Archive | October, 2025

A picture is worth a thousand words

19 Oct

Protesters march against the Trump administration during ‘No Kings Day’ (photo KRCR News)

I’ll never forget the impromtu peace march I joined back in 1990. “Operation Desert Storm” had just been launched. It was a scary time. I was pregnant with my first child, I looked like a straw with an olive stuck in it, and I needed to walk. My husband had to work that Saturday. So I went Downtown. There I met some friends, who said, Hey, why don’t you join our march against the war. So, I did. Very impromtu.

As we walked down Main Street headed for the Plaza, the crowd grew, 20, maybe 30 people, maybe 50. Marching, talking quietly, I don’t remember any signs. Sometimes it was so quiet you could hear the Burkenstocks scraping the sidewalk. Sometimes happy chatter, but no screaming, no obscenities – Chico used to be a nice town.

“Let’s go around the block!” someone shouted, so we turned at Fifth Street and headed for Flume. As we marched toward the old Gold Country Market, I noticed tables in the parking lot – first farmer’s market, three tables. There was the cabbage man – remember him? And this guy was selling apples, looked pretty nice, can’t remember what the third guy was selling. It was a real boon for the market, instant customers. I bought half dozen apples.

We walked around the market and headed back toward the Plaza, for a little rally, I guess. Can’t remember. It was a very magical time. Saw friends I hadn’t seen for a while, enjoyed a really good vibe. I don’t know what we expected to achieve, but what we got was community. It was really neat.

2025 – “No Kings Protest” Nasty old entitled WHITE people with hateful signs. Shutting down streets. Where’s the community? I think the picture tells the story – it’s just drama and fun for them. At the end of the day they’ve accomplished nothing but dividing the community. I don’t think they care.

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Unfunded pension liability up by $60 million – van Overbeek wants to “outsource” Hey, Tom, grow a pair – let’s ask the employees to pay a rational share of their own benefits!

17 Oct

I have been asleep at the wheel. It’s that time of year – leaf management, gutter cleaning, whack and blow, etc etc. And then I got the next council agenda, and I kind of woke up out of a stupor. It was the Finance Committee report from their meeting earlier this month.

https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1180&meta_id=99060

Following a presentation from finance manager Barbara Martin, “Councilmember van Overbeek stated he is concerned that the unfunded liability number keeps growing and inquired if all employees are part of CalPERS.” The finance director answered yes. “Councilmember van Overbeek stated the UAL increase from $117 million to $180 million is a startling increase.“

I have to ask, was Van Overbeek elected yesterday? He’s on the finance committee, he never heard about the pension deficit?

Then Van Overbeek suggested outsourcing – yeah, yeah – we’ve heard that conversation about a thousand times, with no results. Sorensen said that outsourcing would cost more money in the long run. Van Overbeek still wanted to pursue it, asking staff to come up with a “breakdown” of all the departments and where there are “opportunities for outsourcing..” Here’s this guy talking about employee costs who doesn’t seem to understand how expensive staff time is, he just expects to snap his fingers and get this stuff. At this point Sorensen did his job – he told van Overbeek that this information was available in the appendix to the city budget that Van Overbeek is supposed to be familiar with.

Tom, you’re a fucking idiot! Time vampire! You have been on council long enough to participate in a number of contract agreements with various employee groups. You have signed onto contracts offering guaranteed raises and abysmally low shares of benefits costs without wondering where the money would come from to pay for these raises, or what effect the raises and underpayments would do to our CalPERS obligation? Why didn’t you ask these questions during the Measure H campaign?

And here’s the question for council and city manager Mark Sorensen – why, when we’ve had this same conversation all the way back to when Brian Nakamura was city manager and Mark Sorensen was on council, we’ve been fully aware of the pension deficit, and none of you have once suggested that employees pay a more rational share of their overly generous benefits.

Instead you’ve tried to foist an illegal Pension Obligation Bond without putting it to a vote of the taxpayers. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association had to put a cease and desist order on that. What’s your plan now?

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