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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.

 

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.

 

 

Short Attention Span Theater – we have the government we deserve in Chico

18 Jun

I’ve just been having a frustrating conversation with a friend about public participation. 

Sorry if I have been rude, Friend.

Friend tried to explain to me how overwhelmed most people are in their lives, they can’t pay attention.

That just got my skivvies in a bunch. I pay attention, and let me tell you, I got stuff going on.  I won’t bore you with my epic problems of the past months, but through it all, my close friends have been annoyed with my constant complaining about what the city and county and various local agencies are doing. My husband keeps telling me the government stuff is stressing me out, I should concentrate more on what’s going on at home. At least we can do something about our private problems, he says.

I have a hard time keeping it all under my hat.  Every morning, when I give my dog her insulin shot, I have to mentally prepare – “don’t think bad thoughts, don’t think bad thoughts…” as I skewer that needle into a lump of flesh behind her collar.   She lays on the floor behind me as I read the paper, read e-mails, she can hear me grumbling about stuff. I have to be careful or she’ll slip into the bedroom and stick her head under my husband’s side of the bed. I can feel the tension in her neck, makes it hard to get loose skin, sometimes she lets out a yelp and a half.

What bugs me is how people are so quick to use any excuse to stick their head in the sand, but they still expect to be allowed to complain when something finally gets under their skin.  I won’t mention names, but I’ve watched the local gadflies make big stinks about stuff, after a few months, the stink dies down, and the problem still exists.  All that blab about volunteers for the park – the park still looks like shit. The work they did at the One Mile parking lot last year has become completely overgrown with non-native invasive plants again. An area they did earlier this year is also going back to a mess.   Whole sections of the park are sub-code – if it was your yard, you’d get a notice to clean it up or pay the city to do it. 

And this conversation about keeping public restrooms open has been going on for two years now. Meanwhile, the million dollar One Mile restroom is pretty hit and miss – here’s the conundrum – if it is open, will it be usable? 

Short Attention Span Theater.

I’m going to tell you Esplanade lovers – don’t go back to sleep! Isn’t it pretty obvious, they’ve shelved the roundabouts until after the election? I’m hoping Cheryl King and friends are quietly looking for somebody to run for council, but I’m not going to bank on it.  

I’d like to see somebody run for CARD. Why don’t I do it? I would if I had some support – I ain’t going into those meetings without a posse anymore.  If they pass their bond, it means the people of Chico are completely gone fishing.

Tony St Amant said it in this morning’s paper – we have the government we deserve.

 

 

When will the enablers see the link between transients and crime?

30 Apr

I think the biggest problem we have with the homeless here in Chico are the agencies and individuals who provide for them. That would include our local media. Read these excerpts from the Enterprise Record Hits and Misses column for today:

HIT >> There were two very impressive aspects to an extensive effort Wednesday to help homeless and low- income people in Butte County. One is that 675 people received help. The other is the dozens of people, organizations and agencies that chipped in to make it happen.

Project Homeless Connect managed to get the word out to hundreds of people who took advantage of the opportunity to get things most people take for granted — a shower, food, a haircut, a bicycle repair, a health screening, pet care and much more.

It took a lot of goodhearted people to organize the event and volunteer at it. We applaud them for doing what they can to help.

Well, isn’t that nice?  “Hundreds of people who took advantage…” Great choice of words.  This kind of enabling is what’s bringing the homeless flocking to Chico. Of course, Dave Little doesn’t live anywhere near the areas most heavily affected by this problem, Downtown, Bidwell Park, and the neighborhoods directly surrounding the creeks – that would include the campus neighborhoods.

MISS >> The statistics on crime in neighborhoods near Chico State University are alarming, even if they’re not surprising.

Most residents know that’s where most crime happens in Chico. But it was quantified at a public meeting last week. Chico Police Department statistics show that in a three- year period ending last Dec. 31, 636 homes and 482 cars were broken into in neighborhoods near the university, and 437 cars were stolen.

There’s hope, however. Increased attention and a new cooperative agreement between Chico police and university police will help. Students and non- students who live in the area can do their part by locking up items, not being so trusting and watching out for criminal activity.

Crime will never disappear in student neighborhoods, but the number is unacceptably high and can be reduced with attention to the issue.

First of all, I see the same old pattern here – blame the victim. That’s good, I hope plenty of parents read this and send their kids somewhere else for college. I know, a lot of people blame the students for everything, but imagine getting a call from your kid, describing the kind of stuff that’s been going on in Chico the last couple of years. 

They sure as hell wouldn’t be reporting any events where college students get free showers, food, a haircut, a bicycle repair, a health screening, or pet care.

How many blogs have I written about repeat offenders? You check, I’m busy. The pattern is hard to miss, but apparently the Editor does not read the police reports or follow them up on the county superior court index. I don’t know how many stories I’ve read in his paper about somebody waking up in the middle of the night to find a stranger in their bedroom, hands/arms full of stolen stuff. Less than a week ago a man over at Amanda Place came home to find a guy in his apartment in the middle of the day, and was stabbed by the creep.

 I’ve looked up the names on the court index, including the man involved in that break-in and stabbing, and found these people have been arrested and released – “OR”, “own recognizance” – again and again, for increasingly violent crimes. 

The pattern also shows most of them are listed without any permanent address – “homeless,” “transient,” whatever you want to call it. That last man was  “ward” of the county, “ a person or thing under guard, protection, or surveillance…” .   Oh really? Where exactly was Batman when his ward was breaking into another man’s apartment?  

Most of these people are able to disappear as soon as they are out of custody, and neither the county nor the city are doing anything to keep track of them. That is, until they are caught in another crime. 

County District Attorney Mike Ramsey excuses himself from prosecuting these people, blaming various legislative bills. I think the real problem is, he doesn’t see any money in it. He only seems to go after high-profile cases. 

Chico PD makes a lot of fuss – all these meetings they’ve been having lately – maybe  they need to form a circle and levitate the police station, shake out the dead beats, make them pay their own pensions, shower and shave at home before they come to work, etc.

Meanwhile, our mayor is busy revamping The Esplanade. 

And the media is congratulating the enablers. Good Job!

Do we really want to build more low-income housing?

26 Apr

I’m certainly glad Chico will not play host to a “sexually violent predator,” but I wonder how many other violent criminals we have in Chico. How about the story in this morning’s paper – a resident caught a burglar in his Amanda Way apartment, and while he was calling the cops the guy attacked and stabbed him with a knife. 

The attacker was identified as Darin J. Petty. According to Butte Superior Court index, this man is supposed to be under conservatorship, granted by the county of Butte. What is he doing robbing somebody’s apartment? 

According to our county administrator Paul Hahn, the county of Butte spend “over half the budget” on services for the mentally ill, indigent, and drug addicted. A new 15 unit low-income apartment facility to be located near the Torres Shelter will cost about $6 million, over a million of it coming out of the Behavioral Health budget, and more from the city of Chico and other public agencies. More of our taxes spent to bring in more of these people. How many will end up standing over a homeowner with a knife in the middle of the night? 

 

What ever happened to “our drinking problem” ?

17 Apr

After my last post, complaining about serial criminals in our town, Police Chief Mike O’Brien released his crime report – nothing surprising. What was weird was how it was viewed by the media.

http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20160414/chico-crime-rate-up-4-percent-in-2015-positive-signs-ahead-police-say

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/chico-crime-rate-drops-9-percent-in-first-quarter-of-2016/39028878

I  think it’s just funny how these two different media sources look at the story, one “glass half empty” and the other “glass half full.” I think the local editor paints a scarier picture because he’s stumping for a public safety tax, while the story out of Redding seems too optimistic. Somewhere between lies the truth.

The chief seems to be saying two things at once. While he says crime is down in the first quarter of 2016, he admits, “ I think if you were to ask anyone in the community whether crime was increasing or decreasing — or increased or decreased in 2015 — everyone would have said yes, it has increased…”

I have to wonder about these reports  – for example, according to Jerry Olenyn, “The report does not include an uptick in other types of crimes. For example, honey butane oil lab activity is on the rise.   ‘Not only is it a problem, it’s a public safety concern, because houses and apartment are being blown up,’ said O’Brien.”

Why aren’t all crimes included?

According to this week’s News and Review

https://www.newsreview.com/chico/losing-our-buzz/content?oid=20614263

Chico PD reports arrests are down on the infamous party days, like Halloween and Cesar Chavez Day, but Enloe reports alcohol related ER visits for the 18 – 23 age group are increasing every year. Just since January, there have already been 94 visits in that category. The 18 to 20 year olds, and whoever furnished them with the alcohol, are committing a crime, a very dangerous crime, and I have to wonder why this isn’t included in O’Brien’s report.

There have been a couple of high profile, very tragic alcohol related deaths every semester for the last couple of years. Endless staff time has been poured into symposiums about “our drinking problem” since Ann Schwab was mayor. What track did that little choo-choo train run off on? 

The party article mentions that many Downtown restaurants are changing their atmosphere – no more drink or pitcher specials. A more adult atmosphere, pricey drinks, pricey foods. They have priced out the party crowd Downtown. But at the same time, the city has permitted Bev Mo! and other discount liquor merchants around town. So what’s happened, I’m guessing, is the parties are moving underground, and I’m guessing there will be a lot more underage drinking, and more tragedy to come. 

And the 21 – 23 crowd will continue to patronize the bars, which sit right off campus like some kind  of Pleasure Island. Not just college students, but young people from all over the area are attracted to the alcohol scene Downtown every  weekend. These people are not only the perpetrators but the victims of crime – they drive drunk, they injure or kill themselves or others, they lose their wallets, get mugged, get sexually assaulted.  They go back to their apartments, leave their cars unlocked, their doors unlocked, their valuables laying around untended. 

Alcohol is  a crime problem in Chico.

Meanwhile, they had a symposium about it. This what these people do. 

http://www.orovillemr.com/general-news/20160415/butte-county-officials-community-groups-gather-for-summit-on-homelessness

 

 

Why are the same people being arrested again and again for increasingly violent crimes?

10 Apr

Concerned with the increasing presence of transients and crime in my neighborhood, I contacted Chico Chamber director Katie Simmons about Team Chico, a collaborative effort between the city of Chico and local businesses. I had seen Team Chico at Mangrove Plaza one morning, and I had a few questions about city staff time, and exactly what Team Chico was trying to accomplish. I related to her an incident I’d witnessed that morning, just before I’d seen her, involving a transient and the manager of a business located at the shopping center.

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/03/26/team-chico-city-still-spending-taff-time-on-economic-development/

Simmons responded

Thank you for your note. Yes, Team Chico and I walked the Mangrove corridor on Friday morning to invite businesses to our upcoming Community Safety Meeting at the CARD Center on April 5th from 10-11am. This is a free opportunity for businesses and residents to dialogue with the Chico PD about issues in the area, like the one you observed at Bubbles. In fact, the proprietor of Bubbles attended our last meeting and shared her concerns. While some businesses reported improvements since Team Chico checked in last Fall, there continue to be concerning activities which we will address in our report to the City and during our meeting with the PD on the 5th.  I hope you will attend.

One after another police chief has tried to use public meetings to mollify the public into thinking the city is doing something about this problem. Simmons said it herself in the above message – “…there continue to be concerning activities…”  These meetings aren’t dealing with the problem. 

The meeting went off on April 5th. I don’t know how many people attended, because the newspaper reporter only showed pictures of the speakers.  

http://www.chicoer.com/article/NA/20160405/NEWS/160409865

Take a good look at those pictures – this is what these people’s work day looks like.

The next day, less than a mile from Mangrove Plaza and the CARD center,  a man was assaulted by two others and his cell phone stolen.

http://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/two-men-arrested-for-bidwell-park-assault-robbery/

I recognized the name David Milliron right away, because I’ve seen it in the newspaper before. In 2012, Milliron had been arrested for a late night armed robbery at the Mangrove Plaza Safeway. 

http://www.chicoer.com/article/ZZ/20120726/NEWS/120729705

I don’t know how that case was resolved, but I see that it was handled by Butte County deputy district attorney Brent Redelsperger.  Redelsperger was still with Butte County DA at that time, despite a very embarrassing DUI conviction. 

http://www.paradisepost.com/article/ZZ/20100304/NEWS/100309973

http://www.orovillemr.com/article/ZZ/20100515/NEWS/100519909

http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20101015/deputy-da-gets-30-day-dui-sentence

Apparently given a second chance by the courts, Redelsperger was also reinstated at his job with Butte County DA.  About a year and a half later he supervised the case against Milliron. I wonder what kind of state Redelsperger was in, because just a year later, he was arrested for being really, really drunk again, a violation of his probation.

http://www.chicoer.com/article/ZZ/20131001/NEWS/131009610

http://www.chicoer.com/article/ZZ/20131211/NEWS/131219560

How many of these cases slipped through the fog of Brent Redelsperger’s career with Butte County DA? 

Milliron was free in 2012 when he was caught “accompanying” an 18 year old woman driving a stolen car – that 18 year old woman was Breanne Sharpe, who, about a year later, was gunned down by Chico PD in another stolen car.

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/update-suspect-shot-and-killed-by-chico-police-identified/22080100

How are these serial criminals finding their way right back onto our streets? Endangering innocent people. What in  the hell are meetings doing to stop this? 

Where will the taxpayer find shelter?

29 Mar

At 3:22, I found myself too awake to lay in bed, but not quite awake enough to do anything.  I got up and followed the glow of light to my coffee maker, and I pushed the little button. I always set myself up a cup of coffee for these mornings when I wake up ahead of Me.

The moon was hanging so bright outside – not even full, but lighting up my driveway like a flashlight. The wind has scoured the sky very clean, the planets and stars look very bright too. 

As I wandered around the house in the dark, I could hear the 3:20 train, a few minutes late, screaming it’s way across town – GET THE HELL OFF THE TRACKS!  

I have a couple of things screaming their way across my head, I guess that’s why I can’t sleep. 

First are the rate increase notices I’ve got – not from Cal Water or PG&E, but from the California Public Utilities Commission. CPUC is having a hearing for both rate increases in April, on the same night, giving the public one hour to discuss the PG&E hike and then opening the floor to ratepayers from Willows to Marysville regarding the Cal Water hike. 

CPUC does not work for the ratepayers, they work for the utility companies. This is not really a “hearing,” it’s a “telling.” Our CPUC judge will explain to us that in 2018, PG&E will switch all ratepayers to “time of use” rates – meaning, your smart meter will keep track of the market price on the hour, and as you go along using your electricity through the day, you will be charged whatever power is selling for on the open market at that very moment. 

After the PG&E “telling” the judge will explain to us that Cal Water is merging Willows, Oroville, Chico, and Marysville into one district so Chicoans can help pay for “improvements” in those towns. When Cal Water asked for rate increases in those towns to cover the cost of long-neglected repairs to their infrastructure, CPUC said the increases were not reasonable. So, CPUC sat down with Cal Water to work out a system by which the costs for those districts will be handed over to Chicoans. 

Here’s the thing – those towns have all suffered from a lack of development. Here in Chico, we have development out the ass, so we get a lot of new water stuff. Right now Cal Water is getting ready to put a new water tower in at Fogarty’s new subdivision on Hwy 32, held up arguing over who will pay for it. Meanwhile, Willows, O-ville and Marysville (named for a survivor of the Donner Party, omigosh!) have been sidestepped by prosperity, and their local governments have not held Cal Water up to any standard, so their infrastructure is substandard. I’m guessing those towns have pipes dating back to the time when lead poisoning was considered a fact of life.

What will the ratepayer do?

Meanwhile, I’m being harangued by the director of a local homeless shelter because I criticize the way he runs the shelter and efforts he’s making to get more funding out of the city of Chico. When I said he already gets county funding by way of other agencies that share staffers with him, he really got pissed off. He denies getting public money – I keep explaining, he gets it by way of other agencies. He admitted he shares the staffer position I found, but now denies that agency gets public money. I got sick of arguing with him, but he keeps coming over  to argue, saying the same crap over and over.  

County Admin Officer Paul Hahn says the county spends over half it’s budget on “indigent” services, “including homeless services.” They fund agencies like the Catholic Relief Services, so does the city of Chico. These agencies spend that money on staffers who work at both the Torres Shelter and the Jesus Center. 

We have definitely become a magnet for criminals who use “homeless” like a shield. Just the other day, I read about a couple of guys who were found standing over a sleeping man in his apartment in the middle of the night. They were later found by the cops in the stolen vehicle the victim had described, with not only stolen articles but drugs. When I typed their names into the superior court index, they both came up, multiple arrests over the years, including robbery. 

Again and again, these people are released “OR” – own recognizance – back into the community to commit the same crimes over and over. They seem to disproportionately attack the campus neighborhoods, breaking in even when people are in their homes, stealing electronic items and any other valuables they can grab. They steal cars, they steal from cars.  And they commit strong-arm robberies, using knives and beating their victims.

I believe the services offered by our city and county attract these people. They know they will find sympathy here, they will find people who will shield  them from the law.  We have way too many people that enable the behavior – cries to build “little tiny houses” for the “homeless,” people who clean up their encampments just so they can move back in, etc.  We have too many public salaried voices screaming about the “criminalization of homelessness.”  So we have a regular army of people who don’t have fixed addresses, who wander out of the supervision of the law and turn up six months or a year later, arrested for the same crime or worse.

I have studied the operation of the Torres Shelter, and I feel they attract the criminal element without doing anything to control them. The director admitted that they have strict rules for who they will let in – but when they get turned out, they are only told to leave the immediate property. Right out front of the center you will find a little camp in the street. Then there’s the area between Park Ave and Fair Street known as “The Wedge” – a de facto homeless camp, sprawled out there behind the old Victor toxic Superfund site.

From the Chico Chamber of Commerce “Team Chico” report:

VICTOR SITE Redevelopment of the Victor Site, which is under a state consent decree overseen by the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC), has been recognized by all interested parties as a key to successful redevelopment of the Wedge. To promote that effort, EPA agreed to allow grant monies to be utilized to hire a local design firm to develop a range of development scenarios for the site that in turn will be used to develop a conceptual cleanup plan for approval by DTSC. This process is involved and the outcome uncertain, but it is intended to lay the framework for the purchase and redevelopment of the property by a viable interested party. The City, DTSC, and local development interests are working together toward that end.

That site has been known to be toxic since the 1980’s or earlier. Here they received money from the EPA, and they used it to hire a design team? What? And now, added to whatever Victor pumped into the  ground, is the toxic mess left behind by these criminal campers – the usual garbage, feces, drug paraphernalia, etc. 

No, I don’t like the Torres, I think it’s run badly, I don’t like taxpayer money supporting it.  I am also sick of Team Chico masturbating our money away with their concepts.

Meanwhile, my tenants and I, working class slobs, trying to pay our bills, trying to keep a roof over ourselves so we don’t end up on the street, get no sympathy – the city, the school district and the rec district are all considering separate tax increases. 

Where’s the angst from all these bleeding hearts? Nobody to cry for the working people? Brad? 

On a positive note, The Wedge is also a great tune by Dick Dale.

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

Bits and pieces – readers’ questions lead me to some interesting reading

10 Mar

Recently somebody got so frustrated they typed in the search term “why is pge screwing us!!!!!!!!”

Yes, eight exclamation marks, I counted ’em.

Here’s an answer: it’s the pensions, it’s the pensions, it’s the pensions. I don’t know what PG&E’s pension liability is, but I’m guessing it would be more than the city of Chico.  They don’t pay into their own pensions, but they expect the same 70 percent at age 55, do the math.

Here’s another answer: cause they can.  Something happened at some point, and all the public watchdogs turned on the people, including the California Public Utilities Commission. Here’s an article from the Sac Bee on how that happened (sorry, old column from last October, but full of details):

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38487060.html

Eight exclamation marks, but I wonder – has this question asker written any letters, attended any hearings? 

I’ve been getting a lot of searches regarding “Chico homeless problem” and “Torres Shelter,” as well as “Brad Montgomery salary.”  I see I’m not the only one who is curious how much it costs to run that place. Montgomery came around to answer some of our questions, including, his own salary and how much that translates into day-to-day costs – see his comments here:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/02/02/its-good-to-see-people-asking-questions-about-funding-torres-shelter/

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/01/27/torres-shelter-closing-may-be-reason-to-celebrate/

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2016/01/28/i-think-we-all-agree-we-need-some-level-of-help-for-homeless-people-but-we-need-to-be-asking-questions-about-the-expense-and-lack-of-results/

He says they don’t receive much public money – he seems to forget all the salaries that go into that place that are paid with public money. I’ve given examples in those posts. According to Butte County Administrative Officer Paul Hahn, over half the county budget goes to indigent and mental health services.

Montgomery says it costs roughly $25  a day to house each person at the Torres, asking who can beat that. Well, I can’t – I did the math on our property taxes yesterday, and that adds $26 a day to our expenses, right off the top. We also house people, and yeah, given they have to pay their own utilities (including the salaries and pensions of utility company management), buy groceries and gas in a town swimming with public salaries, and compete for everything from daycare to clothing with people who can afford anything they want, I’m pretty sure it costs them more than $25 a day per person.

And when we go to Enloe Hospital, we are on the hook for our whole bill, or we are dead beats. Not only does Enloe serve the indigents for free, they just handed $20,000 of patient’s money to the shelter, as if it came out of  Mike Wiltermood’s back pocket.

Got any more comments to make Brad? Please, step right up, don’t wait until a post is a couple of weeks old and you don’t think anybody is reading it anymore.  

I also noticed in my stats, somebody had been looking at posts I made about Tea Party presentations. We used to have a very active Tea Party, they met monthly, and had guest speakers, like Brian Nakamura, short term city assassin. They’d filmed these presentations and posted them, sending me links to post. Now those links don’t work anymore, sorry about that. When I checked into the Chico Tea Party, I see it’s pretty dead. I can’t find current information on any local Tea Party groups. Wow, talk about a tempest in a Tea Pot.

As I recall, Tea Party patriots I knew started joining the “State of Jefferson” movement. They were having regular Sunday meetings at the library, but I don’t see those scheduled anymore. State of Jefferson, or the Pacific State, as some call it now, is still active elsewhere. 

https://www.facebook.com/StateofJeffersonParty/

At last, the unfunded pension liabilities are getting some attention.

http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2016/03/doing-the-gasb-gasp/

John Moorlach actually considered a run for governor a couple of elections ago, but I’m  guessing he stared straight into the machine that is Jerry Brown and his testicles went right into his throat. At least he’s still banging his drum.  

Reading that, we must wonder, what is Butte County’s unfunded liability? City of Chico is carrying over $90 million. 

 

 

 

Join Chico Taxpayers Association – get some peace of mind by giving others a piece of your mind!

8 Mar
At the intersection of Mangrove and Vallombrosa

At the intersection of Mangrove and Vallombrosa a little circus parade entertains the drivers as they wait for the light to change.

My husband, out on errands yesterday, sitting at a red light, snapped the picture above with his cell phone. There was a woman with a similar rig in front of the car, wrangling her unruly pitbull as she trundled her household on wheels across the traffic island, walking out across the traffic lane just as the light was turning green.  My husband said the man had a pirate flag flying from the back of his trailer, but couldn’t snap the shot in time to catch it, unfurled and glorious. 

At a recent meeting city council extended an ordinance that had originally been written almost exclusively for Downtown and the Lower Park, “criminalizing” camping, littering, loitering, defecating, urinating, defacing and generally disrespecting our shared “public” areas.

This is so conflicting for me sometimes. I mean – public lands and spaces belong to the public, and that’s everybody, right? At the same time, I have to remind myself – like Harvey Two-Face, I am of two minds on many things – so I have to remind myself, that means, no one person should be able to flop themselves out and take over any given public space for more than what another member of the public would think is reasonable.

In the city of Chico, “reasonable” includes, willing to pay for it, according to a price scale made up by city staffers. I don’t have to time to look it up, it’s in the Municipal Code, and that’s your assignment for today  –  learn it, know it, live it…  Certainly everybody should know their own Municipal Code, it should be a condition of graduation from the Eighth Grade. You should know that the average person or group wanting to use, just for example, the City Plaza, would end up paying hundreds of dollars, minimum, for use of stuff like the public bathroom that’s supposed to be open all the time anyway, and may very well be vandalized or pooped beyond use and locked up good and tight when you arrive with your party. But, here’s the funny thing – if you have a city councilor friend who is willing to “sponsor” your event, in any of the city’s facilities, including City Chambers, you get it free. Probably get the toilet cleaned up and running for you and everything!  Isn’t that the way we scratch each other’s backs here in Hazard County?

No, I don’t like the way the city of Chico manages our “public spaces.” They been selling public sidewalk to various Downtown restaurants – at one meeting a few years back, it was an annual payment of $15,000, per parking space of street frontage. That sounds like a shakedown  to me, but these big restaurants are willing to pay it to increase their square footage, get more bodies inside to pour down their marked-up liquor and crap food. $$$$$$$$!

Ever been Downtown on a warm evening? The smell of garbage will knock you over. But people are willing to pay to sit out on these patios in 105 degrees and smell that swamp odor, go figure.

Meanwhile, pedestrians are relegated to a tiny strip of sidewalk barely wide enough to walk single file, facing moving cars with their strollers and dogs and the parcels they’d ideally be carrying from the shops they’ve supposedly patronized. Uh-huh.

But, here in my retail neighborhood, I’m tired of seeing something that wouldn’t be tolerated Downtown – bodies plopped out under trees and across shady sidewalks  all around long-time businesses like Rite Aid and Safeway and the Vallombrosa post office. Transient parades stopping cars crossing the streets on red lights, or simply running or riding bikes out in front of cars, oftentimes dog running loose, between intersections.  I keep hearing other shoppers or postal patrons around me ask why transients are allowed to have shopping carts, obviously stolen property.

 I don’t like leaving my car in the parking lot at Mangrove Plaza, because I’ve seen transients meandering among the cars, obviously checking for unlocked doors and easy grabs inside. Having seen them run out of Payless Shoes with stolen merchandise, I wonder how long before they get bold enough to smash car windows out in the no-man’s-land between the gas station and the store fronts. 

 Why do the police need new ordinances to ticket or even arrest people for breaking laws that are already on the books? It’s always been illegal to camp in the park – in fact, it’s illegal to be “loitering” in the park more than a half hour after sunset, according to signs that have been posted in various locations in Bidwell Park since I was a kid. I’ve heard discussions Downtown specifying “loitering” to mean, not walking home, or using the park to “get somewhere“.  In other words, you better be moving.  None-the-less, the cops needed a new ordinance to kick transients out of de-facto campsites – tents with campfires! – around the park and other public parks and waterways around town, and then they need to expand that to cover the rest of town, not just the Downtown grid. 

They also lobbied council to give them a “sit-and-lie” ordinance, even though a very specific panhandling ordinance had already been on the books for 10 years, but had rarely been enforced. 

Meanwhile they’ve tweaked the “disorderly events” and “noise” ordinances so that they no longer need complaints from neighbors to wade onto private property to investigate when any officer may suspect is an illegal situation taking place. They also weakened the provision saying that landlords/property owners must be notified before they can be charged an unspecified amount in “response charges.”

All along whining and  crying that they don’t have enough cops in the department because pay and morale are low. Council has given them new hires and also instituted an administrative pay step increase plan that insures automatic promotion and pay raises, but they still want more money for stuff like new radios, license plate readers, and they’ve even  wish-listed a “substation” at Enloe Hospital.

That latter item because they say they spend so much time with transients down at Enloe, they need a private room off the beaten path where they can fill out their reports. Or do whatever they damned-well please out of the scrutiny of the inquisitive taxpayer.

Our local daily  editor David Little has acknowledged a campaign to raise sales tax, a “public safety” tax to benefit the police department. He’s berated the CARD assessment, leaving me to believe he and the paper will endorse this “public safety” tax.

Wow, I’ll tell you what – I see a public safety crisis alright – Chico PD!  A pack of purse snatchers, is what they are. They want your retirement money. They want your kids’ college money. They think you’re rich enough to pay for their outrageous lifestyles, just because you haven’t been foreclosed! They want your money, and they are going to pull out the stops in November to get it.

They’ll show you pictures like the one above, and tell you the only way you can get your beloved town back is throw more money at them. 

Get ready to pull out your bottle of these.

My mom gave me these. She used to go to a lot of these meeting too.

I hope you haven’t used yours all up with the presidential debates.

You know what else you  can do? Join Chico Taxpayers Association – we’re having a lifetime membership special – FREE! All you need is a sense of righteous indignation.

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