You probably already heard that the California Supreme Court has taken the Taxpayer Protection Act off the November ballot. This also means that the measure Mark Sorensen talked the city of Chico into spending $200,000 rewriting is unnecessary. Just another instance of money wasted by bad management.
Sorensen could have waited to see if the TPA made the ballot, and then waited to see if it passed, but he was in such a panic about losing Measure H, knowing that it was a weak, 50+1 measure that barely passed in 2020, that he talked council into paying a consulting firm (at least) $200,000 to put a new measure onto the same ballot.
Sorensen is a worm. He wormed his way from a private sector job and city council position into a public management position, and then he wormed his salary up to over $200,000 a year. Now he’s wormed himself two raises over the next two years. Knowing fully well the effect his greed is having on our financial situation.
Next time you see this man at the grocery store let him know what you think of his tax measure. He likes to shop at Raley’s.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
Speaking of Sorensen, I want to set the record straight. His Chico Council Cronies did not buy him 14 years of service credit in CalPERS. I was mistaken about that. The language from his first contract: “Sorensen shall immediately be credited with fourteen (14) years of service for the purpose of leave accruals.” Leave accruals are the amount of paid time off or other leave an employee earns over time based on their work hours and employment benefits. This leave can include vacation, sick leave, and personal days off. Why 14 years? I don’t know, but it puts him in a position for the huge financial windfall down the road a bit.
thanks Dave, I am glad to have you to keep me and you on our toes.
It sounds like WE pay for Sorensen’s 14 years of service, not served. And the rest sounds like the same agreement the cops and fire have with the “Compensated Time Off” rigamarole. We pay these people millions in borrowed money for work they never did. It all adds fire to the Unfunded Pension Liability/Pension Deficit/Chinese Dick Trap.
https://chicotaxpayers.com/?s=take+a+cup+of+cto&submit=Search
Here’s how Mr. Sorensen has been pouring gas on the fire –
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Mark+Sorensen
You’ll see Sorensen’s rise to glory here, how he used a little town in the orchards to ride to glory – look how his salary has gone up, up, up! Also notice – Transparent California uses information (salary, pension share, years served) received from California cities and other agencies, to figure an employee’s personal pension debt. They only have figures up to 2022, as they are forced to use FOIA requests and hound these agencies to comply with the law. But you see enough here. As of 2022, Sorensen had a personal pension debt of $36,989. Here’s the funny thing – a year earlier, working for Biggs, his debt was only $11,208. And he only worked for Chico half of 2022, having been hired in June.
A year later he was making over $200,000. Here’s my question – shouldn’t he just have to whip out his enormous check book and write a check to cover his own debt? If all the management types did same, I think we’d be out of the mess – maybe even get out of CalPERS. These people get a generous portion from the city, they need to look at that as a sweet deal and pay the rest themselves. Instead, we are basically paying these people nearly double their agreed upon salary to keep them like prized hogs well beyond their productive sunset dates.
I want my goddam bacon!
Do you have any information how much the city spend on consultants? Seems they spend a lot.
It usually starts out about $25,000, that’s about what it costs to get the survey. After the first $25,000 on the new measure, the city recently requested $175,000 more. I don’t know what happened to that money.
Hey Jim, speaking of how much things cost! I just happened across the “Climate Action Committee” agendas for 2024 – one meeting in May. I had heard that Chico Velo got Humboldt Road resurfaced – here’s that item.
3.1. Chico Velo Update
Cheri Chastain from Chico Velo will provide the commission with an update on the Active Humboldt
Project.
Click to access 4-11-24-CAC-Agenda.pdf
Another unelected commission that amounts to special favors while the taxpayers pick up the bill. Four meetings a year – the staffer who prepares their tiny agendas and posts them on the internet walks out with total pay of over $90,000. She’s listed as an “associate planner” – my son is an associate planner, the only staffer in his department at a university in Oregon. His Masters Degree cost him over $50,000 – he’s paid about $75,000/year, including his little insurance package. Right now he’s solely in charge of negotiating a dog park between various groups that are all fighting like a bunch of cats and dogs. But in Chico he would be sitting in on meetings, taking notes and posting them on the internet for $92,000/year. I’ll have to tell him to get his ass home.