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Safeway closed down recycling centers because of transient problem? Not because the bottom is dropping out of the recycling business?

26 Feb

The other  day I read an article in the Enterprise Record indicating that the NexCycle recycling centers located at Safeway and other grocery stores around town are closing, due to “customer feedback” regarding criminal activities surrounding these centers. 

I was shocked, because I know there’s a law that says grocers have to provide recycling services within a certain distance of their store, unless there’s already a service located within that distance. Yeah, the story in the ER says the grocers will face fines, but they don’t seem to care.  The customers have spoken!

The article goes on to describe the type of activities surrounding these centers – former and current city council members Tom Nickel and Randall Stone said they found three guys taking a bike apart, hack saws (which are considered “burglary tools” by California criminal code) were found hidden in a dumpster nearby, indicating these people are operating a “bike chop shop” right behind not only the grocery store but the post office annex.

Well duh. These problems have been going on for years. When  I tried to take my household recyclables to the center at Mangrove Plaza a good 20 years ago, the person operating the center asked me if I thought it was a good idea to bring my young children back there. I was perturbed that this person felt she was running a service for transients instead of the general public. We’ve trucked our recyclables to the Work Training Center ever since. There we see other housewives, retirees, other citizens like us instead of druggies and creeps.

But we use the post office annex, we shop at Safeway, we ride our bikes down that back alley past the low-income housing project located behind Safeway Plaza. We see garbage, vandalism to the buildings, graffitti, and last year, somebody lit a fire in the dumpster and we found the back of the store had caught fire. At that time it was suspected that transients started the fire because Safeway was taking on a new policy to kick them off the front doors, no more panhandling tolerated. I haven’t heard anything about any further investigation. 

City of Chico has tried to ignore the problems at Mangrove Plaza and other grocers in town, preferring instead to concentrate their efforts on Downtown Chico and One Mile.  I myself have sat in meetings, two feet from former police chief Trostle, telling council committees exactly what I’d  seen down at Mangrove Plaza, and the chief just sat there glaring,  like he want to Feaster me right on the spot. 

Council sat on their thumbs while the post office annex became an overnight homeless shelter, and did nothing when the post office cut annex hours to 7am to 10 pm. That might work for Maureen Kirk, but some people work at night, they like to run their errands at night. And let’s face it – now the transients OWN the post office annex and that entire surrounding area, including private businesses located there, from 10:01 pm to 6:56 am.

So good for Nickel and Stone. But you know what – I don’t believe Safeway acted solely on the directive of the public, or they would have closed that center about 20 years ago. Reading on further in my free online copy of  the Chico ER, I found an explanation that makes more sense.

In a pick-up story from the Monterey County Herald, buried on a back page of the Chico ER, Kathryn McKenzie explains that the closure of recycling centers “around the Central Coast” is being motivated by “historically low levels” of recycled scrap.  Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, said,  ‘The recyclers have seen $50 million in revenue just disappear from the marketplace’ due to low scrap values.'”

Furthermore, “An additional processing payment is also supposed to come from beverage manufacturers, but this isn’t covering recyclers’ costs either. And not only that, because so many people are recycling containers for money, the Container Beverage Recycling Fund has been running at a deficit for the past few years, expected to surpass $74 million this year, according to http://www.resource- recycling.com. “

“…so many people are recycling containers for money…” ?  I heard that complaint from a garbage company spokesman years ago, saying it is not worth the cost of providing household recycling in Chico, because more people in Chico redeem their own recyclables. I know, my family resents paying CRV on our containers, we want that money back. But I don’t think they’re talking about families – they’re obviously talking about the armies of homeless that have taken over those grocery store redemption centers for their own little banks.  

I know, if you pay the CRV, why isn’t there enough money to pay everybody? Because the CRV has been robbed to pay stuff at the state level, the way city of Chico robs various funds to pay salaries, pensions and benefits for an  army of bureaucrats. These two little armies are double-ending our CRV fund, and there’s nothing left for those of us who actually paid the CRV when we bought that container. 

How to solve this problem? Well you can think can’t you? They want to raise the CRV that you pay when you buy beverages.

Meetings in Sacramento are involving not just legislators and policymakers, but also grocers, beverage manufacturers, recyclers and others who have a stake in the issue. The good news is that it appears there will be a fix in the state budget that takes effect July 1 to “compensate recycling centers and open them up,” said Murray. Long- term planning to revamp the container recycling program is also underway.

One of the options is that the CRV might be increased — something that hasn’t happened in the three decades since the program began. “ That’s on the table,” said Murray, who noted that the deposit could go up on glass and plastic containers in particular — glass is a less valuable and bulkier commodity, and plastic is more difficult to recycle.

“I’m a big fan of drinking beer from a glass bottle, but I need to be willing to pay the cost of moving it through the system,” he said. “A higher CRV is the way to do it.”

You realize what this means? The state is about to panhandle you on behalf of their homeless indigent friends. 

Chasing my own tail, I finally got an answer out of Butte County Behavioral Health Director about cops in Enloe ER

21 Feb

I got a note from Tim today, asking if I was still up to having meetings at the library. Thanks for asking Tim. Right now I am up to my armpits in family sickness, but yes, I’d like to gas up the old CTA and get ready for Election 2016.

Maybe I’ll be able to think about that in March,  right now I’m sleeping on my living room floor in increments of about 15 – 20 minutes, one ear always ready for the sound of puking or other illness. It’s the dog flu, it’s hit us good and hard, and we’re hunkering down.

You know how nothing else matters when somebody you love is sick?

Thanks though, I’ll get on that, you other taxpayers start thinking about a meeting too.  

And Thanks again Tim, you reminded me, I finally got an answer from Butte County Behavioral Health Director Dorian Kittrell. I had asked him a few questions about procedure.

As I have repeated about 800 times, the police have always used this story that they spend so much time at Enloe Hospital babysitting homeless people (whom they perceive to be “a danger to themselves or the public”, they need more money for stuff like:

  • special radios – they can’t use their cell phones in the hospital
  • a special room, just for them, within the hospital, where they can sit privately while waiting. Supposedly they have all these reports to fill out, they figure while they cool their heels with these indigents they drag in they should be doing paperwork.  The hospital, they say, is willing to provide a space, but the cops say they need money to fix that space up (not sure what exactly that means). 
  • more staff, automatic step promotions and pay increases,  88 percent of their CalPERS, etc.

I sat in at a meeting where Kittrell described Behavioral Health services, and part of their job is to go to Enloe Hospital to collect “people who are a danger to themselves or the public” from the police.  I wanted to find out, how long does it take these BH staffers to show up at the hospital. Why are the police claiming they are stuck with these indigents for hours on end? 

Kittrell answered back, but was slow in telling me anything. He immediately admitted, “I have been working with the new Chief of Police and it has been helpful to have a collaborative relationship with his department.”  Then he suggested we should meet and discuss it. Oh yeah, right – guy makes over $200,000/year in salary, plus health and pension for which he pays about 9 percent of the premium, but he has time to meet with me and answer questions? But he can’t do it in an e-mail? 

They always try to meet – they don’t want to say anything in writing.  I just had to keep asking.  He told me he’d spoken with the police chief, who denied efforts to get a substation. I gave him the link to this interview when I’d asked him, but he just acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about.

http://chicocurrents.net/2015/08/10/459/

Again, I just kept asking and he just kept the conversation going without answering – at one point complaining there is a lack of “beds” for these patients, as if they were having trouble taking them off the cops’ hands.  I realize, I’ve been trying to get the answer to the substation question since last August.

In October Kittrell told me and Maureen Kirk, ” The biggest issue facing people waiting in the ERs is the number of acute psychiatric inpatients beds available at any given time – they are often full.  There are plans for another 120 bed facility to be built in Sacramento but that is two years out.  Since I have come to Chico, I have purchased 4 beds at a Yuba City inpatient facility which has increased the total number of beds controlled by Butte County to 20 (16 in our Chico facility (Cohasset Road facility purchased last year) and now 4 in Yuba City).  In particular, the number of inpatient psychiatric beds for patients that have medical needs (in other words, they need a psychiatric bed but also need hospital level services, e.g. have IVs or need significant wound care, etc.) are in greater need and these types of beds are almost non-existent in Northern California (Woodland Memorial has approx. 20 of these type of beds for the entire North State).

Look at the money  this guy is spending, but the cops are still claiming they spend so much time in Enloe, blah blah blah. I finally had to ask him, just how long does it take one of your staffers to get over to Enloe to collect these people?

I thought he was finally giving me the slip when I got a notice that he would be out of his office for a week, so I sent my questions to Supervisor Kirk, and cc’d Kittrell. He responded immediately, even after his auto-response had said he wouldn’t be able to access e-mail or phone until sometime the following week.  While his previous e-mails were positively chatty, his last e-mail was terse.

Juanita,

 Behavioral Health has staff in the ERs 7 days a week from 2pm to 11pm to serve clients coming to the ER.   Between 11pm and 2pm we respond usually within one hour, often times shorter. (This seems contrary to what he told me previously about having trouble finding “beds”)

 Regarding the rate at the PHF (psychiatric facility), it is approximately 550 per day.

I replied, 

Thanks, Mr. Kittrell, for your patience in answering my questions. 

One hour, oftentimes shorter – the reason I ask, is that Chico PD claims that officers are kept so long at the ER that they don’t have time for other duties. They also claim that  their cellphones/radios don’t work in the hospital, and because they spend so much time there, they need funding for new ones. 

And thank you for answering my other question – $550 per patient per day. 

 – JS”

See, I’m always polite, but I’ll be damned, after raising two kids, if I’m going to let some carpetbagging slicker dodge me on a question. 

So, I almost forgot the other question I had asked him. I had read an article in the ER about Kittrell citing an old law from the 80’s, that extended the amount of time the county is allowed to put a “psychiatric hold” on a patient without their consent, increasing it by about 30 days.  I’d asked, what agency would pay for this, and how much more money per patient the hold would amount to.

There he tells us – the county gets $550 per patient per day for these people they can collect off the street. Get aload of this – the patient does not even have to be “a danger to themselves or the public,” it’s just up to the county doctors to decide when this person is ready to be released. While they collect an extra $550 a day to hold onto this patient. 

I think the money provides too much incentive to hold people who are not really being helped.  I feel Kittrell is more of a fundraiser than a psychiatrist. To my knowledge he doesn’t even use the title “doctor”. Here’s how he signs an e-mail:

Dorian Kittrell, Director

Butte County Behavioral Health

109 Parmac Road, Suite 1A

Chico, CA 95926

Phone: (530) 891-2850

Fax: (530) 895-6549

See, no “DR.” in front of his name. 

This man is supposed to help people with behavioral health issues, but I think he just sees cash cows. 

Is he driving you crazy yet?

 

 

Response from Behavioral Health Director

12 Feb

An update to yesterday’s post. I had resent my questions, highlighted in green for easy reading, to Supervisor Kirk after I’d received a notice that Kittrell would not be in his office until next Tuesday. He responded, 

With regard to your question in green.    The matter approved by the Board of Supervisors was related to patients in our Psychiatric Health Facility which is an inpatient, acute psychiatric hospital (16 beds).   This facility is run by my department and is funded with State realignment dollars we receive from the State as part of the department’s total budget – most of it Federal and State monies.  This is a Medi-Cal eligible facility so we also receive some Medi-cal reimbursement for Medi-Cal clients.  The particular agency that oversees County Behavioral Health Departments is the California State Department of Healthcare Services.   Also, you inquired about documents or reports.  The staff report related to this particular item that went before the board is available at the Board of Supervisor’s website, as well as video of the BOS meeting.  I have included a link for your convenience.

 http://buttecounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=296&meta_id=48717

 With regard to your questions regarding law enforcement.  I did inquire to the Chico Police and at this time there does not seem to be movement towards a substation.   I would recommend getting in touch with their department for any further details.

Okay, there’s the answer. This is a move to get more money from the state and feds. Kittrell says it won’t cost the county any more – like so many public workers he plays ignorant to the fact that we pay the state and federal taxes too. The report does not include any dollar amounts.

As for my question about the substation, he never really listened to what I was asking. I sent him the link to the interview with “Police Department Business Support Team” leader Jack Van Rossum. I told him the police claimed they spent so much time with drunks and mentally ill people brought in off the street they needed a special room where they could sit and “fill out reports.” They were also asking for special communication equipment because, they say, their cellphones will not work in the hospital.  Meanwhile Kittrell was claiming that BH staffers are sent to Enloe to collect these patients.  That sounds like a disconnect between the Behavioral Health department and the cops. I’ve asked Kittrell one more time, how long does it take for a staffer to get to Enloe to relieve the cops of these patients, we’ll see if he gets back to me. He just seems to be avoiding the question, because, as he told me in a previous e-mail, ” I have been working with the new Chief of Police and it has been helpful to have a collaborative relationship with his department.”

Yes, they collaborate like a string quartet – fiddling while Chico burns. 

Tags: , ,

Whose being mau-mau’d here? Trying to get answers out of public staff, I’m just getting “the business”

11 Feb

 

I got so many issues I’ve been trying to follow lately, let’s just take a little walk and talk.

Yesterday I tried to pick-up a conversation I’ve been trying to have with county staffers about the programs administered for local homeless, mentally ill, and indigent citizens. I sat in a meeting last Summer at which county administrative office Paul Hahn reported the county spends “over half” it’s budget on these issues. This is frustrating to me because I don’t see any good coming out of their efforts. I see more homeless on the streets, I see more crimes, I hear about more crimes. And lately, I’ve heard more grousing about it from other taxpayers. 

Over the past few weeks I’ve overheard casual questions from fellow citizens about why the “homeless” are allowed to possess obviously stolen shopping carts, why they are allowed to camp along waterways, as well as around public buildings and shopping malls, why they are allowed to have unlicensed (unvaccinated?) dogs, why why why.  I’ve read newspaper reports of the recurring arrests of the same persons for the same crimes, or worse – the crimes escalate, from seemingly petty stuff like driving without a license, to stabbing a woman 54 times in a drug-induced rage.

As you read these reports you have to ask yourself – how many of these street people are on crank? Selling it? Committing crimes in order to pay for it?

Sitting in meetings Downtown, or reading reports from Butte County Supervisor’s meetings, you see the stream of money that is being pissed onto this fire, and you have to wonder – why are all these loonies/druggies running our streets? Where’s all this money going? 

You think you’d just be able to ask a question of these people – good luck!  I’ve been trying to get answers ever since I sat in that meeting with Paul Hahn last Summer. After I heard a police department representative say they spend so much time with street people down at Enloe that they want the city to pay for a special substation inside the hospital,

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2015/09/29/chico-pd-announc…ess-support-team/

I wondered why. The county  received a big grant to hire more behavioral health staffers. They’d bought a new building over on Cohasset and hired a new  director, Dorian Kittrell, at over $200,000/year, just in salary. All that money spent, and the cops are still stuck at Enloe babysitting street people? The county is supposed to have a special unit, a new building, and funding to pick these people up and take them off the cops’ hands. I wrote a note to my  county supervisor Maureen Kirk last August, asking for an explanation.  She referred me to Kittrell.

He responded, “We are moving along with program implementation in the ERs – Enloe included. We have many of the staff hired (though not all the staff – we are finding some challenges recruiting for the evening shift staff) – and will hopefully be interviewing a new group of candidates next week or the week after. Our IT departments are working together and are almost finished with setting up the secure internet connections in the ERs. Finally, we have completed site visits for Medi-Cal certification and are just waiting for State/Federal response. Our Crisis Manager is working with Enloe to begin setting up training for staff. I am hoping that program start-up (at least at Enloe) will begin in early to mid September. We are also working to get triage personnel in the shelters during this same time frame.

In the meantime, we continue to provide the mobile crisis services at the ER as we always have.

Hope this information is helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions.”

But I kept hearing complaints from Chico PD, wanting more money, using the homeless and street crime as the carrot. In October I asked Kirk and Kittrell why Chico PD was spending so much time with these people given all the money the county was spending on the new building and staff.

Kirk responded, “This is a complex issue. Behavioral Health has grant funding to hire staff to help with the mentally ill in all three hospitals. There are two BH staff at each hospital from 11am – 8pm. The crisis management team is on call 24 hours per day. The new arrangement has helped with the ER problem. I have been told that the Chico PD is not spending considerable time watching over these patients as they had in the past. I would like a correction if that is not true. The biggest barrier is that often these patients need to be placed somewhere when they are discharged. Often, our 23 hour facility is full to capacity. It takes time to identify a placement and often it is out of town.

 The other question is about the new facility. The county has closed escrow and is remodeling this facility. It will be crisis placement for ten clients. It is hoped that they would stay at the most for one month. During their stay, there will be services to get them stabilized on their meds, if needed, counseling and finding more permanent housing. This should be operational in the near future.

 I have not heard about the police substation at Enloe. I will pursue that to find out more about it.

 Behavioral Health is an asset to our community and does an excellent job with the resources that are available to them. The mental health issue and ERs and police staffing expertise are problems throughout the state.”

Kittrell chimed in,

“Maureen, you have outlined this fairly well.   The biggest issue facing people waiting in the ERs is the number of acute psychiatric inpatients beds available at any given time – they are often full.  There are plans for another 120 bed facility to be built in Sacramento but that is two years out.  Since I have come to Chico, I have purchased 4 beds at a Yuba City inpatient facility which has increased the total number of beds controlled by Butte County to 20 (16 in our Chico facility and now 4 in Yuba City).  In particular, the number of inpatient psychiatric beds for patients that have medical needs (in other words, they need a psychiatric bed but also need hospital level services, e.g. have IVs or need significant wound care, etc.) are in greater need and these types of beds are almost non-existent in Northern California (Woodland Memorial has approx. 20 of these type of beds for the entire North State).

 I have not heard anything about a substation at Enloe, either.  I do have a meeting coming up with Chico PD this month and will inquire.”

I responded with a link to the Chico Currents site and the interview with Van Rossum. He responded further,

“I will inquire with PD to get a better idea of when they may stay in the ER.  Generally, if a client is cooperative our staff can assist ER staff in providing care.  There can be times when law enforcement may need to continue to provide assistance – particularly if there is a crime involved or significant risk of danger as a result of the client’s behavior.  Each case is evaluated to determine what is in the best interest of the client and the community and the staff.   It is important to note that while there are behavioral health staff in the ER to assist with clients, the client is in the care of the hospital.  Behavioral Health staff are there to provide assessment, support and assist with psychiatric hospitalization or another disposition for the client.   I have not heard recently of prolonged wait times for PD in the ER but will check in on this issue at my meeting with them later this month.   I hope this information is helpful.  I will be out of the office until Wednesday of next week.  If I receive any further from PD I will share it with you.”

Okay, I know that’s a can of worms, but what I got out of it is, the county spends “over half the budget” on these programs for how many people? And I also see a total disconnect with the city of Chico and especially Chico PD.

Of course neither of them got back to me about this substation business. You know, I get tired of that kind of treatment. It’s very insulting, but of course, we have to treat them with the utmost civility and respect, or they are allowed to blow us off for good.  I try to back off when I feel I’m getting on their nerves.

But lately the “homeless” situation has just been getting so bad. I know it’s not just me – I get searches, I hear from friends, I know other people are more fed up than me. I listened to a very sinister conversation between a retail cashier in North Chico and a customer ahead of me about “getting rid of them.”  I sincerely fear this situation will result in violent attacks on the truly helpless.

I just paid my property tax. I’m a landlady so I am paying for four households, that comes out to a burden. When I think of the upgrades I could make on my rentals with that money – my tenants should be pissed off too. And they are – they are constantly telling me Chico is becoming “unaffordable,” between the utility rates, groceries, daycare, healthcare – all run up by these ridiculous public salaries. When you and your spouse make less than $100,000 between you, it’s tough competing with people who make over $100,000 with one salary. They drive up the cost of everything, just by existing. 

You pay these kinds of rates – you’d expect to be living in some kind of Wonderland, but here we are, looking at filthy bodies laying in piles of trash in our public parks and school yards, walking on sidewalks that make you want to throw your shoes away, wading over bodies at our  retail outlets, dealing with unlicensed-unneutered-unvaccinated dogs – what are we paying for? 

Try asking that!  I have.  Hellllloooooo?

The other day I saw an article in the ER about the county supervisors extending the amount of time a person can be involuntarily held by the Behavioral Health Department. Besides the connotations of “Chattahoochie” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” I was suspicious about the true intentions behind this policy change. I’ll  be honest – I think they just want more money. 

I wrote to Kittrell and Kirk again, reminding them I never got an answer regarding the substation. I try to be nice.

Hi,

 We never finished the conversation below, you were going to get back to me regarding claims that Chico PD spend so much time in Enloe ER that they need a substation. You were going to inquire with Chico PD .  I didn’t bother you about it because I know your time is valuable, but I’m still wondering if you got an answer. 

 Enloe and the police department both claim huge expense in dealing with mentally ill indigents, but I have never seen the true numbers.  That’s why I’m curious when they say they need a substation at the hospital at more cost to the taxpayers.

 I have another question about a story I read in today’s paper about an extension of the psychiatric hold.  I’d appreciate it if either of you could answer, or refer me to another staffer who has the information.

 How much money does the county get for a person who is held this way? From what agency? 

 Thanks for your patience in answering my questions, Juanita Sumner

I always wonder if I could have worded things better, am I doing something wrong? It’s so hard getting a straight answer out of these people.

Kittrell responded,

Juanita,

 I am very sorry you did not get an answer from me on the question of law enforcement in the ER – I have been working with the new Chief of Police and it has been helpful to have a collaborative relationship with his department.   I would be happy to discuss with you the mutual efforts we are making on collaboration.   I also appreciate your interest in the psychiatric inpatient unit.   I would be happy to meet with you to discuss these issues from the Behavioral Health perspective.  Would you be willing to meet?  I am adding my assistant, Kristy Hanson, to this email so that she can arrange a meeting if that works for you.

A meeting? Why can’t you just answer my question? Or, like I asked, refer me to a staffer? When do I have time to go to a meeting? I had to get up at 5:30 am to post this, as I have a full day of work ahead of me.  I work my ass  off to maintain my properties because after I’m done paying my property taxes I don’t have enough money to hire anybody. I try to stay on top of issues that cost my tenants not only money, but quality of life, and this guy says we need to have a meeting before he can give me a straight answer? 

I get so mad, but I try to be polite. I responded that I don’t have time for meetings, and I asked another question, “where will these people be housed?”

I got a response from Kittrell immediately,

“I am out of the office and will return Tuesday, February 16th. Beginning Friday, February 12th I will not have accesss to phone or email. If this is urgent, please call 530 891-2850 and ask for Amy Wilner Asst. Director for Administration.”

I bold faced that notice about him being out of his office because that’s the second time he’s told me that. I guess the commute to his home in Yuba City is rather time consuming.

UPDATE: I got a really nice note from Tim, which I answered here:

Chasing my own tail, I finally got an answer out of Butte County Behavioral Health Director about cops in Enloe ER

 

What are the issues leading up to November?

7 Feb

The top three searches this week, in order of popularity,  were

  • “torres shelter executive director brad montgomery salary”
  • “joe matz recology”
  • “water rate increase”

I was relieved to read that Chico city council gave the Torres Shelter the back of their hand last Tuesday, offering them the $277 collected by way of those new red-topped meters Downtown. That is a perfect solution for both the Torres and for naysayers who appropriately pointed out that the city shouldn’t collect money without specifying exactly what it will be used for.  It also tells us, point blank, what the community really thinks of the shelters – those meters have been available since August, and they’ve only collected $277? (compared to about $35,000 raised over roughly the same period by the non-charity News and Review). That’s a pretty clear message if you ask me – “Go Away.”

 A letter in this morning’s paper suggests that the Jesus Center and Torres should merge.  Good point. I had always thought there was a board of directors that ran the various homeless agencies in town, but no. They all have their own boards of directors, staff, etc. The Jesus Center has 12 paid employees, the Torres boasts anywhere from 8 to 16 – wow, that’s a lot of people being paid to serve the same hundred or so people a night. Maybe merger would be the best answer.  

I hope the search for Joe Matz, Recology, was out of curiosity over the trash deal the city is working out with the haulers. I had just inquired about the deal, and again Chico city manager Mark Orme assures me he has nothing to report. I’ll speculate here – they are fighting like, well, junk yard dogs, over this deal. The trash companies were given 5 years “notice”, so in that time  they can drag their feet, saying they are doing cost studies, etc. The city is asking for too much, and the haulers know the public will buckle under the rates  they will have to charge to cover all these services – street sweeping? Hazardous trash  pick-up? I told  Orme the public needs to be let into this discussion but as usual he will not respond to that request. I don’t know if he’s just stupid or doesn’t care what the public thinks, but county admin officer Paul Hahn already warned him what would happen when the deal rolls out – “phones ringing off the hook for two weeks…” 

 Of course people are pissed about water rate increases when we have been told that Chico came within half a percentage of meeting it’s water saving goals while other districts around the state are not even coming close. Farmers in So Cal are growing strawberries with water transfers while we are being told to rip out our lawns. Of course, doing their part to spread propaganda, the Enterprise Record sent Heather the Hack over to Cal Water’s open house to act as their mouthpiece. She’s a lawn feeder, that girl. No, she did not ask Pete Bonacich how much he gets in salary or why he doesn’t pay anything toward his benefits. 

I didn’t see any searches about the swimming pool tax, the school bond, or the sales tax increase, but as November draws near, I think the conversation is going to get pretty hot. 

It’s good to see people asking questions about funding Torres Shelter

2 Feb

People have been searching for information about the Torres Shelter, especially “Brad Montgomery salary,” so I’ve been doing a little searching of my own. People keep asking me questions about the shelter – I became curious about who is actually responsible for running the shelter.

Torres Shelter is run by the Chico Community Shelter Partnership, a board of local folks who profess a desire to help the needy and get them off the streets and out of public parks. They are a “non-profit” and file a form called a 990 – here’s the latest filing I found, for 2013:

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/680/680440819/680440819_201409_990.pdf

 I was floored to see, right there on page one, a total salaries and benefits figure of over $400,000. Wow. I heard there are 16 employees, I’m wondering how that pans out. I have no information about shelter staff duties. I do know, some of the people – mainly counselors – who work for clients of  the Torres are paid by different agencies, like Butte County Behavioral Health, and Northern California Catholic Services. Those salaries are not included in that $400,000 figure. 

 

I don’t know what the director position duties are, but with a lot of agencies I’ve learned, the director’s main job is fundraising. The biggest salary is usually the director. At other agencies I’ve looked into, like the Chico Creek Nature Center and the Blue Room, for example, the director’s salary was about $50-55,000/year.  

I did find out something about the board and staffers in their Summer 2015 newletter.

http://chicoshelter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Summer-2015-Final-Newsletter-1.pdf

Board Chair Joseph Hallett is a local  mental healthcare provider. Vice Chair Karen Betenbaugh, a resident of Capay, is married to Orland Edward Jones advisor Paul Betenbaugh. Treasurer Holly Pladson is a local CPA and teaches accounting at Chico State. Secretary Billie Kanter-Monfort is a retired Chico State employee, married to former Chico planning commissioner and CSUC retiree Kirk Monfort. 

Non officers include Jim and Kris Fortado, a retired couple, Lawrence Sullivan, a human resources professional, Pat Macias, a retired art teacher, former park commissioner Rich Ober, a software professional, and Tim Vander Heiden, who sells products that help businesses become compliant with the American Disabilities Act. 

I just thought we should  know who is running this place that is largely tax-funded. How they run it is another question. Here’s how they list “Staff”

“Brad Montgomery, Executive Director; Bill Slack, Shelter Supervisor; Dawn, Development Coordinator; Liz, Service Coordinator; Louise, Service Coordinator; Melanie, Service Coordinator; Krista, Shelter Coordinator; James, Friends House Manager.”

I only see eight names listed there, when there is supposed to be a staff of 16.  I don’t understand the reluctance of these people to use their last names – this shelter is funded with public money – look at that Form 990 again – and this is public information. Why so shy? 

What a snoop, huh? Well, you should be so snoopy. Tonight Brad Montgomery is going to do what non-profit directors do – he’s going to try to hustle a paycheck out of city council. Your money, you should be interested in how it is being squandered. Or not. 

 

 

 

 

 

The state of our city is disgraceful

30 Jan

At yesterday’s “State of the City” address, Mayor Sorensen admitted that pension liability is the biggest problem we face, that only 51 of our 400 and something employees are under the new “post retirement reform” laws (meaning they pay 50 percent of  their own benefits instead of 9 percent like the others), but cried like a baby that we “have no control” over the situation.  Soon we will be paying 41 percent of their pensions, while most of our employees pay 9 percent. We’ll pay more next year, and the year after that. We don’t have the money – that’s why they call it a “liability.” 

Sorensen even had the nerve to say, the city is putting their “deficit” to bed soon. If you look over the meeting agendas of late, you will see how they have separated the pension deficit from the budget – a second set of books – to hide the millions we owe on pensions for long-gone city employees. 

Mayor Sorensen might be a master chef and book cooker, but his daddy must have been a glassmaker, cause we can see right through him.  Although, I don’t think Sorensen can see past the end of his own nose. He simply has to protect the pensions, because he’s going to get one when he retires from his job as city manager of the little town in the orchards, Biggs.

Knowing people in town are pissed off about the condition of city and neighborhood streets, letter after letter asking that the Esplanade be left alone, and just another letter this morning describing our City Plaza as a “refugee camp,” Sorensen apparently didn’t touch those subjects. Fair weather mayor. Instead he’s going to spend a bazillion more dollars on gadgets for the cop shop. 

Like Nextdoor, the website that was touted as a kind of “Neighborhood Watch” on the computer? A big crime fighting tool? I wouldn’t know, apparently I was held out of most conversations because I did not have a “neighborhood group.” None of my neighbors were joining, nor were they interested. When I asked to be added to another group they simple never responded.  So,  I was left out of most conversations, left with general postings like, yard  sales, ad for local services, now and then a report of a suspicious activity, and meandering chatterfests about what neighbors were doing that would come to a halt as soon as somebody got their nose out.

Frankly, I began to wonder – are there even 100 Chicoans signed up for this service?

Then, after I’d been signed on about a month,  they sent me the notice about their “privacy” practices, including this blurb about cookies:

Server Logs. We automatically collect information created by your visits to our website and use of our apps, your use of Nextdoor, and your interaction with the messages we send. This information may include the browser you are using, the URLs you came from and go to, the model of your computer or mobile device, the operating system version, IP address and protocol used by your computer or mobile device, your mobile device or app identifier, and usage and browsing habits. We use this information to provide and improve our Services, to diagnose and resolve problems, to analyze trends, to help target offers and other ads (if and where applicable), to monitor aggregate usage, and to gather broad (aggregate) demographic information.

You can configure your browser to reject cookies, but doing so will prevent you from logging into our website. Our systems are not configured to accept browsers’ Do Not Track signals.”

So, I realized, this was the entire idea behind Nextdoor – gathering data for advertising. Wow.  And, I never found any useful news – I know there are car break-ins and other property crimes going on within a mile of my house but nothing ever turned up on Nextdoor.  My husband and I are able to find out more about what’s going on in our neighborhood simply by taking a rake out to our front yard and puttering around for half an hour. We also walk the hood at different times of night and day, we try to stay in touch with our neighbors. Having face time with neighbors is probably the best way to keep your hood safe.

Chico PD has credited chatter on “social networking sites” with helping them solve certain crimes, but they’ve never named Nextdoor so I don’t know what sites they’re talking about. I’m sure they watch Facebook, I’m guessing it looks like a scene from “Batman Forever”.

Take a good look, this is what you look like to passersby when you’re texting. So much for technology and crime fighting.

I didn’t hear Sorensen’s whole speech, I had to rely on the media! I didn’t hear him talk about the crime rate. But I did read a back page story about a guy who was just arrested in October for stealing a car – grand theft auto – furthermore, assault on a “police animal” – and just got arrested for essentially the same thing again this week.

http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20160129/chico-police-nab-man-allegedly-spotted-in-stolen-pickup

In fact, Anthony Raymond Beck seems to bust out and steal a car quite frequently. In 2013 he was arrested and convicted for stealing a  car under the influence of drugs and booze, causing injury and property damage, but let out on probation in January 2014. By March he had violated his probation, arrested again for obstructing a police officer. He was arrested three times within a week in April 2015, released “O/R” each time, even after found with burglary tools.

He was arrested a total of six times in 2015, found with drugs and needles, burglary tools, under the influence, with stolen cars, yadda, yadda, yadda.

And now another stolen car. This guy is a crime spree. Why is he still out there, endangering the public safety? 

The cops will tell you it’s because these crimes have been lowered to misdemeanors by the voters. The jail is overcrowded, and they are forced to release criminals without serving a sentence, because of the voters.

No, it’s because their salaries and benefits eat the budget so that we can’t build a decent and sufficient jail. Now we are told we must pass a bond to pay for improvements at the jail or we will be at the mercy of criminals.

I feel like we’re at the mercy of the public workers. When will we get these people to do the right thing, pay their own way? 

 

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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

28 Jan

 

After I read about the Torres Shelter threatening to close it’s doors, I went about researching the kind of salaries they pay down there. I couldn’t find director Brad Montgomery’s salary info anywhere, but I did find an ad for a counselor to address clients at both the Torres Shelter and the Jesus Center – salary about $42,000/year.  This position was offered through Northern California Catholic Social Services, which I was surprised to find gets most of it’s funding through the county Behavioral Health Department. Look at the wages they are offering and the duties they heap on.

For example – $13.40 an hour for these  “Minimum Employment Qualifications” – Experience working within the foster system, court system and/or with volunteer preferred. Must have reliable transportation, valid driver’s license and insurance. Must be able to multi-task and have solid computer skills; especially Word and Excel. Needs to be able to communicate verbally and in writing, documenting work on a computer is a required. The successful candidate will be able to work independently, use good judgment and be part of a team.

The list of duties would insinuate a lot better salary. This particular position does not offer paid benefits but ” is eligible to participate in our benefits package including: medical, dental, vision, EAP and life.”  On $13.40 an hour, you’re supposed to provide your own insured vehicle, gas to drive it, and then pay for your own health benefits? And this is a position that includes hands-on duties with clients. Wow.

https://nvcss.org/careers/

Meanwhile Butte County Behavioral Health Director Adrian Kittrel, who does not work with  clients, makes over $200,000 in salary and pays less than 10 percent of his own benefits and pension.

This is the typical lop-sided situation with most public agencies. This is why they have trouble filling these positions.

On another job website I found positions listed for Chico Area Recreation District – a “coordinator” who works with social media from their office gets a salary of  about $42,000, with benefits paid by the taxpayers (CARD management pay nothing for their benefits). Meanwhile other CARD positions – those who actually run the activities for the public and supervise our children – pay less than $15 an hour. These are part-time positions – 25 to 27 hours – that do not come with any health or pension benefits. You’re working too many hours to get another job, but you can’t make enough money to support yourself.  Most of CARD’s jobs are poverty level  jobs, while they pay their general manager over $120,000/year, and she pays nothing toward full health care and pension.

Researching this topic I came across a very interesting article about doctor burnout. The author just happens to be a psychiatrist.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/01/doctor-beat-burnout-can.html

She is pretty frank about her disappointment in the medical sector. Her biggest problem seems to be over work and a “factory” atmosphere at her job. This prevents her from doing her best for her patients, and that adds to the frustration and depression. 

It is interesting to hear from the other side of the coin, this goes a long way to explain the patient’s miserable experience.

And you may feel same – I’m frustrated that we pay for this. Butte County Admin Officer Paul Hahn says over half the county budget goes to behavioral health and other services for the indigent. The money does not seem to solve the problem, it only results in more behaviorally disturbed and indigent people being brought into our county. In Chico it’s becoming a total disaster.

This morning my husband and I cleaned our garage and took our horde of recyclables over to The Work Training Center. I asked my husband to drive me over to take a look at the Torres Shelter, I have not had a good look at it for years.  The first thing I notice are what looks like cars being lived in, parked along the street outside the center, along the Costco parking lot. It looked like a gypsy camp. According to their website, “guests” are only allowed to check in from 4:30pm to 6pm. If they want to check in at another time, they must call between the hours of 10am and 3pm to make an appointment with shelter staff.  The shelter is “open for guests from 4:30 pm – 6:40 am daily.”  

I’ve heard complaints that the clients are “kicked out” at about 7am. I don’t know if there is a meal in the morning, but I think the Jesus Center offers a breakfast. There used to be a shuttle service that picked up those who do not have cars, took them to the Jesus Center, or various public agencies around town, because local businesses were complaining that they stayed in the area, “milling around” the commercial sector. That shuttle was largely funded by city of Chico, who discontinued their funding last year. So now you find this little encampment surrounding the shelter, out in the public  right of way, cars full of flotsam everywhere but the driver’s seat, windows covered with old tarps, a van with foam core over the front windows. A little group of dirty and disheveled men working under the hood of a car that looked like it should be headed for the scrap yard. It looks like any other homeless camp.

Last year when we were at Chico Locker one afternoon, my husband and I noticed the same scene in the parking lot surrounding the Jesus Center. A dilapidated motor home sat behind the JC building, some crappy cars, even a tent, all  obviously occupied. We wondered how that could be going on, the Jesus Center was supposed to have all these rules. Not long after that conversation, we heard Bill Such was being let go. We realized, he’d been allowing the laissez faire camping. We found out, a new board had taken over, a bunch of realtors, bankers, business people. They were ready to hold a higher bar for the center.

This is what needs to happen at the Torres before I am willing to support them in any way. I don’t think they should get city funding, and I think donors should ask more questions about why this shelter is so expensive to run when it is of such marginal service. 

 

 

 

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Torres Shelter closing may be reason to celebrate

27 Jan

I’ve been hearing a lot over the last couple of days about Torres Shelter losing funding and threatening to close.  In one report, shelter director Brad Montgomery said he had to let three staffers go because he can’t afford to pay them anymore.

The first thing that came to my mind is, what’s Montgomery’s salary? He’s admitted that salary is the biggest expense at the shelter, while claiming to serve some 100 people or more per night. But only 750 a year? He also claims to be finding permanent housing for another person every “29 hours.” 

Visualize that – a regular conga line of “homeless” people moving into our area by way of the Torres Shelter.

And let’s not forget the bed bugs.

I don’t think the shelter is managed properly, I’m sorry. I think it facilitates a salary for Montgomery and it facilitates more creeps coming here, knowing they can have a place to get out of the weather.  Looking online, I find many local services that cater to the homeless, even their dogs. This is why we have so many homeless, we invite them here.

I know we have local homeless, I believe there is a need for some sort of overnight shelter.  But I think Torres Shelter needs to close until they find better management. I wonder how this would affect our “homeless” population. 

 

 

Melanie Bassett, DCBA – city not providing “really necessary services to keep the Downtown vital and vibrant”

10 Jan

 

I get very frustrated by the missing links in the “homeless” conversation. Different groups are having very different conversations, and working in opposite directions on this issue.

Some see it as an issue of housing helpless people – I believe this attitude has attracted people from all over the United States, people who are not necessarily helpless, who don’t necessarily want that kind of help. What they come here for is the tolerable weather and the laissez faire attitude toward criminal activity.

The other day, I read the kind of horrific front page story I had always feared would come to Chico. A “homeless” couple had murdered another “homeless” woman at a de facto camp in Oroville. I won’t relate the details, I hate reading stuff like that. I will share what I found on the Butte County Superior Court website – these people had been arrested several times over the previous year, in Chico, and the man had recently been released from prison.  They were using crank, and that’s kind of hard to miss. They were released “O/R” – own recognizance – time and time again. Finally they got into a methamphetamine motivated rage with this woman they knew, and they killed her at least 50 times.

Years ago when I was a young woman living, working and going to college in the Sacramento area, I became aware of “crank.” I had some customers at my night job who casually offered me some, but I was a “health nut” back then, working out at a gym, eating protein shakes. I used my fitness routine as my polite excuse, not realizing – these people were politely offering me what amounted to rat poison.

But now I was aware of the stuff.  Suddenly it seemed everybody around me – from customers at my retail job, co-workers at my manufacturing job, and even old friends from high school – was on crank. I did not hear about it at college, my friends at college were too stressed out to do drugs.  It had become the drug of choice for working people – it was cheaper than coke, more available, and it made you want to work like a bastard. I had a friend who got on it when he was on a crew that installed garage doors. Within a few months he had his entire crew on it. Not only was he getting garage doors installed all over the greater Sacramento area, he was making extra money off his co-workers. 

Cranksters are under a spell. When they’re on that stuff they think the world is great, they think they can do anything. But, as you could expect, the comedown is at least as dramatic – you don’t want to be the one holding money when your friends are out of crank. 

When I think back on it I remember an almost surreal feeling that I couldn’t trust anybody I knew. I had friends steal out of my purse, threaten me, and bully me to loan them money, or even my car. I had co-workers offer me drugs and when I didn’t accept they never spoke to me again – how do you work with people like that?  Tension was building at my manufacturing job as my supervisor became aware of the problem and began to sort out employees. He was an older guy, remembered “crystal meth” from his “hippy days”, and feared he might have to purge the whole staff and institute drug testing – very expensive all the way around.

Talking to my boss, I felt we were the last people in town who were not on crank.  So, I took my grandma’s suggestion and transferred to Chico State. Growing up in Glenn County, I had visited Chico many times as a child, shopping, movie theater, Easters at One Mile, Grandma’s ear doctor, etc.  I loved Chico as a child, it was shinier and prettier than Willows, with more ice cream shops.

 As an adult, the first thing I noticed about Chico was the huge emphasis on booze and partying. As I drove into town from the Westside, I saw groups partying, drinking beer in their front yards at 10am. I thought, “I’m too old for this…” But, family and friends helped me find a good part of town to live in, instead of “The Ghetto,” and I stayed. 

Sacramento seemed a million miles away, a stinking island teeming with leeches. 

Almost 30 years later (gasp!), I have made my home and raised my kids here, and suddenly the town seems to be teeming with leeches.  Call me Slow, but it took me a while to realize what my friends who get out more had already concluded – Chico is full of creepy cranksters. Look at these people – they’re gaunt, their skin is tight and sallow, their eyes are baggy, and if you come close enough, you smell their constant nervous sweat. Just yesterday I observed a campful of them at the post office annex on Vallombrosa – Safeway moved the recycling enterprise but these people just camp in the old location anyway. 

This is a problem all over town. You might have heard they found a dead body along the freeway out past 20th Street – next time you drive Hwy 99, look at the bushes, they have old mattresses laying in there, the trash indicates regular camping.  I see the same thing along the freeway and in commercial parking lots in North Chico.

Downtown Business Association and  even Chico Chamber would have you believe this is just a Downtown problem. Council and staff have spent hours, and money, on the Downtown problem. I was just listening to an interview with DCBA director Melanie Bassett on Alan Chamberlain’s podcast news show “Chico Currents.” 

Bassett was talking about the private security hired by DCBA to patrol Downtown Chico. “This whole idea happened as a result of the city not having the financial resources to provide some of the really necessary services to keep the Downtown vital and vibrant.”

You mean, cops?

The police have cried that  they don’t have the employees to protect our town, so DCBA has hired private security “for our merchants Downtown, so they have someone to call, and someone to respond quickly to issues that they’re experiencing…”

Bassett added that DCBA is “working on private funding” for the patrols. According to their website, DCBA is currently working with the city to reassess merchants in the “Downtown” grid for fees, they say the fees have not been raised for a long time. You have to pay DCBA to locate your business Downtown.

So, what about the rest of town? I’m seeing these freaks walking down my street, I see them in gross numbers near my rentals. I hear reports of break-ins around my neighborhoods. I have transferred all my mail to my post office box, but I can only access that between 7am and 10pm because of “security concerns”.  

Council just handed the cops a bunch of guaranteed raises and okay’d more hiring. Again. They keep giving the cops more money, but the problem is not getting better. I’d say, it’s getting worse. 

When I related the story of the stabbing of a passerby by a homeless man in Sacramento, Ann Schwab laughed out loud at my narrative. She found my description of a man being “stabbed in the gut” with a 12 inch knife to be comical. I had related it because the homeless man had been a regular fixture around Downtown Sacramento, I’d see him almost every day walking the K Street mall as I changed buses in a sea of commuters. People called him “Jesus” because he wore bedsheets and would hold his fingers up in blessing as you walked by him. One  day, he was “initiating” some young woman in the bushes alongside Sutter’s Fort, and a man who was on his way to Sutter Hospital to see a friend thought it was a sexual assault. “Jesus,” whose real name was Jerry Paddy, pulled a long knife out of his sleeve and stuck the man right through his “abdomen”. The man died within minutes, never saw the ambulance coming. 

Reading about these two who murdered the third, people who wandered the streets of Chico at various times, according to arrest reports, really woke me up to our “homeless” problem. Up til now it’s just been disgusting – both having to move among these creeps every time I go out and about, and also having to put up with a police force that is overfed and unable to do it’s job. 

What really frustrates me now, is that if you complain about this problem, the cops just hold their collective hand out for more money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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