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Chico Sales Tax Measure, Step 2: A heavily-led survey that will tell the consultant how to pitch this piece of crap right back at you

28 Feb

Last Wednesday, City of Chico Finance Committee listened the city’s $91,000 consultant lay out their tax measure campaign. First, the private meetings with stakeholders (they listed Enloe, the Farm Bureau, and the Chamber of Commerce). Next, a mailer with a survey. Finally, they will craft a series of videos to spread out on social media, telling us what they think we want to hear, based on answers to the survey.

The city needs to spend whatever taxpayer money on this venture that they can before they actually submit their ballot to the county clerk in June. Once the ballot is given a letter designation by the county clerk, the city is no longer allowed to spend taxpayer money. The plan you see above will cost at least $91,000 of our money, money that should be going to infrastructure and services.

This should all be familiar to you – this was the same strategy used to Chico Area Recreation District consultants when they rolled out the ill-fated Measure A in March 2020. CARD consultants used the same game plan – early mailers to get people thinking positive about CARD, then a survey, then videos and more mailers based on what they thought they found out from the surveys.

They decided to do a phone survey toward the end – that’s the easiest way to lead people to the conclusion you want, if they bother to pick up, that is. I remember the CARD consultant discussed the difficulties of phone surveys, starting with the reluctance people have to answer an unfamiliar number. They’d get around that, she said, by using a local number to do the calling – from Oakland. They still gathered responses from less than 1% of the local population, and the questions were heavily led, with a prompter on the other end of the phone to “interpret” the responses.

Measure A, which cost the district over $100,000 still failed, with only 47% of participating voters willing to support it. CARD staff and board all lamented the decision to make it a 2/3’s measure, but you see there, they couldn’t even get a full 51% of the voters to support it.

The board had been misled by the consultants as to the results of the survey. The consultants interpreted huge support in the community. This is how they use these surveys – here they are discussing the effectiveness of different arguments used in convincing respondents to pass this dud.

CARD survey heavily led, questions close ended – when did 28 percent become “overwhelming support”?

CARD did several surveys over the years leading up to Measure A. Each time, the consultant reported a positive, supportive response from the public. Come on, that’s how they make their money. The consultants that said it wouldn’t pass were never invited back, I sat through that for several years. While the board spent money on a conga-line of consultants, studies, surveys and mailers, they closed Shapiro Pool due to lack of maintenance and made the community hold fundraisers to fix their skateboard park.

We could still nip this in the bud if we just pushed back hard enough. First of all, don’t participate in any survey. They will turn your participation into “support” for the measure, and council will go forward based on that advice. Instead, contact the council NOW and let them know you will NOT support this sales tax increase. Tell them how much your utility bills have gone up over the past few years, tell them how much groceries have gone up. Tell them how disappointed you are in their “leadership” and their spending priorities. Tell them you’re tired of paying the lion’s share of Staff benefits.

The consultant predicted push back. “We’ll get a lot of cranky folks. But we’ll get folks who think this has been done out in the open…” I love that. If you question this little scam, you’re just “cranky“. Wow, interesting choice of words Mr. Sheister – “folks who think this has been done out in the open…” That’s what they have to convince people of, that this whole thing is all sunshine and lollipops and done for the good of the taxpayers. That’s the line of bullshit they’re casting out across Chico, don’t bite on it.

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Chico Sales Tax Measure, Step 1: private meetings with “stakeholders” – and that’s not YOU

25 Feb

Wednesday (2/23/22) I attended a presentation from Clifford Moss, the city’s tax increase measure consultants. They laid out their strategy for getting us to raise our own taxes.

“Rollout” will begin in March with “a series of stakeholder meetings…” Google offers two simple definitions for “stakeholder” – are you a “stakeholder“?

  1. (in gambling) an independent party with whom each of those who make a wager deposits the money or counters wagered.
  2. a person with an interest or concern in something, especially a business.

But Project Management, a software/consulting firm, defines four types of stakeholders – “Users, Governance, Influencers, and Providers”. They are defining these terms in the setting of sales and business management, but they fit here – the “project” here is selling the public a tax measure.

https://pmtips.net/article/4-types-of-stakeholders-in-project-management

Generally speaking, “Stakeholders are individuals or organizations who are invested in a particular project and who are affected by this project in some way, and also their input has a direct impact on the project’s upshot.”

Are you a “stakeholder”? Let’s see – are you a “user”?

“Users are the stakeholder-type of people who will use the products of your project or program. They are the beneficiaries of the outputs.“

Will you, the taxpayer, benefit from this project? Proponents of this tax measure have insinuated that proceeds will go toward infrastructure and services, meanwhile they are allocating funds out of every department budget to pay Staff’s pension deficit. Do you believe words or actions? Given past actions of council, “users“, or benefactors of this measure, are going to be Staff.

Are you “governance”? “These are people or groups of people who have an interest in how things are managed on the project or program. For example, management boards or steering groups would fall into this category, as they usually have the job to monitor the quality of the project as it develops and to provide advice and guidance throughout its course.”

There has been no mention of any kind of “steering” or “oversight” committee for this tax measure. We’re supposed to count on our council and Staff to make sure we’re not getting screwed. Stop laughing, dammit!

Do you feel particularly influential in this town? “Influencers are the people who have the power to influence decisions and the ability to change the direction of a certain project or program.” I wish I could believe that the taxpayers/voters have any “influence” beyond selecting council members that later turn on them. These folks instead “belong to trade unions and lobby groups as they are known for having the capability to impact a project’s track and protect and improve the outcome.” That would be the employee unions, who are known to bring a lot of money to the table, and money = influence around here.

Finally, “Providers” – “As you would expect, suppliers and vendors fall into this category. More specifically, a supplier’s job is to supply a company. In addition, the group of providers can cover a larger number of profiles also including business partners, temporary contractors, catering staff, and anyone else who provides resources to the project or program.”

A person might think that the taxpayers would fall in as “Providers”, because we’re going to “provide” the money. But I believe this would be the local businesses who fall in and collect the tax for the city.

Clifford Moss listed stakeholders in their presentation – the Chico Chamber of Commerce, The Farm Bureau, and Enloe Hospital. The Chamber seems like a no-brainer. If businesses don’t support this measure, it’s dead.

Enloe is also a sales tax collector, a big one. Sales tax proponents will tell you medicines and medical services are exempt from sales tax – that is not completely true, read this:

Click to access pub45.pdf

The Farm Bureau is essentially a marketing agency for farmers/growers/distributors, so they would also be a tax collector.

So, I’m going to guess, we’re not invited to the “stakeholder” meetings. We’re not considered “stakeholders,” we’re just considered “spectators”.

Between now and June, when Staff must submit their sales tax increase measure, the $91,000 consultant will be working with those “stakeholders” to get them on board. Don’t be left out – contact your district representative, Enloe, the Farm Bureau, and the Chamber of Commerce. Let them know what you think about this measure, be a part of this conversation.

Farm Bureau – (530) 533-1473 ; PO Box 360 Durham, CA 95938

Chico Chamber – (530) 891-5556; 180 E 4th St Suite 120, Chico, CA 95927

Mike Wiltermood, Enloe CEO – 1531 Esplanade, Chico, California, 95926

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Chico Finance Committee will have an OPEN MEETING tomorrow – sewer rate increase, sales tax increase, CalPERS pension debt update

22 Feb

Wow – tomorrow the city of Chico is having an OPEN MEETING! I feel like I’m waking up from a bad dream. Just last week I sent a note to my district representative, Worthless Reynolds, asking her why she had agreed to chair a CLOSED Internal Affairs Commission meeting AFTER THE STATE MANDATE HAD BEEN DROPPED. She never got back to me.

So gee, it was a big surprise to get this agenda from the clerk.

https://chico.ca.us/sites/main/files/file-attachments/2.23.22_fc_agenda_packet.pdf?1645208231

And wow, here it is: “The agenda is also attached.  Please note this meeting is being held in person at the Council Chamber Building… ” I just about crapped myself with glee.

And just in time for some stuff that needs to be discussed with the public in attendance – a sewer rate analysis, a presentation from the consultant who is going to run the tax increase campaign, and a “CalPERS costs update”.

The sewer rate analysis is the beginning of a rate increase(s) for those of you on sewer. The city has been eeking up the sewer rates eversince Dan Nguyen-tan, Scott Gruendl, and Colleen Jarvis were on council. Staff complains they don’t get enough money to properly maintain the sewer – actually, the problem, according to people like former city council member Mark Sorensen, is that the sewer fund has been “dipped into” to pay salaries and pensions that don’t have anything to do with the sewer system. That’s called “allocation” – just type that, or “Chad Wolford”, into the search bar at the upper right of the blog and you’ll see I’ve written a lot about that here.

They’re going to tell us it’s because the sewer is over-whelmed – that is a lie. During the Paradise evacuation, they told us the sewer was running at less than half capacity, but still tried to say the evacuees were overwhelming it. Keep an eye on this conversation, it’s going to be full of shit.

Then we’ll hear from consultants Clifford Moss about their “PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY” regarding the sales tax increase measure. Meaning, the pitch they will give us to make us want to raise our own taxes. Please note – this is being done with $91,000 in taxpayer money. The irony is so rich it’s giving me the farts.

And then, the piece de resistance – finance department staffer Barbara Martin will give us the most recent “actuarial report released by CalPERS, the results of the recent Asset Liability Management (ALM) process CalPERS completed and steps that have been taken to manage costs.” This is important, because this is the reason for both the sewer rate and sales tax rate increases. Here’s the report from CalPERS. There are several videos here, if you really want to see why Chico is turning into a total shithole, watch this. There will be a quiz.

https://www.calpers.ca.gov/page/about/organization/facts-at-a-glance/asset-liability-management

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Recipe for a pension deficit

3 Feb

Employer Share Employee Base Share Employee Cost Sharing Total Employee Contribution  “Classic”                                               “Pepra” – employees hired after 2013
CME 7.54% 8% + 6% = 14.00%         CME 7.54% 7.50% + 6% = 13.50%CPSA 7.54% 8% + 6% = 14.00%        CPSA 7.54% 7.50% + 6% = 13.50%CNF 10.54% 8% + 3% = 11.00%        CNF 10.54% 7.50% + 3% = 10.50%DIR 10.54% 8% + 3% = 11.00%         DIR 10.54% 7.50% + 3% = 10.50%L39 10.54% 8% + 3% = 11.00%         L39 10.54% 7.50% + 3% = 10.50%SEIU 10.54% 8% + 3% = 11.00%       SEIU 10.54% 7.50% + 3% = 10.50%UPEC 6.86% 8% + 6.68% = 14.68% UPEC 6.86% 7.50% + 6.68% = 14.18%

CalPERS SAFETY – Classic                  CalPERS SAFETY – PEPRAEmployer Share Employee Base Share Employee Cost Sharing Total Employee ContributionCFSM 19.42% 9% + 3% = 12.00%      CFSM 19.42% 13.75% + 3% = 16.75%CPM 19.42% 9% + 3% = 12.00%        CPM 19.42% 13.75% + 3% = 16.75%CPOA* 13.42% 9% + 9% = 18.00%    CPOA* 13.42% 13.75% + 9% = 22.75%IAFF 19.42% 9% + 3% = 12.00%         IAFF 19.42% 13.75% + 3% = 16.75%

Gee, scuse me, but this above is what an answer from City of Chico Human Resources staff looks like. I asked the HR staffer for the most recent figures on the shares employees pay toward their own benefits, and she sent me a spread sheet. I’m not accusing her of anything, but it’s just about impossible to cut-and-paste a spread sheet. First she tried to pretend she didn’t understand the question, it took me a couple of days, asking the same question over and over until she sent me this chart. I guess she thought she was throwing toothpicks at a vampire.

So, here, let’s sort that mess out.

Let’s take the management unit, CME – meaning, Mark Orme and other department heads (public safety management, as you see further down, is separate). The chart is divided between “Classic” and “PEPRA” employees – Classic being, employees hired before 2013.

“Classic” Employer Share – 7.54%

Employee “base” share – 8%

Employee Cost Sharing – 6% – this is the amount of the former “Employer Share” that the employees have agreed to pay.

See there – the total “contribution” for management staff, some of the highest paid city employees – Employer + Employee contributions – is only 21.54%. For salaries in excess of $100,000/yr. Orme makes over $200,000, and only pays 14%, or $28,000/year. The taxpayers add another $15,080. For a pension of 70% of his highest year’s salary, or $140,000. Plus Cost of Living Increase. Plus benefits.

That kids, is why we have a pension deficit. Orme’s personal deficit is about $70,000. He’s been working for Chico since 2013. He started at a salary of about $189,000, increasing to his current “base pay” of $207,000/yr. He started out paying NOTHING toward his pension or benefits. That’s right, until the last few years, MANAGEMENT PAID NOTHING. Pressure from groups like ours led to tiny incremental increases, but the damage was done. A guy with a $189,000 starting salary, paying nothing, but expecting 70% of his highest year’s salary in pension – how can that be sustainable? And he knew exactly what he was doing, they all do.

While Orme keeps crowing that he and other employees now pay more of the “employers” share, they’re also getting salary increases that more than cover their increased shares. Of course that raises the debt, and the taxpayers are still on the hook for as much as 80% of the total cost.

Here’s a note for you “defund the cops” folks – the cops and fire department pay more than anybody. Look at the chart.

CPOA* Classic: Employer Share -13.42%; Employee base share – 13.75%; + Employee Cost Share – 9% = Total employee contribution – 22.75% The total contribution is almost 36%. Of course, that still creates a deficit. And again – the “employer share” is deceiving, we, “the employers” are on the hook for the deficit too. Including interest. And Cost of Living Increase.

So, if all this is confusing, let me give you a picture: You’re in an 8 foot hole on the beach, and the sand is crumbling in around your head. You shovel and scrape as fast as you can, but the sand is quickly building around your ankles. Suddenly you notice a person – Mark Orme – on top, shoveling sand right in on you. Faster and faster. You notice a group of seven others – that would be council – shoveling right along with him. That’s the pension deficit folks, and we can’t wait for Orme to bring us a ladder.

The tax measure he’s bringing us is just more sand.

COVID inflation hits the poor hardest – meanwhile, Chico gets ready to increase sewer rates, again…

28 Jan
California’s poor face new dilemma: inflation

“There’s no question that the massive shutdown in much of the state’s economy, ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom to battle the pandemic, made things worse for the millions of Californians already feeling economic distress.“

Yes, the shutdown, not COVID, has been the main source of our miseries in California. In Newsom’s California, the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer.

“While most workers in upper-income brackets could adjust by continuing to work from home, Californians in low-wage service sectors such as hotels and restaurants saw their jobs disappear.“

California has the highest gas tax in the nation – although, sometimes Pennsylvania edges us by a percentage of a cent. Ironically, both Pennsylvania and California are listed in the bottom 10 as far as roads go. Of course the price of gas affects everything.

“Overall, living costs in California and the four other Pacific Rim states are up 8.2% in the last two years, driven by especially sharp jumps in the costs of food, energy and automobile fuel, PPIC calculated.“

And not necessarily in that order – the price of gas drives up the cost of food and all other commodities. And they’ve admitted, as we buy more, they raise the prices, so it’s obviously manipulated with the blessing of the government. Think ENRON SCANDAL.

https://www.investopedia.com/updates/enron-scandal-summary/

What is the city of Chico doing to help the poor? Well, at present they sit in closed meetings discussing tax increases. The Finance Committee meeting at which they discussed their plans to raise sewer fees via such schemes as a “volume tax” or lease/sales of the sewer plant was closed to the public, as admitted by the clerk. The rest of the meeting was continued to a special meeting scheduled for this coming Monday (1/31/22). They held their discussion of the Community Grant Block Funding awards, but went right ahead and discussed the sewer taxes in a closed meeting. I can’t believe people don’t see that as a blatant move to keep us from knowing what is actually going on with city finances.

Here’s a blast from the past – an article from the Humboldt Times Standard, about a 2011 sewer increase – 22%. Read the article – it sounds like the city didn’t really inform the public, and people were not aware that they could protest the rate hike formally.

Chico sewer fees to increase by 22 percent

Sorensen and Schwab are no longer on council, but nothing much has changed in how council operates. And that would be Staff.

Clerk admitted members of the public were not able to sign into today’s Finance Committee meeting, but it went on anyway

26 Jan

On Saturday (1/22) I posted the letter I wrote to the Enterprise Record. Wolcott ran it Monday. I have complained here many times about trying to participate in closed committee meetings via Zoom, and I’ve made city staff and council members aware that I was not able to sign in or even watch meetings. I’ve also complained here and asked staff many times to make recordings of the meetings available to the public – they simply respond that they are not required to do so. They are required by law to post meeting minutes, but do so at their own speed. As of Christmas they were 6 months behind, so I complained about that. The clerk came back from Christmas vacation and posted the missing minutes in less than two days, without any explanation as to why those minutes weren’t posted within two days after the meetings.

My district rep Kasey Reynolds told me that the meetings would remain closed for the duration of Newsom’s mask mandate, February 15. Instead of holding important business – including various tax increases – until the public could be included, they scheduled an 8am Finance Committee meeting for today. Frankly, I’ve given up on trying to sign in. I have work to do, I can’t sit around all morning being held out of public meetings by the forehead. I was surprised to receive a notice from the clerk’s office about a half hour into the meeting.

We are having difficulties with Zoom this morning.  Please try the link again.

I received this message while I was at the grocery store. My grocery store does not enforce the mask mandate. Neither does the home improvement store at which I purchased a new washing machine this morning. I think that’s ironic – businesses I patronize are not supporting the mandate, why is the city of Chico still holding citizens out of meetings?

Today the agenda included discussion of a sewer tax. The city wants to tax the public according to how much water they use, water we not only already pay for, but water on which we pay a 5% Utility Users Tax.

And then there’s this scheme – read carefully, they’re basically issuing bonds on your toilet, another attempt at taxation without public approval:

For Option 1, The utility issues bonds secured by net revenues of the utility to pay the “sales” price. The General Fund receives an upfront cash payment from the utility. Alternatively, the City can do “seller financing”, where the City’s General Fund owns a note payable by the utility over time for the purchase price of the sale. In either the scenario, the utility is generating income for the General Fund, over and above what can normally be done under Proposition 218.
If the “sales” price is paid entirely upfront, and if the publicly offered bonds used to finance the
sale were sold on a tax exempt basis, then the proceeds of the sale/bond issue must be used by the City for public improvements. If the “sales” price is paid over time through “seller” financing, then the annual payments can be used by the City for any lawful purpose.

Read it again. They want to sell the sewer plant to themselves, and then issue bonds to pay themselves back? They put the money in the General Fund, and then it can be used for anything, and that’s going to be the pensions.

Read more here:

https://chico.ca.us/sites/main/files/file-attachments/1.26.22_fc_agenda_packet.pdf?1642784160

Mayor Andrew Coolidge and council member Sean Morgan are on the committee, Morgan is the chair. These guys are already under recall. Let them know how you feel about them planning to raise our taxes in meetings they have closed to the public.

andrew.coolidge@chicoca.gov

sean.morgan@chicoca.gov

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City staff reports not everybody has adequate internet participate in remote meetings, but Council continues to close the meetings anyway – all the while discussing ways to raise our taxes

22 Jan

In the early 2000’s, the phone company came through our mid-Chico neighborhood, replacing the phone lines. They were out there for about two weeks, our service was interrupted, and we were able to chat with them about what was going on. The senior technician told me, “people all over this town are paying for internet, but they’re not getting it.” He said the phone lines were over 50 years old, and starting to crumble. He said we were lucky to get phone service.

Well, now that he had mentioned it, we realized – since we had moved into that house in 2001, we’d immediately found that we got better reception for our phone in the front yard. We also noticed that many of our neighbors would stand in their front yards, talking on their cell phones. It was an “a-HA!” moment.

We were new to internet, it hadn’t occurred to us – our internet would be out for days at a time, and we just figured that was par for the course.

Here we are, 2022, and it hasn’t changed much. We have better phone service, but our internet is still sketchy, we’ve had to learn to turn devices on and off to reconnect. I found out how weak it really is when I tried to participate in Zoom meetings after the city closed meetings to the public in 2020. I just couldn’t get into the meetings a lot of the time, and while staff was sympathetic, they couldn’t help me – they don’t run the internet.

When I tried to “attend” a Finance Committee meeting last year, I was unable to get in. I called the clerk on my phone as instructed, but neither she nor the IT guy could get me in. When they informed committee members via email (which is funny, they could get my emails but I couldn’t get into the meeting), Randall Stone was the only member who seemed concerned. Meanwhile, Sean Morgan observed, “she must have poor internet...” – as if that was my fault?

Fast forward to Mark Orme’s scheme to sell us internet service. Orme is planning to use COVID relief money to get into the internet business – $4.8 million – telling us he can offer it at a more affordable rate. While I don’t understand the mechanics of this proposal, it’s very clear – staff and council know we don’t all have equal access, but they keep closing the meetings and telling us we can “participate” via Zoom.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/local/chico-city-council-unanimously-votes-to-approve-the-interim-broadband-master-plan-moving-closer-to/article_adcd2f6a-8a18-52e2-bd9b-bbb1665c40a2.html

According to the city’s consultant ($$$$), there’s not only gaps in service, it’s based on how much you can pay. So they are shutting out people who could least afford all the taxes they are bringing up in their closed meetings.

“There are gaps in affordability in Chico and there are gaps in service availability meaning that it is not ubiquitous. There are different pricings and different availabilities in different areas of town based on the infrastructure available,” said EntryPoint Networks Solution Services Director Bruce Patterson.

That’s right, “based on the infrastructure available…” So yes, we’ve been paying for service we don’t get, and with Staff’s knowledge.

Patterson says the average person pays per megabit is around 70 cents but says he’s seen cities using this same model that people pay as little as 3 cents per megabit.

And here finance director Scott Dowell admits those of us who don’t have good internet are “at a disadvantage…” This isn’t what they said when I was struggling to get into that meeting.

“You are at a disadvantage if you do not have a speedy, reliable internet service. We’re almost shifting the concept that, shouldn’t we treat internet service as a utility that everyone should have access to at a reasonable price?” says Dowell during a phone interview with KRCR Tuesday morning.

I’m fed up with the closed meetings. When I complained to my district rep, Kasey Reynolds, she just shrugged it off. “We discussed meetings last night, we will be having the next two by zoom (while the Governor has indoor mask mandate still) then returning to in person meetings. Trust me I would rather be in person too i hate zoom!“

She has obviously heard the consultant’s report regarding the state of our internet infrastructure and service, but she unapologetically tells me that meetings will remain closed for another month, while they put the tax measure on the ballot. Having hired a consultant with taxpayer money already, in closed meetings. I’d like to see the screen door bust her right across the ass next November, but I don’t have the money to run against her, I’m hoping some good candidate will step forward. We’ll see.

So I did what I usually do, I wrote a letter to the editor.

As the city of Chico uses taxpayer money to pursue a sales tax increase measure, discusses a consumption-based sewer tax, and anticipates a state-wide rental tax, they continue to work in meetings closed to the public. Staff and council claim the meetings are available on Zoom, even while acknowledging that internet service in Chico is not equitable.

According to the city’s consultant, “There are gaps in affordability in Chico and there are gaps in service availability meaning that it is not ubiquitous… based on the infrastructure available.”

When I tried to participate in a morning Finance Committee meeting via Zoom last year, I made it clear to Staff and committee members that I was not able to sign into the meeting, it kept cutting out. Sean Morgan observed, “she must have poor internet.” But the meeting went on anyway.

Council and Staff are well aware that Chicoans do not have equal access to internet, but they continue to close meetings to the public. Furthermore, committee meetings, even though it is possible, are not recorded for further viewing. When one member of the public asked about this, the clerk informed him that is not required. That is council’s decision.

Furthermore, council and committee members are allowed to review and redact anything they do not want in the minutes, keeping the minutes held up for months at a time.

“Taxation without representation – the quandary of a populace that is required by law to pay taxes but has no say in the matter.“

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

 

Chico City Staff (Orme) is duping the taxpayers into paying a lot more of the pensions than they are telling us

17 Jan

I was cleaning my computer files and found this report from a January 2018 Council agenda. I’ve contacted Jamie Cannon in the city Human Resouces Department and asked her to direct me to a more recent report with current figures, I’ll post any response I get from her.

http://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=280&meta_id=57592

This is an old report but it shows how the city’s (taxpayers’) contribution GOES UP AUTOMATICALLY EVERY YEAR, with no input from the taxpayers, while any increase in employee share has to be bargained and approved by the employees.

This report also shows that we pay ALL OF THE UNFUNDED LIABILITY, WHICH MEANS, WE’RE PAYING MORE SHARE THAN IS REPORTED IN THE “REGULAR” PAYMENTS. They don’t include the UAL when they figure shares, they exclude it and just leave the taxpayers to pick it up. The whooooooole thing!

Tomorrow night council will consider asking employees to pay part of the city’s payroll share – 3 – 6%. But no mention of what a consultant told the Finance Committee in September 2020 – “each year the city makes two types of payments to CalPERS – the ‘normal cost’ or ‘payroll’, and the ‘extra’ payments toward the Unfunded Actuarial Liability (UAL)…”

https://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?meta_id=79891

Look at the city’s share of the cost, and compare it to the employee shares, and then join me in demanding that the employees pay not only bigger shares toward the payroll share but pay the same share of the UAL.

Chico Staff and Council using the COnVID scam to shut the public out of meetings – meanwhile, they’re using OUR money to hire a tax measure consultant

14 Jan

Another COVID shut down – are you getting sick of it yet? Being told to wear TWO MASKS? Being told to vax-vax-vax, then BOOSTER? Then mask anyway? Get OUT!

Don’t worry, while we’re sitting around wringing our hands, Rand Paul is kicking the shit out of COVID.

Here Paul takes Fauci on over his fascist “take down” tactic – using his $420,000 salary, to “take down any scientists who disagree with him.” Paul reads directly from emails between Fauci and friends. Fauci protests like a teenager, “you just attack me...” But, as Paul asserts, Fauci’s own email trail confirms it. Hearing his own words, Fauci just keeps protesting that Paul is out to get him. “You keep distorting the truth!” protests Fauci, as Paul reads verbatim the private emails between Fauci and other “scientists”. Fauci claims this is a personal attack – wow, just like the personal attacks he initiated against doctors from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford?

What a world we are living in. Yes, politicians are using COVID for political gain. And as a power tool, they just like to screw people!

Right now, Chico City Council is using taxpayer money like a power tool, to hire a consultant to screw a sales tax increase up our collective ass. And they’re doing it in closed meetings, under cover of COnVID. I’m going to go back to calling it “COnVID” because that’s what it is – a big CON job, a SCAM, a FLEECING of the American public. With no real science behind it, Chico City Council used hysterical calls for reinstitution of the mandates to shut down “public” meetings, oh gee, just as they are hiring a tax consultant?

Here’s a good morning stretch exercise – put both hands back there on your ass. Find your tailbone. Run your finger up from there – that’s your backbone. Learn to use it, and write to your council now, tell them to get their hands out of your purse.

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Mark Orme’s sales tax increase measure: With salaries well in excess of $100,000/year, the people who really make and implement these decisions are well-insulated from any negative impacts. In fact, they directly benefit from any increase in taxes

6 Jan

Here’s another letter writer who does not support the city’s sales tax increase measure. From the Chico Enterprise Record:

Don’t trust this council with more money

As a current taxpayer in Chico,, I do not support the proposed sales tax put forth by the city council’s conservatives. They already can’t manage the current city budget, what makes them think they can take on more responsibility? For example, millions of dollars are spent on Chico PD “overtime” pay and for Chico Firefighter’s “disability claims” right before they retire. They need to do a better job of examining loopholes and the exploitation of city funds by these groups.

This city does not need more money: what we need are people who know how to manage city funds in ways that actually support the community and address issues such as homelessness, poverty, climate change, etc. — Alicia Trider, Chico CA

I’m so glad this person is familiar with the police and fire contracts. People need to read this stuff, we are on the hook for it. The cop and fire contracts are very generous, I’ve written here about it many times. Here are a couple of posts from last year that proved very enlightening:

Q & A for your district rep: What is CTO?
CTO = “compensated time off”
Take a cup of OT and add a cup and a half of CTO, pour in some STO, and you get an IOU
Look at the calisthenics these people go through to spike their last year’s earnings and, subsequently, their pensions.

I don’t know if Trider actually read the contracts, as I have many times, but if she did, she’d find all kinds of stuff that just raises the cost of public safety for no other reason than PURE GREED.

Trider goes on to list her priorities, which put her at 180 degrees from previous letter writers. So, this sales tax measure has already raised hackles on both sides of the aisle, as I expected. The skating rink also raised hackles on both sides of the aisle, as did using taxpayer money to hire a consultant to push the measure. So far, Staff and Council seem to be putting their foot in their own doo-doo at every turn. In fact, I’d say, Council keeps stepping in Mark Orme’s doo-doo.

A tax increase is a negative for everybody – business owners and consumers are connected at the hip. Businesses need healthy consumers, and consumers need healthy businesses. Raising taxes eats people’s “disposable income,” and that means less money to spend to support local businesses. I’m not threatening to leave – think you’re gonna get rid of me that easily? I’ll just take my business elsewhere. In 2012, when disgraced ex-city-manager Brian Nakamura and despicable ex-city-manager Tom Lando initiated this conversation, I discovered online shopping, and I love it. I also enjoy a trip to Oregon now and then, where they have NO SALES TAX.

Well, I should say, this measure would be a negative for almost everybody. With salaries well in excess of $100,000/year, the people who really make and implement these decisions are well-insulated from any negative impacts. In fact, they directly benefit from any increase in taxes.

Write to your district rep, include the whole council, ask them to pull out of this dive before it’s too late.

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