Archive | public safety issues RSS feed for this section

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.

 

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.

 

 

So much for public safety – city of Chico doesn’t take Americans with Disabilities Act too seriously

13 May

Bureaucracy gets a deserved bad name because it sucks up a lot of money and resources without producing anything.  Here in Chico we spend 10’s of millions – I’ve lost track of our total budget – on salaries, health benefits and pensions, but our streets are broken to pieces, our park is in disgrace, and public buildings all over town are in disrepair. Former public works manager Ruben Martinez reported a few years ago that instead of having a regular schedule of maintenance for city fixtures and facilities, the department just waited  for things to break.  This he called, “Failure Maintenance.”

Think about that. Say it a few times, and think about it good.  It sounds like the City of Chico is maintaining failure.

 I was telling my friend Jim how the city of Chico has bottomed out the gas tax fund – a cash register rings Downtown every time you gas your car in the city limits – paying salaries and benefits of people who have nothing to do with fixing our streets. Jim reminded me that the gas tax is supposed to go toward repairing streets, so I was telling him about “cost allocation.” This is the legal process by which they move money from one fund to another, “allocating” funds to pay for salaries. Here’s a simple example – if they have a meeting about the sewer facility, every body at the meeting gets their salary for that hour or two out of the sewer fund, everybody from the clerk to the city manager.  They even “allocate” an amount appropriate to pay for the PG&E  in that room for the duration of the meeting.

I first heard this many years ago – remember Jennifer Hennessy? She delivered the news to the Finance Committee, which included Mayor Mark Sorensen at that time, very casually and matter of factly, as if it was okay. Since she left in a hail of insults, her replacement, Chris Constantin, and his replacement, Frank Fields, have made it administrative policy. Moving peas under walnut shells is now the official finance policy of the City of Chico, CA.  Before he was mayor, Mark Sorensen complained they’d bottomed out the Sewer and Development funds the same way. Now you don’t hear him saying much about the red ink all over the city books, cause they juggle them so fast nowadays it’s just a blur of pink.

The other official policy Downtown is, they only fix stuff if they can get grants for it. In fact, as we have seen with the plans they made up for Esplanade, they will fix stuff that doesn’t need fixing just to get the money. And here’s the real sticker – they have to match that grant money with city funds. So, as in the case of the Downtown remodel undertaken over the last five years, with all the bulbing of the sidewalks and the traffic circles, ended up costing about 4 times as much as if they’d just fixed the sidewalks and put the ADA compliant access points at the intersections like the feds told them to do.  But, oh boy! We can get all this extra money to pay down our pension deficit if we put traffic circles and switch parking from parallel to angle parking!

The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed about 1990. Intended to make our streets and public building more accessible to people with “mobility issues” like wheelchairs, the ADA is pretty simple – if a competent wheelchair jockey can’t navigate a section of sidewalk, it’s not ADA compliant. Cracks, buckling around trees, potholes in sidewalks or streets – these don’t just prove challenging for people with disabilities – try getting a stroller out there, you find out quick, there’s whole parts of town that aren’t doable.  

And then there’s the liability. There’s a section of sidewalk across the street from my house with a buckle in it. It’s not much, it’s hard to see, but when I occasionally kick that buckle with my foot, it hurts all the way up my spine to the back of my head. Think I should talk to a lawyer about that?

I don’t remember how many years ago the city was told the Esplanade was not ADA compliant, but they’ve taken that and turned it into a gazillion dollar remodel, with over sized traffic circles and other changes necessitating the removal of many huge trees.  In the drawing I saw, the traffic  circle in front of Bidwell Mansion looks as if it will send cars right through the front doors of Northern Star Mills.

Protest led council to shelve the traffic circle plans, but only until 2017, just after the upcoming election. Wow, that’s not obvious. You’ve got Cheryl King whooping up a war dance, she’s got a basket to put your head in, so you postpone your decision until after the election. Gotta hand it to Sorensen, he knows how to handle the liberals. He won the Farmer’s Market battle, and he’ll win this one, just watch. 

Meanwhile, what about the ADA? Are they going to fix Esplanade at all? There’s miles of busted up sidewalk, and other liabilities that just need to be fixed. What about complaints about speeding? The  cops have made a big deal of patrolling it – as if it’s a big effort on their part to do their jobs, we’ll see how long it lasts.

Jim sent me a picture of ADA compliance in his neighborhood.  

Speaking of ADA, they put in these handicapped access a few years ago in my neighborhood. Nobody uses them, cars block them off, and they are full of dirt and water.

Jim says, “Speaking of ADA, they put in these handicapped access a few years ago in my neighborhood. Nobody uses them, cars block them off, and they are full of dirt and water.”         

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? 

 

Jim Matthews: Esplanade needs a simpler fix

24 Apr

I’ve been so busy lately I have “blog stop” – aka, “writer’s block”.  I saw this letter from Jim Matthews in the paper this morning and it got me thinking.

On April 14, the Chico City Council voted for sweeping changes to The Esplanade. While roundabouts may reduce vehicle accidents, they are actually more dangerous to pedestrians and bicyclists. Drivers often just don’t yield to pedestrians. This could open the city up to lawsuits when a child is injured there. Some European cities have removed roundabouts due to this safety issue. Other U.S. cities have been sued because roundabouts are very difficult for handicapped users. Signal lights really do work better.

The proposed bike path is well meaning, however cyclists will still need to deal with motor vehicle traffic at every block, just like they do now. That bike path will only give bike riders a false sense of security and may actually lead to more accidents. This could also expose the city to lawsuits.

These changes will also require the removal of many of the lovely trees that currently line our beautiful boulevard. We should preserve the attractiveness of Chico and save these trees.

The crosswalks work well on The Esplanade. The current light timing gives people plenty of time to cross. The problem at the high school is that too many kids are jaywalking. Why not try crossing guards?

Instead of such radical alterations, let’s go for simple incremental improvements first.

— Jim Matthews, Chico

Jim makes great points – this thing will be a tree slaughter. He also reminds me – the real issue with the Esplanade is the ADA – Adults with Disabilities Act. This act requiring that public infrastructure be safe for use by handicapped individuals was passed in 1990, but the City of Chico remains out of compliance all over town.  I don’t think the city is under any sort of order to fix Esplanade,  but they’ve been offered a bunch of grant money if they’ll do it. The more expensive they make the remodel, the more grant money they get.  

Yes we need safe sidewalks and crosswalks. As a cyclist and pedestrian, I’ve seen it all. A couple of weeks ago I watched a woman employee walk out of Wells Fargo Bank at Mangrove and Vallombrosa, trip over a large, many times repaired crack in the pavement, and fall to the ground. The sound of her head hitting the pavement was so sickening I wretched (don’t even get me going with the gagging, I can get everybody in the room going).  She got up and said she was okay, got in her car – but wow, she was walking funny. I told her she should call the city, but I don’t know what she did. 

Former Chico City Planning Commissioner Jonathan Studebaker died from bed sores at Enloe Hospital after a fall from his wheelchair on a Chico sidewalk. Described as an “advocate for the disabled,” Studebaker complained loudly about the lack of continuous, safe sidewalks in Chico. When the city remodeled Downtown with faux brick sidewalks, Studebaker lobbied for the introduction of what is now called “The Studebaker Strip” – a smooth strip down the middle of the sidewalk suitable for use by wheelchairs and easier for everybody from toddlers to centenarians. 

The job that’s proposed for The Esplanade is nothing but a pitch for grants to pay down the salaries, benefits and pensions Downtown. The city is in more trouble than they are admitting, at their next meeting they’re taking more money out of the General Fund to cover deficits in other funds. Again.  Why would the sewer fund be in deficit? My God, look at sewer rates, look at what they charge to hook up. But like Mark Sorensen reported in his now taken down blog – $taff looted the sewer fund to pay down the pension deficit, to pay salaries in other departments that don’t take in any revenue, etc. Now that Sorensen is mayor, he’s pretty mum about all that looting, but it goes on at every meeting – they call it “cost allocation.” Put some fancy words on “stealing” and it’s okay? I call it embezzlement, but I’m no lawyer.

So now this scheme to trash Esplanade. Like Jim Matthews says, roundabouts are not safe for pedestrians, I hate cycling through them. Mark Sorensen told me he loves them, and wants them all over Chico. After the Esplanade, he’s headed for Mangrove Avenue. He told me he wants a roundabout at Mangrove and Vallombrosa. 

Sorensen is the one you need to contact about this, he’s pushed roundabouts for every major intersection in town. He’s after the  grants. He’ll tell you, he uses them – yeah, I had him on his bike right in front of the F-150 one day in the Manzanita roundabout. He needs to see video of his worthless ass on a bike from the driver’s perspective, I don’t think he’d pull that stunt again.  He’ll tell you just because he can do it, your 8 year old should be able to do it.  Tell him you are sick of his machinations to pay down the pension monster.

This is not about the ADA, it’s about money for CalPERS. Remember, Sorensen is an employee in Biggs, where he makes almost $100,000 as their city manager. He needs CalPERS to stay afloat so he will get his pension. I think that colors alot of his thinking Downtown.

 

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? 

Enterprise Record running a scare campaign on behalf of Chico PD – they will endorse a safety tax, I’ll bet my bicycle on it

8 Apr

I love to read what the readers are thinking about – the search term of the day is “collective bargaining is inherintly political”  Typo included. 

Inherently – according to Google, means  existing in someone or something as a permanent and inseparable element, quality, or attribute

If you want to understand “collective bargaining,” watch “On The Waterfront“. 

Right now the city is bargaining with the police department. Their contract includes stuff like, automatic promotions with step pay increases.  They get 90 percent of their highest year’s earnings at age 50, paying only 12 percent of the premiums out of their $100,000+ salaries.  And the contract is written so that they don’t have to pay taxes on these benefits. Think about that, but don’t hurt yourself.

They even get paid to “don and doff” – shower and dress before and after their shift. Talk about Divas!  My goodness, somebody get me a wet towel. SNAP!

Chico PD are a gang of racketeers. They use intimidation to get what they want. They use their imbedded newspaper editor to spread fear – gangs? Really David Little? What would David Little know about gangs? His kids went to “charter school” (where students are picked and chosen) and had a backyard swimming pool (despite all his insincere protests about the closure of Shapiro Pool). 

Then yesterday, we see a headline story about an old idiot who leaves his bike unlocked at Walmart and it’s stolen. Because this man makes a weekly fun ride up to Salmon Hole wearing a green t-shirt printed “Park Watch” (that’s funny, I don’t believe he is watching anything but the trail in front of his tire) – we’re supposed to feel sorry for this man? If he were my husband I’d take away his driver’s license and his credit cards, and I damn sure wouldn’t leave him alone with the grandkids.

This merits a big, front page story? And how do you like the way the editor made it sound like a mugging in the park? 

All this, while the death of Merle Haggard runs across the bottom of the page like so much Hollywood trivia.

David  Little is running a scare campaign for the cops.  Good bye journalism. 

 

 

 

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

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →