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Do your research on CARD budget, come to some meetings – we need to shut down their tax grab before it gets out of the gate

26 Apr

Chico Area Rec District (CARD) is going to be mounting a phone campaign, I’d say within the next couple of months, maybe sooner, to get the public to support a tax measure. They say the money will go toward a new aquatic center, but we’ll have to wait for the details. If they put the money in the General Fund it can be used for anything, including their pensions.

At the last board meeting I attended, the board approved the hiring of a consultant to conduct the phone campaign, we’ll see how long that takes. I will try to keep an eye on these meetings – regular board meetings are held once a month, on a Thursday around the 15th of the month. Board agendas are posted  on the website, in advance, so it’s easy to keep an eye on them.

http://www.chicorec.com/About-Card/CARD-Resources/Board-of-Directors/index.html

They are supposed to notice me if they have an Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meeting, but there’s all kinds of ways to get around the notice list, as I’ve seen over the last couple of years. Who cares about me anyway – the entire community needs to be in on this conversation, and  they need to do a little research to avoid being hood-winked. Here’s a letter I wrote about it to the Enterprise Record:

Last year Chico Area Recreation District announced that Shapiro and Pleasant Valley pools had fallen so badly into disrepair they would be closed in 2016.

They’ve talked for over a decade about a new aquatic facility but excessive management salaries and fully paid benefits and pension have caused financial problems. In 2013 they cut staff hours to make a $400,000 “side fund pay-off” to CalPERS for management pensions.   At an “emergency” meeting April 2, interim director Steve Visconti told the board, “with day-to-day operations, and all these projects, it’s really hard for staff…they are spread so thin…”  

CARD spent $25,000 surveying property owners in 2013 but the bond consultant reported “no support” in the community for an aquatic center, suggesting they mount a campaign to change public sentiment. CARD formed a committee that met without public scrutiny for over a year, contacting designers and other consultants. At the April 16 board meeting, former CARD director Jerry Hughes and Aqua Jets president Brad Geise recommended  a $30,000 phone campaign to convince taxpayers they need to pay for this project. The board approved. 

I’d like to caution the public – do some research on your own before you answer any questions.  CARD budgets, reports, and minutes of their past meetings are available on their website, under “Resources”. The State Controller website shows the salaries and compensation packages:  http://preview.tinyurl.com/nzn3n8c

Juanita Sumner, Chico CA

I don’t know if that link for the State Controller worked, here’s a regular link to that website:

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/SpecialDistricts/SpecialDistrict.aspx?fiscalyear=2013&entityid=1875

CARD management pay nothing toward their benefits or pensions.

When I talk to my friends who have grown up in Chico they are floored to find out CARD is closing Shapiro and Pleasant Valley pools.  I took my kids to those pools for five or six years, and they were packed full for both the CARD swimming lessons and the “rec swim” every afternoon. I remember when people had to line up at 7am on Saturday mornings to sign their kids up for swim lessons, and they would, bringing drive-thru coffee and lawn chairs, staking out the line at 6:30 am three or four Saturdays every  summer.

The pools declined before our eyes. They  had needed to enlarge and update the restrooms at both pools for years, but nothing was done. I watched the same maintenance man lumber between both pools, cursing the equipment as he mended this and monkey-rigged that, trying to keep things running. I remember him admonishing the pool staff – “if you hear  that pump making that noise again, you shut it down!”

One day I listened to a contractor tell the manager at PV pool that the  pool had a crack, that’s why it wouldn’t heat, it was leaking too fast. He said it could be fixed for $2500. The manager responded he didn’t think CARD would pay for it, they wanted to build a new pool. I thought he meant, a new pool at that site, I didn’t know about the proposed aquatic center. Aqua Jets ended up leaving over that crack, taking their business to In Motion Fitness. I believe that loss of revenue really hurt CARD.

Sure, CARD management wants a new pool, but they know it won’t happen for years. Kids whose parents support this thing will not use it. They know most of the revenue will be eaten by administrative costs – their salaries, benefits and pensions. They also know the cost will climb steadily, probably double or triple the $10 – 18 million estimate range  consultant Greg Melton put on it. They know, it may never even happen.

I’ll keep you posted on the phone campaign.

 

 

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CARD will run a phone campaign to talk public into paying for $10-18 million aquatic center

17 Apr

Last night the Chico Area Recreation District Board of Directors voted (Sneed, Malowney, and Ellis, Lando and Worley absent) to spend $25-30,000 on a consultant to run a phone campaign to get support for their proposed aquatic  center. 

Early estimates for a trio of designs ranged from $10 – 18 million. As former board member Ed Seagle said, these facilities never pay for themselves, the whole wad will have to come from the taxpayers in the form of a bond or assessment on our homes.  

I don’t know the exact boundaries of the district, but it includes Forest Ranch.

The task ahead will be to inform the voters about CARD’s sketchy history, their budget, their excessive salaries and benefits, the revolving door they seem to have on their directors, and pattern of poor spending decisions. Most recently they voted to spend over $150,000 on a rose garden instead of fixing the two existing swimming pools, scheduled to be closed in 2016 after years of neglect.

 

 

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CARD board meeting tonight, Lakeside Pavilion, 7 pm – there will be a report from the Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

16 Apr

Again, a meeting is taking my day. I say, it takes my whole day because I have to plan and rearrange to make room for it. And, it’s not the meeting I’ve been trying to get into – that’s the Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee, and you’ve read here the runaround I’ve got from CARD staffers Steve Visconti, Jennifer Marciales and now, Robert Hinderer, about being notified of those committee meetings so I could attend. Just last week they blew me off for a meeting, Hinderer making some bullshit excuse about my name not being on the right mailing list. 

Rob, this is why you don’t have any friends.

I’ll try to attend, because if you don’t play the game they try to say you’re not serious and dump you out of the loop. Even though this meeting is warmed over hash compared to what goes on in the committee meetings and the private conversations, I will try to attend, just to show face. There’s a lot of ridiculous face-showing in this business, it’s worse than a game of No Limit Holdem.

I have finally got some other people watching, and I want them to know I wasn’t just yanking their chain.

I wish more people would attend these board meetings though. I’ll say, they’re prompt, start at 7 pm, and usually over by 8:30, even 8:00. For me, the drive out to Lakeside Pavilion is onerous, but after seeing Maureen Kirk running all over the county, night meetings in Forest Ranch, then another night meeting in Chico, I feel lame for complaining about driving to a meeting. Hope to see a few new faces, the board seems to be malleable to public scrutiny. 

I would like somebody to stand up during the public comment period and ask about plans to salvage Shapiro and Pleasant Valley pools- as far as I know, they plan to shutter these pools and hand them back to  the school district after the 2015 swim season. They’ve neglected those pools for years, it’s in the books. Now, instead of bringing those much used facilities back up to par,  they throw over $150,000 at a rose garden?

CARD is a recreation district, but they have gutted their funds with exorbitant salaries and benefits and pensions for which the employees pay NOTHING. You might have noticed, city and county workers pay a percentage, the cops have raised their share to 12 percent.  But CARD employees still enjoy 70 percent of their highest year’s salary at 55 for NOTHING.  Director Steve Visconti retired last year at about $112,000/year – do the math – that’s about $77,000 a year, with COLA, to do NOTHNG. CARD hired a new manager at about $117,000, but he left within six months because of a disagreement over the aquatic facility discussion – I think he wanted to put that to bed, tried to tell them it was crazy given their budget – and there he went. Now Visconti is back in – does he get an interim salary in addition to retirement pay? Now there’s another question you could ask during the public comment period! Get in there! 

A year or so ago they bottomed out their general fund making a $400,000 “side fund payoff” to CalPERS. Their general fund is still pretty tanked, they’ve had to let off most of their part time staff.  Now they try desperately to raise funds to keep the doors open – and the CalPERS payments made – with a rose garden wedding chapel? That’s why they said they were spending over $1 million on Lakeside Pavilion. They’re trying to compete with private industry, when they’re supposed to be providing low-cost recreation activities. All for the salaries, benefits and pensions of about 33 management employees, who are quickly running out of underlings to do the actual work. 

They expect volunteers to run the Junior Giants program, while they all get salaries in excess of $50,000 a year, plus fully-paid benefits and pension. The Giants, by the way, foot all the expenses for Junior Giants, they even train the volunteer coaches. They just need somebody to advertise the program locally, so CARD steps in like a wolf in the sheep pen.

Have you ever seen a sheep get pissed off? Here’s a guy we could all learn a lesson from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdX4JobRCUc

 

 

 

 

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Up to my neck in meetings

14 Apr

I get up in the morning, sometimes as early as 5:30, even 5:00, just to be able to deal with my correspondence and blog. I attend these meetings, which are a giant pain in the ass, and I feel if I don’t write something in my blog the time was stolen from me with no good purpose. 

As I whined in my last post, I’ve been trying to get into Chico Area Recreation District’s secretive little Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meetings. CARD staff has held me off by the forehead because I’ve been critical of their activities – no surprise there – the public sector seems to be full of petty, vicious little people trying to protect their snatch, what else is new?

It’s been frustrating – at one point I had board member Jan Sneed yell at me and stick her finger in my face, charging me down a hallway because I had asked for a copy of the monthly finance report. In another instance, I sat in the audience while former and currently interim director Steve Visconti told the board they needed to get people to write letters in response to letters I’d been writing about their activities. That was weird,  I was sitting right there, he knows who I am, but wouldn’t address me or even  look at me. 

When I noticed reports from the AFAC on the board agenda and asked why I had not been noticed, temporary director Jerry Haynes raised his voice to me on the phone, telling me there was no committee, no meetings, and no intentions of getting an assessment or bond. Shortly thereafter he announced his departure, citing differences with the board? Sure. And Visconti was back, but he passed me off to staffer Jennifer Marciales. Marciales told me repeatedly I was on the notice list, that there hadn’t been any meetings, and seemed annoyed when I asked her why there were still reports on the board agenda if there weren’t any committee meetings? I found out, Jerry Hughes and Aqua Jets president Brad Geise had formed an ad hoc committee to get around reporting and noticing rules. Then I noticed my inquiries were being handed to the Recreation Superintendent Robert Hinderer. 

Hinderer’s the poor dummass who was made to apologize to me. What a stupe – I would feel sorry for this person but he’s making twice my family’s annual income in salary, and paying NOTHING toward his own benefits.  A shill deserves no pity. 

I’ve tried to get the editor of the News and Review to send  a reporter or cover these meetings – Laura Urseny from the Enterprise Record has been at almost every meeting I’ve attended but her stories never say anything about plans for an assessment or bond, she won’t use the name Aqua Jets. She sat through that first meeting, where Jerry Hughes detailed the workings of the legislature, telling the 30 or so folks from Aqua Jets and the school district that they needed to wait until the legislature had lowered the threshold for tax  measures from 2/3’s to about 50 percent.  He talked about that for about an hour, but there was NOTHING about it in Urseny’s subsequent story. She is also a shill, and deserves nobody’s pity. 

The Good News! I got a note from Third District Supervisor Maureen Kirk. I had been haphazardly trying to remember to include Maureen  in the conversation the last couple of years, and when she realized they’re giving me the business, she wrote to CARD and asked to be put on the notification list too. I really  appreciate her oversight here, this is an entity that needs a lot of scrutiny.  

Although, it remains to be seen if either Supervisor Kirk or I will actually get a notice, or just the usual lame apology.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

 

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CARD plays fast and loose with the Brown Act

11 Apr

I’ve been trying to follow the Chico Area Recreation Districts’ plans for a new aquatic center for a couple of years now, and yesterday I got an e-mail from CARD employee Robert Hinderer that really pissed me off.  Here’s the conversation, starting with employee Jennifer Marciales reassurances that I was on the notice list for the aquatic center committee and that I would be noticed for any upcoming meetings.

Subject: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 01:07:42 +0000

Hi Juanita,

 

I just wanted to let you know that based upon your conversation with our General Manager last week, you have already been placed on the notification list for upcoming Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meetings.  At this time, there are no meetings scheduled.

 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

Thank you,

 

Jennifer Marciales
Executive Assistant
(530) 895-4711
Chico Area Recreation and Park District
545 Vallombrosa Avenue
Chico, CA 95926

 
My response:
 

Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 6:13 AM
To: Jennifer Marciales
Cc: dlittle@chicoer.com; melissad@newsreview.com
Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

 

Thank You,

 

I didn’t give Mr. Haynes my e-mail, thanks for the follow-up.  I’ve been asking to be on this committee notification list since it was formed, and reports have been given of meetings but I never received notices of those meetings. Now you’re saying, despite designs having been made for this proposed center and talk of an assessment on property owners, there are no more meetings scheduled? I’ll be looking forward to notification of any future meetings, but I’ll be watching the board agenda too.

One question I have right now is, I would like to ask you for an exact figure on the designs presented for the aquatic center by Melton Design Group – the newspaper gave a ballpark figure of “$30,000 to $60,000”, but I’m sure you can give me a more specific figure. 

 

I had originally called to ask Mr. Haynes about the assessment process, which he refused to discuss with me. Since that call I have found a copy of the engineers report dated fiscal year 2013-14, in which SCI Consultant Group give a detailed report regarding assessment of property owners. If I have any questions about that I’ll be sure to get back to you. 

 

I’ve cc-d the news editors because I have either spoken to them about this issue or sent letters to the papers about it.

 

Thanks again for your anticipated cooperation, Juanita Sumner

Response from Marciales:

Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 23:16:13 +0000

Hi Juanita,

 

Attached are the preliminary cost estimates that were presented to the Board with regard to three designs options for an Aquatic Center.

 

As I previously mentioned, I have added you to the notification list for upcoming Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee Meetings.  At this time, there are no scheduled meetings for the Committee. 

 

Would you like me to also add you to our mailing list to receive copies of the Agenda for CARD’s Regular Board Meetings?  If so, please provide me with your mailing address.

 

Thank you,

 

Jennifer Marciales
Executive Assistant
(530) 895-4711
Chico Area Recreation and Park District
545 Vallombrosa Avenue
Chico, CA 95926

So, there I have it twice, she says I’m on the list. That’s just recently – I have a string of e-mails from director Steve Visconti, assuring me I am on the list and will be notified for the next aquatic center committee meeting. So, when I looked at this months’ board meeting agenda and saw another report from the committee, I realized I’d been burned again!  But I wrote a nice note to be sure:

Date: April 10, 2015 at 6:28:04 AM PDT
To: Jennifer Marciales <jmarciales@chicorec.com>
Cc: “svisconti@chicorec.com” <svisconti@chicorec.com>, “Kirk, Maureen” <mkirk@buttecounty.net>
Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

Hi,

 

At the last CARD  board meeting and again at the special meeting held last week, there were plans made to schedule an Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee meeting.  I see a report from the committee is on the upcoming agenda. I have been waiting for a notice of the committee meeting, as I was promised below. Jan Sneed also said the public would be noticed.  When and where will that meeting take place? 

 

Thanks, at your convenience, for your anticipated cooperation – Juanita Sumner
Marciales seems to know they’ve blown it, she won’t respond to me, hands me off to her boss, rec supe Bob Hinderer – her note to Hinderer:

From: Jennifer Marciales
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 7:48 AM
To: Robert Hinderer
Subject: Fwd: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee

 

See below…call me when you can to discuss. 

Sent from my iPhone

Then I got this note from Hinderer:

From: rhinderer@chicorec.com
CC: mkirk@buttecounty.net; rhinderer@chicorec.com
Subject: RE: Aquatic Facility Advisory Committee
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 18:42:13 +0000

Ms. Sumner,

 

Happy Friday. Jennifer Marciales forwarded your email. I want to first and foremost apologize for the error of the utilization of an older AFAC email list. The meeting was last night (04/09/15). You have been placed on the newer AFAC email list. Attach are the documents that were presented at the meeting.

Secondly, I invite you to a sit down meeting to discuss the AFAC actions. If you are open to the idea, please let me know days, times, and locations which best meet your schedule. I will invite Steve Visconti to attend.

 

Thank you, and again I apologize for the utilization of an older AFAC email list. I will ensure to the utilization of the newer AFAC email list for future correspondence.

 

Thank you,

 

–          Rob

 

Robert Hinderer, CPRE

Superintendent of Recreation & Community Services

CARD | Chico Area Recreation and Park District

545 Vallombrosa Ave. Chico, CA 95926

(P) 530 895­­ 4711    (F) 530 895 4721

www.chicorec.com

Happy Friday? To say the least I was stunned by this note. I answered back:

I just don’t know how  to respond to your apology Mr. Hinderer. My husband and I both put our names and e-mails on a list that was passed around at a meeting hosted by Jerry Hughes at the CARD office over a year ago. I’m confused what you mean about an “older” list. Since that early committee meeting,  I’ve made repeated requests to be notified of subsequent meetings, and been told I’d be notified, but meetings have come and gone, reports have been made of committee actions, and again and again I’ve gotten apologies and assurances that I would be on the notice list in future. I just don’t know what to think.  

Did you happen to notify the public? I may have missed the public notice.  Jan Sneed made several remarks to Jerry Hughes and staff about the public  being notified, and there was agreement among the board members and staff that the public needed to be notified. 
Again, I would like to be noticed of any future meetings of the AFAC.  I included my county supervisor and the news editors because I thought they might be interested in this issue.
Juanita Sumner
As I said there, I’d included my county supervisor Maureen Kirk and both news editors in much of this  conversation. I have yet to get any response out of Maureen Kirk or David Little, but here’s what Melissa Daugherty had to say:

Hi Juanita,

You should do a FOIA for that “older AFAC email list” and evidence of them actually alerting the folks on it.

-Melissa

I have been trying to get Daugherty to send a reporter to these meetings, but she keeps crying poormouth. I will remind her and everybody – I don’t get paid for this crap. She gets a salary to sit on her ass at a desk and she can’t cover a fucking CARD meeting? Sorry if I was a little testy with her suggestion, but I really wanted to tell her to fold it into an oregami chicken and shove it up her ass:
Why should I go to the trouble to do that? I have a string of e-mails over the past couple of years, asking them to put me on that list, answered with their assurances that  I am on the list and will be noticed, and now this.  Are you saying, you don’t believe me? You don’t have to take my word for it Melissa, go to or send a reporter to those meetings. 
I have to know, and be honest – what do you think I do all day?  
Juanita
The Snooze and Review and the Wretched are what passes for journalism in this town, Lord have mercy.
Well, here’s the news folks – you are a bunch of cash cows, waiting to be squeezed! Nobody is going to stick up for you, you have to stick up for yourself. Moooo-OOOOO!

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Aquatic Center stand-off: nobody wants to take this dog to the taxpayers

4 Apr

Sorry I have not had a chance to finish my post about the CARD meeting. In fact, I was unable to attend the entire meeting. But I did hear an interesting conversation in the hallway between aquatic center proponent Jerry Hughes and design consultant Greg Melton.

Melton has done a lot of work for both the city of Chico and CARD over the past few years. He designed the traffic circles on Manzanita. He did design work at DeGarmo Park, although I don’t know if he’s responsible for the gaff they made that caused flooding and thousands of dollars in repair work within six months of the opening of that park. Melton has also been running “charettes” for the city and CARD, for the skate board park, Caper Acres remodel, etc. He takes in the community’s comments and turns them into money, most of which goes into his pocket.

Melton is the one who turned a $125,000 gift from Marilyn Warrens into a $475,000 bridal bower. When the board balked at that price and asked him to come back with something for $250,000, he balked, saying he couldn’t do anything for that price. He finally came up with a design for $306,000 that the board gushed all over, because it’s not their money paying for it. Melton even talked the donor into giving another $25,000. Oh gee, Greg Melton can make it rain money!

Melton is the only local designer who’s given a proposal for the aquatic center. 

https://chicotaxpayers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/card-aquatic-center-cost-estimates-1.pdf

The cheapest design he’s got there is over $10 million, with almost $2 million going into “design and management soft costs” – that’s Melton. Of course he puts up the $18 million design first – wow, $550,000 “design contingency”. 

But he knows how to play it – you should have seen him schmoozing Mrs Warrens – I kept hearing Debbie Harry shrieking “Call Me!” as I watched, it was sickening.   Melton has got himself a sweet hayride, and he knows how to milk a cow, that’s for sure. My milkshake tastes better than yours…

So when he took his moneymaker out into the hallway, I went along for a listen. Jerry Hughes is very frustrated with the board, and it sounds like he’s not getting a lot of cooperation out of Aquajets, either. In previous meetings, Aquajets has been told, they need to get out and engage the public, start drumming up support for this aquatic center. They haven’t done anything – look, it’s not even mentioned on their website:

http://www.chicoaquajets.org/Home.jsp?_tabid_=0&team=caj

Hughes had addressed the board at the beginning of the meeting, asking them why the aquatic center wasn’t on the agenda (they explained it was on the list that was not made available to the attendees) and asked if the board had received a communication he’d sent. They acted confused. He told them he’d been meeting with Brad Geiss of Aquajets, and they were working on getting proposals from various contractors and consultants. He said he wanted to schedule an aquatic center committee meeting before the next regular board meeting, and the board thought that would be great. Jan Sneed added that such a meeting needed to be noticed to the public, how big of her.

Hughes sat down and Sneed started the meeting. Visconti got up and provided what might be the “emergency” excuse – he said CARD’s “line of revolving credit” was about to expire, an emergency fund that is tapped into for emergencies, he said, using that word again. Visconti needed the boards’ approval to reapply. This was an emergency?  Visconti couldn’t bring this up at the last regular board meeting less than two weeks ago? 

I don’t know the Brown Act, I wish somebody with legal expertise would look into these meetings. I’m hoping to get Rose’s take on it.

As the board ran down the list, Melton made his presentation, then Hughes motioned for him to come out in the hall. Hughes wanted to assure Melton that his design was the only real proposal submitted, the most complete anyway, and that he was still in the running.  They both agreed, the board needs to make more of a commitment before any of the consultants will submit a serious proposal. Melton seemed to be fine with working with other agencies, there’s a lot of money in this project for lots of hogs. 

Melton asked  Hughes if they’d done any kind of public survey – Hughes said No. I don’t know why he didn’t mention the survey run a couple of years ago that came back negative, unless it’s because he’s in denial of the community’s rejection of this project. The consultant who ran the survey told the board they needed to get out and sell this project to the public, convince the taxpayers of the absolute need for this Taj Majal swim center when there are already two decrepit and neglected public pools under CARD’s lack of attention. There has been no such attempt. Nobody wants to take this pig out in traffic.  Jerry Hughes can’t even write a letter to the editor. There is no public support for this pool. Hughes was expressing his frustration that the project is not moving fast enough – well, look at this guy, he doesn’t have that much time left to wait. He’s desperate to do this project, and nobody really wants it as badly as he does, unless it’s Brad Geiss. Melton also mentioned, and Hughes agreed – they have to find some way to fund it.  They were sensitive to my presence, and wouldn’t say “tax” right in front of me, but Melton remarked that they needed to “get everybody involved.” I went back into the meeting, and Hughes came back in about a minute later.  Melton followed.

They board and staff were discussing other projects – unbelievable. One project they didn’t have on the list is the Americans with Disabilities Act. I don’t care how you feel about this law, it’s the law. If you were in a wheelchair I think you’d have some things to say about the number of CARD buildings and facilities that are NOT ADA compliant. At the board meeting last month they talked about spending $40,000 on a STUDY to find out how noncompliant they are! But here they were Thursday morning making an “emergency” out of deciding which Pollyanna projects they want to spend millions of dollars adding to their inventory of neglected facilities. 

I had to leave at 10am, I don’t get paid to sit in these meetings. I had to rely on Urseny’s story – which is bullshit. She says the subject of the aquatic center was “tabled” – no it wasn’t, they’re going to have a committee meeting and a report at the next regular board meeting, that’s not “tabling.” Urseny is embedded – how else would CARD have got a story in the ER with 24 hours notice of a meeting? You wouldn’t believe what the ER put me through trying to notice my CTA meetings – send the notice in 4 weeks in advance, and then they didn’t run it – this happened several times. I still have the e-mail apologies from David Little.

When I got a chance I looked at the Aquajets website for any mention, any pleas for money for this center, and all I find is cannibalism. That’s what I call it when an organization does not do any external fund raising, no public events, just expects it’s members to continually come up with money out of their own pockets. They do a yearly fundraiser, for which they sell the tickets to each other and their relatives (wouldn’t you hate to be the co-worker of one of these parents?). Then they do “Pizza Night” at Woodstocks. Woodstocks offers a program that is good for their own bottom line – they give your organization vouchers to turn in when they buy a pizza, and then Woodstocks makes a donation to your organization for every voucher. They allow your organization to have meetings, as long as pizza is being eaten. So, Aquajets turns all their meetings into Pizza Night. When I looked at their “news” page this was the only timely event listed. 

March PIZZA NIGHT is TOMORROW – Tuesday, March 31, at Woodstock’s starting at 6:00 pm. Please give a Woodstock’s coupon when ordering. Polar Bear prizes will be awarded, as well as Swimmer of the Month, and upcoming team info.

I think the biggest “fundraiser” is the fees these families pay to have their kids in this program. On most levels it’s just babysitting. There are coaches for the more motivated competitors. I don’t know if the coaches are paid but from what I’ve seen at tournaments they act like they are coaching Olympic hopefuls.   Geiss hits these people for money around every corner.  I can understand why they would scream for the taxpayers to pay if they were put to the wall, but I’m not sure how many of them actually feel any need for a new center. I’m guessing most of these families are in and out of the club in a few years, they use it for babysitting while they do their work-out at In Motion, there’s no reason for them to want to put up a wad for some new center that won’t be built before their kid goes off to college.

As a hockey mom I know how these fees pile up – most of it goes to pay for the facilities at which the tournaments are held.  Unlike Aquajets, our hockey league floated their own boat, and still does.  Our manager Jeff Novak is a volunteer and does a darned good job of rounding up big sponsors for our facility in Hamilton City (Chico wouldn’t permit it, so the league went to Glenn County, long story short). Our bookkeeper is a volunteer, there’s only one paid coach, most of the coaches are dads.  My husband and I managed our kid’s team, and that involved spending a few hours a month online, dealing with other clubs, filling out applications for tournaments and sending or handing over the check to the other league for their facilities. Sponsors keep the fees affordable, that’s for sure, my family couldn’t have done it if the players had to come up with all the money. 

http://leagueathletics.com/?org=nvhsc.org

See sponsors here, compare this to Aquajets sponsors:

http://leagueathletics.com/Sponsors.asp?n=62270&org=nvhsc.org

Like I said, NVHSC manager Jeff Novak gets no salary, but puts hours and hours into raising money for the league. I’m pretty sure Aquajets General Manager Brad Geiss gets a salary, anybody’s guess, because this group does not have to answer questions like that. I don’t know how many hours he spends on fundraising.  I’m guessing Geiss is hoping to become a public worker, as manager of the new center. 

But right now, Hughes, Geiss, and the CARD board seem to be throwing that hot potato of public funding back and forth. Nobody wants to identify themselves with a tax measure. 

Rose was the only other member of the public I saw at this meeting. Everybody else at that meeting had a vested interest in being there. No city councilors, no county supervisor, the only member of the press Urseny, who as I’ve said, knocks herself out to shine a favorable light on CARD. 

 

 

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CARD calls “special meeting” to prioritize projects – including aquatic center – tomorrow (Thursday), 9am, at the CARD center on Vallombrosa

1 Apr
Something I learned at the Brown Bag the Brown Act workshop I attended was that “special meetings” can be held to get around the notice requirements. They only need to notice them 24 hours in advance, and by “notice” I mean, they just have to post an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper on a door at the CARD center. In this case, for whatever reason, Laura Urseny picked it up and it was reported in the Enterprise Record. 
This is the story Urseny should have been doing months ago, but here it is. You’ll note, everything I’ve said is true, and then some. Chico Area Recreation District is strapped for money, can hardly meet obligations (like the $900,000 something owed on the Lakeside Pavilion) and, as Visconti himself admits, they have too many projects dangling in front of them, but the board  entertains anybody who wants to do anything. For example, they  really led the bocce ball club on,  they acted  as thought the bocce court was really going to happen.  In recent discussions they’ve agreed they can’t afford to keep the skateboard park open, it’s a crime problem, they want to turn it over to the city, but oh yeah, sure, let’s put a million or so into a bocce ball court, that sounds feasible folks.
I’m beginning to see why Haynes left – the board is out to lunch. Sometimes I think Tom Lando is trying to bring the rest of the board members around to sense, trying to tell them they are stretching the agency too thin with all these projects, but they ignore him.
And I also see a tug of war over who will pay for the studies regarding this aquatic center – in the beginning, the Aquajets, represented by Brad Geiss and a dozen or so unidentified “supporters,” said they would pay for this stuff. Now all the sudden CARD is paying for it, with money they get from our property taxes.  They’re still not being honest about the tax measure – you have to go to these meetings folks, and listen, you can’t get your news from the newspaper.
Proposed aquatic center, spending plan on CARD agenda

By Laura Urseny, Chico Enterprise-Record

POSTED: 04/01/15, 11:03 AM PDT 

Chico >> Prioritizing a basketful of projects that are all on the front burner, plus an expenditure and a possible tax measure, are the reasons for a special meeting Thursday of the Chico Area Recreation and Park District board of directors.

The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Chico Community Center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave. It will be followed by the board’s annual tour of the facilities.

Acting General Manager Steve Visconti noted the board has accumulated a number of active projects, and coupled with the staff’s daily responsibilities, has become “a strain.” He’d like to find out what projects the board feels are most important.

Several of the projects include financial obligations, expenditures or amounts already budgeted by the board.

For example, CARD has been involved in a discussion about a proposed community aquatics center that has been part of its master plan. In its current budget, $30,000 has been set aside by the board for consulting services.

CARD has been asked by center supporters to pay for a feasibility study regarding the center. The study would “help the board decide the direction it would like to go,” according to a report by Visconti. The study would help the board clarify its involvement and how the center would be funded. Previously, the board has mentioned a possible a tax measure that CARD would put before the voters, among other options.

The staff is also working on an Americans With Disabilities Act transition plan that would identify needed improvements throughout the district to meet the legal requirements. About $40,000 has been budgeted for a consultant to finish the plan.

Recently, CARD has been working on a proposed rose garden and event center utilizing a citizen’s donation of more than $100,000. A previous plan proposed at $482,000 has been scaled back, but the current staff is asking for a little more. The board asked for the project to stay in the $250,000 range, but staff has suggested an increase to $307,000 in belief the revised project could recover the extra costs more quickly.

Also on the board’s to-do list are a bicycle pump track, the Humboldt skate park, a second dog park, the update of the master plan, and new software that would replace current software for registration.

The bicycle pump track has $9,000 budgeted, which was reallocated from a security camera project at the skate park. The registration software “will no longer be supported” in 2016 and needs to be replace at a cost of $40,000 to $50,000, Visconti noted.

Contact reporter Laura Urseny at 896-7756.

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CARD approves hiring of consultant to vet aquatic center to public

28 Mar

Last week I attended CARD’s monthly board meeting to hear the agendized report regarding the aquatic center committee. I have been trying to get into the committee meetings, have been told I’d be noticed for any meetings scheduled, but they keep telling me there haven’t been any meetings. So, how do they come up with these reports on every agenda? That’s the beauty of “ad hoc” Folks – that’s Latin,  for “hide what you’re doing with public money from the public…”

The board received a report from Chico Aquajets manager Brad Geiss – “on behalf of [former CARD general manager] Jerry Hughes…”  It was more of a demand, really, that the board hire a consultant to sell the aquatic center to the public. This was supposed to be Aquajets’ job, but Geiss was very adamant – they want the board to spend $26,000 of the taxpayers’ money on a consultant to shove a tax assessment down the taxpayers’ throats.  The board voted unanimously to do so, even though Tom Lando tried his best to act disinterested.

At a previous meeting, the board said Aquajets would take care of selling this idea to the public. Have you heard a peep out of Aquajets? Laura Urseny won’t even use their name in connection to this bad dog, referring to them as a “local swim group.” There are no other local “swim groups.”   They’ve discussed the connotation at previous meetings, one Aquajets grandparent complaining that the public feels they will be paying for the privileges of others. Well, that’s the truth, isn’t it Grandpa? Aquajets doesn’t even have as many members as the Bocce Ball club, but they expect the taxpayers to lay out $10 million PLUS for a private swim center. 

I also found out they’ve been taking proposals, which haven’t been made public. I asked CARD employee Jennifer Marciales for various documents presented to the board, all of which are supposed to be available to the public at the meetings. It was like pulling teeth – they aren’t forthcoming, you have to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb to see what else they’ve been withholding, and ask for that too. When I asked her for too many documents she turned me over to Robert Hinderer, who sent me documents that can’t be cut-and-paste.

What he sent me are proposals for this job of coming up with a design and then telling the public how bad they want it. Here you go:

3-9-15 Jerry Hughes Document

The other documents he sent won’t post, I’ll work on it.  Or, you should write to Robert Hinderer at rhinderer@chicorec.com and ask for the information, which is supposed to be available to the public. These people are making plans for millions in taxpayer dollars, and they aren’t even being up front about it. 

They still won’t talk in front of the public about the assessment they are planning to pursue, not since that meeting I attended over a year ago at which Jerry Hughes told everybody they should wait until the legislature lowered the voting threshold for a tax assessment from 2/3’s to 51 percent. I think that’s insidious.

From “Future Community Aquatic Center Comments” – When we have a preliminary plan and cost estimates ( which is what you see above) we can start planning how we will promote the project to the community…The survey [which came back negative according to the consultant] suggested two methods to fund the project; Special Tax and Benefit Assessment. We will review those two methods at the meeting [this was when Hughes told the audience about the voting threshold being changed].”

This old man is sly like a fox. He is worming something past the taxpayers, and he knows it.  I just can’t figure out what his interest is – I’m sorry, I don’t think he really cares about children when he sits in on discussions about cutting kids’ programs to make pension payments. He gets a sweet pension out of CARD.

None of this has been discussed in public meetings, only at the privately noticed Aquatic Center Committee meetings – Brad and Jerry being the “ad hoc” committee. Brad Geiss also gets a salary, as Aquajets manager, and I’m guessing he dreams of being the manager of the new center. He sure drives a pricey little sports car! All off of a children’s swim team – this is the kind of person we are dealing with here, a man who looks out for his own interests. 

They have also changed their meetings from the CARD center right in mid-town to the Cal Park Lakeside Pavillion, which sits on the eastern boundary of their district. This might not be a Brown Act violation – meetings are to be held in the district – but they are certainly pushing it. The Pavillion is not what I’d call “available to the public,” located in a snooty subdivision with “No Trespassing” and “Residents Only” signs all over the place.

When I asked Marciales why the switch, she simply replied “the Board has requested that the Regular Board Meetings be held at Lakeside Pavilion.  However, there will still be times when Board Meetings will need to be held at the CARD Center.  The location of the meetings will be specified on the Agendas when they are posted.”  No reason, just the board wanted it. 

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CARD moves meetings to Cal Park, moves ahead hiring consultant for proposed aquatic center

22 Mar

Thursday night I attended the regular Chico Area Recreation District Board meeting to see what I could find out about plans to build an aquatic center. What I saw and heard made me feel even more strongly that there’s a back room effort to get this project past the voters. The board voted unanimously to hire a consultant to come up with a proposal to sell to the taxpayers.

Jerry Haynes is out as CARD general manager and Steve Visconti has stepped back in to fill the interim while the board has (you guessed it!) hired a consultant to get a new director. They have had one director after another, Visconti “retiring’ last year only to be tapped to fill in again. One woman left citing “differences with the board” and the paper insinuated there was hostility. Now Haynes has left, citing same.  I don’t frankly know how anybody can get along with Board member Jan Sneed, who attacked me verbally and physically one night after a meeting. She’s hostile, I’ll tell you what, and I’m guessing you either do what she wants or you’re out of a job. CARD has an interesting staff history.

The General Manager of Chico swim team Aquajets was asked for a progress report on that committee that hasn’t been having any meetings. He said he was speaking on behalf of longtime CARD manager and board member Jerry Hughes, who has been the spokesperson for this effort from the beginning. I realize, they’ve taken everything into an “ad hoc” committee of Hughes and Brad, and therefore do not have to notice the meetings or include me in any way. But, Brad had a proposal for the board, they said they’d all received it. Despite Brown Act rules saying any document presented to the board must be available to the public, there were no copies. 

Brad told the board they needed to hire a consultant to design the new center, and the board voted to do so. End of conversation! 

I had to leave at that point, so I emailed the next morning asking for that proposal. CARD staffer Jennifer Marciales sent me a version that won’t cut and paste, but here’s the link:

3-9-15 Jerry Hughes Document

I noticed a little strain between the board and Brad. When he was done making his demand, Brad left with my husband and I, got into a very expensive little sports car, and zipped out. I really get a kick out of these people who come with their hand out for public money – same for the Cannons and their Bocce Ball request – they never come to these meetings, they don’t know ANYTHING about the CARD budget or the other programs, but they come in and demand money for something that serves less  than one percent of the city population.   But never any talk about how they will pay for it when they’re laying off workers to avoid paying Obamacare.

I noticed in this report that there have been three design proposals already submitted, but the only one I’ve seen is from local consultant Greg Melton, I posted that on this blog previously. So, I asked Marciales to send me the other two proposals,  but I haven’t heard back from her yet. 

Since I sat in on the Brown Act workshop with League of Women Voters, I’ve realized how little respect these  agencies have for the public.

I also asked Marciales why the meeting location was suddenly moved from the central CARD center on Vallombrosa to the very distant and removed Lakeside Pavillion. She answered, “the Board has requested that the Regular Board Meetings be held at Lakeside Pavilion”  That’s it, no explanation, just “let them eat cake…”

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