Archive | April, 2026

The Downtown remodel conversation has taken an interesting turn

29 Apr

The conversation about the Downtown sewer job and proposed remodel has finally turned around. I was frankly shocked when Mayor Kasey Reynolds closed the meeting last week after council failed to come together on any one of the proposals.

Watching the meeting on the city website, and then again watching the clip on the local news, I was also shocked but not surprised to see riff-raff behavior in the chambers. Some people think they can get their way by bullying others, and oftentimes it works. When you really care about something you need to learn to deal with bullies without bullying. You ignore them, and you stand by your beliefs.

I contacted Reynolds, and she assured me that she is also leaning toward a simple and realistic plan to fix the sewers and return Downtown streets to “what we’ve known”. She cited fiscal concerns, and indicated that a lot of the bicycle bullshit is about chasing funding “from Sacramento“. Unfortunately, at least half of that taxpayer based funding goes to city salaries and pensions, while only “43% to 50% of the total project budget directly covers labor and materials (known as hard costs), based on studies of multi-family housing projects and general construction breakdowns…”

Some council members seem to think money grows on trees, not out of the hard work of taxpayers. They won’t acknowledge what their little pet projects do to the cost of living in our town. The other problem with the Sacramento funding is that is requires a lot of matching funds from city coffers.

We all watched the 20th Street bicycle/pedestrian bridge go over budget year after year, finally costing over $23 million. $1 million of that came from the city of Chico – from the Fire Victims Trust Fund, along with local developer fees and transportation funds. Money that should have gone toward other uses that have been largely neglected.

How often do you think you will use that bridge? See any fire victims up there? How are the streets in your part of town? Ever wonder why the price of housing keeps going up-up-up? Gotta watch the bouncing ball Folks.

So I’m watching this conversation, hoping that the vocal minority will not get their way.

And I was also somewhat relieved by the show of leadership from Kasey Reynolds. Yes, I’ve complained about Reynolds’ past actions, I haven’t agreed with her very many times. I’m disgusted with the sewer rate increase and I believe they should take up Bennett’s request for another vote. But I’m with her on the Downtown sewer job.

My husband reminds me that they were going to do a traffic circle there at Bidwell Mansion, for the same kind of state funding, but public outcry changed the vote of one council member and that little boondoggle went away.

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Emily Martin: “A 200% [sewer rate ] increase in five years is not responsible governance; it is the result of long-delayed decisions, now shifted abruptly onto residents.”

15 Apr

Well, Wolcott finally printed my response to Bill Smith, regarding public salaries and where to find out more info. The more people who know the truth, the closer we are to a real conversation about public employee salaries and benefits, and the consequences of “kicking the can down the road“.

Speaking of the can being kicked down the road, Smith also mentioned the sewer rate increase. A can, a stinking can, that has been kicked around for probably 50 years or more. They’ve known the pipes were old, and leaking, leaking POOP, but they just kept kicking.

Anybody remember Chico City Council member Colleen Jarvis? Before she died of cancer in 2004, I sat in on a meeting in which she and other former council members Dan Nguyen-Tan, and Scott Gruendl discussed the last sewer rate hike – from around $25 a month to $45 a month. Jarvis wanted to be straight with the public, do the whole thing up front, tell everybody the truth. DN-T and SG both wanted to phase it in – they were a couple of total pussies, they were afraid of the public reaction. Council voted for the phase-in, meaning the sewer fund, already in trouble, would fall farther and farther behind. Fast forward today – there are still 100+ year old pipes running under Downtown and the older parts of the city, and I’ll guess they don’t even have the money to hire a consultant.

This can has been kicked around for years, without much public scrutiny. Now this sewer rate increase has finally wakened the mob – I’ll tell you what, you don’t mess with people’s toilets. When I picked up Sunday’s paper, I noticed a letter that echoed my thoughts, from a lady named Emily Martin.

“A 200% increase in five years is not responsible governance; it is the result of long-delayed decisions, now shifted abruptly onto residents.” Yup, can kicking. And then, the handing of the bag, to the taxpayers, who get left holding it.

What about Measure H? Council member Addison Winslow says that money can’t be used, because it’s General Fund money. He says not everybody uses the sewer, so the city can’t use GF money to fix the sewer. What an idiot – or does he think we’re all idiots? Martin puts him right. “That argument falls apart, even under basic scrutiny,” she responds. “We all fund services we don’t directly use…” including schools, roads, and emergency services.

Council also makes the rules for the spending of city money, without any scrutiny from the public.

She concludes, “Chico deserves a more transparent approach that reflects shared benefits and shared responsibility.” Yes, that would be nice – instead we got a mailed ballot that was deceptively printed to look like JUNK MAIL (thanks for looking out for us City Clerk Debbie Presson!), and failure to submit a written letter of protest was marked as a YES vote. Winslow sat in on that decision, a sham ballot that resulted in a FOREVER change to the rate mechanism. Without any future public vote, they can raise the sewer rate whenever they want, for whatever reason they want.

Martin echoes a letter I sent weeks ago – families and businesses are already struggling, this is just another nail in the coffin of our local economy. “This kind of increase will force real cuts to essentials and to the local businesses that keep Chico thriving.” On that note, I’m about to head for Oregon, to buy my taxable essentials. My family does little to no taxable shopping in Chico, although we did have our tires that we bought in Oregon rotated at a Chico shop and then treated ourselves to an oil change for the trip. But I realize, I’m retired, and my kid lives in Oregon – this isn’t feasible for working families. It would suck to be a family with kids in this town, unless you’re one of the privileged teat suckers known as “public servants“.

Emily, the only way to turn this decision back is to vote out the bad actors. Reynolds, Winslow and Van Overbeek are up, and they need to be turned out, like that carton of milk on the back shelf of your fridge.

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City to discuss the procedures for the conduct of public hearings and majority protest proceedings relating to proposed rate increases and assessments – they want to make it harder for us to protest rate increases

1 Apr
https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1191&meta_id=102016

Remember the frustrating process by which the city changed the rate mechanism on sewer charges? So they could raise the rates anytime they wanted?

Sewer rate increase hearing set for Tuesday (1/17/23) – if you haven’t mailed your protest get it in soon or attend the hearing

Well next week Council will discuss a change that will further restrict your right to have any voice in these rate increases – they are changing the procedure to eliminate your right to sue if you were left out of the rate protest. Meaning, if you threw that ballot out thinking it was junk mail, or didn’t get around to sending it in time, didn’t understand it, didn’t hear about it, etc, you lose your right to protest further rate increases.

Read the staff report, these people want you out of this process.

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