Wow, I been AWOL – missed all of April? Even April Fool’s Day Chico City Council meeting? Yep, I been busy, I got pots on the stove and irons in the fire.
I still look at the agendas when I get a chance to sit down (I have a timer going off right now, for two different chores) – looking over a Finance Committee report from February, I found a $12,846,466.00 payment to CalPERS.
Let me spell that out – twelve MILLION, eight hundred, forty six thousand, four hundred and sixty-six dollars. Now read it out loud. Repeat it to a friend, see if their eyeballs pop out. Cause if they don’t, you need to throw a bucket of cold water on their lobster tail and read it again. That’s a lot of fucking money folks, and we’re paying it.
See the agenda item below, for the CalPERS Unfunded Liability Reserve, created by employees to pay their own CalPERS deficit. Were you asked about this? No. They take the money from the General Fund, as of last June they had taken over $8 million. They took another $14 million+ over the last quarter, made the $12 million+ payment, and were left with over $9 million toward next year. Part of that money was Measure H. Here’s the agenda item from that Finance Committee meeting report.
903 CalPERS Unfunded Liability Reserve 6/30/24; (Actuarial) available balance 8,476,829; revenues 14,131,113 ; expenditures 12,846,466; xfers in/out 0 available balance 2/28/25 9,761,476. (includes the modified adopted figures from the report).
In the same report, there is another fund, 904, the Pension Stabilization Trust, through which they transfer the money from the General Fund. It’s like a laundering scheme. You really have to watch those walnut shells to see where that pea is going.
904 Pension Stabilization Trust 5/30/24 available balance 7,378,750 revenues 147,225 expenditures 11,406 xfers in/out 0 available balance 7,514,569 Modified adopted budget Revenues 0 expenditures 0 xfers in/out 764,035 available balance 8,142,785
Next year they intend to pay more than $18 million. That payment is in addition to their salaries and the payroll payments we make to CalPERS. These are the “catch up payments” that go to the deficit left by the completely ridiculous shares they pay toward their own retirement.
So think about this – we are paying these fuckers TWICE, once while they are “working”, and again while they go off to a plush retirement. And many of them take a “retirement job,” usually in the public sector, that adds to their pension, driving up the cost, for which they pay NOTHING.
If you’re not pissed off yet, you need to stick a fucking pin in your ass, just to see if you’re still alive.
Here’s one for you Scott – thanks for keeping me on my toes, Old Buddy. Chico PD and Fire Department are the biggest piggies in the trough. They generate over half the pension deficit. They need to pay a more rational and practical share of their own benefits, NOW. The cops need to write “mandatory overtime” out of the contracts. They need to “doff and don” on their own dimes. Etc. Read the cop contracts – they will complain loudly about the fire department “sleeping and playing video games” on the clock, but you should see the kind of crap their union demands in their contracts. The contracts are available on the city website, let me know if you have trouble finding them.
But yeah, we need a major overhaul of the city fire department, especially after the Park Fire. They sleep on the job because they are scheduled to work whole days on, instead of being given an 8 hour shift. Things need to be said Folks. And I’m sayin’ ’em. Scuse my French.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
So, these massive “catch-up” payments to CalPERS have been going on for years. Are they ever going to catch-up? To quote you, “that’s a lot of fucking money, folks” that could be put to good use.
No, they’re not going to catch up. Read my previous posts – they keep raising salaries and even creating new positions. And then there’s the record of fraud and waste at CalPERS – bad investments based on personal gain. No, they will never catch up.
Thanks for the research Juanita, once again you have correctly pointed a finger at CPD. The biggest drain on the city budget. The council just gave the chief a blank check to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of new unnecessary lethal weapons.
Thanks Scott. I think the best way to defund the police is make them pay their own benefits.
I forgot to mention, how pensioners are allowed to take new positions in “retirement” – like this employee – collecting salaries from two different public agencies after he has retired. This raises the pension payments and the deficit. I’m going to guess this person has paid less than 20% of their own pension cost. Am I right? From Transparent California –
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=david+waddell
You were right about the bait and switch on Measure H. Chico will never have enough cops and the roads will never get fixed: https://chicosol.org/2025/06/04/city-council-to-staff-fire-engine-1/
Thanks Dave, being right is some consolation. Now what should we do about it?
Juanita, the Howard Jarvis Tax Association may be able to help the taxpayers drain the swamp, if not, it appears the council majority and several city staff members are happy to be the foxes guarding the henhouse.
Well Scott, when I asked HJTA about this issue, the shocking truth is, it’s all legal. While HJTA is working hard to reverse the legislation (that we never voted on) that whittled away taxpayer protections, they have been stymied by a Democratic governor and his majority in the legislature. The Taxpayer Protection Act would have required this measure to have 2/3’s approval and a specific purpose but the governor and his cronies sued to have the TPA removed from the ballot.
I got news for you Brother Chicken – we’re living in the Fox House, not the other way around.
HJTA did stop an illegal pension obligation bond that city of Chico tried to institute without a ballot measure – that’s against the law, so they were able to get a Cease and Desist order. HJTA is great to have around, and I wish more people would join and support them. You can join for as little as $15, and they send a newsletter that keeps us informed on what the legislature is up to.
Us chickens got to get mean.