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CARD practices predatory pricing – this is a risky ploy in the real world, but not when you have guaranteed taxpayer funding

12 Sep

The story about Off The Wall Soccer and CARD has been bothering me. I sat in a board meeting last month and listened to the owners describe how CARD is putting them out of business, and it just pisses me off.

I remember when they opened that business, in a 20th Street warehouse that had been left empty for some time – what a good thing that was for that entire neighborhood. Sixteen years later, it is shocking to see a government agency go toe to toe with a viable business, pirating revenues to pay their burgeoning pension debt.

When I blogged this previously I heard from owner Dave Stahl and asked him for more information. He showed me the stream of written communication, as well as minutes from a 2006 board meeting which included a record of the conversation. At that time, staff acknowledged having made a spoken agreement with the owners of Off the Wall Soccer, and the board directed them to honor the agreement.

In my conversation with Stahl, he reported they reneged on their own agreement so many times, I can’t recount it.  All I know is, you better get it in writing if you are dealing with CARD. In a letter dated  August 10, 2016, CARD Director of Parks and Rec, Terry Zeller said, “I understand your description of past events in regard to your business and what you feel has and has not transpired as a result of conversations and meetings with CARD and its Board. As I mentioned before, without a policy or agreement created from these past discussions, I can only work from the present and your current concerns.”

What I hear Zeller saying is, OTWS made their deal with ex-staffers Steve Visconti and Jake Preston, and they’re gone now, so the deal is dead. Furthermore, says Zeller, “we cannot eliminate programs based on perceived competition. Local competition is present in almost all of the programs we offer.” He goes on to list programs from daycare to art lessons, programs that are also “offered by many private businesses, churches and non-profits.”

Zeller just ignores his own predatory pricing scam. Defined as “the pricing of goods or services at such a low level that other suppliers cannot compete and are forced to leave the market,” this method of eliminating your competition is risky for a private business. But CARD gets almost $4 million a year in tax money, getting less than half their revenues from program fees. In private business, if a service or product can’t pay for itself, you dump it. But CARD is subsidized by the taxpayer – they don’t have to support themselves.  They can undercut, undercut, undercut – until their competitors in the real world fail. And then they have a monopoly, and they can charge what they want.

They don’t have to play by the rules, either, because people rarely call them on their bullshit. Thanks to Dave Stahl and his partners at Off The Wall  Soccer, for calling this out in the open.  Their business is in dire straits, most of their clients having been lured away by CARD’s half price scheme. As teams defected, others were fairly well forced to go along – you can’t have team sports without a few teams, after all.  While CARD board member Jan Sneed admitted to having made the agreement with OTWS, the staff has gone ahead and scheduled exactly the programs they promised not to schedule.

This is exactly the treatment I got from CARD board and staff when I tried to find out more about their efforts to build a new aquatic center.  I had attended an early, publicly announced meeting – they said they were looking for people to sign up for a committee. I signed  up. I never got any notice of any meeting, although time and time again I’d see reports from the committee scheduled on board agendas. Former CARD general manager Steve Visconti played me like a pro – at first he apologized, my name must have gotten lost… it just went on like that.

It is imperative this agency increases funding, because their salary and benefit costs are going up all the time. While they are budgeting less than $500,000 this year for capital improvements, they continue to spend almost their entire budget on salaries and benefits – this year $5.5 million, last year $5.1, the previous year, about $4.9. This year they budgeted over $420,000 for pension premiums, and that amount increases by about $10,000/year.

They say they can’t maintain their facilities without more money. Please! Of their $482,000 capital improvements budget, $250,000 goes to fix rot at Park Pavilion. What were they thinking when they bought that thing? They wanted to rent it out – compete with local businesses.   Rotten from top to bottom, but they paid over $1 million, before interest.  Meanwhile, they deferred a $500,000 fix-it for Shapiro Pool in 2006 – that was 10 years ago. Today they say Shapiro is beyond repair.

After I talked to Dave Stahl I attended a special “informative meeting” with CARD board, staff, and three consultants who detailed CARD’s options for more funding. I’ll get back to that another time.

 

 

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Dolan accuses CARD of Brown Act violation; Aquatics group wants Nance Canyon taken off protection list so they can locate their “mega-center” there

19 Aug

Wow, what a meeting you people missed last night. I hate going out at night, but every now and then I get a little prize for my diligence.

Last night I got to watch Jane Dolan and Bob Mulhullond call Chico Area Recreation District board and staff on the carpet for holding the public out of the aquatic center conversation. She used the words “Brown Act violation” in describing the way their agenda had  been noticed in the “local  media” – meaning, the Enterprise Record.

When I saw Laura Urseny’s blurb in the ER, I had already read the agenda, I knew she was leaving out the part about Nance Canyon. While Dolan turned around and explained she wasn’t blaming the paper, I am. Urseny works for CARD, she always has. She is a butt kisser, she thinks that’s the only way to get friends I guess.

Last night Bill Brouhard, of Guillon Brouhard Commercial Real Estate,  a member/representative of “Every Body Healthy Body,” described the organization as a “501 3C non-profit” started by parents of Aqua Jets, not mentioned by name. He said he and others had got tired of driving their kids “all over” to other towns who got “all this money” that he thought should be coming to Chico. 

As the parent of a kid who participated in travel sports, I thought that was the whole idea – get your kid out there, go places, see other towns.  I also doubt Brouard’s claim that Chico will see “all this money.”  The leagues we visited tried to get us to patronize hotels, usually the pricey places. Visiting parents – not just us – usually opted for the cheap hotels, or just drove  home. Others brought motor homes and stayed in the facility parking lots, bbq-ing meals, even selling tri-tip sandwiches and other such fare as fundraisers. I never saw any report detailing how much, by the dollar, that these tournaments bring into a town, and I’m doubting Brouard’s claims that such a center would be a financial triumph for our town. It’s already looking like they want all kinds of help.

If you want more information on Brouhard I think a quick look here will be of interest:

http://www.gbrealestate.net/commercial_brokerage/bill_brouhard

https://www.facebook.com/bill.brouhard

Of course, while Brouhard said EBHB came up with seven potential sites, the site they pick is right in the middle of a disputed area, a parcel that is being included in the Butte Habitat Conservation Register.  What is this group  thinking, wanting to build a facility like this on a politically and geographically sensitive piece of land, so far out of the city limits? 

Because Bill Brouhard and his partner Doug Guillon are investor/developer/realtors. All they see in Nance Canyon is dollar signs. I don’t even think this has as much to do with Brouhard’s complaints about driving two sets of kids to swim meets, I think it has more to do with the property owner and how much money they all stand to make. 

Brouhard says they’re thinking 50 years in the future! But they need the CARD board to act now, he says, and tell the county to pull Nance Canyon out of the conservation area.

He claims the owner is willing to sell for 14 cents an acre.  Those were his exact words – he’s a realtor, he should  know better, is he trying to mislead the board?  I know Lando should have called him on that figure, our ex-city manager knows exactly what land values are. My husband immediately bumped my elbow to hiss, “he means per square foot…” but I was busy scribbling other details, so failed to call him on it.

He also claimed the property would include rights to a creek – Butte Creek!

In order to make this pipe dream a financial drain on the citizens, Brouhard and EBHB need CARD to write a letter to the county, asking them to take that parcel out of the conservation area and place it in an Urban Permit Area.   He’s also asking CARD to form an ad-hoc committee – which means, staff time with no public oversight – to “coordinate” with EBHB. He specifically asked for an ad hoc,  because ad hoc meetings don’t have to be noticed or reported to the public.  I believe EBHB is trying to pull the wool over the public’s eyes, and they know exactly what they’re doing.

He brought a box of printed materials for the board but when I reached out to take a map from his he turned abruptly on his heel and ignored me. That’s okay, Jane Dolan mopped the floor with his shiny ass.

She got right up  during public comment and got really mad. First she said the article in the Enterprise Record had left out specific information, hadn’t given the public a real idea of what was actually happening at the meeting, adding that the aquatic center had not been “publicly vetted.”

“Public discussion does not begin with a non-Brown act notice of your agenda…” referring to the story in the newspaper. 

Gee, where was Janey when they kept putting me off on my requests to attend aquatic committee meetings? Steve Visconti lied to me around every corner, staffers refused to do their job, and then Ann Willmann fixed it all by telling the aquatics center proponents to form their own non-profit so the public would be completely cut out. 

Dolan warned the board they were dealing with a very sensitive property, and even though she professed support for an aquatic center somewhere else in Chico, she would not support it at this site. “If I were still in the job (her appointment to the Central Valley Flood Protection board) it [Nance Canyon] would already be part of the conservation area.”  

He husband Bob Mulhullond stood up to ask the board where was the staff analysis? He and Dolan both accused the board of getting ready to make a decision without proper procedure. Mulhullond said further they should just “reject this!” 

I was astounded. All this time I’ve been trying to follow this stuff,  I barely  understand half of it, but I’ve smelled a rat. Well, Dolan and Mulhullond, bless their hearts, came down last night to say, “There’s your damned rat, right there! Kill it!”

This whole aquatic center business has been handled illegally, is what I’m guessing, and I’m also guessing at least two of the board know that – Lando and long time board member Jan Sneed.  Chair Bob “the Yo-yo” Malowney made vague statements about “we’ve been intending to take this before the public…” and Lando remarked that he’d “heard” there had been public meetings but he hadn’t attended any of them.

Lando then suggested they go ahead and name a subcommittee to coordinate with EBHB. As they were discussing this, Dolan stood up again to ask them, stuttering mad, “What is it you’re going to do?”   She pointed out, they were trying to go ahead and act without proper  procedure again. She said the whole thing was inappropriate without public vetting. 

Lando then agreed to agendize the subject of the ad hoc committee. This is when I started to wonder if anything they’d done with the so-called “Aquatic Facility” committee was legal.

The discussion was tabled with direction to staff to agendize the matter, and Dolan stepped out into the hall with Bill Brouhard.

It was 7:30, I was butt tired, husband too, but we decided to stay a little longer. There was a lot of important stuff on the agenda I don’t understand, something about creating a district that could issue  bonds. We listened to Ann Willmann’s report, because there’s never any written report, you just have to be there. 

Good thing we stayed. Willman had been meeting with EBHB! Of course! She’d also been involved with a contractor(s?) who is/are evaluating buildings and other facilities for CARD, telling them how far they’ve allowed things to slide, and how much it is going to cost to get all their facilities back in code compliance, including ADA.  Then there’s the total replacement of the playground at DeGarmo  Park.  The surface they laid down proved to be a total disaster, and has to be replaced. Problem is – why would they want to put that old playground equipment on that new surface? So CARD approved the replacement of the entire playground.

Where will they get all the money for this malfeasance? Willmann announced an “informational” meeting on  September 8 (TBA) at which the board and the public will hear from representatives of different organizations about bonds and other “funding options”. 

Mark your calendar, I’ll get back to you  

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CARD plans to add Nance Canyon to their assessment district – meeting tomorrow – Thursday night – 7pm, CARD Center on Vallombrosa

17 Aug

Here is the most recent article I was able to find regarding assessments on your property by agencies like Chico Area Recreation District. 

Click to access calbudget.pdf

Tomorrow night, CARD will discuss asking the county to add Nance Canyon to their assessment district. They are also discussing their plans to place assessments on us for their planned aquatic center.   That is done by mailed ballot – explained in the above article.

Since 1992, state law has required that local agencies considering implementing any assessment notify affected landowners 45 days in advance and hold a public meeting and a public hearing on the proposal.(9) The notice must include the estimated amount of assessment per parcel, the purpose of the assessment, the dates, times, and locations of the public meeting and public hearing, and instructions for protesting the assessment, if applicable. The notice must either be mailed to all affected landowners or advertised in local newspapers, depending on the number of affected parcels and the use of the proposed assessment.

Write to CARD and ask them when they plan to mail these notices out, or if they are going to try to sneak the notice under the radar in some back-page ad in the ER or N&R? You can contact the board here:

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

You might want to remind them, they’ve paid two consultants so far who’ve told them the public doesn’t back this project and that it will only be used by 15 percent of the population. Ask them why they insist on spending money on consultants to get an assessment instead of maintaining Shapiro Pool, closed permanently earlier this year after years and years of sub-code neglect. Instead they proceeded to spend as much as $400,000 a year on pensions for less than 30 employees. 

 

 

Chico Unified, CARD getting ready to dive into your purse

16 Aug

We will have at least two new taxes coming at us this coming year, including Chico Unified School District Bond Measure K on the November ballot, and a mailed assessment from Chico Area Recreation District.  

CARD will have a speaker from “Every Body, Healthy Body” discussing efforts to include Nance Canyon in the assessment area. That’s Thursday night, 7pm, at the CARD center at 545 Vallombrosa.  

The best way to fight these grabs, is get involved early.  I’ll try to keep you posted, but I wish I could get somebody to attend the school board meetings and report here. 

 

 

You have to read the agendas

30 Jul

I haven’t been hitting the public meetings lately folks – when I realized this the other day, it was like waking up at the wheel of a moving car.

You know, Butte County public works manager is threatening to close the poo ponds at the dump, he says this will double the cost of having your septic tank pumped (!), and our local government officials are sitting around with their thumbs up their asses cause most of them are on sewer.

I just realized, my supervisor is on sewer. She represents two of the hill-billiest communities around here, Forest Ranch and Cohasset, and a district full  of septic tanks in Chico, and she doesn’t have a clue about septic tanks. Does she think the residents of Cohasset will pay twice as much to pump their tanks? No, when their tanks fail, they will call “Midnight Septic Service” and neither the county nor the city will be the wiser.

I told Maureen about the new soda machine at the Cohasset Store. Within a week somebody had shot it full of holes, leaving a note: “What? No Budweiser?!”  

Maureen is over her head, I don’t think she knew what she was getting into with that district. When the county made their trash franchise deal, County Administrative Officer Paul Hahn said his office’s phones “rang off the hook for two weeks with complaints.” I’d say, he was lucky people used their phones.

Maureen’s constituents had been blind-sided. She’d offered up a little public meeting at the Forest Ranch store, but didn’t notice it properly, and nobody came. When the deal rolled out and rates were increased while service was cut,  they were really pissed. I made a point to make sure they all knew who was responsible – most of my neighbors in Forest Ranch did not even know what district they were in, much less who was their Supe. Now they sure as hell know. 

Did Maureen learn anything? I don’t think so, this poo ponds thing has been kicking around in meetings for the better part of a year, and she has not notified her constituents. She has an office, and a staff, paid for by us, and she could get a list of her district addresses from Candy Grubbs, send regular notices as to what’s happening – especially stuff like, “the cost of pumping your septic tank is about to double…” – but she chooses not to.  She could have a website, but does not. 

So, I will have to attend the “Local Goverments” committee meeting next week, how exciting. I’ll try to keep you awake.

Click to access LGC-8-3-16-AgendawithAttachments.pdf

Actually those meetings are full of interesting topics. At the same time they are discussing screwing septic tank owners all over Chico, they will give us an update about how they are trying to force more people onto city sewer. They will also discuss an accusation made by the Grandiose Jury that Chico does not spend enough “local taxpayer dollars” on the homeless. I’m sure some of you might have something to say about that. 

Of course there’s nothing on this agenda or any other I’ve received about pending rate increases from PG&E and Cal Water.  Nor is there an update on the trash franchise deal.

Does anybody pay attention to this stuff? No, at least half the residents of Chico are butt in air, head in gopher hole. That is a position that leaves a person is prime position for a good screwing.

Stop the presses! CARD employees to begin paying toward their own benefits! (having paid NOTHING up to now…)

26 Jul

Ooooooo! Chico Area Rec District director Ann Willmann will pay 5 PERCENT out of her $100,000-plus salary toward 70 percent of her highest year’s salary, available at age 55!  

Let me be the first to say, “Big Fucking Deal Mrs. Potato”.  She’s been stealing from us all these years, and she thinks she can just wash her hands and give us that “Who? Me?” look.

According to this morning’s Enterprise Record:

CHICO >> A balanced 2016-17 budget for the Chico Area Recreation and Park District was passed last week, but the financial document for the special district is a little different from the preliminary one.

Guided by a board and staff that wanted to see savings because of long- suspended maintenance costs and other expenses, the budget process has resulted in cutbacks and in changes, that include employees for the first time paying for a portion of their retirement.

While that w ill save CARD revenue, there are other matters that mean more expense, like aging facilities that need work or repairs, and personnel costs from the rising minimum wage. There are also new allocations for long- discussed priorities, according to Chair Bob Malowney during a phone interview. Paying a portion toward their Public Employees Retirement System costs, employees will be looking to contribute from 1 to 4 percent of their pay, depending on the positions, according to CARD business manager Olivia Wilson. The amount of savings was not immediately available.

General Manager Ann Willmann will start to pay a portion as well. The board also approved a 5 percent raise for her that will start in December that was previously discussed by the board. She’ll be making $105,000 a year, according to Wilson.

Excuse me, but that’s crap. Why are we paying benefits and retirement for people who make more than twice the median income?

Just a show for the public because  they are still kicking around the idea of a swimming pool tax. They know it looks bad that they don’t pay anything, so they are making a very petty show. They’ve budgeted $80,000 for a consultant, just to get that on the ballot.  They want us to pay down the rest of their nearly $2 million pension deficit. That’s two million dollars for less than 30 employees who get pensions.   

In the story, they admit they’ve “suspended maintenance costs” to pay down their salaries, benefits and FULL PAID pensions all these years. 

Why pay public salaries for a job done better for yourself?

5 Jul

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I’ll get out early for a pancake breakfast, and I’m not alone. I’ve noticed,  the annual 4th of July pancake breakfast is one of the best attended events in Chico.

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Held near Sycamore Field at One Mile, this event brings so many people, I would advise you to get yourself down there by the first flip at 7:30. Or take a folding chair and a snack.

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At about 8:20, this was the line up for the syrup station. You can see the pancake trailer to the right there, where Bob and his flapjack flipping fanatics were flinging them out furiously.

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This is why this event requires a big, open venue. They just kept coming and coming. For every pancake that hit a paper plate, I would estimate, another 5 people got out of their cars and started wandering in.  There’s the line for the pancake wagon snaking out around the baseball field, Bob and the crew are holed up in the trailer. I wonder if any of them are making the “Jaws” joke – “I think we need a bigger griddle…”   My husband took pictures of the line to send around to our procrastinating friends.

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My husband kept leading me toward Sycamore Field, showing me how the line went all the way out to the road.

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As we came over from the Vallombrosa side, we walked with an enthusiastic crowd. They greeted friends they hadn’t seen since last year, talked about driving in from all parts of Butte County and beyond, for an event they wouldn’t miss “for the world,” according to one woman.

The smell of syrup and sausages was just about maddening.

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We saw that all the bike racks were full, there’s our old tandem added to the pile. We could see people walking in from the surrounding neighborhoods, some of them extended groups. As we rode our bike home about 8:45, we saw more people headed up through the park, some of whom asked us if we saved them any pancakes.

It occurred to me, I sure hope Bob had plenty of batter!

My family has always lived within an easy bike ride of Bidwell Park, we’ve used it alot over the years, and whenever there’s an event we try to check it out. This is without doubt one of the top five most attended, if not the most attended event. The only one we could think of that compares is the annual Polar Bear Swim on New Year’s Day. We also remember well-attended Endangered Species Fairs at Cedar Grove, but have not noticed the same size crowds at that event in recent years.

These events beat the Bidwell Park Centennial last year, easily. Neither the city nor CARD were very enthusiastic in their presentation of that event, which could easily have been a week long affair complete with a parade, bike fair, maybe even some mention of the 1939 Robin Hood production, scenes for which were filmed at different sites in the park. I was shocked the park department didn’t put more into the centennial of one of our town’s biggest tourist attractions and public treasures.

Meanwhile CARD budgets for two movie nights a year, showing such masterpieces as “Grease” and “Bees.” They actually showed “Robin Hood” a few years, but for some reason fail to make an annual event of it.  They pay for a film association license to be able to rent and show these movies to the public.  The rental is expensive – more for more popular movies – and the rules for fund raising are very strict. I think the licensee is only allowed to charge an attendance fee that covers the cost of the film, and then have to give the film association a cut of any money made.

I’ve attended a few of these, and while I’ve enjoyed the showing, on a screen set up at Sycamore Field, I’ve counted the crowd – there’s never been even 100 people at the movie showings I’ve attended, including a “Robin Hood” showing. I’d question the expenditure for their license and the rental, I don’t think it pays. It’s just a fad, outdoor movies, but there are too many others who do a better job, and get a lot more attendees.

CARD used to sponsor the 4th of July pancake breakfast, putting up the money to pay Bob and provide the services of Work Training Center employees for clean-up – about $3,000. This year they cited a tight budget and announced they did not have the money to sponsor the event, that it would be cancelled. Chico Running Club quickly rushed in to host the event.

I wrote a letter to the Enterprise Record when I heard about it.

Chico Area Recreation District will no longer host the city Fourth of July celebration because they don’t have $3,000?

 

This on the heels of news they will close iconic Shapiro Pool, having neglected maintenance for years. 

 
According to budgets available on their website, CARD will receive about $6.9 million in revenue this year, almost $4 million of that from property taxes and assessments.  Salaries and benefits eat over $5 million.  Of over 300 employees, about 33 management take just over half the salaries, another $700,000-plus going toward their pensions and health insurance.  They pay more toward their pensions every year as they continue to cut programs, even the popular “Junior Giants” baseball, turning children away because they say they can’t afford staff adequate to supervise them.
 

CARD has over $1.7 million in pension liability while management pay nothing toward their pensions. The current director makes  over $100,000 a year and gets a $28,000 benefits package.  The households in the district have median income of about $42,000.

CARD management complain they need more money to fulfill their mission.  Meanwhile, non-profit, mostly volunteer-run agencies, like Westside Little League, Chico Running Club,  North Valley Hockey, and several soccer leagues continue to pick up the slack. 

 

Has CARD failed in it’s mission to provide affordable recreation for Chico? Do we really need CARD anymore?

Yes,  CARD has failed in it’s mission. No we don’t need CARD anymore.

As we rode our bikes off into the park that is paid for with taxpayer dollars, my husband and I listened to the band warming up, strains of “Oh say can you see…”

 

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How will you celebrate “The Fourth”? Try acting like an American

4 Jul

I always wonder, how many Americans have even read the US constitution? How many of you have read the California constitution? The city charter?

Good homework for “The Fourth.”  

I’ve been reading up on the laws regarding tax measures, how they are enacted, and how the public citizen can resist an avaricious government.

First, we must “Watch the skies!”   Actually, we have to watch the agendas. That is where the initial discussion of putting a tax measure on the ballot is supposed to happen.  We all know it actually happens in private meetings, but, legally, it has to pass through a public discussion before it can be handed to the county clerk, so there’s a place for the observer to begin. I’ve been watching agendas not only for council meetings and county supervisor meetings but the smaller committee meetings in between.

I have to admit, I’ve been distracted with Chico Area Recreation District, trying to figure out whether their tax grab will appear on the November ballot or whether they will go the slimy way and deliver assessment ballots by mail.  Assessment elections aren’t the same as regular elections – they are rigged with bigger property owners getting more votes, the “weight” of each property owner’s vote being determined by the very board that is asking for the tax. These shouldn’t be legal – that’s our fault. We need to try to get rid of the entities that can attach us this way, starting with CARD, and including the Butte County Mosquito and Vector District.

I haven’t heard an elected official at either the city of Chico or Butte County mention a sales tax increase, but with municipalities all around us seeking, and in some cases, getting a sales tax increase out of the voters, I’m worried. Ex-city mangler Tom Lando, the guy who came up with the MOU that attached city salaries “to revenue increases but not decreases,” has been stumping for a sales tax increase for a few years now, saying he wants this and that amenity for the public, as well as better paid cops and fire fighters. 

Wow, what’s better than a base pay of $62,000/year with automatic step increases and mandated overtime that can as much as double that base salary? Not to mention paying only 12 percent toward a retirement of 90 percent of your highest year’s pay at age 50? What the helllllll could be better than that? 

Ask Lando, a guy who is in the regular habit of dropping a C-note for lunch.

I don’t believe Lando is worried about the public, I think he is worried about his $12,000/month pension payments.  Can you imagine living on $134,000/year, without having to work? Just getting a check for the rest of your life.  Ask Barbara McEnepsy – how’s life out on Keefer Road Hon? I don’t even know what Barbara McEnepsy did for the city, but she receives an even higher pension than Lando. 

Here’s the real stinker – these two individuals retired before the rules were changed to make employees “pay their own share” – neither Lando nor McEnepsy paid a dime toward their pensions.

If you are not outraged about paying these pensions, I’ll say – you’re not an American.

 

What is “entitlement”? CARD director rents Lakeside Pavilion to aquatic center supporters for less than a third of the regular rate

27 Jun

Entitlement – (according to Google) – the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.

Our economy is sinking into another recession because public workers are getting too entitled.

At Chico Area Recreation District, we have Director Ann Willmann, who makes over $100,000 a year but feels entitled to 70 percent of her salary at age 55 even though she pays nothing from that $100,000+ salary toward that pension. That’s a good example of “sense of entitlement”, but she takes it even further. Willmann seems to feel she is allowed to rent CARD facilities to her friends at cheaper rates than she would give them to the public at large. 

I told you about the event held at Park Pavilion by a non-profit group called “Everybody, Good Body.”

CARD still talking about a parcel tax or property assessment to build aquatic center – now they say they might fix Shapiro instead, but they’re going to get a tax one way or the other

Later I e-mailed Willmann to ask her how much EBGB paid for the pavilion.  She responded,

“Hi Juanita, the group paid $500 for their 5 hour rental. Thank you, Ann”

I thought that sounded cheap, but there is no rate schedule on CARD’s website.  A couple of years ago I inquired about the fees for the much less grandiose CARD center on Vallombrosa, and  got this response from facilities director Ed Johnson:

CARD Center, Main Room

$500 deposit that is refundable to you

·         Friday or Sunday (hall for 15 hours plus table and chairs that we set up and use of the kitchen ) $1200 separate from the deposit

·         Saturday (hall for 15 hours plus table and chairs that we set up and use of the kitchen ) $1700 separate from the deposit

·         Monday thru Thursday it is an hourly rental and is $125 per hour

Arts and craft room and Room 3

                $100 Deposit that is refundable to you

                $30 per hour and provides only tables and chairs

So I asked Johnson about the pavilion, and was not surprised when he came back with this response:

It is a $500 deposit that is refundable to you. For a Saturday it is $3400 separate from the deposit and for a Friday or a Sunday it is $2800 separate from the deposit. We can do an hourly rate which is the same deposit and has a minimum of 8 hours and that is $225 per hour.

Lakeside is $225 Per hour weekdays and weeknights. There is no discounted rate for this building.

I wondered why EBGB got a discount, so forwarded the information to Willmann and asked her about the $100/hour rate with no minimum given to EBGB.

Hi Juanita, I authorized the $100 hr/fee. As CARD’s general manager, I have the discretion to adjust facility rental rates for use by community agencies and organizations particularly when they have objectives and purposes similar to and compatible with those of CARD. If there are no pending inquires for use of a facility or no programming taking place, we would recognize the opportunity for some revenue where otherwise there would have been none.

I asked Willmann for communications she’d received from representatives of EBGB, she only had the one e-mail from Chico Swim Association’s Brad Geise, who runs Aquajets. Willmann’s son swims for Aquajets, so they’re pretty friendly.

Hi Ann,

 Hope all is well with you.

 Any slight chance we might be able to hold the EBHB social event at Lakeside Pav?

 Brad

I saw that Geise did not request a discount, and asked Willmann whose idea that was.  I also asked her, if my group requested use of the “pav,” and there was no other scheduled event, would we receive a discounted rate?

Hi Juanita, a discount was requested in the follow up phone call with staff.

We would evaluate any groups request the same.

They did not pay a deposit, however did provide a certificate of insurance. Ann

How does this woman expect to run an organization the size of CARD if she is making up the rules as she goes along? Why isn’t there a rate schedule available to the public? Does she give applicants a look up and down and decide on the spot how much she will shake out of them? 

But her friends get a facility that has a minimum charge of $1800 for $500, with no $500 deposit. Why doesn’t she just make the rates affordable for everybody, all the time?

That’s “entitlement” kids, that sense of privilege that sets the “right kind of people” apart from the rest of us.

 

Strap yourselves in, this is complicated

22 Jun

There has been so much to talk about lately, it’s hard to know how to start.

I’ve been having a conversation with Chico Area Recreation District director Ann Willmann about rental policies for CARD facilities. CARD owns a lot of stuff, not just play fields, but buildings that are supposed to be available for public use, with a fee schedule. One such building is the CARD Center, appropriately located near the center of Chico and also near the center of the recreation district’s legal boundaries.  Besides housing CARD operations, the CARD center had been a popular place for private parties, mostly weddings, as well as public events like the “Pancakes for Peace” fundraiser held for many years by the Chico Peace and Justice Center. In fact, for many years, the center parking lot was packed for some or another event every good weather weekend from early Spring to late Fall. I had friends who got married there, it was affordable to working people.

A few years ago I noticed the center wasn’t being used as much.  I also noticed it was a meeting place for the homeless – all along Vallombrosa between Mangrove and Arbutus, every public green space was covered with a little encampment of creepy people, laying filthy and half naked with scroungy dogs, drinking, acting generally scurvy.  Yeah, at the last wedding I attended at the CARD center, there were a bunch of homeless people milling in the crowd, they were really drunk, they went down to the creek and went skinny dipping as the bride’s family tried to usher the guests back into the building.

That whole area got really bad. The post office annex closed between 10pm and 7am, citing “security concerns.”

A year or so ago, CARD board member Tom Lando made a public appeal to Chico PD to help keep the vagrants from camping, crapping and generally carousing around the CARD center.  I don’t know how far that went because quickly thereafter the board made a unanimous decision to move CARD meetings to California Park Lakeside Pavilion. California Park sits at the outermost edge of the district, and the pavilion is located deep within this bastion of private property, loud red “NO TRESPASSING” signs displayed prominently on any patch of grass not directly connected to a private home. I don’t know when exactly the board purchased the pavilion, but I would have loved to be at the meeting to hear how they rationalized the purchase. I’m going to guess somebody made a pitch about how much they could make renting the place out for fancy weddings.

Which would seem to be a breach of the district’s policy and mission, to provide affordable recreation options and facilities for everybody. They have also cited concerns about some projects in past, saying they didn’t want to compete with private businesses. How does the pavilion fit their mission?

“Fancy” just isn’t a word for Chico. Chico has long been an anti-snob town, a place where jeans and work shirts have been considered far more stylish than three piece suits and Ferragamo shirts. But we’ve got a new class of people here in town – public workers who make more than five families put together.  These people have been pushing a “class up this burg” movement. Tom Lando is one of the people behind this push – as retired city manager, he makes one of the biggest pensions that adds up to our city’s 90 million dollar plus pension deficit.

Lando has cried aloud that Chico doesn’t have a fancy sports stadium. He said he ran a survey that said taxpayers would support such a venture, but he wouldn’t publish the results for the rest of us.  Lando wants a tax of some sort to pay for this stadium. He once said, it wouldn’t add up to more than a dollar on the average lunch tab.

Wow, would somebody do that math for me? He’s saying, the tax increase would amount to a dollar on the average lunch tab? How much does he pay for lunch?

People like Lando think Chico needs to grow up and be fancy.  They want richer people to move here, to pay higher property taxes, to support their pensions, is what.

I’d say, they all need to grow up, and pay for their own retirement at age 55 on 70 – 90 percent of their highest year’s income.

Lando was also the guy who brought in the Memo Of Understanding that linked city salaries to “revenue increases but not decreases.”  Then council-member Larry Wahl told me he signed that MOU because he didn’t understand it.  Council proceeded to approve all those subdivisions that are still taking a giant crap all over our local economy. With that late 90’s building boom, Lando’s salary went from around $60,000 to over $100,000 in just a few years. But when things went bust, none of those salaries went down, due to the simple but legally binding wording in that two sentence memo. Today the city manager makes about $200,000/year, and pays only 9 percent toward his own pension.

And that’s what happened when the public  became aware of the MOU during that hot and heavy two or three years that bankruptcy was breathing down our collective neck.  Yes, it was outrageous – I wish people would pay attention more often. But, the public was lulled back to sleep with the following agreement – sure, we’d hold the line on the raises from now on, but the city would pay a whopping share of the “employee share” of pensions and benefits. For many years, it was the entire share for management and public safety workers.

You remember that whole conversation, don’t you? How there was the “employee share” and the “employer share”, and the “EMPC”, or, “employer-paid member contribution”. That means, we paid their share, get that? For those employees we were paying not only “our” share but theirs as well. Only the last couple of years has management and public  safety begun to pay toward their own pensions. At first, only 4 percent, now 9 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

Excuse me – big fucking deal – why aren’t they paying the 50 percent mandated of new hires?  Excuse me again – did I say 50? I say, they pay it all themselves, and if they’re real good, we start picking up a small percentage.  But this practice of getting something you didn’t pay for – ENTITLEMENT – has got to stop.

According to Ann Willmann, her friends are ENTITLED to rent publicly owned facilities under her supervision for less than the public would pay.

Bill Cosby, the comedian, used to tell long, involved stories, and then say, “I told you that story so I could tell you this one…” There is where I will have to leave you for today, I’ll try to get back asap.

 

 

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