Well, I didn’t know if I was allowed to talk about this particular matter, until I saw next week’s council agenda.
http://chico-ca.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=770
Under “closed session agenda” there at the top, Item 2.6:
CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – PENDING LITIGATION: Pursuant to Cal. Gov. Code Sec. 54956.9(a): BCSC: Case No. 22CV01954: Chicoans Against Financial Mismanagement – No on Measure H et al v. City of Chico, et al |
I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, I’ll just start at the top. On Monday, August 12, I submitted an “Argument Against” Chico City sales tax increase Measure H to the county clerk’s office, to be published in the Voter Information Pamphlet for the November election. I was there by about 10 am, I wanted to make sure to be the first person to get my argument in. The only other person who could push their argument in over mine at that point would be a member of either Butte County Board of Supervisors or a “bona fide” organization that had filed their incorporation paperwork with either the county or the city.
Frankly, you can call me ‘paranoid,’ I call it ‘experienced’, but I was afraid the proponents would get somebody to try to wedge in a weak argument ahead of me. Silly me. Keep reading.
I got word from the city clerk later that week saying she had received and approved my argument. She added that she would be sending me the proponents’ “Argument For” within a few days so that I could submit a rebuttal if I wanted to. Proponents would have the same chance to rebut my Argument Against.
So, I got that, and I typed up my rebuttal and I had that for the clerk by the following Thursday. I’ll share all that with you when I can.
Then the clerk told me that somebody else was trying to wedge in on me – Karl Ory. Okay, here I’m not sure I’m supposed to be talking about this so read fast cause if somebody calls me on it I’ll have to take down this post. Frankly, I just want to make it clear, NEITHER CHICO TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION NOR JUANITA SUMNER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY LAWSUIT AGAINST THE CITY OF CHICO. Not on purpose, anyway.
Ory has set up a group called “no on h et al”. He tried to submit an argument that was not only weak, it was a nasty personal attack on a member of staff and a former member of council. I’ll tell you what’s really funny – it was Ory who proposed a full cent tax back on 2020, before he decided not to run for re-election. I think it’s pretty obvious – he sees the writing on the wall, the liberals are not going to TAKE CITY HALL!, and the conservatives would be left to spend all that ill-gotten gain.
That’s Reason Number 1 to VOTE NO ON MEASURE H – they’re all crazy, they’re all greedy, they fight like a pack of rats, and we can’t hand these people an unrestricted tax.
Reason Number 2 to VOTE NO ON MEASURE H – Tuesday night, your “conservative” council, led by new city manager Mark Sorensen will “appropriate” – which means TAKE IT BECAUSE WE CAN – $100,000 from the transportation fund, to funnel into the new bicycle path between Little Chico Creek and 20th Street Park. See Item 2.1 with report on the agenda referenced above. That’s the “consent agenda,” meaning, they’re not going to discuss before the public unless somebody “pulls it” for discussion.
A lot of people call this “The Bum Trail”. I actually like bike trails, but these days the cost is mostly about the salaries attached (different kind of ‘bum’). There is no itemization for this appropriation, we don’t know if it’s going into asphalt, salaries or the pension deficit. It’s a matter of allocation, and every project much pay it’s share into the Pension Stabilization Trust. We may never know the true cost of that bike trail or the 20th Street bike bridge.
This is how they spend money Downtown – they make a budget, sure, but that is subject to many changes and appropriations and allocations over the course of the year. You have to look at past budgets to see what they actually spent. Is that how you manage your check book?
Measure H is a bad tax, bad bad tax. Giving these people an unrestricted tax is like handing your good luggage to a gorilla.
Yeah, we have to monkey-proof our money too – VOTE NO ON MEASURE H.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
It will go into salaries and pensions…first priority for them, no doubt.
Of course their glossy propaganda mailers and other advertisements produced by their expensive consultant with our tax dollars will mention no word of that!
And then you have this to look forward to
https://www.chicoer.com/2022/09/01/chico-estimates-sewer-rates-need-to-double-by-2025/
No matter how much they take, it will never be enough.
Work longer and harder tax serfs so you will be able to pay for all their pensions and benefits.
I didn’t read the sewer article, because they’ve been having this conversation since (God rest) Colleen Jarvis was alive. I tried to get people involved, but you know how people are – they want to wait until the deed is done, like the proposed hotel at Cal Park, and then bitch about it. I’m on septic, and yeah, when we had an inspection earlier this year with Chico Septic, they tried to fail our tank, which didn’t make any sense, because it’s a newer tank and we’ve pumped it on schedule. We called a second company and here’s what he told us – Chico Septic has a lot of public contracts for their porta-potties right now (Johnny on the Spot!), and they are “being encouraged” to fail tanks and force people onto sewer. The city of Chico has always used the sewer fund like a slush fund. The sewer only made half capacity during the Camp Fire evacuation period, but they still tell us they don’t have enough room down there for our poop. Oh, but now all the sudden, they want Paradise poop?
This whole sewer deal is full of shit (I have been dying to say that)
People in Chico have forgotten that America was founded in opposition to taxation without representation. Your city council is hoping to tax the residents while obscuring the actual fact that the money will primarily go to pension funding for generously paid city retirees including the parade of police chiefs, city managers, and so forth. As an outsider and regular visitor to Chico, I can see the benefit of spending money on public works; potholes galore, and fire protection; look at your location in a fire hazard zone, but spending millions of dollars on expanding the police department, (using scripted scare tactics,) makes no sense and does not pass the smell test.
Thanks Scott. I know you’ll get a laugh out of their assertions that I am running a “scare campaign” – see Measure H For and Against Arguments here:
https://buttevotes.net/DocumentCenter/View/1091/Measure-H—Voter-Information-Guide-Pages?bidId=
Not you Juanita…you are making sense.
Sorenson, Coolidge, Morgan, O’Brien, Reynolds, the CPD police union, et al., …the cabal of Chico politics, are trying old “scare tactic” tropes…a tired, tired old cliche…but if the voters in Chico can’t understand that fact…they get what they voted for.
On Sat, Sep 3, 2022 at 2:45 PM Chico Taxpayers Association < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
“but if the voters in Chico can’t understand that fact…they get what they voted for…”
That’s why I’m working so hard against this measure, I would get stuck with it too! Democracy only works if we all work. Thanks Scott.
The cabal has no shame…what a city…
On Sat, Sep 3, 2022 at 2:45 PM Chico Taxpayers Association < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
I know, but it’s my hometown, and I love it. It’s the people who have flooded in here to take public salaries. Like that guy from Biggs – what’s his name again?