City of Chico passed a new budget the other night. When my family does a budget, we write down all the stuff we usually spend money on and see where we might be able to tighten our belts, you know, quit eating out, quit buying new clothes, don’t use the car too much, etc. When the city of Chico makes their budget, they look at how much money is or might be available, and then go about finding ways to spend it.

And in my family, when we come into a windfall, we think of ways to spend it that will have long term benefits, like fix the roof or update the plumbing. You know, spend money to save money. But look at some of the drunken sailor on Saturday night kind of spending the city of Chico has done with two years of unprecedented budget surplus. Did they fix the street in front of your house? Did they give more people free sewer hook-ups to solve the nitrates problem? How about cleaning up the park and cutting some of those dead and dying trees away from the power lines before the town burns down?

Feeling pretty confident in light of record windfalls, council increased the city budget by roughly one third, $68 million, to about $211 million a year. Unfortunately this is all “windfall money” – “federal pandemic funding, such as the American Rescue Plan, and other project grants, such as from the Department of Transportation.” Most was allocated to the police department, increasing their budget to almost what the entire city budget was when I started this blog. Then $12.2 million to the Unfunded Actuarial Liability, or Pension Deficit – up from $11.7 million last year. As for roads, I did not see any specific figures or projects mentioned in that report. No mention of the sewer or nitrate. No specific park projects. Just increases for the cops and the pensions.

“Road improvements and affordable housing remain top issues to address in the coming fiscal year, according to the report, along with allocating a portion of this budget to operating its new homeless pallet shelter site. Overall, however, its largest financial challenge is its increasing contributions to CalPERS retirement benefits to city employees, both past and present. “

Talking to a reporter from Ch 7 news, Chico interim city manager Paul Hahn confirmed my belief that the pensions come before “ public safety issues that we could like to address in greater detail. The whole issue of fentanyl and drugs in our community... “

That’s it folks, if we want to see any of our real problems addressed, we have to pass their sales tax measure. “There’s a lot of projects we’d love to fund but just don’t have the resources for,”says Hahn. “That’s part of the reason why there’s a discussion of an additional sales tax measure that could be on the ballot this November.”

Yes, just “part” of the reason. The other part is the bond Bob has been mentioning. Coolidge has said he wants to use sales tax proceeds to secure a bond or bonds. For what he didn’t say, but remember, the city tried to get a Pension Obligation Bond, that’s their real intention, is pay off the pensions without any additional contributions from the employees.

Hahn also said most of the funding for the pensions comes from CalPERS investments, that’s simply not true. The taxpayers pay the biggest share, paying both the payroll “employer” contribution AND the ENTIRE annual “catch up” payment – you see they’ve budgeted $12.2 million this year, up a half million from last year. That came out of our operating budget, at the expense of our streets, our sewer system, our parks and our general quality of life and feeling of well-being. Meanwhile the employees pay as little as 9% of their own retirement costs.

Hahn seems like an idiot, I always respected him as county CAO, but he comes off very insensitive to the situation of the taxpayers. He says “Their [the employees] retirement comes from some contributions from the employees, contributions from the city and most of it comes from, basically, investments in CalPERS. Just like your 401(k)… “

What an ASS – this guy is the city manager, he’s managed the county, and he doesn’t mention THE TAXPAYERS? And then he ASSumes we all get 401(k)’s? What planet does this guy live on? Oh yeah, he lives on that little planet, out there somewhere, where everybody makes in excess of $100,000 a year, and their pensions are GUARANTEED BY THE TAXPAYERS.

Here’s the story they posted on KRCR news – please note, they call it “taxpayer dollars”… –

https://krcrtv.com/news/chicos-upcoming-211-million-budget-proposed-to-tackle-homelessness-roads-and-housing

“Stagflation” next time, on This Old Lady Calls Out the Bullshitters

Right now we have an opportunity to eliminate two management positions – tell your district rep we need to cut our “top heavy” management instead of raise taxes and rates on the working class

17 May

Inflation – it’s the ‘I’ word. You’ve seen it – the price of almost everything my husband and I buy at the grocery store has increased sharply lately, having been steadily increasing over the course of the COVID shut-down. Here’s an example – I eat a lot of bananas – bananas have gone up about 20 cents a pound over the last two or three months.

The drivers – gas and utilities. It’s not hard to see how those commodities affect the price of everything else.

You can scream at Joe Biden all you want – he can’t hear you. Better to scream at your local politicians, your county and city representatives. They have done nothing to help, in fact, they’ve gone about raising the cost of living with just about every action they take. Tonight the city of Chico is talking terms of sale with Cal Water, offering them the city sewer system. YOUR sewer system folks. You’ve watched Cal Water hike your water rates, wait until they’re in charge of the sewer!

The city of Chico has already allowed Waste Management to jack up your garbage fees and impose new fees, they’ve stuck Comcast with fees that are passed along in your cable bill, and they’ve allowed PG&E to raise rates at will without any protest to the Cal Public Utilities Commission. Now they want to sell the sewer to Cal Water, just for money to pay down their pensions.

Don’t wait until Cal Water tells you they are jacking your water AND sewer rates to pay for those pipelines running up the Skyway, carrying sewage and water from Paradise ($$$$$$$). Say something NOW. Tell your district rep you know this has to go before the voters, and you’re going to join Chico Taxpayers Association in opposing it.

And tell them you are going to work hard to beat their sales tax measure. It’s a SHAKE DOWN Folks. The city’s biggest debt right now is the pensions, don’t let them fill your pants with lies.

I’ve had a little gadfly city employee coming around telling me to put a sock in it – I’ll say, join me Jeremy. You’re a worker, we need more guys like you, but we need them to be affordable. Your wages raise the price of everything, Mr. Lazarus, your pension deficit is KILLING OUR TOWN. You need to get that through your head, and then tell your co-workers to step up and pay more of their own benefits.

And we need to join together to demand cuts to management. Why do we need TWO CITY MANAGERS? Let’s promote Jennifer McCarthy to city manager and get rid of the Ass Mangler position. We also just lost Admin Services Director Scott Dowell, and his assistant ASD is now the “interim” ASD – just promote her, and dump her old position. Let’s get rid of that double-team in every department, we’ll SAVE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN PENSIONS AND BENEFITS.

Be vigilant and be active, we can do it.

UPDATE: I just received the agenda for next weeks Finance Committee meeting – they are jacking up the builder fees, which just raises the cost of housing – this is how the city of Chico GETS EVERYTHING WRONG.

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Why, after two years of unprecedented budget surpluses, is the city of Chico still so far behind on infrastructure maintenance?

10 May

I got a really rude comment from a city employee named Jeremy Lazarus.

“You’re article is completely full of lies. As a City of Chico public works employee who struggles to feed my family, I take your words as an attack on myself and my children. You lie in every article you write concerning pension liability. You never have any receipts for your claims. FYI, I am also a conservative. You clearly have zero understanding of city operations and how they are funded. I’m open to a conversation but you owe me and my coworkers an apology for these attacks and pinning the public against us hard working fellow TAX PAYERS.“

Wow, there’s a mouthful. Receipts for my claims? All I could respond with was that I get my information from staff, from agenda reports, and from the budget, posted on the city website.

Thanks Bob, for your response to, “You lie in every article you write concerning pension liability.” Bob responds, “Every article? Well, the unfunded pension liability numbers from past discussions were taken straight out of the City’s CAFRs reports. Are you saying those numbers are lies?

“Taking all the name calling and emotions out of this, ask yourself one simple question. Can the taxpayers afford the pensions? Looking at the current unfunded liability and its current growth how can the answer be yes?“

Thanks for that rational take Bob, we need to keep our heads here. Mr. Lazarus is a new employee, and he’s not management, so it’s true, he doesn’t make the kind of salary the department heads are making, and he pays more of his pension costs (due to the “Pension Reform” act of 2013). But his argument that I’m a liar is irrational. I have to wonder if these people are being told by management to argue anybody who takes a dim view of the tax measure. No holds barred.

He says he’s “open to a conversation” – well, here’s a question for you Mr. Lazarus – how come there are people all over the incorporated city who have been waiting years to hook up to sewer? What’s the hold up? The city had an unprecedented surplus the last couple of years, due in part to Camp Fire relief and COVID emergency funding, not to mention sales tax revenues generated by both of those and other emergencies. How come the sewer lines are still not complete?

Becca reports, “We bought a house in North Chico 15 years ago. Through the whole process everyone made sure to point out that the house had been annexed into the city for services namely, sewer hook up. I probably don’t need to say anymore for you to know where I’m going with this. That’s correct. 15 years and I’m still sitting on a delapidated septic tank that I’ve invested in repairs what the hookup fees are. Here’s the fun part. City lines were put in all the way down a main street EXCEPT THE LAST 2 BLOCKS where it DEAD ENDS into another street that has lines in it as well. All plumbed except 2 blocks BETWEEN the two streets. When I called last year to get the what’s up, I was told I had to poll my neighbors, write up a request, submit it and wait. I was also informed it would take a while IF IT HAPPENED AT ALL as there were other “pressing” issues. So, there it is. Chico has not completed the leaching nitrates problem. The kicker for me as I understood the nitrate issue was take care of high nitrate areas first.“

That’s outrageous. I’ve heard other stories at meetings and from neighbors, including the shock and awe of the city’s hook-up fees. So, how come so many people around town, including Becca above, are still waiting for the trunk lines to be completed on their street?

The other point she brings up is leaching nitrates, a problem we have heard much about since the 1990s. Old septic tanks and sewer lines were blamed. The city got grant funding to hook up households to existing sewer lines, for FREE. That’s great, but really unfair to those households who didn’t have trunk lines on their street. Why didn’t the city also undertake a push to finish trunk lines? The more people hooked up the more monthly fees they collect from those new households. It shouldn’t cost more to service more people, it should bring in more revenues.

The sewer fund, like all the city funds, is tapped every year by a certain percentage to pay for the unfunded pension liability, pension deficit, Unfunded Actuarial Liability, whatever you want to call it. Look in the budget, available on the city website, and put those terms into the F-search. Search “pension stabilization trust”. You’ll see exactly how much money is taken from infrastructure and services to pay the pensions. I found out, they take 10% of the UAL from every department fund to put into the PST (Fund 904), and the Pension Liability Reserve Fund (903), which are used to make the annual “extra” payments to CalPERS.

The highest contribution any employee group makes toward the pensions is less than 30% – I got that in a spread sheet from Chico City Human Resources Dept. The taxpayers pay the rest, with CalPERS making one poor investments performance after another. And then we pay the entire “extra” payment, with interest. Somehow, despite increasing “extra payments,” City of Chico deficit just keeps going up, currently about $150 million. So we drive on sub-par streets and put up with nitrates in our ground water, we put up with violence in our streets and homes while our parks and public spaces are overrun with crime and garbage, but our deficit just keeps going up. The taxpayers have paid enough, it’s time to look at the employee contribution.

Not only would I propose that the employees pay more, I’d propose that they contribute the same percentage into the pension “extra” payment funds established by the city, the Pension Stabilization Trust and the CalPERS Unfunded Liability Reserve Fund.

But here’s something I’ve said for a long time, and I wish Mr. Lazarus would do his homework, cause I think he might agree with me here – we need to cut management, and make them pay more. We need fewer management and more workers.

What do you think Mr. Lazarus?

BC! You magnificent bastard! I read your comment, and you’ve hit that nail right on the head! We’ve got FLEAS!

7 May

Did you ever get so disgusted you just couldn’t move? Couldn’t act? Couldn’t even COMPLAIN? That’s how I’ve been feeling lately, I call it “blog stop”. It’s like being in front of a moving train in a stalled car. Should I get out and make a run for it? Or just keep cranking the key and mashing on the pedal? If that were really the situation, sure, I’d bail – I have good insurance. But I like my home in Chico, I like my friends, I have DNA at the cemetery, and we’ve invested a lot of money here.

I know, we’re all making tough decisions right now. Gotta keep a clear head, not a good idea to make important decisions in a panic.

For me, the focus is how the city spends money, and right now, most of the money is going into the pensions. Here’s what BC had to say about it:

As you know, it all comes back to employee pensions and benefits. Until those items come under control there will never be money for anything else.

Correct, as of now, the biggest debt the city has is the CalPERS liability. The city has established two funds that are dedicated toward this debt, the money can’t be spent on anything else. These funds are filled by allocating money from every other city fund, from the roads to the sewer. Isn’t that weird – the roads fund isn’t restricted, the sewer funds isn’t restricted, but the pension fund is restricted to one purpose? Paying the pensions. That should tell you exactly where the city’s priorities lay. Because “the city” isn’t made of citizens, it’s made of employees.

The outsourcing of city services such as sewer and water is just another symptom of the bigger problem. The service gets outsourced. You would think that the personnel who used to provide the service and their benefits and the costs would all be a net savings after the asset was sold. But the payroll never goes down, the expenses never go down and the taxpayers are left with an additional cost to pay in addition to their property taxes.

BC, you magnificent bastard – my apologies to your mother – but you have hit that nail, hit it hard! Right on the head! Like I’ve said before, they are double-ending us on these services. First they take our taxes on the ruse that they will do something for our benefit, and then they outsource those services to an agency we have to pay AGAIN! No, they don’t fire the employees when they sell the sewer, and we’re on the hook for their pension deficit anyway.

You can outsource legal services, you can outsource document services, you can outsource the fire and tDOWN,,, you can outsource almost every function that city government should provide and so the tax base coming in can be used for pensions and benefits while no services are provided.

Yep, there it is – they will sell the sewer, and take the money into their pension funds, and then we will have to pay Cal Water’s ever-increasing rates to flush our toilets.

We still have to pay the employees TO DO NOTHING. All they do Downtown is work toward funding their pensions, those embezzling bastards. It’s like having fleas.

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